Author: communications

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Valuable hands-on learning is leading to success for students at the South Valley School in West Jordan. On this episode of the Supercast, find out how middle and high school, Special Education students, as well as South Valley students are getting early work opportunities in a school-based shop, focused on engraving, everything from footballs and rolling pins and key chains. It's also a place where students provide framing work for the public. Let's start by heading into the shop with a student intern where I get a little help framing my own cherished pictures and mementos from the past. and get perhaps a little too close to the framing cutter.

Dallen Nelson:
My name is Dallen Nelson. I intern here at the engraving shop.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Dallen, you're not just an intern here. You're a student here as well, correct?

Dallen Nelson:
Correct. I am in the Program for Life Design.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about Life Design.

Dallen Nelson:
It's a program where people like me can get a better chance out there in the world.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'd say you have a great chance after talking with you.

Dallen Nelson:
Thank you, sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what does interning at the engraving shop mean?

Dallen Nelson:
I help around with any orders that might come through, be it engraving, laser, cutting.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the machines that you work on? And tell me a little bit about some of the things that you do.

Dallen Nelson:
Over there we have have some of the laser machines. These two are the mainly the machines we work with, for the most part.  The rotary and the laser.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what types of material can you engrave on in here?

Dallen Nelson:
We can engrave on metal, plastic and glass.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's kryptonite work in the machine or no?

Dallen Nelson:
Sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Yeah, it probably could actually. It looks like a pretty sturdy machine. It looks like we have a whole cart full of footballs that you've been customizing. Tell me about that.

Dallen Nelson:
So these are the game balls that we engrave and give back to the players as they're reward, trophy pretty much.

Anthony Godfrey:
And who has ordered these?

Dallen Nelson:
Grantsville.

Anthony Godfrey:
So from how far away do you take orders? This is pretty exciting.

Dallen Nelson:
From my time here, we have taken a few orders from quite far over the area.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Grantsville, that's pretty impressive.

Dallen Nelson:
This is a result of both the laser and the rotary.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the laser, you did these are name tags? It looks like for some sergeants and detectives.

Dallen Nelson:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you said that you use the rotary and the engraver for this. What are those two machines?

Dallen:
This was used to etch the image that you see on the nameplates.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so the images are done separate from the letter?

Dallen:
Yes.

Anthony:
And is it the rotary that is not capable of doing pictures?

Dallen:
Yes:

Anthony Godfrey:
I see. So the rotary does the does the letters?

Dallen Nelson:
Yes. And the engraver does the photos.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the other projects you've been engraving?

Dallen:
Footballs, glass, plastic, wood. We have some rolling pins for Nutrition Services.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you can engrave just about anything.

Dallen Nelson:
Pretty much.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's impressive. So does it comes with a little holder too? Is that from South Valley?

Dallen Nelson:
Yes. These were machined here in the woodshop, just next door.

Anthony Godfrey:
And so does this take longer than doing plastic? Is wood more difficult to engrave?

Dallen Nelson:
Sometimes it can be.  Sometimes types of wood burn differently than others.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did you get the opportunity to be an intern here at South Valley?

Dallen Nelson:
One of my main goals is to be in graphic design later on, and this is a pretty big step, although I still may carry this work with me to the future.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you have to qualify to be in this position?

Dallen Nelson:
I did receive some qualifications for this in the past.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. Well, congratulations on getting the spot and based on what I see already with footballs and rolling pins and such, you've got a great future.

Dallen Nelson:
So this is what we use mainly to make some name tags. Some magnetics like traditional clips.

Anthony Godfrey:
I got to tell you, my mind is racing with all of the name tags I can have you make for me to set on my desk to see if people are paying attention.

So the cutter, tell me about the cutter.

Dallen Nelson:
This is used in conjunction with the vacuum.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's fire it up. All right. So there's the vacuum pull off, whatever you're cutting around? That's pretty loud. Okay. So what do you track along here?

Dallen Nelson:
We also use this to cut that stuff that would be engraved in the future.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are your plans? Do you like this type of work? Is this something that you can see yourself doing long term?

Dallen Nelson:
Definitely.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what do you enjoy about it?

Dallen Nelson:
I like to imagine the happy thoughts of the people receiving the awards. When the rest might just like light up.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, great. Now thanks for giving me a tour. It's a thrill to meet you and congratulations on the great work you're doing here.

Dallen Nelson:
Thank you for having me on your show, sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
You bet. We're here with the South Valley School Principal, Rita Bouillion. Rita, thanks for taking time with us this afternoon.

Rita:
It was our pleasure.  We're glad to have you.

Anthony Godfrey:
For those who may not be familiar with South Valley, can you just describe what you're about and what goes on here?

Rita:
Yes, we have students from all over Jordan School District. They come from all of the high schools and our job is to help them transition into adulthood. So when they're finished with their high school, if they haven't received their diploma, they come to us. For some students, we help them achieve their diploma, but for all students, we help them achieve independence. And we connect them with the community through jobs, through community-based activities, where we go to the grocery stores in their area, or we go bowling in their area. So ways that they learn to access the community so that they'll continue to do that when they are completely finished with school.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know one of the classes is Life Design. Tell me about the Life Design class.

Rita:
So we have a unique cooperation with Jordan Applied Tech Center, the North campus. We have two classrooms there, and those are design classrooms. All of the students that are there are getting jobs, getting their diploma and working towards using UTA independently for their transportation. And for those students, it just feels more special to them because they're on a college campus. So they liked the fact that they're at SLCC. For some students, it's hard to transition from high school and then continue school here. But those students are really pleased to be able to say, we're at the SLCC campus. You know, we go to school at SLCC.

Anthony Godfrey:
One thing I love about South Valley School is just the resources that are brought together and the number of different plans that can be developed based on the student's individual needs.

Rita:
All of our students have an IEP. We individualize their educational plan just for them. So we include developing resumes, learning UTA, if it's possible. We also have students who are getting their Driver License. We have students who come for six months and just finalize their diploma. Or we have students that come for four or five years to get all of the things that they need in order to transition successfully into the community. When I first started here, the thing that struck me the most was after coming from a huge high school where they were just one little piece of that school community, they come here and everywhere they look, there's a friend, a potential friend. So the friendships and relationships that develop here between among the students is really something to experience.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's only one of the things that makes South Valley such a great place. And you offer a lot of services to the public. We're going to talk about those in future Supercast episodes and can you outline some of those for me.

