Author: communications

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a new year and a brand new school for students at Aspen Elementary in South Jordan. On this episode of the Supercast, I get to look inside the newly opened school first with a stop in the principal's office. Then I head to a classroom for a candid conversation with some fourth grade students about their impressions of the new school and the importance of making new friends.

All right, we are here at the brand spanking new Aspen Elementary school with Suzie Williams and April Thompson, her assistant principal. Suzie is the principal here and was principal previously at Eastlake. We have our principals assigned halfway through a school year to start opening a school for the next year. Here we are, the new school year is here and so is the new school. Tell us a little bit about it, Suzie.

Suzie Williams:
Well, it came quickly! You know, you anticipate, and I was able to be a part of the construction, and what I mean by that was they included me in the construction meetings. So I came out probably twice a month and toured the building and listened in on the meetings, which was so interesting.  I was able to give some input and work with the architect and  Hughes Construction. So it's been fun to watch this come from just as a skeleton to what it is now, and it's beautiful.  I have been at the District Office for the last six months just planning, ordering, hiring, and just getting ready to get us all moved in and have everything set up. I'm just excited that it's finally here cause we've worked hard to get it ready to go.

Anthony Godfrey:
You certainly have, and there are a lot of details to think about. I'm amazed at how great it looks. I was here at the skeleton phase as you described it. The grass is in, the landscaping is done, and the school looks fantastic. Now, April, you are a new administrator in a new school, starting a new school year. How does that feel?

April Thompson:
Everything is so new, so I'm just part of all the new. It's so fun to have the kids here because that's what has made the school the school. It's been a building, but now that the kids are here, it's alive.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the color and mascot phase of things. I see a turquoise theme going on here in your office.

Suzie Williams:
We're voting on that today. Each classroom is voting on the mascot and the colors. Right now I just checked, Alligators are winning.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, the Alligators, the Aspen Alligators. Yeah, wow. Well, with a little bit of flooding the last couple of days, that really makes a lot of sense. What are the color schemes that people voting on?

Suzie Williams:
Green and black was ahead, so far, but we'll see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Green and black, okay. Green and black with alligators would go along pretty nicely. I remember when Riverton High School was first looking at that and they were going to be the Riverton Raptors. That was one that was kind of a leader. Yes, but the purple color was also favorable. And when you thought about a purple dinosaur, that didn't work very well for high school kids, so they backed away from the Raptors but kept the purple. Anyway, for copyright reasons, we can't explain exactly why that would have been a problem, but I think listeners will pick up on that. What's the most exciting thing about opening a new school?

Suzie Williams:
To me it's been a little overwhelming, all the good people. It's been fun to, well, I've handpicked our staff and our faculty and oh, we have good people. And then the kids, you know, there's no kids at the District Office. It's not good, it's terrible. So it's been so nice to have the kids here. Our team leaders together, as we planned, we came up with our vision, which is "All belong, all learn, all succeed." Then we defined our mission, what that looks like. What does it look like to all belong, all learn and all succeed? So we're going over that with the students to help them understand what we're about. With the all belong, we've made an emphasis on learning each child's name. So we've had some fun story books about our names that the teachers are using this week to teach with. Then they've done some fun activities about learning the students' names and I'm making an effort to talk to the kids.  I truly do want to learn their names. So I guess the best part, the most exciting part, has been the people. Wow. We have good people.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the best part of the job period. As I look out your window, I'm not exaggerating. I see in every direction, new homes going up. Tell me about the growth that you've already seen here at Aspen.

Suzie Williams:
Yeah, I've been a little bit surprised by that. Our projections were that we would start at 522 students. I was getting a little nervous because about 10 days ago we were still around 400. In the last 10 days we've enrolled about a hundred students. It fluctuates, it goes up and down a little bit each day. We were at 519 the other day, and then we dropped down to 512. That's to be expected. I think some students weren't aware that they were supposed come to a new school. So we're working all of that out. But yeah, so the projections are that we'll double in the next five years. So we'll see. I anticipate that we'll continue to enroll students.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, be ready to memorize a lot of names in the future. Now you approached building community in a unique way. Tell us about that.

Suzie Williams:
So I drug our sweet Tina, who's our administrative assistant, that's who truly runs the school. She and I, over the last few months, we took one day a week and walked through the community. We went door to door, meeting people, and we had a little flyer about Aspen Elementary with our contact information on it. Most people aren't home, just because people work, so we always left it under their mat. Oh, we had a good response with that. I'll be honest, it scared me. I wasn't comfortable doing that, but we didn't have anyone who was disrespectful. They were always kind. Most people when they answered the door, had a little scowl, like 'what do you want?' But when we tell them who we were, their faces soften and that, 'oh, that's awesome.' Then we had the nicest visits.

I hired three people to be support staff here from people that we knocked on their doors. Because we mentioned that as well, that we need support staff, we're hiring, if you know anyone that's interested. So not only just to meet the community and get our name out there, it was just nice to build those relationships. We want to be school of choice because we have several schools around us that people can choose to go to. They don't have to come here, but we want to be school of choice, and we wanted to build those relationships early. Have people come to Aspen Elementary,

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a great effort, that's awesome. That's awesome. April, tell us about the building itself. What's a feature that really stands out to you as a particularly exciting feature to have available for teachers and students?

April Thompson:
Oh, there's so much, it's hard to choose one. The first thing that comes to mind is it doesn't matter where you are in the school, you get that natural light coming in. So they have the natural light coming in from the ceilings and it bounces off. It just really lightens up the school, which I love.

The STEM room is really exciting, having everything mobile so that the kids can go in and change and adapt to what activity there that they are going in. The Mindfulness room that is that something that will be really good for the kids, and we're excited about that.

Anthony Godfrey:
The Mindfulness room is the sort of thing that will start to become standard issue when you open a school, just because of the great positive impact that has on students. And the natural light. Learning in natural light is so beneficial, and it is nice when you can control that natural light with some good blinds too. So yeah, some nice features, Suzie, what stands out for you?

Suzie Williams:
Well, the same things April mentioned, plus the Kivas are nice. We have two large Kivas where we can bring in whole groups or the teachers can do small group instruction. So we're doing a new Walk to Read program where our aides will be working with small groups and to set up a table in there and work with small groups is going to be great.

The technology, we were trained last Friday on all of the technology. I worked in a school, an older school that was built in the 70s and we plugged things in. Well, I said 'overhead' the other day. Yeah, I said something about the overhead, and people said 'what are you talking about?' So I was amazed at the technology in this building,

Anthony Godfrey:
Like you said, you got to build the faculty and the community and the school from scratch. Years from now, where do you want the momentum you've created to take everyone?

Suzie Williams:
Wow, a great question. I hope this building culture will always be inviting. I hope that it will be a place that people want to come. When they walk in, they'll feel welcome. Then, you know, you think of academics. I want the kids to be successful here. So hopefully we'll build a nice foundation where that will continue on. I appreciate what the District's done with literacy. We have tools now that we just didn't have before with literacy. I taught 6th grade and I'll be honest, I didn't know how to teach a kid how to read. We read louder or slower or sound that out. I just didn't feel like I had the tools or I knew where to get the tools, and we have them now. Our Teaching and Learning department with the literacy has provided us with tools that we can now hone in on what kids are missing, which individual skills kids are missing, and then we have the tools to know how to help them. So I'm hoping that starting that foundation now, that that will just carry on where we can truly help these kids know how to read.

Anthony Godfrey:
Suzie, I'm so grateful to have you here as Principal. You're the right person to be opening this school. And I get to be part of that process of deciding how that works, and there's just no question that you're the person to be doing this. You and your administrative team are the right people to be setting this in motion, building this community and providing this great experience for our employees and our students. Most of all.

Suzie Williams:
Thank you. I do appreciate having Jarom Airhart and April Thompson here. They've been right beside us the last few weeks, getting this up and running and I appreciate them and our Administrative Assistant. She's carried a huge load.

Anthony Godfrey:
It takes everybody doesn't it?

Suzie Williams:
Yeah, absolutely it does.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, you don't want to miss my conversation with some Aspen Elementary 4th grade students. Hear what they have to say about their new school.

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Anthony Godfrey:
We're in Mrs. Rick's class in Aspen Elementary school talking to some sixth graders, right? Fourth graders. I thought you guys looked more like sixth graders. No? Fourth graders. Okay, all right, we'll go with fourth graders. So tell me, what's it like to have a brand new school built just for you? Raise your hand. Whoa. All right, right here. What do you think about that?

