Author: communications

Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Throughout the month of April, people across the country have been celebrating National Poetry Month. On this episode of the Supercast, we are celebrating as well. I had the unique opportunity to speak with Utah's Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal. She shared some great ideas on how parents can support the budding writer and poet in their own children. First, let's find out how Paisley Rekdal became Utah's Poet Laureate and where we can go to enjoy some poetry by Utah poets. Paisley, thank you very much for joining us.

Paisley:
Thank you for having me.

Superintendent:
I just want to dive right in. I'm a former English teacher. I'm really quite excited to be talking with Utah's Poet Laureate. I don't get nearly the time that I would like to spend reading poetry. I used to read a lot and had my kids write a lot when I was teaching. Can you just start by telling us what first made you interested in poetry?

Paisley:
Well, it was funny because I became interested in poetry in high school and I didn't think I was going to be interested in poetry at all. I was more interested in visual arts. I would draw things and make maps and collages. And then I was taking an English class where I'd always done really, really well. And for the first time I was getting a B, and the teacher said she would give anyone extra credit if they submitted a poem to this citywide poetry contest. And if you win a prize, you will get, you know, an extra A in the grade book. And so I thought, well, why not? So I wrote a poem and it won and I actually could not believe that it won. I thought no way it could because it was my very first poem.

And I think it's probably a terrible way to get started because it makes you think that poetry is nothing but awards and claim. So the rest of my life definitely taught me that it's not that easy, but it got me interested. I thought, well, why did I win? What did I do? That was so good. And my mother was a former English major. And so she had all these books around the house. She just let me read whatever I wanted to, which sometimes worked out really well, and sometimes didn't.

Superintendent:
That's fantastic. And what I love about that story is that there was availability. There were books of poetry readily available. And so you just picked them up. I remember reading books of my parents the same way, the cover intrigued me or the title. And I just started reading and I think that's an important point.

Paisley:
Books in the house, for sure. Yeah.

Superintendent:
Right, right. I'm going to tell my wife that because she really would like me to get rid of more of my books.

Paisley:
You never know what's going to happen. Kids get so sucked into all of these books and it's true. Sometimes it's just the cover.

Superintendent:
You're a professor at the University of Utah. You're a writer, obviously Poet Laureate. How do you find balance between those two and what different pleasures do you get from each of those?

Paisley:
Well, I love teaching actually. I really do. I don't love grading. I think everyone can agree that grading is not as fun as the teaching and working in the classroom with the students. But I get a lot of inspiration actually from some of the things that I teach to my students. Some of the conversations that I have with my students, I get insights into the books that we're reading, things that I never would have thought of. I've got some really good students. And then with the writing, I used to be a better, I'll have to admit. I used to be a lot better about being able to write a little bit every day, but actually with being a Poet Laureate now, a lot of my time has gone into different public projects. So it's been tougher to get a creative time just for myself. But that being said, I must say some of the projects that have been offered to me were so interesting that I enjoyed doing the research and I enjoy doing the writing. I wrote a book length multimedia poem about the transcontinental railroad which, trust me, I never, ever, ever thought about writing about unless I had been commissioned to write about the transcontinental.

Superintendent:
Well, that's the thing about a creative project. It can open you up to things that you weren't expecting would touch you. And I'm sure that happened with that project. Speaking of your writing, did your mom really meet Bruce Lee?

Paisley:
She worked in the same Chinese restaurant with Bruce Lee. Yes. And I have a little story about that in my book that my mother met Bruce Lee. I thought it was so funny. My mother is Chinese American and growing up, I thought that she probably was not a very interesting person because she was my mother. That's the only thing I knew about her. But then one night I was watching Enter the Dragon. I was a teenager and my mom stood there and she watched the movie and she said, I used to work with him. And I said, you worked with Bruce Lee? Yeah. And the best part was of the whole story, she said none of us liked him. Show off. And I just couldn't believe it. That's the big takeaway. It was right around the time that everyone was trying to be like Bruce Lee. Everyone had nunchucks and were smacking each other on the foreheads with them. And yeah, it was great.

Superintendent:
Well, as a pop culture fan, it's just amazing that you would be sitting there watching virtually on TV and your mom says, Oh, I used to work with him. Crazy. That is crazy. Did you think that maybe your mom knew martial arts more than she led on when she said she worked with Bruce Lee?

Paisley:
Yeah. No that never did. My mom, she fights with words. She doesn't fight with fists.

Superintendent:
Words can be much more powerful, that's for sure. So tell us, what has your path been from a prize winning author as a teenager to Utah's Poet Laureate?

Paisley:
It was all downhill. I kept writing, like I said, in high school and in college I took some classes as well. I thought I was going to be a journalist. I applied to journalism schools and then I applied also to go to a PhD in medieval studies. I started thinking, I'll just be a professor of medieval studies. I went to graduate school and all I did was write in the mornings. I would get up at four or five in the morning so I could write for a couple of hours before I could take the bus into school. And that's when I realized that I was probably not going to be a great scholar, but I could be a good poet. Then I went to the University of Michigan and just kept writing. Then I had books and then I got into academia. It was sort of a roundabout career trip trajectory. But I think almost all the writers I know ended up doing many different things and sort of fall into finally a job that allows us to both write and create and be supportive in the community.

Superintendent:
Tell us, what are some of your duties as Utah Poet Laureate and what are some of the unique approaches you're bringing to the position? I know you're doing some things that maybe haven't been done yet.

Paisley:
Well, the duties that I have are to mostly go and visit K-12 schools, as many as I can around the State. And so I've been doing that and that's just been a real pleasure. Let's just come in, bring creative writing exercises and work with the students, talk about poems, things like that. And then basically just show them that if they were interested in becoming writers, that's possible, but each Poet Laureate also has his or her own project. And so the one I proposed was something called Mapping Literary Utah, and it's a website. It's a web archive of Utah writers, past and present, and it just went live. We're really, really pleased with this. This site is http://mappingliteraryutah.org and on it, there's about 130 writers, storytellers, slam poets, cowboy poets, Utah, State poetry, society people.

We have essays on young adult literature and Orson Scott Card and the Literary Legacy of Topaz. We have basically all the different types of prose writers. You can imagine, we've got young adult fiction writers, we've got science fiction writers. We've got playwrights. I mean, it's supposed be a compendium of Utah writers and some are deceased, but most are living, and we're hoping to continue to expand that archive. So we're always asking for more people to come forward and say, "Do you know this person, or let me put you in contact with someone else?" And almost every day we get more people saying they would like to be part of this website. So that's really great. We not only have biographies of each author, we have photographs and samples of their work and also audio and visual stuff too. We have Native American storytellers and you can listen to them performing. So we're hoping that people can see writers performing their work here now. You can get online and you can get a sense of what Utah's culture is like right now, at least for the writers.

Superintendent:
I stopped by the website and I absolutely love it. It's very appealing visually and the variety of authors and the variety of voices that you have represented there is just incredible. I thought everyone talks about eating local. I think we need to read local. That is a really good resource to just say, there are people around me who are authors. And I think that would inspire kids to feel like they can become authors themselves, when people right here in Utah are so successful.

Paisley:
That is exactly the point of the website. Obviously ,it has historical value so that people know who was here and who was producing what at what times. But the thing that's most important to me is that students can get a sense of the possibility of becoming a writer. When I was a kid in Seattle many years ago, Seattle was not cool. I'm bi-racial and not a lot of people wanted to be at that time. When I knew I wanted to start writing, my dad got me Poetry Anthologies, and I looked at the biographies of the writers in the back and no one was from Seattle. And I thought, oh, I didn't go to Harvard. I didn't grow up in New York. I'm doomed. I'm never going to become a writer. But I kept doing it. It would have been really great and useful to see an anthology or myself in some ways reflected. And that's what I'm really hoping that people get from this site. They can go online and they can see people coming from their own communities that have made a life in literature, and that's so important.

Superintendent:
I think it does a great job of conveying exactly that. And I hope lots of students, teachers and parents will visit it. Can you tell us the web address?

Paisley:
Yes. It's just http://mappingliteraryutah.org . It's all lowercase, altogether. If you just go to my own personal website, I linked to it as well. You can find it there and every week I tweet or Facebook out a Utah Writer of the Week to go through our archive and sort of ask, do you know about this writer? Take a look at this person's work, you know, and hopefully people will start to call it that.