Rita:
We have a wood shop here. And the students that work in the wood shop are middle school and high school students from throughout the District that are also in Special Ed Programs. When they come here, they learn one important thing. They learn pre-employment skills. They learn to be on time for a job, how to dress appropriately, the safety things that are required for any job, how to respond to your boss, but they get to do it in a wood shop atmosphere. They get to take projects home. They take pride in building, for example, new tables for South Jordan Middle. And when they finished that project, our bus took the kids to South Jordan, Middle. The truck delivered the tables there and the students were able to take the things that they had just made into the school and set them up. It was awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. That's a sense of accomplishment that many of us don't get in a normal workday.

Rita:
And then those kids who would go to school there, they get to go back and see that every day and can say, I helped build that. I made those table legs. You know, that's exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the other services offered to the public?

Rita:
This year, because of COVID, we haven't been able to have our students go out into the community and to do job experiences as intensely as we have in the past. So some of our teachers have gotten creative about developing an enterprise here within the school. One of our classes makes pins. We sent you some that kind of helped you deal with wearing a mask, you know, so they will customize any size, shape, or design that you want. We're going to have a new administrator. Two are here in a few weeks and they're making administrator buttons for us to give to those new administrators.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very cool. Yes. This is one of the places we love to take new administrators to show it off, which gets me to why I'm here. Let's get some framing going, shall we?

Stay with us? When we come back, we'll hear more about the skills students are learning and find out how the public can access South Valley School's, engraving and framing services.

Break:
If you're ready to start your child on the path to personalized learning, we are ready to help. The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is coming to Jordan School District in the 2021-22 school year. Three new schools will be opening as part of the Academy, Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, Kelsey Peak Virtual Middle School and Kings Peak High School. Each school will have their own principal and teachers and each will give students a choice in their own learning. The schools will offer synchronous learning, which is teachers providing real time, live online instruction and asynchronous learning, where teachers provide videotaped instruction for learning on a student's schedule. To register your student in the Jordan Virtual Learning Academy, visit http://connect.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're going to switch to framing and it's time to meet the framing team. Let's have them introduce themselves.

Vicky:
Vicky Thomas. And I've been back in this room since 2009.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what did you do before that?

Vicky:
I was in a classroom.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Peggy:
Peggy Beuchert. And I just help out when they need me down here.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Well, it's great to have both of you and your keen eye and talent helped me with this next framing job, but I thought I'd bring a couple of greatest things that Vicky and Peggy helped frame for me. We have them all wrapped in bubble wrap. I love that you guys framed them for me before. Let's take a look here. I want to remind you of some of your handiwork from years gone by. This one is actually from Comic-Con in San Diego, and this is years ago before they charged you to meet individual stars. I don't know if you remember this when you've done a lot of pieces since then. But this is my Lord of the Rings piece with the Lord of the Rings mini promo poster. And then there's a picture of me with Elijah Wood and another random hobbit, and then the autographs from Elijah Wood and another one of the hobbits and some pictures of me leaning in at the table where I wasn't supposed to get a photo with them, but snuck one in anyway at the autograph table. And you guys did such a nice job. This frame, the mat is really, it just ties in very nicely with the poster. And you put this border in there. What's that border called when you put something like that in there, fill it, makes it look kind of old worldly. And this other one, we'll cut this one open too. I'm quite proud of this Lord of the Rings thing.

I sat in the Convention Hall in San Diego for a long time to get their autographs. It was before you paid for individual autographs, you just had to want it worse than everyone else and be willing to wait long enough. And that was me. So it's really nice to have these memories preserved instead of in a shoe box.

I just love having them framed so nicely. And I'm doing this podcast out of enthusiasm, personally, and I hope people just realize what a great resource we have here. Their stuff can get framed and look better than if they took it anywhere else. All right. The one I'm I'm going to reveal now that we pop out is actually something I didn't buy yo have frame. I actually saved the box tops for them. I saved proofs of purchase from a now defunct cereal. I can't even remember what cereal it was, but there were always involved "o's". It was my free Rocky Balboa poster. Actually my Rocky II poster.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a little tattered, but so's Rocky. He's been through a little bit and you just mounted it so nicely. It kind of preserves the little curls and rips and tears. Preserved the oldness of it. It's absolutely beautiful.

You helped me pick out this weathered frame that goes with the weather dude on the weathered poster. I just love this. It was 1979. I was 10 years old, had this hanging on my wall and it's just a really fun way to preserve it. So it hangs up in our TV room and it's just another example of the great work that you guys do here framing.

So we have brought more for you and these are actually for my son. I framed for me first and then my son's second as well it should be.

Vicky:
That's right.

Anthony Godfrey:

So this is a picture of me and my sons with Mark Hamill, a Star Wars fan, Luke Skywalker. And when I posted it on social media, I said, Luke, I am their father.

Vicky:
That's too funny.

Anthony Godfrey:
So we have Luke and Yoda and just kind of a smaller poster size, and then an 8 x 10 photo of the four of us, my son with his lightsaber. And then this was an autograph that Mark Hamill actually just handed to my son as a bonus, out of his back pocket. So shall we take a look and see what frames and that's you guys recommend?

Vicky:
It was recommend for this one. Let's start with the mats. You got some blues in there and do you want a double matte or just single matte?

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you think?

Vicky:
Well, that other one, we did kind of the stand out with the fill it. So I think double matted would be nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, let's do a double. I think it should be double knotted.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Let's double that. So we just take a corner out now. When you pull these colors, what are you looking for?

Vicky:
Well, I don't know. We just tried to look for something that we think is going to go with the picture.

Anthony Godfrey:
You just kind of use The Force.

Vicky:
We do use The Force back here a lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. The purple kind of looks cool, actually.

Vicky:
Yeah. That's what the dark blue matte where we could do a black matte under the purple. It evokes space. You know, I think that l with the black and I think it looks better than the dark blue.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. The black, and where does that fill, a lavender?

Vicky:
Let's see, that's what they call purple haze.

Anthony Godfrey:
Purple haze. I wondered why it was all in my brain.

Vicky:
So we'll do the black mat on the bottom, a quarter inch. And then the top matte would be the purple haze.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. There is some black in there.

Vicky:
And the black just makes everything stand out.

Anthony Godfrey:
I don't know how it, but you pull these colors and it's exactly the colors that need to be around that picture and this set of pictures. It works for every picture on there. That's why I keep coming back. I really want people to know about the services that are available at South Valley. So why don't you tell us the services you're responsible for and how everyone can access those?

Vicky:
I do the engraving part and we service people from districts from North San Pete County. We do Ogden, Logan, Canyons District, Jordan School District. I think we've done a name tags for every state in the United States. We've done Hawaii to California, to New York. Utah's probably the fewest we've done.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Well, the name South Valley has spread far and wide. And the framing, tell us about the framing services.

Vicky:
We do framing. Right now we have jobs from several people that are outside the District. We do a lot of in-district framing and probably on the framing part, we do as much outside the district that we do inside and we are better than anybody else in the valley. We have a great framing team.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can attest to that for sure. And the prices are the best part. So tell people how to get ahold of you.