Caroline:
Um, it feels nice and stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, awesome. Tell me your name.

Caroline:
Caroline.

Anthony Godfrey:
David, tell me what you think about being a student in a new school.

David:
It feels good because it's a chance to make new friends.

Anthony Godfrey:
It is a chance to make new friends. You got a lot of great friends to choose from here. Toka, tell me about how you're feeling about being here?

Toka:
Good, like, everything looks way different though.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, how so?

Toka:
Like the office used to be on the right side, but it's now like on the left side I think.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's kind of like your previous school, but different.

Toka:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's kind of cool. That's a good combination. What do you like most about the new school?

Toka:
Um, that we have PE cause last year we didn't have P.E.

Anthony Godfrey
Ah, there's room for PE. I love it. Liam, what do you think?

Liam:
Um, it's nice not being the person that joins the school on the last year. Everyone's the first person so you don't feel left out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I didn't think about that. Everybody's new. So what does that mean when everybody's new at the same time?

Liam:
Um, it means that a lot of people don't have friends and it's easier to make friends. Because in other schools that have been going for a long time, a lot of people have friends, but in a first year of school, a lot of people can make new friends.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that several of you have mentioned making friends. That's really what this school is about is being connected to each other, being part of a community, making friends so that you can learn even better and make these great memories. All right, Luke, tell me about what what's on your mind.

Luke:
On the first day, everybody was kind of really nervous that they weren't gonna like have any friends and stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
But being at a new school together at the same time, you were able to make friends quickly.

Luke:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. And everyone's nervous cause nobody knows where to go. Everything's new that way too. Ocean, tell me what you think about Aspen.

Ocean:
It's good because you get to exercise your brain a lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Exercising your brain. I love it! Is it Caroline? Caroline, tell me what you think about being at Aspen Elementary.

Caroline:
I like it. At my old school there was some trouble and I'm just glad that I can like refresh my brain and learn new stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow, I'm getting lots of good catch phrases for Aspen. 'Aspen, Refresh your Brain'. 'Aspen, Leave your Troubles Behind'. 'Aspen, Exercise your Brain'. You guys have some great ways of thinking about making friends and learning. This is really exciting. You guys are very lucky. Della, how are things going for you?

Della:
Being at Aspen, it's a chance to see old friends and make new friends, and see the teachers that you had a long time ago.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you get to see some of the teachers you might know, some people you know, lots of new faces, a building that seems familiar, but it's different. Sounds like a great combination to me. All right. Grayson

Grayson:
So it's like an explosion of happiness. When you get into fourth grade, you see what I mean. It's like when you first get into it, you look at all the things around you and everybody that will be your friends. And it's just like an explosion of joy in your heart.

Anthony Godfrey:
An explosion of joy, happiness, and friendship. What could be better? You're in the right place at the right time doing the right stuff. This is awesome. What a great way of putting it. Yes, Caroline.

Caroline:
It's just good to know that there's only a couple of germs. There's not so many germs as if there's an old school, then they would like build up bacteria. It's just nice to know that you're in like a new school, not as many germs and stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if there are germs, they're new, fresh and crisp germs rather than the old germs of previous schools. Very good. Okay, Quinn?

Quinn:
I like this new school because everything's so nice and clean. We have new teachers, and they're fun and nice teachers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Speaking of which, Mrs. Ricks, let's talk about what it's like to teach fourth grade at the brand new Aspen Elementary School.

Mrs. Ricks:
Teaching 4th grade at Aspen's been really fun. I didn't come from any of the schools that these kids came from, they're all brand new to me. So it's been great to learn their names and to learn about where they come from and what makes them special.

Anthony Godfrey:
And to have that chance to bring them together and make friends just like they were talking about.

Mrs. Ricks:
Definitely, I've already seen that. They've included each other and they're forming great friendships.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, being with you guys today is a great reminder of why we do all the stuff that we do. This is exactly why we do it, for experiences like what you're providing for these students.

Mrs. Ricks:
Well, thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's been a blast talking with you and with these students. I officially declare this as Superintendent, the finest 4th grade class in all the land. Congratulations! Thank you so much for spending time with me. You have a great year ahead of you. I know that. So enjoy it.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there. Go Alligators!

Dr. Al Zylstra:
It's very good to see you.  

Anthony Godfrey:
There's nothing to say except it's so good to see you. I've been thinking about this ever since we had it arranged. We're here at Bingham High School to celebrate the 100th episode of the Supercast, thanks to everyone who's been listening along the way.  I thought there's no better way to celebrate the 100th episode of the Supercast than to invite Dr. Z, the principal who hired me as a brand new teacher into Jordan School District back in the 1990s. The way that he did things, and the way he led our school, and cared about everybody there has really shaped me as an educator, as a teacher, as an administrator and as a person and who I wanted to be and what I wanted my legacy to be. So it's a great honor to have you here, Dr. Zylstra. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I haven't seen you for probably, what's it been now? Since the reunion?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Since the reunion, we were just talking about that. That was a surprise. Wasn't it?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it was. I ran into you in Best Buy or Sam's Club or Costco or something.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
You needed a winter coat.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah. Yeah, that's right, it was Costco.  People had just talked with me about the reunion and I was a rock star because I brought you, that's what happened.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
That was really something that was, it was special.

Anthony Godfrey:
Middle schools don't do reunions. That's the thing that I found remarkable. Nobody says, 'Hey, you know what? Eighth grade, I'd really liked to relive some of those memories.' Yeah, they do, when you go through eighth grade with Dr. Z though.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Yeah. Well, thank you. It was our pleasure to be there though. It was a wonderful reunion for those kids. How they grew up and improved their lives. It was great.

Anthony Godfrey:
The sad thing was going to the field and seeing that there was no building left. I get a little bit sentimental about buildings.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
I've been meaning to do that, but I, oh, I've had a hard time bringing myself to do that. A lot of good memories there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. A lot of good memories. We went through some tough stuff too at that time.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Yeah, we had three boys die in one year.  That was some tough stuff. And then the boilers kept breaking down and flooding the gymnasium and the cafeteria. But it was good, the community really accepted us.

Anthony Godfrey:
Especially since the pandemic, but just in general, as time goes on, we lose memory of exactly when things happened.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Some things get better, some things get better.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's true. How long were you principal at Bingham middle school?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
I think, five years, six years, and then I went to West Hills. I opened West Hills and I was there for three years, and then from West Hills, I went to Crescent View and finished my career Crescent View.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I remember you were at Crescent View.  When did you retire?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
When I was 62, in 1999.  Sometime in there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sometime back in the 1900s.  Well, I gotta tell you, I have a lot of vivid memories of working for you and they shaped the way that I do things. Sorry, I do a lot of this now as I get older. You told people you love them before telling people you love them was cool.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Yeah. That's part of the podcast every morning. You're loved and we expect you to be great. Education is the most important thing you'll do today.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you said, 'we'll see out there' at the end.  I did a video for teachers this year that ended with, we'll see you out there. And every single one of my podcast episodes ends with 'education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there'. What's interesting to me is that the first time we did this podcast, which this is the hundredth episode now. What's interesting to me is the first time we did this podcast. It's not as if I planned out, you know, 'what would be a good tagline? What should I say at the end? Let me think back, let me try to come up with something.' I was just sitting there at the microphone and they said, "well, you need a tagline, you need to say something at the end of each podcast." And it just, it was right there. So it's, it's been right there at the surface every ever since. And it's just one example of the lasting impact that you've had on me and that I know you had on the kids that at Bingham Middle. You told people that you loved them, there were lots of hugs. There were lots of conversations about how are you doing? But there were also lots of conversations about what you expected of people. There were hard conversations about how much better you ought to be doing.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Well, when we went up to that school, it it was a tough school. When we got there it looked like an inner city school. It had graffiti all over the lockers and all over the rooms, the tiles were coming off the floor. You remember?

Anthony Godfrey:
I remember. They dropped from the ceiling. They drop on top of you in class.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
The linoleum floors would be spinning off all the time. The kids would walk on them and they would come off. When it would rain, remember the rainstorms? We had trash cans all through the hallway. There was a lot of great experiences in there, but this idea of having kids telling them that you love them is been something. When they've come back to see me, one of the things that they keep bringing up is 'you told me you love me.'