Superintendent:
And Paisley's last name is spelled R-E-K-D-A-L. Is that correct?

Paisley:
That is correct. And Paisley, just like the print P-A-I-S-L-E-Y.

Superintende:
So it's just http://paisleyrekdal.com and you can find a lot of great resources there too. I love that website and I'm going to spend a lot more time there and we'll be promoting it in our district, sending that out to teachers. I think it's remarkable. It's a really great site for anyone who has an interest in anything literary.

We're going to take a quick break, but when we come back more from Utah's Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal, including tips for parents and aspiring writers.

Break:
I'm Steven Hall, Director of Jordan Education Foundation. In today's challenging and uncertain times, it is more important than ever before to support one another. Here at the Jordan Education Foundation, we invite you to join us in making sure children are not going hungry. Your $10 donation to the foundation will help us feed one student for a weekend. When food and meals may be very scarce for some, with food and hygiene supplies in the Principal's Pantries at Jordan School District being depleted and in higher demand than ever before. Every financial contribution made will help us to keep the pantries filled for students who would otherwise go without the Jordan Education Foundation exists due to the generosity of people who care about kids. If you would like to donate to help children from going hungry, please visit jordaneducationfoundation@jordandistrict.org, or contact the foundation at (801) 567-8125. Thank you. Together, we can make a difference.

Superintendent:
We're back with Utah's Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal. You told us that one of your main duties is to visit K-12 schools. When you visit, how do you engage students in poetry?

Paisley:
Well, I think we'll be speaking to issues that they're interested in, in language that they themselves recognize. So even though I love John Dunn and Shakespeare, I don't tend to bring in poets like that. I tend to bring in poets that are still alive, very contemporary, writing about anything from you know a tree outside the window to a TV program or music or something like that. I want the poems to be accessible in ways that students can recognize their world in that poem too. And I also build creative writing exercises around the poem. I want students to not just read poems and talk about poems, but try writing them themselves. One of the great marks of fluency in the language is you can create a minute. So getting students to play with language is actually not frivolous. It's a foundational way to get them to be fluent in their own language.

Superintendent:
It makes a lot of sense, that writing can reinforce reading. And even if you don't think that the product you create is going to be something that others want to read long into the future, or that will win you a local prize or extra credit in your class, at the very least, you're processing. And you're working with words and that sparks the brain and it cements some language skills that maybe we can't cement in other ways.

Paige:
One of the things that I was trying to do also with the students this year, and I'm disappointed again, it didn't work out. I was going to schools this spring and asking them to write what we call pistol area poems, little letters and the letters would be written to a stranger because what I was planning to do as an April Fool's prank, where the parking enforcement officers would deliver parking tickets, but they would be with student poems. And everybody was on board. The mayor was on board, the parking enforcement people were on board, the police, everyone was on board, except the lawyers. It turns out it's illegal to put any kind of flyer on a car. So unfortunately, that was one of the exercises I had with the students. And so then I tried to take those poems and turn them into menu inserts. And obviously that didn't work either. It's a lot of my best ideas this year have kind of gone by the wayside, but I usually try to get them to at least create something that will be used in another kind of way. Maybe a public performance something you can share with other people.

Superintendent:
It's making the poetry engaging and active and interactive by putting it in a menu or a parking ticket.

Paisley:
Yeah, I think when you have an idea that you're supposed to come across, poetry in certain particular ways in classrooms and things like that, and obviously, lots of cities have poetry on buses and things like that. I think we even do. But I like the idea of just getting people to recognize that poems are really all around us all the time. We don't have to treat them as these sacred or special or difficult or intimidating things. Some poems are intimidating, but other poems are just easy and delightful. You can have a lot of different types of relationships with poetry. You don't just have to sit there and feel like you're stupid if you don't get it. I think that's the thing that I really want students to walk away with. If a poem it's written in a length in their language, they can look up these words up online or in a dictionary and they can access it. It's not a riddle. It's not there to make them feel stupid. I think a lot of people feel like if they don't get it immediately, it's a sign of that they're not up to the task, but that's really not the case. Poems ask us to spend time and slow down and read and savor things. It's a different kind of reading and I'm hoping students feel comfortable with that.

Superintendent:
I like the way you described that. It is something to be savored, and we're not used to that. We're used to consuming things very quickly, dropping in, getting the point and moving on. And the pleasure of poetry is being able to sit with it and stay with it and really absorb it and understand it. But it does take time, like you said. If there is a parent out there whose child really enjoys poetry and they know that they like to write, are there suggestions that you have for a child in that circumstance? And then I want to ask if it's intimidating to people? What would be a point of entry for folks who are intimidated? Parents may be looking, especially now, for a way to encourage their student who is already interested in poetry or to have a child who may not be interested to get started.

Paisley:
With kids, you're very lucky, depending on how young the child is too, there's a surprising amount of children's literature and young adult literature that's written in verse. Jacqueline Woodson is a very famous young adult fiction writer and she writes a lot in verse and it's an easy way to get students hooked. You know, they're reading a narrative, but they're reading it in rhyme and suddenly it's something that seems really natural to them. The New York times just did a whole big, special on children's poetry. I think you can look that up online. I'll try and find that link and maybe send it to you. Maybe you can send that out to your parents. But there are 8 or 10 books that just came out. So if you just go to any bookstore, you'll be able to find very quickly children's books and young adult books that are actually written in rhyme and meter with poetry.

But you know, the other thing that I think might be a good start for parents, with slightly older kids, maybe high school age, there's a few resources, some are free at online poets.org and poetry foundation have a poem a day that gets sent out over email. And you can subscribe to poetry daily as well. These are threes online subscription services, totally free. You get a poem in your inbox every day. And a lot of them are written by poets that are alive right now. And so you can go look up their work and get more of it. If you're interested, a nice anthology to get might be The Best American Poetry series for more advanced high school students where you get 75 poems written by different American poets. Some of them are very funny. Some of them are hard, but some of them are also light and interesting and tell stories. It gives you a real sense of the breadth of American poetry. If you don't like a poem, it's okay. There's so many more.

Superintendent:
I actually started buying The Best American Poetry series in college because my professor said, if all you're reading are the dusty old leather tones of the past, and you think you're going to be a writer, it's not going to work because you have to read what's being published right now if you're going to have any chance of doing that. And that concept intrigued me. I hate to admit, it seemed odd that people were still writing poetry a little bit, because you think about it as something that was so popular in the past. I started reading that and I have every volume of that since 1987.

Paisley:
That's amazing because I'm The Best American Series guest editor for this year. My volume is coming out in September. I'm not kidding. I spent the last year reading for Best American Poetry. So I'm their guest editor.

Superintendent:
That is fabulous. I may get my first autographed Poetry Collection if I can get to the festival in the spring.

Paisley:
Absolutely. I'm more than happy to sign that. I read so much poetry for an entire year, but I agree with you. When I was just starting out, even in college, I thought that I was maybe one of five poets left because no one was out there. I didn't know anything like that. So something like Best American Poetry was really helpful for me because it taught me that there were people who were alive who are writing it still. That's the value of it.

Superintendent:
Well, and I think that's an important message for kids who are interested in poetry. There are a lot of great ways to publish poetry these days. A lot of people wanting to write that it feels like a bit of a resurgence to me, just because there has been some best-selling poetry out there lately. And and that's exciting. Is there anything else that you would suggest for parents or for students who want to get started writing? Are there any activities that you can think of or ideas for maybe habits that an aspiring writer might want to consider trying? I know that some authors I've spoken with will set aside time and a certain time of the day, during that time or we'll warm up. I know John Updike used to write reviews before he would write his own prose and poetry. Are there any habits that you would suggest students try or any activities?

Paisley:
So there's a couple. The first is, poetry to me usually starts out as a kind of game. I give myself an exercise. There's lots of books of poetry exercises, one by Chase Twitchell and Robin Vain called  The Poet's Handbook is really good, but there's another one that's even better, potentially. It's called The Little Book of Poetic Forms. It's by Louis Turco T-U-R-C-O. It is a list of every single kind of poetic form in every language across time. What I would do when I was blocked or just wanted an exercise, I would just randomly flip through the book, point to a poetic form and say all right, I'm going to write something, but in this poetic form. What I mean is that like making poetry a kind of game when you're trying to think about rhymes.