Vicky:
Well, they can call the school or they can email vicky.thomas@jordandistrict.org, or they can call South Valley school and get our email through there and make an appointment. We're very flexible.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, you don't know it yet, but I have a strange project coming your way. Next time I visit, I asked every school to send me one of their custom masks from the pandemic. So any school that had a custom mask, I've collected those, I have a whole drawer full of them. And what I really want to do is frame a huge display so that we can walk by it and either shutter for a while, while we think about everything we've been through, or also memorialize everything that we've been through, and we can see that down the line.

Vicky:
Well, I think that sounds like a great fun job. Now it's still shutter, but in the future, we'll able to be more normal.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right. That's the hope. And I'd like us to frame that into a big display so we can walk by and shutter for the first few years. And later on, reflect back on everything we accomplished and overcame.

A big thanks to everyone at the South Valley School who joined us on the Supercast today. And as always, thank you for tuning in. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. West Jordan Middle School students are using morning announcements to highlight a number of inspirational black history heroes during the month of February, which is Black History Month. Some Utah jazz players like Donovan Mitchell and Derrick Favors are doing the same in a three part YouTube series called "Black History Heroes." On today's episode of the Supercast we hear from some Utah Jazz players featured on the YouTube series. But first we head out to West Jordan Middle School where morning announcements are about to begin:

Dixie Garrison:
So the staff and students give me a heartbeat. Today is Thursday, February 25th, and it is an even day today. During Pride Time, we will be showing a video in the auditorium about the Utah Jazz players and their heroes. This video centers around Black History Month. You should have already signed up through efficiency under Mr. Hunter for Black History Month.

Student:
For Black History Month the Black and Proud Crew will be highlighting black Americans, drought history. If you're able to tell Ms. Monson or Ms. Gibbons all the names throughout the week, you will win.

Student:
Our spotlight for today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin was an African American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

Dixie Garrison:
And as always, we love you. We care about you. Learning is important. Being here is important. Let's have a fantastic Thursday. Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm here at West Jordan Middle school talking with student members of the Black and Proud Crew on one of the days that they have been honoring Black History Month with announcements that honor black figures in history. And so I'm going to talk with Camden. Tell me a little bit about the highlights that have been happening this month.

Student:
You've been highlighting all these different African-Americans for example, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your name.

Student:
Jerome Miles.

Anthony Godfrey;
Jerome, what is your favorite figure that's been highlighted this month?

Student:
Jesse Owens.

Anthony Godfrey:
Jesse Owens. Tell me about Jesse Owens.

Student:
Well, he was a track star and I liked sports. So that's mainly why, I picked him.  I like sports.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it took some courage on his part to compete in some of those events.

Student:
Yeah, I did.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Rosa Parks. Why is that?

Student:
Because she made a stand for what she believed in to sit on the bus and she was brave enough to sit there, knowing that she was going to get arrested.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your name.

Student:
My name is Shoday.

Anthony Godfrey:
Shoday what figure stood out for you?

Student:
Ruby Ridges because she was the first black girl to go to a white school and it was crazy because back then it wasn't normal for black and white people to go to the same school. So since she was the first person that was a black of color to go to school, it was like crazy. She went through a bunch of stuff at such a young age and she put up with it too. She didn't complain because she knew that she went to a good school. So she went through all that stuff, knowing that grown people and little kids were being rude because of the color of her skin. And that has a big part in history. And now, today, everybody goes to the same school.

Anthony Godfrey:
We can kind of take it for granted now almost that that everyone goes to school together.

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your name.

Student:
Hazel.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your favorite to figure that's been highlighted this month.

Student:
Martin Luther King Jr. as well, just because there's so much to learn about him and so many different things that he did.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me more about what the Black and Proud Crew does. I see that you have a painting activity this Friday. Is that right? Tell me a little bit about that.

Student:
This Friday, people who signed up are going to meet here. We're having a paint night where we can learn how to paint a picture of the elephant that Jerome has picked for us. And it's everyone who signed up to join and it would just be a fun learning experience.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a really cool looking painting, and I would be very impressed with myself if I was ever to paint that. So I really wish I could come to your activity. What other things have been sponsored by the Black and Proud Crew?

Student:
Friday, it was the last two weeks ago, there were kids coming in and, it depends on how many kids came. So we did a King of the Court type of play. There'll be five people on the team. And so on each team, there's five kids and whoever won that would stay on the court and another group of five would come on and whoever won the whole thing got candy. Well, everybody got candy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, there's a good event. Everybody gets candy. That's a good start.

Student:
Everybody got candy. We just felt better.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. It sounds as if you've had a great variety of activities. Let's talk with Ms. Monson. You are the advisor for the Black and Proud Crew, is that correct?

Teacher:
Yes, it's me Christa Gibbons and Chelsea Chaco, who are the advisors for the students.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the other activities that the Black and Proud Crew has been involved in?

Teacher:
So we hosted NEMA a couple of weeks ago. And along with NEMA, they showed us one an art featuring black heritage and black history. And so he talks about the textile of the art. And then after they talked about the art piece, we watched Levered Community, which highlighted a lot of black Americans in Utah. We had like a black pastor and talked about how his life was growing up. And we had the first black teacher in Davis District and how she was able to actually reach one of her students in the third grade. And so then they became a teacher. And so it just talks about the different lives of people living in the State of Utah and how they were able to progress through their certain trials.

Anthony Godfrey:
And every day of Black History Month, there's been another historical figure featured?

Teacher:
Yeah. So in January we meet every Friday with the students. They came up with a PowerPoint and so they picked all the people. We had Beyonce, Jesse Owens, Barack Obama. So the kids came up with who they wanted to spotlight, they found pictures for it. They found the excerpts and they put it in the PowerPoint that we show and share with the rest of the school. So every day they're able to pick someone who they wanted to spotlight and highlight.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great way to celebrate black history month. And it sounds like from talking with the students, they've learned a lot about black history that they weren't previously aware of.

Teacher:
That's our goal.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we hear from Donovan Mitchell and Derrick Favors talking about their black history heroes.

Break:
If you're ready to start your child on the path to personalized learning, we are ready to help. The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is coming to Jordan School District in the 2021-22 school year. Three new schools will be opening as part of the Academy: Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, Kelsey Peak Virtual Middle School and Kings Peak High School. Each school will have their own principal and teachers and each will give students a choice in their own learning. The schools will offer synchronous learning, which is teachers providing real time, live online instruction and asynchronous learning where teachers provide videotaped instruction for learning on a student's schedule to register your student in the Jordan Virtual Learning Academy, visit http://connectjordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome back. As we told you earlier, some Utah Jazz Players are featured in a new series talking about their black history heroes. Donovan Mitchell's hero is the late baseball great Jackie Robinson. Here's what Donovan had to say.