 While I was at Crescent View we were having career day. So a lot of people were coming into the school to speak at the different classes. I was at in the office working on my computer and as I turned around, I looked and I saw shiny boots, like paratrooper boots, and blouse pants. Obviously military coming to talk to our kids.  I looked up and saw this handsome, studly man standing in front of me with a uniform on and he had his parade tucked into his collar. He said, "Dr. Z", and I looked up and he said, "You don't remember me?" And I said, "Well, if you tell me your name, I might." He said, I won't give his name, but "Jonathan." And I said, "No, you're not the little Jonathan that I would have in my office every day, because you were too afraid to go to school that I would go to class with you." He said, "Yes", and I said, "Well, what did you learn here?" He said, "Every day that I was in your office, you told me you loved me."

And the transformation! If you would have said to me, 'that young man will end up being an army ranger when he's 20', I wouldn't have believed you. But it was that social connectedness with that child, letting him shadow me during the day, and letting him adjust to the school so by the time he was in the eighth grade, he was able to go to school every day. He had a safe haven with me and he knew that. And so that was just a fond memory of telling people you love them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that blend of love and expectations was just really unique. And like I said, ahead of its time, because we didn't talk about social emotional wellness then like we do now. And I know that was your focus. And it just became infused into the approach that I've at least tried to take as a teacher and as an administrator, because it was just clearly laid out for me by working with you.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Well, you've championed the cause. I remember the assemblies that we would have, how the kids would cheer you when you'd come out. Do you remember dropping out of the ceiling? You were in a harness and came down and I said, "where is Mr. Godfrey? Where's  Mr. Godfrey?" Then here he comes. Then there was an assembly. 

Anthony Godfrey:
I do remember that. Again, don't try this at home or at your school though. That was like I said, the 1900s, we don't do that anymore. I loved doing the morning announcements with you. It was really something. I'm sure you remember, you gave me a budget and you said, 'go down, go to the music store, get some CDs.'

Dr. Al Zylstra:
We went together.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's right. We did actually. We grabbed a bunch of CDs and we'd play those.  Now you can pre-program music in the passing time and all of that.  We did it old school with, with the CD and holding up the microphone to the CD speaker, just to kick off the day and kickoff the announcements. I wish, I wish I had some of those recorded. 

Dr. Al Zylstra:
And then we had the student of the day, the genius child.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Genius child. That's right. I forgot about that phrase, we called it the genius child.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
We had the genius child of the day. I had a star cutout for it and they had a piece of yarn around it, and they wore this big yellow star it said 'Genius of the Day'.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you would think that a 14 year old, eighth grader wouldn't want to wear a star around with yarn saying he or she was the genius of the day, and they loved it! Absolutely loved it. We went through a few candy bars too, as I recall.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Yes, we would always give candy bars, that's right.

Velarde! How are you?

Jeramie Velarde:
I'm good, how are you doing?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Good to see you! You've grown up to be a big man now.

Anthony Godfrey:
Jeramie Velarde, who was a student at the time that Dr. Z and I were at Bingham Middle School and who now works for Jordan School District and has for quite some time, just joined us.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Jeramie was always a good boy. And he, and you know, he had a family that was supportive of the school and like most of the people in Copperton, they were very supportive of the school.  So it 's just a pleasure, so nice to see you again.

Jeramie Velarde:
Good to see you too, for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Jeramie works for the District if you didn't know that.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
I think I do remember it. And I think your dad worked for them too. He worked at the, he was a custodian at Bingham.

Anthony Godfrey:
When I was getting ready for those assemblies late at night, Jeramie's dad would be working. He would be the only other person in the building and he always put on headphones. So he'd be walking around with headphones on and I was practicing and it would not be hard to convince me that building was haunted when you're there at three in the morning, practicing for an assembly. Again, don't try this at home. But I was doing the last minute crunch, practicing the chords for the song. I was gonna play onstage and you'd be playing the guitar and you'd hear these sounds and you'd stop playing. And like, 'what was that?' You'd start playing again, and then you'd stop. 'Wait a minute. What was that?' 

Then I went and found Lawrence, Jeramie's dad. And I'm like, "how do you do this?" He said, "That's why I wear headphones, so I don't hear what else is going on in school while I'm here." I got out of there. I went home where I belonged and you know, I don't think I stayed there super late again.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
That building creaked and moaned, creaked and moaned all night long.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's all personality. Well, I lived in the apartments a few blocks away and sometimes I'd just stay late and grade papers and then I'd eat with the custodians. What are some of the things you remember about Bingham Middle Jeramie and being there with Dr. Z?

Jeramie Velarde:
Do you remember the, so it wasn't a field day, but all the kids walked out of class, went up to the field. It was like a walkout. I don't know why we did it. We just all planned it, organized it. Instead of you getting upset, you came out and I don't know, played games with us. It was fun. 

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Reorganized it.

Anthony Godfrey:
You kind of, you channeled it, is what you did.

Jeramie Velarde:
And then we tried it the second year, the year after, and it didn't fly over so well. It was like one and done, you know.

Anthony Godfrey:
No repeat performances allowed.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
I remember that.  We made big circles and had everybody hold hands, go around in circles. So they would, you know, we had two or three circles of kids holding hands all the way around. We talked about how important school was, and I had a bull horn, and we just went with the flow with the kids.

Jeramie Velarde:
I remember seeing you skateboarding to work when I was in high school, waiting for the bus. I'd see you skateboarding to work from the apartment to Bingham.

Anthony Godfrey:
That was true simplicity, being able to ride my Cat in the Hat skateboard to work. That was like simpler times, simpler times for sure. But it was great. I loved living up there and seeing the kids around the neighborhood that I either had in class or that I knew from class in previous years. I was single at the time and would just walk downstairs and have a burger at the restaurant that was right next door. I don't know what it is now. It was The Pit! That's right, it was called The Pit. You'd eat there, be thirsty for a long time afterward. That was a pretty salty a place to eat. But yeah, it was nice. That was my little getaway. I'd eat there most nights actually. But doing that, you'd see. You'd just, it was fun to be in the community that I was teaching in. Yeah, it was great.

Jeramie Valarde:
Well, it was great. It's such an eyesore now that the building's gone. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Is the building gone?

Jeramie Velarde:
The building's gone, and it's just nothing. Oh no, not The Pit. I'm talking about Bingham Middle, Bingham High.

Anthony Godfrey:
I go out there about every year, normally in the fall, and just kind of reminisce and walk around. I was on that field walking toward the street and somebody was riding by on his bike, and I'm sorry, I can't remember his name. He stopped, and he was like, "Are you Mr. Godfrey?" He had gone to Bingham Middle. He didn't live in the area, but he just rides his bike out by there. And he was talking about his brother and I remembered his brother. He had English from me and he's an attorney for one of the cities in Jordan District. It was just funny that I'm standing out there on a cold autumn day, just walking around that empty field where the school used to be, and a kid who used to go to school that are just rides by, on his bike out of nowhere. It's just, it's kind of a legendary place. I like that it's set off so I don't just drive by it every day. I like that you can just decide when you want to go and visit it.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Relax for a minute. One thing I remember going to Bingham Middle, early in the morning, there were always owls hooting. You remember that? There were always a couple of owls hooting back and forth. If you'd get there early in the morning those owls would be hooting. It was really a pleasure to listen to that, a good way to start school.

Anthony Godfrey:
I forgotten about that. I used to take papers to the park. I'd walk over to the park to grade papers.  I would just kind of sit under a tree and grade papers. There was one tree where there was always the same owl up in that tree. He'd just kind of look down at me and twist his head in the weird way that owls do. Just kind of go, okay, go ahead. It was kind of a magical place.

That middle courtyard, I don't know if I ever went in the middle courtyard very much. But the birds were really loud in there.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
We had a lot of birds in there. But the owls, it was just a pleasure to hear those hooting back and forth. Yeah, that was fun. Good memory.

Anthony Godfrey:
We were talking about the tiles that fell from the ceiling, just randomly, you'd just be sitting in class. I think a few people use those as yearbooks at the end of the year and had people sign their tile. I'd love to see one of those. The sunken cafeteria. We don't have any of those anymore, down in the basement there.

Jeramie Velarde:
I remember running down those ramps. I had to get my Fanta, you know.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right, that's right. Who were some of the teachers that were there at the time?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Joanne Mattes was the Assistant Principal there.

Anthony Godfrey:
She lived just at the house next door. Right?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Mr. Pietro, He was the math teacher. 

Jeramie Velarde:
Rock climber, wasn't he a rock climber? Mrs. Patterson, do you remember Mrs. Patterson?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, Candy Patterson. 