You're trying to think about numbers of syllables. And you're trying to think about numbers of stanzas. Oftentimes we are most creative and we have the most constraints and sometimes playing with those constraints will push you to do something you wouldn't normally do. So sometimes telling students to go out and write a great poem shuts them down. But if you tell a student to go write a poem where every line, first word begins to the different letter of the alphabet going from A to Z, they usually do that one because the constraint helps them. So that's one thing I would suggest. The second thing is sort of fun. Poetic exercises that you can get off of. I think it's Poets and Writers Magazine. They offer some free poetry and fiction writing exercises each week. So you can just go to the online and look at those. Keep lists of images, take a notebook with you everywhere and just write down strange things that you see over here, and then use them as a sort of starting point for speculation. What is it about this image that interests you? What is it about the sound or that snippet of conversation that really attracted you?

Superintendent:
Those are great suggestions and I love the concept that constraints actually help creativity and that when you're trying to write a poem within a particular form, it can spark something. I had The Princeton Book of Poetry and Poetics, and I would find these obscure kind of strange rhyme schemes from medieval times or when there was this a complicated form of a poem that was written during a certain period of time. And I did that. I tried to write that way and it makes you appreciate the poetry that is written in that form at a deeper level when you try it yourself too.

Paige:
Yes, it does. And it usually means that you end up abandoning the exercise. Something else comes forward. You're like, wow, I didn't really like that form, but I did like these images. And I do believe that constraint is ultimately our friend. I mean, how many of us have written that paper because it's due in four hours or something, right? It's that sense of the deadline. When you're thinking about the constraints, you're often freed up to imagine more fluidly, creatively, because you're just trying to make something work that you know logic would normally defy.

Superintendent:
You know, given the times we're living in, they're very unique. And this is something, it's a historical time that kids and families and people in the future will look back on. Is there maybe a starting point for kids to write a poem, maybe that relates to the times they're living in right now and the things we are going through?

Paige:
First thing I would suggest is never tell a kid what they're doing is deep or important. I wouldn't tell an adult that either because it shuts us down. When you think this, we have to write about the times that we're living in, it's too much to process. We're adults and I don't know about you, but I'm struggling to process this. I don't think I have a language for this. So what I usually do with students and I taught around 911 as well, one of the things that I did was ask them to keep what I would call an image journal. There's a wonderful book called The Pillow Book by Shawnigan. And she was a Japanese cortisone in 1000 AD in Japan. And she had this book where she just recorded her impressions.

She kept lists of things like things that make your heart race, things that make you grow cold with disgust, deceitful things, lovely things. And she would just keep lists of these images. And they were really surprising things, like lovely things as a black cat with a very white belly, wonderful things like the smell of perfume on old silk, things like that where you're like, wow. So what I would ask students to do or a child to do is to say, can you just come up with a list of things that give you delight, or maybe make you afraid and just try to focus in on an image, something that gives us a concrete sense of taste, smells, sight, touch. Get them to interact with their memories in the world that way. And it's small, but oftentimes I think that it will give you a portrait of how they see the world.

I myself have been keeping lists because, for instance, now that it's so quiet, I'm able to hear birdsong that I've never heard before ever. I didn't even realize there were birds around me, I guess. So I'm writing down the sounds of things that I'm hearing. And in that I am giving a depiction of this world. I think that I would recommend trying the second thing. I would say, really quickly, this might be harder to convince your kids to do because they might not ever have written a letter before, but the epistolary form of poetry, which is basically what feels like a very casual form of poetry, you basically write a letter to somebody and you list what it is. You tell them what you've been doing and what you've been thinking. Having them write a letter to someone that they miss, someone that they're not being able to see right at this moment, that might be a really good exercise for them, right? It gives them something concrete and someone concrete to imagine, and to write.

Anthony Godfrey:
How early should we try to engage students in poetry?

Paisley:
I think as early as you can. One of the things that I notice when I go to schools is the younger, the students, the more eager they are to participate, to speak, to play, and somewhere around middle school, they become really self-conscious of that. And then in high school, it really starts to divide between the students that are going to be interested and the students that feel like this is just another joyless exercise. I thin, I don't know what is happening, but I suspect a lot of it has to do with the ways that students or children have a natural sense of playfulness. They love Sonic rhyme and games, and they love wordplay. And when we start teaching them that poetry is a riddle, they feel that they're stupid. If they get it wrong, I think it kills some of that joy. Some part of poetry s beyond just the analytical

Superintendent:
We all start naturally loving that and it kind of fades. And if we take advantage of that, you probably can't do it too early. When my youngest was little, he sat on his leg for awhile and it fell asleep and he said, dad, my leg is spicy. I didn't know what he meant at first, but that was a poetic image for me. I've never forgotten that one.

Paisley Rekdal, Utah's Poet Laureate, it's such a pleasure having you on the Supercast. And honestly, I'm going to look, I'm going to have to listen back and write down every book and author you mentioned, because it all sounds really exciting and it's a perfect time to dive in and kind of reignite a passion for reading and writing. I would love to hear you read either one of your poems or a poem that's a favorite for you.

Paisley:
Well, I will read a poem that I do find inspiring if not necessarily inspirational, because I think it is important to find comfort in this moment and to take some sense that there's more more joy to be had. This is not by me. I'm not a terribly hopeful poet, unfortunately, but this is one of my favorite poems. And I've read it before for other people too. It's by the Poet. Jack Gilbert, and it's from his book, Refusing Heaven.

And it's a poem called A Brief for the Defense.
Sorrow everywhere, slaughter everywhere.
If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving someplace else with flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise, the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine.
The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well.
The poor women at the fountain, they're laughing together between the suffering.
They have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick.
There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta and the women laugh and the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessened the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight, not enjoyment.
We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world to make in justice.
The only measure of our attention is to praise the devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the proud again, of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port, looking over the sleeping island.
The waterfront is three shuttered cafes and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars and the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come.

Superintendent
That's beautiful, beautiful, thank you.

Paisley:
Thank you so much.

Superintendent:
It's such a pleasure talking with you and I really look forward to meeting you in person and I promise you, I will have a copy of the latest Best American Poetry volume for you to sign.

Paisley:
Oh, that's great. That's really exciting for me to know that somebody with all of those collections will be there with it. So thank you again.

Superintendent:
Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure having Utah's Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal here on the Supercast. Remember to visit https://mappingliteraryutah.org/ to see the wonderful website that she has created to highlight homegrown authors and poets. Thank you again for joining us. And 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. Today we are joined by a local clinical psychologist who has some advice for families feeling stressed as they are cooped up at home because of COVID-19 find out if it's actually okay to feel sadness and experienced anxiety during this time. And we want to talk with her today about the impact of the current circumstance. We find ourselves in on families and on children and maybe some things we can do to help make our way through Dr. Ludwig. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Dr. Ludwig:
Sure. Happy to be here. It's very interesting doing interviews, always using social distancing and my iPad has had more use than ever before, but it's very nice to see you. I hope to one day meet you in person.

Anthony Godfrey:
I this, like I said, a very unique time. Obviously it's something none of us has experienced before. What are some of the impacts that you're seeing on families and our children?

Dr. Ludwig:
I agree. I do think it's a really unprecedented time and I think what's so interesting about it, when you think about the implications for mental health, one of the things that we know about anxiety is that it's a normal, and it's an adaptive emotion. It's an important emotion that we have that essentially prepares us to respond to valid threats. The current situation that we're in does consist of a valid threat. Coronavirus is a valid threat to all of us. The most important thing to start off with is just that it is all valid, that it is normal to be anxious. It's normal, it's valid to be stressed. It's valid to feel sad. I think about the seniors in high school this year that just, as an example, are missing out on a lot of things that they have planned for and expected for a long time.

So I think that there's the developed threat. And then there's also all the things in our world that have changed. And I think part of the challenge and the opportunity is to practice and learn how to tolerate a certain amount of uncertainty. What probably is the most important place to put our attention is into our families. And rather than being pulled in lots of different directions, I think being really thoughtful and mindful of what we are exposing ourselves and our families to. In regards to media, we do need information, but I think we also need to be thoughtful of putting limits on that for our own anxiety, for our own mental health, as well as modeling that and helping to limit that for our children. Information's important, but we also want to make sure that we're not overwhelming ourselves with the desire to try to create certainty or to just continue to feel like we need to get more information.