Donovan Mitchell:
"You know, for me, obviously growing up, being, from a baseball background, I've always looked at Jackie Robinson as one of those guys who is a pioneer in the game. You know, you look at what he had to go through, from racial injustice to the famous story of him getting cleated, you know, an ankle that you had to go through. So many different hurdles and walls and obstacles to become who he was as a player and as a person. And what he stood for, that always stands out to me. For myself coming up, just being able to see a guy who not only transcended the game with his play, but how he dealt with people off the field."

"You know, he went through so many vigorous things just to be able to play the game baseball that he loved. And for me, my parents, my coaches, everyone talked about Jackie Robinson as a hero because he was just that guy that who went out here and led his game. He did the talking, no matter how many threats, no matter how much stuff was going on in his personal life, being the first black player in the major leagues. But he just went out there and did his thing and did it with such grace and such honor. And didn't really let all the other noise affect that and transcended the game for us African-American men."

Anthony Godfrey:
Derrick Favors chose the late US Representative John Lewis, as his hero.

Derrick Favors:
"John Lewis, the reasons why I'm from Atlanta, and he's from Atlanta. He did a lot of great things. He recently passed away and that was sort of a big thing in the community for us. Just all the things he's done in his lifetime to make a positive impact in the African-American community and also in the country as well. But he did a lot of great things like from marching with Martin Luther King to winning numerous awards. He was just a great role model, a great person who thought about everybody else who thought about uplifting everyone. And you know, he was one of my heroes, so you're never too young or too old to make a difference, no matter what it is."

Anthony Godfrey:
And you can hear from more Utah Jazz players in their series, Black History Heroes on the Utah Jazz on YouTube channel. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Supercast. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Is your child spending excessive time playing video games? Is video game addiction a real problem among kids and teens? Today on this episode of the Supercast, we talk with school psychologist, Dustin Fullmer, who actually teaches a video game addiction class at the Jordan Family Education Center in Jordan School District. It's a class that's more popular than ever before as parents try to figure out if video gaming has become an unhealthy habit for their own children.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, we are here at Joel P Jenson Middle School to talk with some students about how they feel about video games or which video games they like best and what they like about them. Tell me your name please.

Student:
I'm Landon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Landon. What video game do you play the most right now?

Student:
Definitely Minecraft.

Anthony Godfrey:
Minecraft. Now that's a very creative game. What do you like about playing Minecraft?

Student:
Mainly party games on it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just tell me a little bit more about that.

Student:
Well, Minecraft is a survival game, explore someone's creativity and challenge one's survivability. So last deal on a Minecraft so far is called high pixel. I spent 700 hours on a single game mode.

Anthony Godfrey:
700 hours.

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are there some things that you didn't get to do because you were doing Minecraft?

Student:
Not really.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So how did it feel after doing 700 hours of Minecraft?

Student:
Like about halfway through, I got phone down, so I stopped playing full volume.

Anthony Godfrey:
How many hours would you say you play in a day?

Student:
Three.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So you just consistently play and after the 700 hours, did you get to where you wanted it to be in Minecraft? Did you accomplish what you were hoping to accomplish?

Student:
Most of India.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about playing video games?

Student:
It's an escape from reality.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Tell me your name.

Student:
I'm Brandon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Brandon, what video games do you play most?

Student:
Well, I usually like to play on my phone. I like to play Geometry Dash a lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Geometry Dash. I haven't heard of Geometry Dash. Tell me about that.

Student:
Well, it sounds like a math game, but it's honestly really not. Basically, you're this cube and you jumped over spikes and it's a game of rhythm and timing and memorization.

Anthony Godfrey:
So jumping in, avoiding things, actually matches up with some of the video games that I used to play back in the 1900s. Have you ever heard of Pitfall?

Student:
No. I don't think I have.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about Activision?

Student:
I've heard of it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's like a video game company. It's very well done. And how about Atari?

Student:
I've heard of that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Yeah. I used to play Atari and Pong. Have you ever played Pong?

Student:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. I need to bust out some Pong because I still have my old one from the 1970s. Do your parents play video games at all?

Student:
No. My friends don't play video games, as far as I know at least.

Anthony Godfrey:
So maybe undercover of night, after you're in bed, they sneak down and play your MLB games?

Student:
No, I don't think so.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's probably too confusing for them. All right. We wouldn't want parents to be too confused. All right. Thank you very much. What's your name?

Student:
Maricio.

Anthony Godfrey:
Maricio. What video games do you like to play?

Student:
Survival games like Tommy Gaze, kind of survival games.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a whole kind of category. Tell me, what are some of the survival games that you play at the last of us?

Student:
It's kind of an apocalypse game. You have to go complete the mission and they give you obstacles.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you have to fight by many means some enemies? So fighting zombies, much like just day to day life in junior high.

Student:
Sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have you ever heard of Big Duck?

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have heard of Tick Tack?

Student:
Yeah, I play a lot of old things.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really. Have you played Big Duck?

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And do you enjoy blowing up a little lizard dragons as much as I do sometimes?

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you ever play video games with your parents?

Student:
Old games sometimes. They don't play video games too much. They usually work and stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what's your name?

Student:
McKay.

Anthony Godfrey:
What video games are you playing these days?

Student:
I like to play shooter games. So for example, like Rainbow Six Siege and like Overwatch. They're two different kinds of games, but one is more like you help out your teams complete a task and one's more current.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do your parents ever play Overwatch or watch you play?

Student:
My dad. My dad's family is more like on the video game side, but my mom was kind of against it.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like about playing the game?

Student:
I like that you can just make up tactics to go through any type of building, like go through the side, go through below them or on top and that you can just find different ways to get through and escape from that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you liked the strategy and problem solving that's involved.

We're here talking with Dustin Former, School Psychologist at Copper Hills High School, who will be about video game addiction for the timely topics series available at the Jordan Family Ed Center. Dustin, thanks for joining us.

Dustin:
It's great to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
We talked on podcast about the Jordan Family Ed Center, and I just couldn't resist when I heard that someone gave a presentation on video game addiction. I couldn't resist talking with you and asking about that because it seems to be much more prevalent than it was pre-pandemic. Are you noticing that?

Dustin:
Yeah, across the board, I'm noticing a lot more dependency on technology. In general, we're all kind of forced to. Well, here I am, talking to you virtually in front of my computer screen. We're all kind of forced to be a little bit more dependent on technology these days. But with that, there's a big rise of addiction to every single aspect of technology, especially video games.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you think about video game addiction, do you first just think about addictive behaviors in general to start with?