Jeramie Velarde:
Her son, Andy recorded my band. Andy Patterson. Yeah, he's like the recording guy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, he and his band, I'm trying to remember the name, I have the signed CD from them. They actually auditioned for Clive Davis at one point. But yeah, Candy Patterson passed away. 

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Jerome, Coach Jerome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, he worked in the District for a long time.

Jeramie Velarde:
I think he just retired.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did he?  James Sebaski taught history at the time.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Just right across the hall from me.

Anthony Godfrey:
On my prep, I would go and grade papers at the back of his class cause I liked his class. So I sat back as a teacher and graded and just kind of overheard some of those history discussions.

Earlier Jeremy, we were talking about the announcements. Do you remember what Dr. Z used to say on the announcements?

Jeramie Velarde:
I do. He would open it with 'Good morning Bingham Middle' and then he'd close it every day with 'education is the most important thing you will do today.'

Anthony Godfrey:
I told you, everybody remembers. That's really something. You made the most of the opportunity that you had as a Principal to impact lives. You really maximized that. You could just feel that you didn't want any moment to pass without making the most of it.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Oh, thank you. I loved it. I was just telling you, I'm still using that tagline. I work with parolees and felons at the Department of Corrections, Region 4 in Prove. These are guys that have been in prison or many, many years in jail. So what I'm trying to do is to give them evidence-based information that they can hang their education to. What is needed for them is to have a behavior change. They've all had therapy for years and years and years. So when they come to class, I give them something that they can hold on to, something that they can use. Right at the top, education is the most important thing you will do today. Then I close it with the same thing, you know, don't waste the miracle that you survived. And then, education is the most important thing you'll do today.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, we're all using it. It sounds like. When I was hired as superintendent I told the story of how you hired me into Jordan School District. Why don't you tell that story and let's see if we tell it the same way.

Dr. Al Zylstra::
You've probably told the better version.

Anthony Godfrey:
We all get to tell better versions as time goes on, don't we?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
It was the job fair at the University of Utah and we had people who were looking for jobs and we needed teachers. I needed an English teacher. So we were interviewing people and we had interview sheets and people had signed up to be interviewed for a job. I had interviewed my people that had signed up for English classes and I looked over to the side and you were sitting there looking at me and I said to you, "Young man, do you have an appointment?" You said "No". And I said, "Why don't you come on over? And I will interview you." You remember that? And then I have interviewing questions and then I'd ask a question and you just stared at me and you kept staring. And I said, "You know, a good answer would be this." 

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. I absolutely remember that. And the question that it was, was 'How do you need to improve? What should you do better?' So obviously, I wasn't very humble because at the time I couldn't think of any way that I could improve. I was perfect in every way. And you just said, "Well, a good answer would be to say 'I lack experience'". And I said, "Oh yes, I lack experience. And the ability to answer a question in an interview." Yeah.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Yeah, and I wrote that down and then I asked another question and you just kind of had that look on your face again.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now wait, I thought it was just one question.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
No, it was more than one. I was coaching, I was coaching here, and I said, "A good answer would be something like this." And you would say, "okay" and you would say it. We got through the interview that way, and I said, "You did a great job, I couldn't have done better myself."

Anthony Godfrey:
Ok, maybe I shouldn't have asked this question. The other part I do remember about it is that that was a time when it was really hard to get a job as a teacher, and it was hard to get an interview.  I really wanted to work for Jordan because I knew it was growing. I knew it was big and growing and I thought there'd be a lot of opportunities. So I went to this job fair and I ran in, everybody ran, it was like they were dropping the rope at Disneyland. I ran in to get signed up and I couldn't get a slot. So I went there trying to look as sad and pathetic as I could, because I didn't actually have a slot.  I went up and talked to you and you said, "Well I have this slot, but it's assigned to somebody."

I said, "Well, I'm just going to go sit over there in case he doesn't show up." So I sat, and that's why I sat and stared at you, just kind of waiting. And then you, I swear, I can absolutely see you just kind motion over. All right, come over. And I sat down and this guy walked up about 10 minutes later, that was supposed to be there for the interview and just kind of walked away because he realized he was too late.  I thank you for giving me that first job.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
You looked like a good one just standing there. 

Anthony Godfrey:
I remember I was late to the second interview, the Bingham Middle School interview, because Bingham Middle was so far out at the time. But you said, "Oh, everybody's late."  We just sat down and we talked it through and fortunately, fortunately, you took that chance on me.

Dr. Al Zylstra:
That was a great decision on my part, another one of my good decisions. One of the few.

Anthony Godfrey:
Would you do me the honor of signing off on this podcast?

Dr. Al Zylstra:
Jordan School District, this is Dr. Z, education is the most important thing you will do today. You are loved and you're expected to be great. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. He is a former University of Utah football player, not afraid to tackle any topic or issue when it comes to teens and improving social health. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with Herriman High School teacher and licensed marriage and family therapist David Kozlowski. Find out about a class Mr. Kozlowski created at Herriman High called 'Level Up', which is getting statewide recognition and is helping students improve their relationships with family, friends, teachers, and others in their lives.

We are here at Mountain Ridge High School with David Kozlowski, who just spoke with all of the administrators in the District for our Administrative Leadership Conference.  I couldn't let him get away without stopping to talk with him about some of the ideas he has for connecting with teens and with each other, and just to share some of his insights with our listeners. Thank you for joining us, first of all. Thank you for the message you have to share with administrators today.

David Kozlowski:
It was a great pleasure for me, especially now that I'm a teacher at Herriman High School to talk to peers and people that are in the trenches. It's really cool, because usually I just talk to parents, but now I feel I got to talk to parents and professionals in education. So it was huge enjoyment for me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell everybody a little bit of your story and how you got to where you are, and then I want to talk about your connection to teaching after that.

David Kozlowski:
I never once in a day in my life woke up and said, 'I think I want to talk about feelings for a living when I get older." I was trying to go the macho route.  I have two older brothers that played in the NFL. Well, I was adopted, it's a long story. My grandmother adopted me. She raised me with her kids and her new husband. So I was raised by my half uncles and aunts as my siblings basically. So I thought I wanted to be a sports athlete like them. I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to the University of Utah to play football, but I really didn't love football. It wasn't really like the thing I loved to do, and I had a lot of problems in college.  I just got done talking about it here to the administrators, but to make really long story short, I had a very serious suicide attempt. I'd had a bad relationship breakup with my girlfriend, fiancé at the time, and been told that I could never play football again because I had concussion problems. I was in a coma for two days from an accident. So it was like a really bad, traumatic brain injury, with a speech impediment and everything. I started going to a therapist and a counselor and one thing led to another. I was like, "so you just listen to people, talk about their struggles, you ask them questions to help them express himself and they feel better?" He's like, "Yeah", I'm like, "that's a cool job. I want that job." So I graduated from the University of Utah, went to graduate school, to become a licensed marriage and family therapist and I've been in mental health for 22 years.

That kinda got me up until recently, and then with becoming a teacher that was not even a plan thing either for years. I just saw this pattern working with teens and kids. You know, when you see a pattern in something you try and make sense of it first. Then after you see it over and over for years, then you start to go, oh, wait a second, maybe we need to talk about the problem completely differently. It's called an orthogonal approach. Right? Einstein was famous for that, he looked at what other scientists did. He's like, "yeah, I'm not interested in that. Do something totally different just to kind of think outside the box." So for years I've been telling school districts and people that I have this idea for a curriculum that was based upon what I saw with private practice. I put on free social support groups for teens and here in the Herriman community for 11 years. So these kids freely are coming every week and I'm just taking notes. It felt like that guy who lived with lions in Africa for like 10 years, they came back to see him, they accepted him.  These teenagers forget I'm even there because I look like I'm 12 still, right? I wear vans and I look like an adolescent.

Then I just figured out all these unique things that really led to their problems and all the things that were connected to their solutions. It was pretty simple. The ones that had bad relationships, family, friends, relationship with themselves, always had issues with mental and emotional health. The ones that didn't have bad family or friend relationships, they happen to have a different type of health that fortified them when things got tough because they had support, but they knew how to ask for it, and they also knew how to get it. For whatever reason their parents, teachers influential people in their life, modeled this for them. They pick up on it.

The families that were really struggling when they started come in with depression, anxiety, suicide, all these issues, I started to see that these issues were all connected to relationships. So my curriculum that I came up with a long time ago was a social health curriculum. It just so happens, when I started thinking about this, about 10, 12 years ago, a bunch of research had been happening simultaneously that I didn't even know about. This research was showing that our social brain actually learns better than our analytical brain. When we are socially, like when we're curious, that's a social trait, right? Because curiosity leads to adventure. Adventure leads to discovery. Discovery leads to people need you around. You matter if you're a person that invents things. Right? 