Anthony Godfrey:
Interesting phrase, trying to create certainty. And I can absolutely see that happening where we are just checking in with the news constantly. We're looking for updates and things are changing rapidly. It feels like every day, there's a change in what we're hearing. And we may start to think that the more information we consume, the more we can get a taste for some certainty, and we can see a path forward.

And yet I think that we have to really be mindful of that because the information we get may not be creating that certainty that we're striving for. Another piece that I think is really important that a lot of families are probably already well into doing this, as we're five weeks into this. But I do think having some structures, some routine, some consistency and predictability in family life is actually really important for kids of all ages, from the little ones to to our teenagers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. I think that's true. You get into a routine whether you want it or not. And sometimes it's not a deliberate routine. It's the routine of staying up too late and getting up too late and maybe not taking care of ourselves the way we ought to. There's something else that struck me earlier in what you said, that is the importance of connection with family. And what I found is that just because we're in the same space, doesn't mean that we're necessarily connecting. And with my own family, I've had great moments of playing board games, long sitting on the shelf that we haven't gotten to and we've really engaged. But there are other times where we all have our various devices and we're not engaged with each other. And so I do think even though we're in the same physical space, we have to be a little bit deliberate about reaching out to each other.

Dr. Ludwig:
Absolutely. And I think part of that structure is I think some of the most important things. We need to structure in our fun family times. And particularly, I also think related to that positive parent/child interaction time so that we're being really thoughtful and deliberate. Like you said about really creating the time and the space for that. And I think that is as important as anything else that's scheduled within the context of a day. I think other things that are important are things like we mentioned, some structure and bedtimes and wake times. I will add a caveat with that. If you have a child who has never been a morning person, trying to fight them to become one right now is probably not something that you need to do. But also, I don't think it's a good idea to have teenagers sleeping into the late morning, early afternoon, and then being up all night.

So I think finding kind of a balance in that for some structure and some consistency. I think the other thing we really need to be thoughtful and scheduling in is physical activity. When kids are in school and when they're on sports teams, they're moving around and there's a lot of activity that's happening. And I think right now we have to be a little bit more deliberate in making sure that we're scheduling that for ourselves as well as for our families going on where it's possible and safe going on a walk being outside, doing some things that, that we can in obviously while also maintaining social distance and the abiding by the necessary guidelines. But I do think finding those kinds of opportunities within the context of our schedule are really important as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
I agree. I decided one afternoon when I had quite a few phone calls to make that I would just fire up the AirPods, leave the house and walk around. The dog was very happy. I decided to invite her along as well, and I was gone for hours and I didn't realize how much time I spend on the phone without locking. It was very nice. And I got quite a sunburn, but it did feel good to be out and about. And you're right. It just totally changes your perspective in ways that even as you're sitting on the couch, thinking about going out for a walk, you, you, you underestimate, I really like what you said. I wrote down three reasons that we ought to be giving ourselves permission, to feel sadness, feel anxiety, and realize that that is an okay response for us to have.

That is number one, there's a genuine threat. There is a health issue out there. There's a genuine threat. Some of us are more susceptible than others. Everyone's circumstance is different, but there is a threat number two, this is a change. We're all having to do things differently. Now this is now what we're used to, and it was an abrupt change. We were thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool on this one. And then number three, the uncertainty that you mentioned, and that we talked about, all three of those just individually would be enough to justify some level of anxiety or sadness or difficulty in our lives. But when you have all three thrown at you and everyone's experiencing that to one degree or another that's that, that creates a difficult circumstance for kids.

Dr. Ludwig:
Absolutely. And I think one of the most important things is to really validate, listen to and validate that emotion both within ourselves. I think we've got to allow and understand we're feeling emotions. In addition, it's really important that we listen and validate for our kids. I think we want to jump to fixing when kids are struggling and I think there's some of this we can't change. We can't fix it.  It is what it is. And I think giving them useful information is good, but I think a lot of it is just listening to and validating the fact that it is hard and it's real.  And then also going to a place of really reminding them of strengthen and the things that we can gain and learn from the experience and the fact that we're being safe.

I mean, there's ways to communicate with kids around some fears, but I also think we have to be thoughtful, not excessively reassuring, so that it is just validating and acknowledging and saying, yes, we're all feeling weird and kind of different, strange, bad, sad. And then also helping them to find things to do that can help them to try to feel better. Sometimes when we're feeling really down, what we need to do is a little counter to how we feel. So it's this nice balance where we really have to validate and listen and let them have that experience. And then also provide an opportunity to do some things that can help them to feel better. That's the fun, that's the being outside, the moving around eating regularly, those kinds of things that really help to manage and maintain that self care.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you say eating regularly or eating constantly because we're eating constantly.

Dr. Ludwig:
I do think that it's good to remember to eat and keeping that in some type of a schedule. It's funny. I think people do the extremes. I think we can be eating constantly. And I've also talked with some kids that are forgetting to eat lunch. I think we've got both extremes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Eating lunch is one thing I don't forget. Are there some ways that children are going to react to this type of circumstance that might confuse adults or might be different from the way an adult would react?

Dr. Ludwig:
I think sometimes kids might not be as good at articulating why they're not feeling good. So you might see behaviors coming out from the emotion. You might see things that look like more irritability. You might seem kind of more argumentative. You might seem more withdrawn. And I think those all could be indicators of emotion that are happening that kids are experiencing, whether or not they're wanting to acknowledge that. So I think those are things to be mindful of. I think, obviously having limits and expectations for behavior and how we treat each other are important. But I also think being mindful of what certain behaviors might be communicating. A child that's being really argumentative or really irritable in this context, there might be other things going on underneath that.

So kind of taking time to listen and acknowledge pointing out behaviors. You seem more irritable, there's a lot that's going on. It's really hard to be stuck at home, trying to label what you're seeing rather than making judgments on it. I think sometimes we're quick to thinking, oh, you're being disrespectful or a kind of making judgements. You're just trying to upset me. But instead, really trying to label it and then trying to give the space for kids to talk by trying to just be there and listening. So I do think that's one of the things. That we just need to be mindful of the behaviors we're seeing. And I'm not saying we have to validate that are still not acceptable, but I think just also being thoughtful of some of the emotion that might be underlying those.

Anthony Godfrey:
Process it, and also understand that might be coming from a place that isn't immediately evident.

Dr. Ludwig:
Exactly, exactly. It might be that, that your child was feeling really sad and missing out on things. But instead of being able to say that they're kind of arguing with everything you're trying to get them to do, we'll take a quick break, but when we return,

Anthony Godfrey:
We'll talk more with Dr. Christine Ludwig about dealing with the student and parent anxiety.

Break:
I'm Steven Hall, Director of Jordan Education Foundation. In today's challenging and uncertain times, it is more important than ever before to support one another. Here at the Jordan Education Foundation, we invite you to join us in making sure children are not going hungry. Your $10 donation to the Foundation will help us feed one student for a weekend when food and meals may be very scarce for some, with food and hygiene supplies and the Principal's Pantries at Jordan School Districts being depleted and in higher demand than ever before. Every financial contribution made will help us to keep the pantries filled for students who would otherwise go without. The Jordan Education Foundation exists due to the generosity of people who care about kids. If you would like to donate to help children from going hungry, please visit jordaneducationfoundation@jordandistrict.org, or contact the Foundation at (801) 567-8125. Thank you. Together, we can make a difference.

Anthony Godfrey:

We're back with Dr. Christine Ludwig when students do return to school, and the earliest that will happen will be the first day of school for the 2020 - 2021 school year. That will be in the middle of August. So that would be five months between the time that school closed and school opened back up. And that would be the longest that any of these students have ever been out of school since they started. What type of or worries might you expect from kids as they return after a long break?

Dr. Ludwig:
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think one that we're going to grapple with for a while as we move this forward. It's really interesting because I think some students that may have historically rather not gone to school or tried to get out of going to school, now are actually missing school. But I also think that having been out of the habit of going to school, that the idea of going to school is probably going to bring with it some relief and escape, get me out of my house, welcomed and I want to be with my friends. And so I think that there's going to be some of that, but we already know that kids have trouble with anxiety associated with going to school. Whether it's related to the schoolwork or the environment we already know that prime times for school refusal come after breaks, and this is a particularly long break.