Dustin:
Definitely. And that's what I tried to make very clear in the course or the presentation that I give to parents is that in order to understand what's going on with video gaming addiction, we need to understand addiction itself, what exactly that is because video game addiction isn't really any different from any other type of addiction.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the characteristics of addiction that would be universal?

Dustin:
So it's important to focus on the fact that anything can be addicting. I was joking around earlier with some people, just that anything, even healthy things such as working out or reading or anything like that, can become addictive. And what that really leads to is understanding that when some sort of habits or some sort of a task that you do too much to the point of becoming dependent and to the point of it disrupting life activities, such as taking care of yourself, eating, sleeping, or doing things like your job or in the case of kids, their schoolwork. And so that's when something becomes addictive.

Anthony Godfrey:
What would you suggest to parents to help prevent this from happening in the first place? Say that their child has been playing more and more lately and they're worried about things getting out of hand.

Dustin:
I would say that it kind of goes with the whole saying of that best time to plant a tree is 300 years ago. The second best time is right now. If you're going to introduce video games into a kid's life, as soon as you do that, set limitations, set expectations as to what that should look like. If you just buy the new X-Box or new PlayStation or get them hooked up on online gaming through the computer and then just say, have at it, it's inevitably going to lead to problems. Most likely kids are really bad at regulating and that's a proven fact. And so, as soon as you introduce video games into a kid's life, set expectations, say, you can have this, it's going to be a fun thing for you. However, we need to limit how much time we're doing it, or you can only play it after you've finished all your homework and I've double checked on that. Some sort of boundary to set right from the get-go. If a kid has already been playing and you now want to do that once again, it's great to have that conversation of what do you think is reasonable? Let's set some boundaries, let's set some expectations,

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. To use it as a reward, does that create more problems or can that be an effective way of containing video game time?

Dustin:
I feel like rewards or PR are great. And when it comes to rewards for expected behaviors, it's whatever is motivational to the kid. You know, one kid may be motivated by outdoor play. One kid may be motivated by immediate video games and so if that's the motivation you can find, you know, if you do all your chores, I'll give you additional time on the system to play your games today, then that's great. I don't see it as being bad. Of course, once it comes to the point where the kid is constantly trying to wager and do those addictive-type behaviors, where there's an obvious dependency, then he might need to cut back. I would say off the top of my head, rewards are a great thing to do no matter what they are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, when you said wagering, I want to talk about that because that's something that my son does quite a bit of. I'm not labeling him an addict. However, it seems that whenever I say, okay, you got 30 minutes to play this game, invariably, when I come in after 30 minutes, he says I'm right in the middle of this, I just need 10 more minutes to finish this. And so there's always some other portion of the quest or phase of the game that must be finished before he ends his game. Do you have any advice on that because there's always a bargain being struck when time is up.

Dustin:
Right. A huge emphasis that I go through with my presentation is understanding video games a little bit better and like makes them addictive as well as trying to be involved in some way. And so to answer that, I would say, a big part of it is even understanding the game that your child is playing. And so it's a constant meme, all the time online that I see where kids are making fun of parents, coming in and saying, pause your game. It's all online, I can't pause it. And you know, it's just kind of a constant thing where parents just don't seem to understand. And so we find ourselves always bargaining at the end of it. It's like, okay, it's been 30 minutes it's time. And they say, Oh, but I just need to do one more thing. Do they really? Is it something where they could legitimately just save the state of their game right then and there and walk away? Or is this something where they really are in the middle of a match and maybe we just let them finish it out. Right? So it's about better understanding the game so that you can be more informed as you regulate the time. Right?

And so let's say I do set a time on somebody and they're playing Fortnite online with their friends. And if I find that in the 29th minute, there's trying to start a new match, I might say, okay, you know, time is up. You have less than a minute left. These matches can take anywhere from five to 20 minutes each. How about you stop right now, versus if somebody is playing just a single player game by themselves, where there's the ability to save the game at any given moment and it's possible, then I know I can let them play up until the 30th minute and say, okay, pause, save, let's turn it off.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us more on video game addiction. When we come back, find out about the signs to watch for in video game addiction.

Break:
If you're ready to start your child on the path to personalized learning, we are ready to help. The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is coming to Jordan School District in the 2021-22 school year. Three new schools will be opening as part of the Academy, Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, Kelsey Peak Virtual Middle School and Kings Peak High School. Each school will have their own principal and teachers and each will give students a choice in their own learning. The schools will offer synchronous learning, which is teachers providing real-time, live online instruction and asynchronous learning, where teachers provide videotaped instruction for learning on a student's schedule. To register your student in the Jordan Virtual Learning Academy, visit http://connect.jordandistrict.org

Anthony Godfrey:
We visited earlier about what makes a video games addictive and that understanding that can help us moderate trial engagements with those games. Can you describe some of that?

Dustin:
Sure. So anything that is addictive meets some sort of need in our lives and things like video games that don't necessarily have a chemical addiction, but an addictive property to them. What is it that something about them will trigger the pleasure center in our brains and that can become addictive in and of itself? And so with video games, they have a whole bunch of different things that can make them interactive and addictive. A lot of the developers know what those things are and we'll try to put them into their games even more so. And some examples include things such as the endless side quests in missions.

So for example, a really popular series out there is The Assassin's Creed Series, and those games have become larger and larger with open-world areas. And you'll get a main quest that will tell you that you need to go from point A to point B, but then along that straight line, you'll find that in order to get to point B, you also need to go to point C, D, E, and F, all the way through Z, in order to actually ever get to point B. And so it's just kind of this endless side-quest kind of thing that can become addictive where it's just one more thing I gotta do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Dustin:
One more thing I got to do, and that's something that I capitalize quite a bit on and something that makes The Fortnite super addictive. It's something called the Twitch principle where it kind of triggers those fast reflex impulses, so if you want, if you were to watch an online match of professional Fortnite players, you would have no idea what's going on because these buildings are popping up and being deconstructed and people are jumping and shooting and everything is going on so fast.

And then the guy ends up losing the match. You have no idea how, and he gets super frustrated because he was this close to winning. So then he starts up a whole other match and needs to get that win, doing the same exact stuff. And so it's just that, you're just so close, and that's how it hooks you. It's really similar to the slot machine principle where I know if I were just to give it one more pull, I'm going to get that jackpot. Oh, it didn't come, just in one more. Cherry cherry bar. Yeah. I almost got there. I just need one more. Yup. And so it's that exact same principle where you just keep getting that close and you just need to keep going.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do you know when your child is addicted to video games?