So in this curriculum, I just started thinking, man, we need to focus on the social health of our adolescents as equally, arguably equally, as important as math, English, and science. With the suicide epidemic, with the depression, and self-harm going up, I'm like, we need to have social health, meet it and like capture it. So we don't try to save all these kids that are dying. We get to them long before they can get that point. I just happened to mention my idea on a podcast. I was actually kind of disheartened because I talked to a couple of the schools that looked like they were going to do it and it never worked out. I mentioned it on my podcast, it just so happens, one of your vice principals, Julie Scherzinger, love her to death, man, that woman was a pit bull. She heard it on my podcast and she started blowing me up. So I call and she's like, 'we need to talk about this. Can we do something here?" Then everything fast forward through the pandemic or before the pandemic?  I said, yeah, I have it all outlined put together. I just put the finishing touches on it. Pandemic year, oddly enough, that was the year we tried to help kids connect socially wearing masks. And man, we found out that their social health is a serious issue.  I mean, think about you only get better at what you practice. If you're staring at a phone all day long and texting and messaging, are you getting better at reading social cues? Are you getting better at facial expressions, understanding if someone didn't like, didn't say something to you because they didn't like you or because they're in a bad mood. Was that person hating you? Or did they have a bad burrito at lunch? And they have an upset stomach. They can't really tell the difference.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are lots of ways to escape having to figure those things out and having to actually engage with others around us.

David Kozlowski:
Exactly. So that's just the nuts and bolts of it. Thanks to Julie and Quarnberg at Herriman, by the way, I don't own this whole social thing. I don't own this. I don't try to own this. I just created a course. I think that social health, and that's what we're working with right now with the Orrin Hatch Foundation, I think social health should be a curriculum and a course. Very similar to how we introduced physical education into academics. If we're not getting better, at face-to-face negotiation, communicating difficult conversations, what example are we as a country in society showing our kids? Last time I checked when parents drop off their kids kindergarten, first, second grade, whatever it is, they're not sitting there going first day, I hope they do get a math today. They're saying, I hope they make a friend. I hope they don't get bullied. I hope they're not the bully. Right? Like you're so worried about their relationships. I hope their teacher likes them. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Great point. That's the focus exactly. When you say that, it's exactly my thought every time my kids start school.

David Kozlowski:
Right? And so in my mind, I'm like, this is too basic. This is too simple. Fortunately, doctors like Matthew Lieberman from UCLA, Harvard trained psychologists, a lot of other great doctors out there, did the research to back up that our brains have evolved, become more social. If you are not good at social, it doesn't matter what you're selling. It doesn't matter what you're trying to convince people to do. No one's going to buy it. No one's going to connect with it. They have to feel like there's a relationship. Hence the root of the word relationship is relate. There's gotta be some sort of connection there. So when I saw his work, when I took my experience and I was started working with kids in schools, I just figured we got to put this in curriculum somehow. So I've been doing a slow, this isn't like a sales pitch, this isn't like, oh, we know exactly what schools need. I'm a teacher now because I didn't want to create a curriculum without teaching it because how would I know what teachers need? 

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the things that you have found have worked in that class?

David Kozlowski:
So what I found, first of all, by listening to other teachers, listening to students before I even created this. I've just listened to parent's complaints, teacher's complaints, student's complaints. Then I turned around to solutions, because everyone can complain and point fingers at who's not doing what they're supposed to be doing, but where's the solution at? So one of the things I found out, um, well, I'll use it. It was specific to this last year, but I think it bears repeating, is the masks showed us a really big blind spot is in human beings of how we communicate. Kids were so used to communicating digitally that when all their communication was only digital kids started to get really uncomfortable with it. They were nostalgic for the days where they could just hang out with their friend. They could sit in the class.  I'm not saying, I've got to be careful when I say this, when kids get bullied in class, it's not good, but I had some kids come talk to me. They would tell me they would be okay with feeling uncomfortable in certain classes, around certain kids, for the payoff of getting to see their friends, getting to connect and getting to ask a teacher questions.  Where over Zoom they felt so much more disconnected and were scared to do any of those things. 

Anthony Godfrey:
So they were ready to take the good with the bad just to have some level of connection.

David Kozlowski:
But because they came back to school with masks, they were all like, something's wrong. Giving kids a real life experience. You take away a super power from them. Their ability to read people's body languages. They were lost. They were scared. That's why we're seeing as the results come in, it did not get better mental and emotional health with young people over the pandemic.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more with Herriman high teacher, David Kozlowski.

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Anthony Godfrey:
You said in your presentation that after over two decades in mental health and social health, coming in as a teacher, you learned a lot quickly that you hadn't learned over those decades as a social and mental health specialist. Tell me some of the things that you learned coming into the classroom.

David Kozlowski:
I learned that kids are far more scared of school than I realized, and they're not scared of the book. They're scared of the social. The most important thing in school, I'll explain this after this, I'm a school teacher, and like I say, the most important thing in mental health is helping people with their social health. The most important thing in school for students has always been social. But what I learned, to answer your question, what I learned with these kids, their fear is extraordinarily real. Their stress is extraordinarily real, and it can change in a heartbeat from one class to another. They can be confident in one social class because that teacher established that place. 

I call my classes, it's Switzerland. We don't bring politics, we don't bring religion, We don't bring any of those things here because those cause differences. At the end of the day, hurt and pain, fear, these are all natural connectors with people. We're all scared of something. Okay, well, we can connect on that. We'll feel less than at times. Okay. We can connect on that.Once we start to connect in my classes, I have these kids do these highs, lows, and who knows? So to start off the day, they'll say their name, they'll say the high for me this past week or over the weekend was "hung out with my friends". The number one high reported is I spent time with my friends. Then number one low that was reported is drama with their friends or their family members. After that, if they're unsure, like one of the things they're unsure of, like, I'm dating a girl that I used to date and we got back together. So that's a "I don't know".

Our brain can really do a good job of saying, I know this, I don't know that, and this isn't an unknown. Those three categories, with their name, saying over and over. I'd see kids walk up to another kid and say, "Man, you have a problem with your dad too. Like when you were talking about your dad, I thought you read my diary. That's just like me." They make connections without us having to force the connection. They just have to have a safe place where they can feel that they can talk about things that aren't going to marginalize them. They can talk about things that are going to bond and connect them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Finding out that there were other kids who may have the exact same struggles, creates a connection all its own. And if they don't talk about it, they know someone else is in the same situation and it validates theirs

David Kozlowski:
You hit it right on the head. The nicest kid can be mean and quasi bullying if there's enough kids in a group talking bad about another kid. All it takes is one kid to say, "Hey, that kids actually pretty cool. I liked them." They'd all go, "oh, whoa. We're not saying we didn't like them." They pull back really quickly. But sometimes kids say, "I'm not brave enough to stand up." I said, "you don't need to stand up, you just need to speak out."

Anthony Godfrey:
I've never been in your class, but I walked in one day to Herriman High School. I saw kids running around, pairing up, stopping suddenly. It looked like chaos, but it looked like pretty exciting chaos, very engaging chaos.  I'm just having a conversation with an Administrator, and I said, "What's going on?" In a positive way,  because I'm thinking these kids are engaged in what's happening. And he said, "Oh, that's something David Kozlowski put together. It's a way to get kids connected with each other." I mean, these kids, these are high school kids that can sometimes be very difficult to engage. They were at a full sprint to get to each other in whatever activity it was. And they were obviously connecting in a very meaningful way. So it was fun to see that. And you obviously are transferring the energy that you have for improving social health to those kids that you're working with.

David Kozlowski:
Well, I thank you for that, and I definitely can't take credit for all of that. What you saw was probably a specific thing.  Those group of kids were going around doing that. But basically what it is is that the school, the fact that I'm even there trying the curriculum, let's face it hurt and pain is the connector of all human beings. What Herriman went through in 2017, I think we can all say that was not something any school wants to even be remotely associated with. There's two different approaches. We either sweep it under the rug, pretend it didn't happen, or we just go, hey, we've got to make this better. And we just come full out there, and that's what they did. So by bringing me in, I just happen to have these cool Jedi mind tricks with teenagers. I call them Jedi mind tricks. It's like, "Get off your phone you will." "Respect your teacher you might", because what happens is you guys put curiosity in your slogan right now. I can't tell you how powerful curiosity is, not to just human beings, but specifically to teenagers. They're the most curious human beings on the planet. But they're also human beings that want their own autonomy. They want to break away and they have really bad habits of being taken care of and given everything they want when they want it. So this is a really tough bridge to cross with them. I want everything done for me, but I want all the freedom to do what I want to do. 