So I think that there is some risk of that. And I think the more that we can, and again this is hard with the uncertainty, but the more we can kind of prepare students to know when that's happening, I think that's helpful. But the temptation sometimes could be to fall into letting the student try to get out of it because it's really uncomfortable. And because they've been home this whole time, the challenge is going to be with some of those kids that are actually going back to school or leaving that house comes with a lot of anxiety. And I think one of the most important things we'll need to do is to create the expectations that those things have to happen. That said, one of the things I've been talking to folks about that they struggle with anxiety and where the anxiety of being in a comfortable place for a long time, and then being asked to leave that comfortable place.

I think where possible, if you know that your child is a little bit more anxious or that really resists uncomfortable situations, to try to create opportunities for them to feel uncomfortable, whether it's really encouraging them to reach out to friends, sometimes that might make them a little more anxious having them do Zoom calls with. Friends and family, having them try to think of things that they can do for other people. It just depends on the student, but I do think anything that we can do during this time to help students that are a little more anxious to do some things that might make them feel uncomfortable, just so they're in the habit of doing some of those things, I think could be really valuable.

Anthony Godfrey:
Dr. Ludwig, what are some other tips that you would give parents of children who tend to be anxious, prepare them for the challenges that are ahead and deal with the challenges that they're experiencing right now, because even though we need to be deliberate and intentional about making that happen, there are more opportunities than ever before, in most cases for this interaction between parent and child.

Dr. Ludwig:
So I think, similar to what I just mentioned, in trying to create opportunities for children, teens to do things that are uncomfortable. I think one of the things that we oftentimes think about with anxiety is, I want my child to feel comfortable and then they can do these things that are hard. And what we absolutely know is that the way to overcome anxiety is to do the hard things. So I do think, in general the structure and consistency in having kids know what to do, those are all really helpful for kids that are anxious. They're helpful for all kids. And if your child is particularly anxious, I think really being mindful of trying to encourage, support, reward, reinforce behaviors that are brave as I often like to say. When they are doing things that are uncomfortable.

So for example, if a student is struggling with an assignment ,encouraging and trying to coach the student to be able to reach out to the teacher, obviously age appropriate. If it's a first grader, probably the parents should be reaching out. But  if it's a high school student or middle school student and it's reasonable that they could reach out to the teacher, encouraging them to be able to make that contact rather than jumping in and doing it for them, not that you couldn't on the side also be supporting them with that. But I think the thing that we want students to do is to do those things that feel uncomfortable and really coaching them on how they can advocate for themselves, or have a conversation with an adult in some ways that's really uncomfortable, that those things could be really helpful.

We want to support them in their schoolwork. We want to definitely communicate with teachers as is necessary, but I think oftentimes we tend to jump in more quickly than might be helpful for our child, particularly an anxious child. To be able to do some of those things that might make them uncomfortable. So I think if we encourage them to do those things to reach out to teachers, to contact friends, to ask them questions and then within the context of our homes it just wherever we can, it's a little bit tricky at home to think of how we're going to create situations for our children to do things that are a little less comfortable, but where you can find those opportunities. I think that's the key, finding things that they're not as comfortable doing or that they haven't done successfully in the past.

It could be starting a new project or doing some painting as a family or something that a child might not be as comfortable with and giving them that opportunity to engage in a new behavior. To do something that makes them feel really anxious and uncomfortable. I think anything in regards to connecting and reaching out with others, I do realize for some students and some children that is not a problem. But I do think it's really important for all of them, especially now that for some students, they might kind of get comfortable not reaching out to any friends or anybody outside of their home. And so I do think having some contact with others outside the home virtually is also really, really important.

Anthony Godfrey:
That really resonates for me. The idea that you redirect, if the child is spinning. You don't want to overindulge, you want to understand, you want to listen, you want to validate, but you don't want to reinforce to the point that the student can't escape or the child can't escape this particular way of thinking and you move on together. So that makes a lot of sense.

But I think sometimes the family will accommodate the anxiety. And so the child is comfortable essentially because they don't have to do the things that are uncomfortable for them. The entire family, the functioning of the family is revolving around making sure they're maintaining all of that. So I also think that would be an impairment in functioning that would also require the need for some intervention.

And if parents find themselves in the circumstance you just described, then really a good first step is to contact counselors and psychologists in our schools. Every school has counselors and psychologists who can help them.

Dr. Ludwig:
Yes, yes. And I think that they can do one or two things. I think they can, in many cases, provide the services that are needed. I think that your District has some really wonderful people. I've had the opportunity to work with some of the counselors and some of the folks in your District. And I think you're really fortunate and have a really great system. And I think if they can't provide the service in whatever way, I think they also can be really helpful for connecting and giving referrals for outside services.

Anthony Godfrey:
Dr. Ludwig, what other advice would you give to parents and students who are just trying to do their best navigating these difficult waters?

Dr. Ludwig:
I would say to both students and parents and families to give yourselves a break, to cut yourself slack. I think it's an interesting time because, on one hand, and I'm particularly going to speak to parents for just a second, that I think we feel like in some cases I've heard parents say, I should be able to do more or I should be doing this or I should be doing that. And I think the reality is that this current crisis involves so much change. And so many things have happened differently that I don't think the idea that we should be doing more. I think really giving ourselves a break and making sure that we're giving time to support our self-care, our mental health.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's clear that we need to take care of ourselves because we can't take care of each other. I also think about employees of the District, and we have lots of employees who are doing different tasks from what they normally do. We either have bus drivers who are acting as custodians or helping you with lunch workers. And as a District, we've allowed and encouraged anyone who wants to continue to work and earn their hours is able to do that. And so we have a lot of employees who are doing different jobs, and then teachers are doing things very differently. Now they have to teach in a completely different way. And I feel like there's a chance that teachers are in a position where they have to absorb the anxiety about online learning that all of their students have to experience. And so now they get this concentrated load and this concentrated weight that they carry, because they're trying to help so, so many kids get through this. And I think that creates a really heavy burden on teachers that we maybe haven't talked about. It's not just that teaching in a different way is stressful. It's helping so many kids manage such monumental change that can create stress that really doesn't stop. And do you have any suggestions for them?

Dr. Ludwig:
Yeah, I think that's really interesting that you mentioned that because just earlier today, on another meeting that I was on, we were talking about how I think right now, in regards to our children, our teachers are very much the ones on the front line. I know there's a lot of support people within school buildings that help to share and carry that load. But I think right now, in this context, the teachers are really very much on the front line. Not only doing the educating, but also having to hold the stress, the anxiety. And in many times, maybe even the only communication that kids are having as far as someone outside of their family. And so I do think that one of my thoughts for teachers is, they absolutely need to make sure that they're giving themselves the time and taking care of their own self care. And also, I think one of the things is just acknowledging that this is really different. I don't know that all the teachers in the classroom are trained to do this type of teaching. And I think it's just a time where we all have to cut ourselves some slack and do the best we can.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much, Dr. Ludwig, I feel better just talking with you. It's great to process all of this. I think we have a lot of difficulties, but we have a lot of opportunities that we have before us right now. And I think that if we try to connect to each other and take care of each other in the way that you've described, we can come out of this stronger. So thank you Dr. Ludwicg. It's been great talk. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on the Supercast. Be safe. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out.

Superintendent:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we check in with some high school students, some of them seniors getting ready to graduate, to find out how they are fairing in these difficult and uncertain times. During our virtual meeting, I was truly inspired by their courage and can do attitudes in the face of change and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. Welcome to Elizabeth, Katrina, Grace, James, and Cooper from Copper Hills High School. It's really fun to see you guys. We miss students, that's for sure. And it's a real honor for me to get a chance to chat with you about what your experience is. I'm going to ask you first to just introduce yourselves a little bit.

Student:
So I'm the SBO President over there. I like watching Sponge Bob and watching basketball during my spare time.

Superintendent:
There's a lot of Sponge Bob going on, but not much basketball.

Student:
Hi, I'm Elizabeth. I'm a junior at Copper Hills High too. One of my hobbies is writing and reading as well. And I'm the Service Leader of Latinos In Action.

Superintendent:
Fantastic. Has Latinos In Action been able to do anything over the dismissal? It's tough.

Student:
It is tough. It's a club that is centered on service. And we just do something that you don't normally do at home. Do something that you're usually asked to, but you're not asked at that time service.

Superintendent:
Focused on things that you can do at home. Yes. Great.