Dustin:
It's a hard thing to really measure, but it's about looking for different behaviors that indicate a kid is starting to have a dependency on video games, where they're constantly thinking about it. If they're not playing video games, they're worrying about when they'll get another chance or they're putting things off. Maybe they're waking up in the middle of the night so they can get one more match, one more game, one more level, or they're putting off other things.

Maybe they were a really good student before or maybe just a good enough student before and now suddenly they're failing or having really bad grades because instead of doing anything school-related, they have to get on the computer or get on the system and be playing. So once it starts to become an obvious dependence or it's a disruption to things that they should be doing, that's when it starts to become a serious sign of possible addiction.

Anthony Godfrey:
When it disrupts the normal flow of daily life, then that's when you have a problem.

Dustin:
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. So let's start with what you do once you see it's happening. Let's say that you're there. Some parent that's listening is thinking, you just described my child. What do you recommend that point?

Dustin:
The number one thing I can recommend to any parent is communication when it comes down to it, with any kind of addiction. But especially when it comes to technology and video gaming. It's about having communication with your child and figuring out what exactly you can do to help them. A lot of the times I would say that kids are very well aware of this issue. If it's to the point where they're completely ignorant of the fact that they are having these problems, then it's a little bit more work, but communication is the first thing to do. Be able to talk to them openly about what you're seeing, and then talking to them about maybe limitations that you can put into place. If you just start limiting things automatically, start taking things away, start limiting time. It's honestly going to backfire and kids are gonna find ways around things that you do if they truly are addicted. But if you involve them in the process, have them give input as to how you can limit things, maybe goals to set after you do X, Y, and Z, then you can have this amount of time on the system. Those are the best first steps to take. Anything you do that doesn't involve the kid is definitely going to backfire.

Anthony Godfrey:
That makes a lot of sense. And I can picture that conversation even. Do you feel like you're playing too many video games and that that's getting in the way of daily life? And if they can admit that then they're at one stage and if they can't, then that's an entirely different problem altogether. It makes sense to start with those restrictions. Do you gradually make those restrictions more and more strict and reduce the time more and more? Where do you go from there once there's agreement that there's a problem and that you agree on some parameters and some goals and rewards.

Dustin:
That's a really good question because it kind of depends on the situation with the kid. If it's to the point where it's that kid where you bring up, it seems like you're having a problem with it and they deny it and they don't see a problem. Then that's usually when you would want to start off more strict at first, maybe even getting to the point of completely unplugging. One of the hardest things though, if you start setting these strict limitations is that I really encourage parents to try to follow the same limitations that they set on the kid themselves. A lot of the times the kids don't see a problem with the video gaming that they're doing because the parent will be yelling across the living room. Hey, stop playing on your video games. You're on it too much. And then meanwhile, they'd continue to browse on their phone and get in political arguments on Facebook. So it's kind of a hard thing to be able to set limitations, unless you're able to set those same limitations on yourself, to a reasonable degree. If you're doing work from your computer, of course, then you need to do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. When I was playing the Atari in 1982, my dad was not engaged in similar activity. So there was no comparison. But these days, you are right. You're playing candy crush on your phone and telling them not to play video games or you may be involved in some real video gaming yourself as a parent. You just need to be modeling that.

Dustin:
Exactly. And in fact, it's funny that you bring up Candy Crush because there were actually a statistics released a few years back that the number one demographic that was addicted to Candy Crush were middle-aged women. And so, here we are, always worrying about kids being addicted to video games, and sometimes we need to kind of look at ourselves and see just what our technological habits are as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just to summarize, a child who can admit that they need to cut back, may not need the most strict restrictions right out of the gate. But if they can't even admit it, you may need to go to an extreme and just say, we need to cut this off entirely. And then it rests with the parent to do the same.

Dustin:
Yes, definitely. As well as this video gaming addiction course, I teach a continuous course at the JFEC that helps with nicotine addiction. And the thing  we always tell everybody is that cold turkey is the most effective, but most difficult method to getting over an addiction. And so it goes the same way with technology and video gaming. If it's to the point where it's a severe addiction, sometimes cold turkey is the best option where we're just going to unplug and hide those things, block those things on the computer, and then maybe reintroduce it later, if we can learn how to handle this thing a little bit better.

Anthony Godfrey:
How serious can this problem be?

Dustin:
I would equate it to any type of other addiction where it can definitely lead to very serious problems if we let it get out of hand. With the individual addiction to video games, studies have been tied to severe signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety. If it's to the point that social interactions through video games really does not equate social interaction face to face, or even like through conversation over things such as Google meet or phone calls. And so honestly, while there is some social benefit to video games, true video gaming addiction will lead to social anxiety and social stress and difficulty maintaining social relationships with people as well. So there are really severe outcomes that can come from it. And it is a serious thing to consider when we're trying to monitor kids' usage of video games.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are those some of the signs when professional help may need to be sought?

Dustin:
Definitely. I would treat it just like any other addiction. Honestly, I wouldn't say that there's really very many people out there that specify in therapeutic treatment specifically for video gaming addiction. But if you find somebody that is an addiction specialist, then that's somebody that would be perfect to go to. Our District is actually really great in helping people find professionals to meet with the Health and Wellness Team at the District level, even put together a huge Excel spreadsheet on the website that shows providers in the area, and it will specifically tell whether or not they deal with addiction. And so those were the type of people to see for specific problems, to the point of it being severe with addiction to video games.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, Dustin, thanks. This has been great information. Tell me what is your favorite video game?

Dustin:
That's a hard question to answer to be honest. Part of the reason why I am so interested in teaching. This is because I feel like I actually had a real struggle with video gaming addiction myself as a youth. I was really into it back in high school, really into PlayStation II and Nintendo 64 when I was a little bit younger and I got hooked, really into the single player games. There was a series called Kingdom Hearts that had a very involved, very lengthy, great story to it, but it took up way too much of my time. And I realized that. I'm a very athletic guy, but at the same time, the video games started taking way too much of my time. And so now I'm just here to help. Not only help kids not go down that road, but also help parents understand and connect with their kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us, Dustin, great information. I look forward to talking with you about other topics in the future.

Dustin:
Yeah, definitely. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. February is CTE month, a time to celebrate the value, achievements and accomplishments of career and technical education programs across the country, including right here in Jordan School District. On this episode of the Supercast, we celebrate CTE month by visiting one of the 25 career and technical education classes offered at two locations in the District at JATC North and JATC South. Listen to the sparks fly when I gear up and get an up close and personal lesson on what it takes to learn the art of welding from students in our welding program.

We're here in the welding class at JATC South with teacher Blair Jensen. Tell me a little bit about what just happened.

Blair:
You just had everybody clocked out at the end of the class.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've never seen that happen. Yeah, I did.