Anthony Godfrey:
You hit that on the head. that is a big frustration.

David Kozlowski:
Certainly. Yeah. And so they're really semi-professional adults. They have all  the desires of adults. They have intelligence, they know how to like download an app. Like they can do adult stuff better than some adults can, but they're not quite good enough at the relationship connection and realistic expectations where they can be professionals at it. No one's going to pay them in a job to show up as an adult. So when we're working with them at the school, those are the things I taught them. I only got that information because of 22 years of working with the most intense situations with teenagers and kids. Life-threatening, horrible parents in jail and stuff like that. You have to learn how to think on the fly. You can't go to a book and say, "so how does this make you feel" to a kid that just told you they're suicidal. And they're like, "I just told you how I feel like, were you not listening?" Right. So what I figured out throughout all these years were things that everyone does that lands perfectly get someone to put down their guard, sparks their curiosity, because if you can spark a curiosity in a teenager, good luck getting them to pay attention longer than three seconds because that phone has a whole lot of things that sparks their curiosity. You're competing against a phone. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm so glad to have you at Herriman High School.

David Kozlowski:
And I'm glad to be here, really glad.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm glad we had a chance to hear from you and that teachers will have a chance to tap into these ideas. Stay close, we need you, and we appreciate all that you're doing for our kids. 

David Kozlowski:
Well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be on the podcast. I appreciate the opportunity to speak, to teach. You know, if all my wishes come true, I would like social health to be a curriculum in every school from kindergarten to 12th grade. Just as a way to develop skills, but more importantly in middle school and high school. And it just be a curriculum where everyone, all the social and emotional learning out there, there's a lot of great curriculums out there. The problem is there's no lane. They're all like standalone.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a little bit here and there.

David Kozlowski:
It's here and there. So if we create one curriculum, which is called social health, my classes Level Up. I just want to compete in it like in competition. Let's see how we can be the best version of helping our kids learning social skills. We need competition. So just to be clear to any listener, I'm not like "I invented it, I own it," I want everybody that has this ability to meet those standards. We're creating the standards and for it to be a thing. Now, if it never turns out to be that way, I'm going to give it my best shot. But, you know, I appreciate the opportunity.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that this is an added layer to taking care of kids at Herriman High School. I love that you're there and that we got to hear from you today. And I really look forward to what's ahead. So thank you so much for spending time with us. Thank you.

You can hear more about David Kozlowski's work on improving social health for teens, by tuning into his 'Light the Fight' parenting podcasts. Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. A Southland Elementary student is literally climbing his way to the top in a sport that is making its debut in the summer Olympic games right now. We're talking about sport climbing. On this episode of the Supercast, we catch up with Landers Gaydosh inside the Momentum Indoor Climbing Gym. Landers demonstrates some of his sport climbing skills and tells us about the recent USA Climbing Youth National Competition, where at just 11 years old, he finished 2nd in Bouldering and 3rd in Top Ropes.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here with Jonathan and Landers Gaydosh to talk with Landers about his climbing. But first let's talk to your dad. Jonathan, you teach at Herriman High School.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Yes, sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about that.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
I teach Resource at Herriman High School, co-teach an Algebra II / Trig class, and I had to teach a Personal Finance class. It has been an absolute joy to be honest. The first time I've really enjoyed teaching was when we landed in Utah and I 100% feel like we have the greatest Special Education team in the world there, because we truly are a team.  I feel like our Administration is just 100% supportive of the faculty and staff and the children. It's been a blast. I've really enjoyed the last three years and am looking forward to number four.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's great. I'm really thrilled to hear that. Now, you guys came from North Carolina?

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
Transylvania county, if I'm not mistaken,

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Transylvania county, a small town called Brevard, North Carolina, just south of Asheville.  We moved from a little tiny pond to a big pond.

Anthony Godfrey:
And your wife taught me how to say Appalachia properly.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Yeah, yeah. Appalachia, that's right. The Appalachian mountains.

Anthony Godfrey:
Your wife April works in the District Administration, and so we're really glad to have your family as part of Jordan School District, and to bring that perspective from North Carolina.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
We enjoy being here. Utah has been a blessing for our family, just from the job perspective and then meeting new friends and people and getting to see the world.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you strike me as an outdoorsman and Utah must be a nice place to be into camping and that sort of thing.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Oh yeah. There's a saying, especially in the climbing world, that climbers don't die and go to heaven, they die and go to Utah. This is the perfect place for that, and we also love to fly fish and it's a phenomenal state for fly fishing as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
You were a climber when you were a kid a little bit, right?

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Yeah, I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and believe it or not, there's quite a pretty good climbing scene in that area. I grew up climbing at a place called Horse Pens 40, which is a very unique kind of rock with very unique features. Believe it or not, rock does have different textures and features from the granite here in the Wasatch to the granite in the Yosemite. It's very different.  I grew up fortunate to be able to be outside and climb, but I was not very good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now Landers is carrying the tradition on. Landers, thanks for talking with me. Now, tell me what grade you're in and where you go to school.

Landers:
I'm going into 6th grade and I go to Southland Elementary.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do you like it here compared with North Carolina? Probably miss your friends a lot.

Landers:
Yeah, I definitely do miss my friends, but the mountains are quite a bit more fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the mountains kind of offset the loss of the North Carolina friends a little bit.  So, tell me what got you into climbing?

Landers:
When I was in preschool, my dad worked at a climbing gym. He used to pick me up and he would always take me to the climbing gym because my mom was still at work.

Anthony Godfrey:
So while you were at the climbing gym, you figure, why not climb? Now preschoolers tend to climb a lot anyway, but you decided to get serious about it.

Landers:
Yeah, when I was in preschool I wanted to travel the world. Climbing was like one of the few sports where when you're a kid, you can travel the whole United States.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you've been climbing from what age?

Landers:
About like 3 or 4 to 11.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're 11 years old. You have done more climbing than I will ever even think about doing, I'll just tell you that right now. We are here at Momentum in Sandy and I walked in to see these walls.  I brought my son, who's 12, here a few times.  I'd forgotten how high these walls are. Do they look high to you when you're walking in or not anymore? Are you just so used it? This is something you conquer daily.

Landers:
Mainly when you go outside it can be a little scary cause how much bigger the walls are than in here.

Anthony Godfrey:
How much do you like to climb indoors versus outdoors?

Landers:
I definitely like outdoors a little bit better just because you're not pulling on the same walls and the same handholds.

Anthony Godfrey:
I don't know a lot about climbing, but I do understand that there are names for certain paths up the mountain. Is that right? And those names get a little crazy don't they? Can you tell me some of the crazy names out there for the way up a mountain?

Landers:
There are a couple that are like Midnight Lightning, which is a very famous climb.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have you done Midnight Lightning?

Landers:
No, it's in Yosemite.

Anthony Godfrey:
Something you aspire to maybe. Jonathan, what are some of the names that you remember, those routes?

Jonathan Gaydosh:
He just did one called Poker Face Alice in Wyoming in an area called Wild Iris.  I guess the wall is called the OK Corral, and so all of the climbs have Western names. Poker Face Alice is one, Give My Love to Rose is another one. It's funny because you know, I think about all the Western movies, what situation is the guy saying, 'Hey, give my love to so-and-so in case I don't return.'

Anthony Godfrey:
That would be a daunting climb. Now that you mentioned that, you know, 'give my love to rose', now I'm going to climb and who knows if I'll return?

Speaker 4:

Then of course he did white Buffalo. He climbed a really famous Southeastern climb called Bumbly, which is such a unique rock. He's the youngest to climb one right here in little Cottonwood canyon called Big Guy. It's a pretty historical landmark because it's a boulder, that's about 45 feet tall and you climb it without a rope. The LDS church had drilled into it to break off the granite to build the temple downtown. So not only is it historical climb in little Cottonwood, it also has a historical story to the rock itself. It's a beautiful piece of rock.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a 45 foot boulder. What goes through your head when you stand in front of a 45 foot boulder and say, you know what? I think I'll climb that?

Landers:
I'm thinking, 'is this doable for me?' Because Big Guy was not super hard or out for me, and so that's why I was like, 'I kind of want to do that.' Cause it looks really cool and it just looks so cool, cause it's right on the river.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are you always looking for the next challenge? Do you want it to be challenging in that? That's what it sounds like.