Student:
I am Grace. I was the Foreign Language Sterling Scholar and I'm President of Academic Decathlon. Some of my hobbies are just reading and drawing and writing.

Superintendent:
Like Elizabeth said, you got to finish the Academic Decathlon season before all this stuff.

Student:
Yeah. Our state was the first week of March. So thankfully we got to finish our season or just in the nick of time.

Superintendent:
In what language were you the Sterling Scholar?

Student:
Mainly Latin, but I had a little bit of Spanish and Greek.

Superintendent:
Okay, great. James.

Student:
James I am the President of National Honor Society and I was also the Training Director for the Business and Marketing Club at the school. And I love playing guitar and just hanging out with family.

Superintendent:
I like playing guitar as well. Have you been able to develop some chops over the break if you had a little more guitar time?

Student:
Yeah.

Superintendent:
Yeah. It definitely has been a lot easier. The end practice. So then we have Katarina.

Student:
My name is Katarina McAllister. I am the Choir President at Copper Hills High School. I'm a senior. I'm a member of the Madrigals and I love reading and doing theater and everything artsy as well.

Superintendent:
So all your theater performances are monologues right now.

Student:
Yeah, yeah.

Superintendent:
Yeah. That's, it's hard. You're all involved in activities that have been diminished and changed because of this dismissal. And I really appreciate your taking the time and I'm sensitive to the huge impact I'm sure this has had for you seniors, in particular.  You've seen a high school classroom for the last time.

Student:
I think it's pretty crazy, especially since the last time I saw it and I was with my friends and teachers. I didn't know it was going to be the last time. I don't think I've fully come to terms with everything yet. To never go back into a high school classroom again and not get those same experiences that we would have any other year.

Superintendent:
So how does that feel, Elizabeth?

Student:
It's strange for sure. I love being with my friends and I love being in the atmosphere of the school. My education is something that I've worked really hardcore, and just being there for my friends and them being there for me, it's such an incredible experience for me to be at school. So knowing that the last day that I was there is kind of sad and I'm kind of sad that I didn't really save her as much as I should have or would have, but we have to make the best of it.

Superintendent:
That's a good way of putting it. You know, you have to kind of savor it when you're in the moment and people my age tell people your age that all the time, but it's difficult for all of us of any age to really live in the moment and to really appreciate where we are and what we're doing. Cooper. How does it feel not to be going back into a high school classroom as a student again?

Student:
Well, really weird for me. When I heard the news yesterday, I was thought, well, that sucks. The end just happened like that. There's no send off or anything. No one knew it was going to be the end, but I've been scrolling through my camera roll and we got three quarters of high school. We missed out on an entire quarter. But the memories that we made, I think it's better to be grateful for those than envy the ones that we didn't make. So it's really sad for me that I couldn't still be there and be making more memories, but the ones I made already help overcome like my disappointment and that's just how it's going to have to be.

Superintendent:
It's great to focus, to be positive about the opportunities you've been able to enjoy. And I liked the way you put that. In partial, the fact that you didn't know the end is coming. That's what made it difficult in a lot of ways. James, how are you feeling about the fact that high school classes are over for this year?

Student:
It's tough for sure. Obviously I think for me there's a big stress because going into college this fall it's a big life shift and it's really stressful to think about that. I think that last quarter of high school, it's kind of a transition, you know, and I think it's difficult too, because school is a lot more than education to a lot of people. For me, I'm taking a lot of Concurrent and online classes and so the switch was really not that difficult for me to go all online. And I think one of the biggest changes is just being able to interact with people, having that social aspect, having something to break up your day. I think that's been hard for a lot of people to miss out on.

Superintendent:
So have you been able to continue with your Concurrent Enrollment classesr has that been disruptive?

Student:
Everything's on Canvas, so it's relatively easy to access assignments and stuff like that. I think the biggest thing is it's more classes like chemistry and biology. I kind of relied on those in-class lectures to get a lot of information and I know the books can often be really confusing. So it's nice to have that instruction time to be able to really understand the material. Not have that kind of instruction is the more difficult part of the Concurrent classes. It makes it harder just preparing for files and stuff like that. But in terms of being able to just continue on with the classes, it's been pretty smooth.

Superintendent:
Grace, how are you feeling about the end of a senior year that came unexpectedly and means that you are not going to be entering the high school classroom as a student?

Student:
It hasn't fully set in for me yet because it happened so quickly and there was the hope that we might come back before the very end. So I'm just trying to process it, but like Cooper said, I'm proud of the memories I made and the things that I was able to accomplish for those first three quarters. And I know I'm going to keep in touch with my teachers and the friends that I've made. So I'm just looking on the bright side and thinking about all that I accomplished, learned in my high school career, even though it's over now.

Superintendent:
I love that perspective. Great you can say to yourself, okay, I'm going to stay in contact with friends. I'm going to stay in contact with teachers.

And when you're my age, you'll be glad you did. I can tell you that for sure. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, students talk about how digital learning is going. And we find out if these bright young minds have any advice for parents trying to help with at-home learning.

Break:
I'm Steven Hall, Director of Jordan Education Foundation. In today's challenging and uncertain times it is more important than ever to support one another. Here at Jordan Education Foundation, we invite you to join us in providing food for children so they are not hungry. Each $10 donation to the Foundation will feed one student for a weekend. With food and hygiene, Principal Pantries at Jordan District Schools are depleted and in high demand. Every financial contribution made will help us to keep these pantries filled for students who would otherwise go without. Jordan Education Foundation exists due to the generosity of people who care about kids and teachers. If you would like to donate to help kids from going hungry, visit jordaneducationfoundation@jordandistrict.org, or contact the Foundation at (801) 567-8125. Thank you. Together we can make a difference.

Superintendent:
We are back visiting with some amazing students from Copper Hills High School. Elizabeth, tell me, what advice would you give parents who are trying to help their kids get through this school year?

Student:
I know for me, at least I was very, I'm an early bird, so I was very determined to just wake up in the morning and get ready and go to school. So it was very simple for me. And I think what my parents have done is just sometimes give me space, but at the same time they support me. They tell me, okay, take a break. It's okay to take a break, even though you're not actually in school. I try to do all my assignments and just try to do it as fast as I can. But at the same time they do give me that determination to be like, okay, it's time to go to work. It's not time to be on your phone.

Superintendent:
Cooper. What advice do you have for parents who are helping their kids navigate through this school dismissal?

Student:
I personally think parents shouldn't take it hard on themselves and they should just be there for their kid because the home right now is the biggest place for healing, because that's where you're stuck. I know for me personally, texting my friends just makes you miss them a lot more. But family, that's who you're around. So I think just helping build the relationships even stronger in the family, through playing board games, going on a walks, anything like that.

Superintendent:
Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. Katarina, what advice would you give to parents who are helping their students navigate the school dismissal?

Student:
I have three younger sisters, one in middle school and then two in elementary school. And something what's really helped us in our family is each of us have created a list of individual goals for each day and  then one or two for the week itself. We each have to work on schoolwork and then we all play the piano. So practice piano, and then do some sort of exercise, take the dog on a walk. And so far it's worked really well. It's been wonderful to have a checkoff list every day we can say, oh, we've read today. We've done our schoolwork today and that sort of thing. And then we also try to do at least one thing as a family, go on a walk, play a game, watch a movie together at least once a day.

Superintendent:
Great ideas. Walking the dog feels better than ever. James, what advice would you give parents who are trying to help their students through this dismissal?

Student:
I was just pretty much gonna say the same thing. I think it's important that parents find that balance of understanding. Still giving a schedule and still being there for support by saying it's okay to take a break or saying, you know, maybe it's not the best to be on our phones all day long. Maybe we should have a little bit of a schedule. Maybe, let's go for a walk today or, hey, do you need help writing the essay? I think kids don't have as much support with teachers as before. So it's really important for parents to try and be there as much as possible to help their kids with learning.

Superintendent:
I am so impressed with your answers. This has been great. This is awesome. I really appreciate it. How has online learning for you been individually Katarina?

Student:
It's was struggle at first, but I feel like it's gotten progressively better as the students and the teachers have all gotten used to it and learned how to do it. I have two AP classes and so those have been difficult ones to do. But thankfully, we were close to the end of our curriculum. Anyway, I feel like all of the teachers have been very persistent and really care for the students and don't want to give them too much work, but also want to give them just enough. I know I have one teacher who, whenever I turned in an assignment, he goes in and he comments on it and I feel like that gives as much as a personal connection as it can be right now.