Blair:
So, I run my welding shop as close to an actual welding shop as I can. The main focus in this place is on career centers on building soft skills. And so clocking out, or you might've heard me talking about, then signing up for a job next week. When we have days that we're working in the shop, they also have jobs that they have to do in addition to their welding duties. It's teaching them some of the career focus that they would have in a welding shop. Things like maintaining cleanliness, observing safety standards, and just making sure that they're building those career skills that their future employers are going to be looking for.

Anthony Godfrey:
In addition to the welding skills they're learning in the class, it sounds like there's a lot beyond just welding that they get to experience. And they come out ready to work, not just with the skills, but ready to be a great worker.

Blair:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like I said, career skills I think is my main focus. As I talked to people in industry, a lot of them will tell me we can teach them to weld. If you can get them to where they can run a bead and they can analyze their defects, we can teach them and certify them for what we need. But the things that they struggle to get kids to learn, that they need to be learning while they're in high school, are those soft skills. They need to be learning to show up on time, to treat their coworkers with respect, to communicate with their coworkers and their managers, learning all the stuff that goes into the welding, the blueprint, reading the map, that's all very valuable.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see a group of students over here. This looks like a crew that you want to have on your side. I noticed that all of footwear is much more durable than mine. I look like I'm about to walk the mall before it opens in the morning, and you guys look like you're ready for action. Tell me your name.

Student:
My name is Skylar Stephenson.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Skyler, why are you taking welding?

Student:
I took welding because I thought it was cool. I've always watched YouTube videos on it and thought, I want to do that someday. So I decided to take this when I found out about it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now that you're taking the class, what do you think of it?

Student:
I think it's super fun and it's a good experience. It teaches you more than just welding, how to show up on time and how to treat your coworkers, right? Like Blair was saying.

Anthony Godfrey:
So has this class changed you?

Student:
I think it has in a good way. Tell me your name.

Student:
My name is Parker Vance.

Anthony Godfrey:
What made you want to be a welder?

Student:
When I was young, my uncle always welded around me and I found it quite cool. So I decided to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your name.

Student:
My name is Forest Curtis.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the things you've made?

Student:
So right now I'm actually working on a sculpture. I'm shaping metal and cutting it with a Oxycutting torch.

Anthony Godfrey:
What does an Oxycutting torch do besides cut, obviously?

Student:
You can cut with an Oxycutting torch or you can weld with it or braze, anything that's involved with high heat or amalgam.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're going to find out how little I know about welding. What does brazing mean?

Student:
So brazing is joining two pieces of metal that don't quite coincide. So like steel and brass or aluminum and steel.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did the skills that you learned here transfer, you being comfortable using tools that aren't necessarily related to welding?

Student:
Yeah. So any large tools, power tools, just anything that's you seem uneasy when you first see it. I'm more comfortable working with that now.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome. I do have to admit coming in here, it's pretty daunting. I don't know how to use any of this stuff. It's all very unfamiliar. Maybe you felt that way coming in, but it sounds like you made a lot of progress.

Student:
Yeah, I feel comfortable. Tell me your name.

Student:
My name's Taylor.

Anthony Godfrey:
Would you tell us what made you want to take welding?

Student:
I've always been interested in welding and I just want a good solid trade that I can have a lot of dropout opportunities with when I get out of high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think the trades are in demand more than ever. And it's great that you're pursuing that. Your name?

Student:
My name is Tyler Hayward.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you know what you need to do after this program to be prepared to be a welder?

Student:
Well, there's a couple of options. My plan is currently, my brother is working at a welding shop and so he's trying to set me up with an interview there. So I'm going to go try and work there and just work my way up, start at the bottom, go up. Or I could continue and go to an another welding program and continue my skills and learning and become a better welder from here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sounds like a great plan. Tell me your name.

Student:
Zach Smith.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Zach, why did you want to be in this class?

Student:
I had a friend that was in this class last year and he had real high praises of the class and Blair. And my grandpa's a welder too, and he introduced me to it. So I was really interested and thought it'd be a great opportunity to make chances for a career in the future.

Anthony Godfrey:
And with your grandpa being a welder, have you tried welding at all before this class?

Student:
Not before this class now? I wasn't able to touch his stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Has he let you touch his stuff since you've gotten some experience?

Student:
Yeah. Now I got some training, he lets me use his equipment.

Anthony Godfrey:
So he must be pretty proud that you're pursuing that.

Student:
Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool thing to just have something else to talk about it, with them and bond with them.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me your name.

Student:
I'm Troy Daley.

Anthony Godfrey:
Troy, why are you taking welding?

Student:
I'm taking welding because there have been multiple times where my family's had to have something welded, like a jack on the trailer, things like that. We've had to take it to neighbors and I've always been fascinated with it. No one in my family has welded, so I wanted to learn a new skill that could potentially lead to job opportunities.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when there's a need in your family, Hey, we need to do this. I liked the way you described that. We've always had to have someone else do it. It sounds like you like to be able to do things for yourself.

Student:
I do. I do enjoy doing things. I've always like working on cars and stuff like that. I've enjoyed doing stuff like that. So welding is another thing to add to that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when there's something that you need done, your first thought isn't, who can I get to do this, but how can I figure out how to do this myself?

Student:
Exactly. I've always watched YouTube videos or tried to figure it out myself.

Anthony Godfrey:
What have you welded that you've really enjoyed welding?

Student:
You know, my brother had a light holder for his boat trailer that fell off and I was able to bring it in and weld that up for him, get that fixed.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're going to be a very popular family member for a very long time I think.

Student:
I hope so.

AnthonyGodfrey:
You guys tell me about the soft skills that your teacher talked about, being to work on time, being able to work with other people well, being reliable, working hard. Tell me about learning those skills in this class.

Student:
There is a big emphasis on stuff like that. He makes sure that we learn we need to be on time and wear the proper safety equipment and be nice to fellow employees and stuff like that. And if not, we do have the chance of getting fired and that's like a good motivation for us. And that really teaches us that in real life and in real workplaces, real mistakes have real consequences.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great lesson to learn so early in life. And it's going to benefit you a lot. What is it like to get fired in class?

Student:
I wasn't wearing my safety glasses and that is one of the big important things that Blair stresses is wearing your safety glasses.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see.

Student:
And I wasn't wearing them, so I got fired. So I had to do my job that he's talked about. I had to do that for a week without getting paid for it beause we get paid for our jobs. And then we have to pay shop rent at the end of the week or at the end of the month, right? And if you don't make, if you get fired, you may not be able to make enough money to pay that as a grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm blown away. This is exactly what education is supposed to be about. These lifelong lessons that are going to stay with you.

Stay with us. When we come back, more on this program, preparing students for successful careers and the creativity that goes into welding.