Landers:
Yeah, because I'm like not even halfway. There's so much to climb and I'm not even close.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you repeat climbs very often or are you always looking for the next new climb?

Landers:
Outside? I don't normally repeat climbs, but inside when I'm training, I might do a climb and be like, okay, that kinda got my muscles going, I might do that again.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that mentality 'that got my muscles going. It's a challenge. I might try that one again.' But mostly you're looking for a new challenge.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back, find out if this amazing Southland student has his eyes set on future Olympic competition.

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Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about competition. I'll let you tell the listeners what happened at your last competition.

Landers:
So my last competition in Nevada, I got second and third. I got second in bouldering and third in ropes and I was very surprised.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, that was a national competition, and I saw the people you were up against. You're at the bottom of your age group, right? So you were climbing against some other kids that are taller. They have an advantage just by reaching up.

Landers:
Yeah, but not all the time. It makes a big difference, but sometimes, they might have to get in this tiny space and grab these tiny holds.

Landers:
So sometimes you use your size to your advantage?

Landers:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Jonathan, tell us a little bit about how those are structured. What are some of the categories and how does the scoring work?

Jonathan Gaydosh:
The categories they have Youth Junior all the way down to Youth D.  Youth C, which is what Landers is in, is ages 11 to 12, and then B is 13 -14,  A is 15-16, and then Juniors is 17 and 18 year olds.

Anthony Godfrey:
So he was competing in the national competition, bottom of his age bracket, and took second and third in different categories.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Yes. If he was one month younger, he couldn't be any younger for his age group. So he is at the very, very bottom of his age group. It's a two day competition for rope climbing, and then he took a two day rest because he doesn't speed climb, and then it's a two day competition for bouldering. He had to climb two routes for qualifier, and he made it through that round. Then they had semifinals the morning of, and in the semifinal rounds, they have to go to an isolation room with all the other kids that are in their age group.

Anthony Godfrey:
Isolation. So you don't see the path other people take up the climb.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Exactly, they don't let them see the routes. Not only do they have to have the ability to climb it, they have to have the ability to read what the route is supposed to make them do or make their body movements and their foot work.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think we ought to go out and see you go to work. You can kind of talk me through how this all works. We're here in the cathedral, if you will, of climbing Momentum, these huge walls, that curve back at us with lots of colorful shapes and bumps, you probably see a route right there. Don't you?  So tell me how you get ready to climb.

Landers:
So I have my climbing shoes. I'll put those on.

Anthony Godfrey:
They look like they're made out of hard rubber.

Landers:
Some of them are made of hard rubber to last longer, but these are made out of soft rubber, so when you step on a hold they take the shape.

Anthony Godfrey:
They give a little bit.

Landeres:
They're really bendy, they don't really break easily.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, you've got  two climbing shoes on now, what's next? Is there a harness here?

Landers:
Yeah, I'm putting my safety harness on.

Anthony Godfrey:
You trust a lot to those clips. I put keys on him before, but never my whole body.

Landers:
My kind are a little different.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kind of do the double check of the equipment here.

Landers:
Tighten the waist.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can see you've done this a time or two.

Landers:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here in the corner. It looks like this wall has a terrible skin condition.

Landers:
I'll be doing this white one, a 5.10 b.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're going to be taking the white. So you're tying in, what do you call it now? You're tying the rope around your harness.

Landers:
Yeah, the knot is called a figure 8 because it looks like an 8. You just follow that rope all the way around.

Anthony Godfrey:
Back through. I'm already lost, but it looks really good. Wow! That's a perfect knot, it looks nice too.

Landers:
When you fall it tightens. If you have a little more extra, you might tie a pretzel. I don't have enough, but you might try that just so it doesn't fling around.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just to tie it off. Okay, cool. All right. So now it's being hooked into a pulley and a clip, right? Are you going to clip that pulley to the front of you?

Jonathan Gaydosh:
Yep, so now he's on belay.

Anthony Godfrey:
He's on belay.

Jonathan Gaydosh:
So as he goes up, he'll clip the rope into the quick draws.  So that way, if he falls, he still falls, but he gets caught there.

Anthony Godfrey:
I don't walk as well as he climbs. He's just like, oh, step, step. And now the wall is curved back. So that changes fast

Jonathan Gaydosh:

Yeah, it's steeper, I mean, I've done this one right here and it's steeper than it looks.

Anthony Godfrey:
It looks pretty steep. Landers, you just scampered up there. That was just crazy. So  is that like your happy place to be climbing and then gliding down like that? That is awesome. So does that wear you out at all or is that just like a routine thing?

Landers:
That one is like a warmup, so when I get on like harder things, I don't pull a muscle or anything.

Anthony Godfrey:
It kind of took my breath away to see how fast you go up there and how confident you are just with your next step. That was awesome. Very cool to watch.

Thanks for joining us on the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is the opportunity of a lifetime for teachers and students at Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School. They are thrilled to let the learning begin in their virtual classrooms this school year, leading the way in personalized learning for students in Jordan School District. On this episode of the Supercast, we talk with some of the Rocky Peak Elementary teachers who say they are ready to rock the school year with amazing students and creative virtual classrooms where learning will be fun and engaging.

We are here at Hidden Valley Middle School to talk with Ross Menlove and members of the faculty of Rocky Peak Elementary School, our virtual school, that launches in the fall. Ross, thanks for taking some time.

Ross Menlove:
It's a pleasure to be here with the Superintendent.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the preparations that are happening for the fall. We're excited about not one, not two, but three new virtual schools launching, giving students some additional options that they haven't had in exactly this format before. What is some of the preparation that's been happening this summer?

Ross Menlove:
Some of the preparation that has been happening is we brought in all of our teachers from all the levels, from the elementary, middle school and high school, and we did a few days of training on competency based education and personalized learning. So providing that choice and voice for students as they go through their learning process. Part of the training was training the teachers on competency based education and providing time for teachers to work on their curriculum. The teachers have been spending quite a bit of time this summer building out curriculum, specifically designed for personalized learning for their students.

Anthony Godfrey:
One of the more common questions we get as educators is, 'so what do you guys do all summer?'  I know that there's always a lot of work that goes on, and this year in particular, for these teachers in particular, there's a lot of work. Not just to create content and be prepared to help students learn virtually, but also to be, as you say, competency-based and truly shift the way that we look at learning overall. That combination is powerful. You can give us some more details about this, but really this type of approach can work very well for a student who struggles and feels like they need some extra individual help, but also for a student who sometimes may get frustrated because they feel they're beyond the instruction that's happening in the classroom.

Ross Menlove:
So at Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary our mission is personalized education. We focus on the student, what the student needs. So parents as they look at the virtual elementary, they have two curriculum choices for their students. They have synchronous choice in which they are able to learn live with their teachers, and the teachers are designing that curriculum specifically for those students. Or they have an asynchronous choice in which they are able to learn at their own pace, their own place. They don't meet with the teacher live every single day in the asynchronous, but they have the teacher there available to meet with them daily, if they need. It's very personalized and designed specifically for that child and for those students.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that is uniquely possible through a virtual approach and the way that you structured it. It even gives a lot of choices within the virtual school because we've talked about virtual learning as a choice. Even within virtual learning, you have synchronous, asynchronous, and you have opportunities to come in person as well. Tell us a little bit about that option.

Ross Menlove:
So one of the options we have for students it's called 'Peak Time'. We have two physical locations for Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary, one at Majestic Elementary, at the north end of Jordan District, and one at here at Hidden Valley in the south end of the District. Students can come in two days a week to do hands-on science, STEM, art, P.E., and social studies. Those 'Peak Time' activities are taught by the teachers. So it's a very enriching curriculum, but it's a fun opportunity just to come and learn and grow and be social with other students.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there really are a number of different layers to being able to learn at Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, and that's what I love about it. It's all the choices within that virtual option. Let's talk with a couple of the teachers who are on your faculty.  I just am going to note that we had a ton of applicants, so we really have some of the best teachers anywhere that are working on this and launching Rocky Peak. Introduce yourself, tell us where you were teaching and give us a little bit about yourselves.

Kasey Chambers:
I'm Kasey Chambers, I'm the fifth grade teacher at Rocky Peak Virtual. I have been with Jordan School District since I graduated from BYU, for nine years now.  I've been at Butterfield Canyon for all of those nine years, so it was a hard choice to change, but I couldn't resist the opportunity. I'm really excited to be teaching virtually.