Superintendent:
Thank you. Grace, how has online learning been for you?

Student:
Kind of like Kat said, we need that connection and I've had that connection with some teachers during this online learning and it helps a lot. I really enjoy those teachers who put up a video of themselves explaining the assignment, asking how we are because I think that's really important. I feel a lot better, like when they ask us how we are and how we're doing, do you need anything? And it's just  leaves that discussion open for us to feel, oh yes, I actually do need this. I don't understand this.

Superintendent:
James.

Student:
I think like Grace said, looking for those different opportunities that this has brought us. I think that this has been a big opportunity. While we have lost that quarter of transition to college, I think this is a great opportunity for kids to become more self-sustained and  they're learning and taking on things by themselves and not having to have this college is different. Where it's not as much as having the teachers looking over you or looking over your assignments, making sure you're on track. There's definitely more of that. I don't know the word I'm looking for. But just kind of, you need to take those on by yourself and I think this has allowed kids to kind of develop that way. So I think that's been good and to take on that self initiative to learn and be engaged from home.

There's been a level of independence and maybe self motivation that's been cultivated lately by being forced to switch abruptly to online learning.

Superintendent:
What do you miss most about school during the dismissal and will definitely waking up at 6:00 AM?

Student:
I've been staying connected with most of my good friends, but I found that I missed just kind of like what you were talking about. Those acquaintances and not even just acquaintances. You can have really good friends that you don't always hang out with a ton out of school, but you do in school. To like see those friends and engage with those friends and talk and laugh and just even joking around with teachers. There's just some teachers that were really good, just friends to students. And so I think, I think those little things I miss too.

Superintendent:
What do you miss most about school during the day?

Student:
I would say my friends. I do miss them. That's a big part of school. I think it's even a part of the learning structure at school. We have open discussions with our tables. We go and interact to see if this person has new ideas or just even to complain about something in the class, like, oh goodness, this is hard. Do you think this is hard or, can you help me? I think it was very nice to have people to lean on.

Superintendent:
What do you miss most about school?

Student:
Honestly. with the theme, I miss relationships with people like students, teachers, and everyone. lSocial media is one way to stay connected and but it's kinda hard because when you're at school, you have the opportunity every single day. If you want to make a new friend or meet someone new, you have that opportunity. Like you just have to step a little bit outside your comfort zone, go meet someone and all that. But on social media you don't really have that many options. Your followers are pretty much your options. And it's definitely harder. There's a lot of teachers I would just go and talk to about life or friends that I've only seen at school who don't have social media or anything like that, that I'm probably never going to see again, which is really sad for me.

And just the fact of not being around everyone, like not doing an assignment and then just talking to your friend about what they put and then even that moment of realizing you put the wrong thing and then having to stress out about that. Everything about it is just independent and having even the opportunity to do something new every single day. Hey, there's a lacrosse game going on after school today. I could go to that or I could go home or maybe I could go see a movie with some of my friends today or something like that. Just the limited opportunity of how life has become compared to what it was when school was in.

Superintendent:
Yeah. When you put it that way, what I realize is there are a lot fewer choices you get to make during the day. And you have a lot of choices in high school and a lot of things that you get to decide to do. And that's not the case when you're at home learning online. The other thing you pointed out is that social media is a chance to connect, but that's with some of your closer friends. When you're in high school, you're surrounded by people. They may not be close friends, but there are a lot of acquaintances and a lot of people.

Stay with us, we'll be right back. You'll find out what the Class of 2020 wants everyone to remember about them. The legend, they will leave behind these unique times as they prepare to graduate.

Break:
Please join us every week for Wellness Wednesday. It is a feature on the Jordan School District website that offers free and simple tips for improving your health and wellness. We cover a variety of topics like reducing stress, better eating habits and finding more time to build better relationships. Check out Wellness Wednesday every week on the Jordan School District website at http://jordandistrict.org . For additional health and wellness resources, visit http://wellness.jordandistrict.org.

Superintendent:
Welcome back as we continue our conversation with students, sending a message of hope. Are there things that you're telling yourself when all this is lifted and social distancing is not required, this is what I'm going to do differently? This is how I'm going to change. Elizabeth.

Student:
One thing, what I'm going to do when I come back to school, I'm going to hug my friends and just squeeze on the day. I just know I will cherish it so much more. I'll cherish my education so much more and just take it all in and know that I'm very blessed to have these people around me and to have the education I have and just to have all these things f for myself and to just benefit me. I think it's just something that I really want to cherish so much more.

Superintendent:
Marina. What are you going to do differently when social distancing is lifted?

Speaker 3:

Sounds kind of cheesy. But just cherish everything that much more. I didn't realize how fast something could be taken away until it all happened. And just cherishing your relationships with people. I kind of like what James said earlier, joking about waking up at 6:00 AM. I have not enjoyed that, but I would give anything right now to wake up at 6:00 AM and go to school if it meant being able to see everyone again and have some sort of normal in my life at this point.

Superintendent:
Well said, thank you. Cooper, what will you do differently when social distancing is lifted? I was in a state where I was taking life for granted a lot. Everything that was given to me, I was just taking for granted. Oh, you know, it's all right. Like that's just a normal thing that happens when I don't realize like how many people don't get what we're being robbed of. Some people never even got the opportunity to be a part of extracurricular activities. I'm sure there's some kids on other continents and who don't even get something close to these kinds of opportunity. And I think just how much I was taking it for granted. Some days I would just think my sleep is more important than going to school on time. And so then I just sleep in an extra hour, which looking back, wasn't worth it because it just made me more tired. But just not taking life for granted is the biggest thing. Everything's closed down. I never realized how much I'd want to just spend a night with my friends and just hang out. Even if we weren't doing anything, just being around each other. It would be nice when there was so many times that I chose not to, because I wasn't in the mood.

Superintendent:
James, what what are you going to do differently when social distancing is lifted?

Student:
I think the thing for me is just with college coming up, I've been really stressed about how am I going to do in college? You know, classes are tons harder and am I going to be able to pass this class? And  am I going to be able to make as many friends that I had in high school? And I think just the biggest lesson I've gotten from this is it's been a big learning curve. But it just showed me that  we can do hard things. And that we can adapt as seniors and juniors and we can adapt our situations and find a way to make the best out of what we have. And so it's brought a lot of comfort to me knowing that I'm going to be okay. I'm going to find a way to, make the best out of my situation.

Superintendent:
Yeah, James, I think that makes a lot of sense. Adults, students, parents, I think everyone's going to come out of this stronger and with greater capacity and may even be surprised at what we're able to do. Grace, what are you going to do differently once social distancing is no longer necessary.

Student:
Friends and I have created a shared Google doc called Post Quarantine Bucket List. And we're just listing all these things that we wanted to want to do or have wanted to do. And a lot of the things are things that we said we would do for months. Oh, we'll do this eventually because it really felt like we had all the time in the world. And this experience has shown us that really, we don't always have as much time as we think. And after quarantine, I'm going to take all the opportunities I can to spend time with the people I love and like do the things that I want to do and not waste time waiting for the right opportunity. Just doing things when I want to do them so that I can get everything I want to do done.

Superintendent:
I love the idea of a Post Coronavirus Bucket List. And as soon as we're done, I'm going to start my own. I have a mental list, but I'm writing it down. That's good advice, Elizabeth. What something good that has come from the school dismissal?

Student:
Personally, getting closer with my family, honestly. I have this time to be with them and I think I should make the most of it. I know that my mom works during the night and mostly during the day as well, my dad during the day. I never had that individual time to spend with them. So I think I'm able to give that time to them now. Same with my little sister. She follows me. She's five years old. I'm doing my homework and I feel so bad because sometimes she comes up to me, saying oh, come play with me. And I have to say, I can't, I'm doing homework. I'll play with you afterwards. And then the next day, she was right next to me and I was like, what are you doing? She said, I'm doing homework, I'm getting good grades. I thought she was the cutest thing. It warmed my heart because I know, as an older sister, she follows my every step. And I just want to be that good example for her. And there are times, like I said, I do need that break. And she reminds me of that. So I think getting closer with my family is a big thing.

Superintendent:
Katarina what's one good thing that has come from school dismissal?