Break:
If you're ready to start your child on the path to personalized learning, we are ready to help. The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is coming to Jordan School District in the 2021-22 school year. Three new schools will be opening as part of the Academy; Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, Kelsey Peak Virtual Middle School and Kings Peak High School. Each school will have their own principal and teachers and each will give students a choice in their own learning. The schools will offer synchronous learning, which is teachers providing real time, live, online instruction and asynchronous learning where teachers provide videotaped instruction for learning on a student's schedule. To register your student in the Jordan Virtual Learning Academy, visit http://connect.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your Christmas project.

Student:
So we had to design and make a prototype that would be further judged to see which one would go into production, that we could sell to raise money for the class. And my group, we decided to build mini Santas out of horseshoes. And it was actually really fun because it was challenging. We had to figure out how certain things would go and then we kind of tweaked it as we went. We added some glasses made out of like filler rod that we had, just to make it look more like Santa. And then in another challenge we had that was really fun was when we were painting it. We kind of made a mess everywhere and then we had to scrape the floor and clean it all up. But it was really fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
What I love about that is it's not just about acquiring skills. There's a high level of creativity. Do you feel like that there's a high level of creativity in the welding that you do?

Student:
Yeah, definitely. Most of our projects, all of our Christmas decor projects that we've had to do. Blair had completed the lessons, then we had to come up with our own ideas, all of our dimensions and planning out specifically and then go to our team members and work with them and to use their creative ideas to build on it. So there's definitely a lot of creative, critical thinking that goes into all of our projects. We sold more than we needed to and it was really good. It was trying, but we were able to fill out all the orders on time too.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's one thing to make things the sales. It's another to fill them and say, Oh wow, we really do have this demand. Let's crank these out. So well done. What would you say to someone who's considering taking this class?

Student:
I'd say, don't worry about not being good at it at first. That's the whole point of taking it is to learn. Nobody's going to make fun of you for having a bad weld. All we're going to do is tell you what can make it better on top of what he said. I came in this class and I had only welded one time before and I had no idea what I was doing, but luckily we have Blair and he's a great teacher. He'll go through the process with you over and over again until you figure it out and tell you what you're doing wrong and really just give you good constructive criticism on each process. So many times throughout this school year, I've done some of these processes and I can not get them and I'm embarrassed. I don't want to show him these welds because they're horrible, but he shows me what's wrong with them, what I can do to make them better. And my welding and those skills have improved significantly.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. It's great to hear that. And that's exactly what a great teacher does. And I just admire all of you guys for diving in and learning this. And it sounds like you have some trade and technical skills. That'll carry you through life. A lot of really important life skills that they're just going to be invaluable. So let's see a little demonstration.

Student:
All right. Let's gear up and put on our safety equipment.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That's something, everything gets dark. The spark starts. So you start, you start that and that's all you can see. No, not before. That's pretty interesting. So tell me about what you do.

Student:
So first off, I tacked the piece of metal on there. That was that first part when I just did the right little tech and then I created the bead using the filler metal, which most of the base metal with the filler metal. So it isn't just a continuous motion. I did little CS. So that's where you see the leaves in it.

Superintendent:
Yeah. Yeah. And does that strengthen it, putting the little season there?

Student:
Not necessarily. It does make the length of the weld wider, so kind of strengthens it, but it just makes it look better.

Superintendent:
Oh yeah. It's more for appearance. Okay. Yeah. That's beautiful. Perfect speed. He's got great welding in both plates. So it's got good fusion. That's going to be a successful weld.  And is it hot to the touch right now?

Student:
Oh yeah.

Superintendent:
It's funny. Yeah, it doesn't look hard. I'm not going to test it.

Student:
I believe it is. If I go grab my thermometer, I'd say right now, right after welding, it's going to be close to 300 degrees.

Superintendent:
Holy cow! Safety has got to be a central part of class throughout the year. I would suspect number one priority, like Troy was saying earlier in the interview when they were talking about getting fired. Safety glasses for me is number one.

Student:
Yeah. We've got a zero tolerance policy.

Superintendent:
Yeah, it was strange having the mask down. And as soon as the weld starts, everything else gets dark. I've never experienced that before.

Teacher:
Yeah. These kids are spoiled by these auto darkening hoods. That's definitely not how I learned how to weld. I learned with passive lenses that are dark all the time. And so you've got to find what your position is and then drop your hood to weld. And it's going to be dark until you start that arc. And so these auto darkening hoods they bought are a lot nicer because they can drop their hood and they can safely see where everything's at, in position. And so it makes them better.

Superintendent:
Yeah. Guys, this has been dynamite. This is one of my favorites, honestly. I'm so impressed. Great work you guys. And thanks for taking the time. That means a lot to me. I appreciate it.

We're here with Craig Cottle, CTE coordinator and Sonia Burton, the Principal of JTC South. I love this welding program. This is fantastic. I'm overwhelmed. Tell me a little bit more about it.

Sonya:
Oh my gosh. Welding is just an amazing program. Jensen is teaching our students how to weld, but also a future and in welding. He's really preparing them for the workplace and to be an outstanding candidate. I wish I was hiring welders right now because they were the fired, every single one of them.

Superintendent:
Craig, tell me just about the value of a hands-on education like this, learning from someone who's been in the industry.

Craig:
You know, there's a lot of our youth that have a lot of skills, a lot of understanding and knowledge, but a lot of it deals with the use of their hands. These kinds of programs, such as welding, give the students an opportunity to excel in a process and in a program that is fit for them and their desires and their interest in their career paths and the way that they're traveling and wanting to get employed. And so it's really great when we have wonderful teachers that have the skills and abilities, that demand and expect from students, the opportunity. It gives them that opportunity to learn and to strengthen those skills that they need to be employable and to be safe and to be able to enjoy a future in their specific path.

Superintendent:
Great. You know, following a pathway like this and learning a trade may even be a fallback. Even if it isn't the number one. Now, most of these guys want to be welders, but even if you decided you didn't want to be a welder, having a skill like that to fall back on if things don't work out with another job, that you have is very, very valuable.

Craig:
Exactly. I think I could see some of these young men in the design and fabrication place where they could run out of a garage or they could run out of a smaller facility. And like you said, just be able to run a business on the side from another profession or another focus in their life.

Superintendent:
What a wonderful blessing that'd be for them to be able to have their vocation, and have an application that they really, really enjoy and be able to do, thanks for all the work that both of you are doing to make that possible. I love that we have such a wide range of opportunities for students and you're a big part of that. Thank you.

Craig and Sonya:
Thank you so much for your support of CTE.

Superintendent:
Thanks for joining us on the Supercast. I hope this has sparked an interest in some of our amazing CTE programs across the District. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today.