Ashley Tanner:
I'm Ashley Tanner. I have been teaching for seven, eight years and I've taught kindergarten through fifth. This is actually my second year in Jordan School District.  I will be teaching third grade this year and I'm really excited.  I taught online last year and I'm really excited to take a more proactive approach to virtual education this year.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think you make a really good point that it's going to be different from the online and virtual learning that has happened previously. I like to look at it in kind of three phases. There was the phase where we just shut down immediately and we all had to kind of do the best we could with what we had. I think we did really well given the circumstances. Then the next year that was really pandemic learning, that was available virtually for every student who wanted it, and every teacher who wanted to teach that way, and some teachers who didn't plan on teaching that way, but were asked to. And again, I think that went very well. There were certainly always things that could be better when you do something that fast and that dramatic of a change. But again, given the circumstances, I thought that teachers and students and families pitched in together and did an extraordinary job of making that available. A lot of those choices were based on the need to be home for personal health reasons, and now going forward, the virtual option is really available for those who feel that teaching and learning in a virtual environment is going to be best for them personally. So Ashley, tell me, what was it about teaching virtually that made you want to continue to do that?

Ashley Tanner:
I think the unexpected part of virtual teaching last year that I enjoyed so much was the support from home.  I would bring to the table the curriculum. The what do we need to learn, and how is the best way to learn it. All of that science and the education that I bring as a teacher. Then I got to combine that with the experts on that child. With their family, with their guardians and we combine that together.  I would present here's what I want to teach, here's what you should learn, here's why you should learn it. Then the parents would say, great, I know my child, here's their strengths, here's their talents. We're going to combine those things together, and I had kids that soared. I mean, it was so exciting by the end of the year to see them above not only where they should be, but they excelled. They did more than I thought they would do. They did more than I thought they would do, even if I were in a brick and mortar school with them. So it was really exciting to be a part of that team where the parents, and the guardians, and me, and the school, all came together and something great, unexpectedly great, came out of it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kasey, tell us about your experience and what made you want to continue teaching virtually

Kasey Chambers:
Kind of like Ashley, I was asked to go online, and Ross will tell you I went on kicking and screaming. But, we're here and I ended up really, really enjoying it, obviously. One of the things that I loved about it was that there's a lot of things that go on in a school that don't need to go on at home. So like the PE, the transition time, going to lunch and having recess. The 'I need you guys to read a book for 15 minutes while I grade this quiz' type of things. There's a lot in a school day and all of it's great, but what's really cool about virtual is that it's kind of formulaic in a way.  I can say these are the five things we're learning today. We're going to teach it and you can do it on your own time. These are my clear expectations. I taught more social studies, more science than I have any other year just because of how our days are filled if they're just at home. So I don't need to send them to recess. I don't need to have them take a break unnecessarily for a recess or whatever. We don't have to go to lunch. So it was really cool just to see how much I could fit in and the unique ways that kids could tell me that they learned. There's many different ways, they can make a video, they can do all of these things. It felt a lot easier to differentiate for my kids as well.  I had several students who just excelled and loved it so much, which was really unexpected. I think for a lot of teachers, we thought, 'oh, this is just going to be terrible. They're going to miss seeing me every day in person,' but they loved it and they did well, and they helped me keep getting better because they were doing so well. So it was awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
You both mentioned a deeper level of connection. Connection with family, and the connection between the teacher and the student. When you clear away some of what is necessary when you're in person, but not necessary when you're virtual, it creates some space for additional learning. I find it remarkable that both of you were able to teach more and saw more from students in a virtual environment.  I think that has actually been true of a lot of people I've talked with and in articles I've read about adults who are working from home and productivity has gone up. So it sounds like that's been your experience with students as well, that productivity went up, interest levels went up, and really they were able to focus on the things that they needed or that were important to them.

Kasey Chambers:
I agree. I think a big thing too, is that we all recognize that online learning is not for every kid. There were some kids who needed to be in person and we all recognize that.  I was very surprised at how there's so many different things that we just didn't think about that would help a kid do better at home.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the other positive experiences you've seen as students have learned virtually Ashley?

Ashley Tanner:
Well, obviously every year teachers are trying to better themselves. We're trying to educate ourselves more on how to really teach these children, and we know that students learn differently.  I think one of the things that I really enjoyed about teaching students in their home was that I had some students that were more kinesthetic learners, so they got to move around more and they got to be more physical with their learning. There were some students that were more auditory and they could really doodle. There were so many different ways that these students could learn. They would build things, they would want to talk in groups in breakout rooms, but they would also just want to be introspective. We had the space and the teaching virtually to allow them to process what they were learning and the way that they learn.

Anthony Godfrey:
I hopped online to read as part of a reading initiative. And I read to an entire third grade class in a school. So the whole grade was together on a huge zoom call. A couple of kids hopped on and said, "oh, no, if you do this, then..." They were giving me advice on how to hold the book and angle the camera and turn off my mute button, you know, those types of things.

When we come back, we'll take you on a tour of the new Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School.

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Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Hidden Valley Middle School with Ross Menlove, Principal of Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School. We're excited that there's space in our newest middle school here at Hidden Valley to provide time for students and teachers to interact for 'Peak Time' a couple of times a week, as you have described. This is where the offices will be, with a counseling center, and there are a few modifications being made. Can you kind of walk us through the facilities?

Ross Menlove:
As students walk in, they're going to walk into this really big open area. The open area is designed for 'Peak Time' for kids to be able to come in, interact with their teacher, do some hands-on learning, do some science experiments and STEM activities. We also have three classrooms specifically set aside for 'Peak Time' for kids to be able to come in. One of those classrooms is a science specific classroom.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's walk over there.

Ross Menlove: One of those classrooms is a science room where we have linoleum floors. We have gas piped in, you have water. So kids are able to do some actual science projects. It'll be fun to see what the teachers do with the students during 'Peak Time'.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can see that this is a totally separate wing with a separate entryway at the back of the school. So really, there isn't going to be any interaction with the middle school students who are here day in and day out.

Ross Menlove:
Yes, that is correct. We're specifically designing this space for elementary, middle school and high school. So as the kids walk in, there's going to be spaces designed specifically for those elementary students. Lower desks for kids to be able to work together in groups, but also for the middle school and high school to come in and work independently on their work they need to.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is a lab that wouldn't normally be available at the elementary level. So they're getting access to some things that they wouldn't normally see.

Ross Menlove:
Yes, it's pretty exciting. We're going to do some really fun science experiments and some STEM to be able to deepen our love of learning. 'Peak Time' is a time for kids just to come and enjoy learning and enjoy being with their teachers. Teachers are able to teach without having to worry about a test or anything like that. Just do it for the love of teaching.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just as a reminder, it's not required that anyone come to 'Peak Time' or that they do anything in person.

Ross Menlove:
That is correct. In our school they can be at home for the entire thing or wherever they're at. We can customize their learning for what they need and wherever their location may be.

Anthony Godfrey:
I saw that there's also a separate counseling area and there'll be computers where students can come and work. That's been something that students have wanted to do over time. We've had virtual students for a long time in the district, not virtual schools, but students who wanted to learn virtually. Now if elementary students need individual, in-person help, they can to get that as well.

Ross Menlove:
Yes, that is correct. We invite the elementary students to come in individually to meet with their teachers one-on-one. The elementary students can be learning from home for their major curriculum, but if they need that individual time, they can either come in during 'Peak Time' or schedule a time one-on-one with the teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's exciting. There's so many different layers, so many different aspects to the way that students can learn directly, individually and in a personalized way.

Ross Menlove:
Yes, we're personalizing the instruction for the student. The student is in the driver's seat and the student and the parents are the ones who get to make the educational choices. What's best learning for them and for their learning needs

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how you're adapting this wing of the school to make it a very welcoming and interactive environment.  I think it's a great component to a virtual school.

Ross Menlove:
That's when it's pretty exciting. Rocky Peak Virtual is going to be pretty awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ross, thanks to you and your faculty and everyone else who's worked to make this possible. I know you've been involved in this type of learning for a very long time. So all of your experience has prepared you so well for this.  I'm thrilled to offer this to families and students in Jordan District.

Ross Menlove:
That's when it's pretty exciting. Rocky Peak Virtual is going to be pretty awesome. The website for the school is rockypeak.jordandistrict.org  It has information there and some videos. Go on and meet the teachers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks again for the time. Great talking with you.

Students can enroll now in Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, by going to connect.jordandistrict.org. Thanks for joining us on the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.