Student:
Like Elizabeth said, I really feel like I've been able to connect with my family on another level and become closer to them. Because I'm a high school senior and I'm involved in a lot of different things, I was usually not home after school. And when I was, I was busy doing homework and catching up and staying on top of all of my different classes. So just to be able to spend time with them every day and be there for my little sisters and for my parents and just be able to connect with them. It's really been good to experience. And I feel like it's brought my whole family closer.

Superintendent:
Thank you. That's great. Cooper. What's one good thing that's come from school dismissal?

Student:
Just being around my family and really appreciating the time that I may have missed by hanging out with my friends.

Superintendent:
James. What's one good thing that's come from the school dismissal?

Student:
Yeah, I'm just going to keep on the same thing. We're obviously just a family. I have that time to spend with family that I normally don't get because they're just far away. So that has definitely been a huge benefit for me.

Superintendent:
What's one good thing that's come from the school dismissal?

Student:
The best thing that's come out of it for me is, James talked about it a little bit earlier, but just developing my time management skills and learning how to set a schedule for myself and follow it because I've been in school my whole life. And I've been told, this is when you go to school and this is when you go home and relax. And this is when you do homework. And for the first time I had to do that for myself and decide when I'm going to do work and when I'm going to relax. And I think it's gave me some very valuable skills that I'm going to have to use a lot in my future, going into college and the workforce.

Superintendent:
Okay. One word you would use to describe the class that you want the Class of 2020 to be remembered.

Students:
Perseverance.
Persistent.
Legendary.
Adapting.
Resilient.

Superintendent:
It's been inspiring for me to talk with you. I am so impressed with your perspective. I really appreciate your taking the time to talk through your experiences with me. After talking with you, it's evident that all of you are stronger because of this and you have great things ahead of you. I have every confidence that you can adapt to anything that gets thrown your way in the future. Take care of you guys. Thank you. My sincere, thanks to Elizabeth, Katrina, Grace, James, and Cooper, all students at Copper Hills High School. You truly are an inspiration to all of us, and I'm incredibly proud of your resilience and positive approach to education and life.

In general, I would also like to thank all parents, supporting student learning at home. We know it has been and will continue to be a challenge. Parents, students and teachers are overcoming obstacles to get the job done for that. I say thank you. And thanks to all of you for listening. And remember. education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.

Superintendent:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. We are again recording this podcast, using Google Meet in order to maintain social distancing as a District. We're very proud of the digital learning that is happening during the school dismissal, proud of teachers, students, and parents who are taking on this new challenge. We know it's been very difficult and it's a big shift, but we also know that great things are happening on today's episode of the Supercast. We check in with one of our Digital Learning Administrators, Ross Menlove, to get some tips for parents on how to help their students learn online while at home. But first, let's check in with Jordan Ridge Elementary School Principal, Melissa Beck, and teacher Bryan Youtz to hear about some creative things teachers and students are doing with digital learning. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having us, Melissa. You've been there three years.

Melissa:
I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be at Jordan Ridge. This is a school of very high expectations, both from the teachers and from the community, very supportive community. Our teachers are very motivated to learn new content. We have many teachers who have multiple endorsements. We have teachers who search out their own professional development. Most teachers, thanks to Bryan, who is our Digital Teacher Leader have been exposed to a lot of these online tools already. So Bryan's been doing Tech Tuesdays and training teachers to lots of these, so teachers are doing a lot to stay connected. We're also doing some fun things. We did a a parade where we went out and wave to families and help them know that we are still thinking about them and still care about them.

Superintendent:
Tell me a little bit more about that parade. What was that like? You drove through the neighborhoods and did you go through all of the streets within your boundary and what was that experience like?

Melissa:
Yeah, so we almost hit every single street. There was a few that we didn't hit, otherwise the parade would have been two hours long and it was super fun. We have lots of families come out and had posters and signs, almost every single one of our teachers came. There were a few, you know, because of family situations that couldn't, but almost every teacher showed up and had decorated their cars. It was a really, really great experience. I received many emails from parents afterwards saying that's exactly what they needed. They needed that to feel connected and to feel supported. So it was super fun. And at first we thought we were doing that for the families, but we found soon after that, it really was for us.

Superintendent:
That connection with kids is why we become educators. I'm sure it was a great chance to reconnect. Bryan, how did it feel as a teacher to be part of that parade?

Byan:
It was a lot of fun being able to go around the different streets and see the different students that come out in support of us and in support of what they're doing at home. I got to see several students of mine, and also students that I knew throughout the schools, simply because of the relationship that I try to give to all the students that are around. There's a lot of students out there that know me, but I have no idea who they are. But I really enjoyed being able to go and be a part of something really special where we can say hello to the students and let them know that we are thinking about them. We care about them, and we are still here for them, even though we have to do this all digitally,

Superintendent:
I'm sure that's going to be an experience that kids and teachers will not soon forget. Have you seen that team spirit kind of enhanced by everyone being in the same boat all of a sudden?

Bryan:
Absolutely. We see a lot of teachers that have been coming together, asking for help on using certain programs that they might not be familiar with, but maybe someone else is familiar with. And my job here was to make sure that I hit every single grade to give them some suggestions of some programs that they can use. And I would show them how to use those programs for their classrooms. And being able to go around afterwards, after I had hit every single grade, making sure that no one else needs any other help from me, or they did need some further assistance. But being able to see teachers come together and really collaborate in this time has been very encouraging. The grade that really sticks out the most to me right now is our second grade team. Especially in the very beginning, they would all meet together in a classroom. Some were actually in the classroom and then some were actually doing video conferencing, just really collaborating on what kind of lessons they wanted to teach, how they wanted to teach lessons. They wanted it to be very cohesive in this. They wanted to be a very unified in what they're teaching, so that if someone had a question, the other teammates could help them out afterwards. And so it's been an absolute blast watching everyone take these digital tools and just running with it.

Superintendent:
I've been super impressed with exactly that. I've just seen so many teachers that have just jumped right in and stretch themselves and try some things that may have been uncomfortable previously. And they've done it together. They've kind of linked arms and joined together and worked on it in a very unified way, like you described. And I know it's a lot of work and I know it's hard and I appreciate it all the more because of that. Now, can you describe a little bit for those who may not be familiar, we have digital learning specialists at the district level, but every school has a teacher who's assigned as the digital teacher leader. And of course, that's you at Jordan Ridge. Tell us a little bit about that role and how that's been helpful in this circumstance.

Bryan:
Well, the role of the digital teacher leader I feel is to be an extension of what the Digital Learning Specialist has been across the District. Whereas the Digital Learning Specialist is in charge of several different schools, now they have a Digital Teacher Leader that they can communicate with to push out these different programs, different learning tools, to all the other teachers. That way one Specialist doesn't have to just hit one school and then hit the next school, then hit the next school. They can be a little bit more efficient in introducing these new tools. So my job here at Jordan Ridge has been once a month to be introducing a new tool, or re-introducing a tool I've previously introduced to the other teachers. Something that they can use in the classroom, whether it's been Near Pod, video conferencing, etc.?

It's been great to learn all these different new tools as well. And it's been wonderful to have these teachers come in, not ever knowing these tools before and showing them how it works and how they can use some really practical application in their own classroom, but just to the point where they're not feeling overwhelmed. That's the one thing I've been really trying to make sure not overstate. I don't want to overstimulate everyone with everything else that they have on their plate. I wanted to make sure that they have enough, that they feel they can be empowered to empower their students as well.

Superintendent:
Melissa, what's it like to have Bryan there to help teachers move forward as well with digital learning?

Melissa:
Bryan has been invaluable. Our teachers have gone to him and felt very supported by him. And they feel like when they go to him for questions, they will get answers, they'll get great ideas, they'll get the suggestions that they need. He'll actually sit down with them and go through and help them create content using appropriate digital tools. So we love, love, love the District's vision of having the Digital Teacher Leaders in every school and training them often to make sure we are up to date in all digital tools and digital learning. And then again, we're so grateful for Bryan for going above the call of duty and bringing those tools back to our teachers and supporting them that way.

Superintendent:
That's amazing. Thank you, Bryan, for everything that you're doing. That's awesome. I'm sure the teachers really appreciate it as you've worked with them. Are there some stories about just how they've kind of discovered what's available and moved forward in their journey toward doing more digital learning?

Bryan:
They seem to be seeing a theme among the teachers here where they're being introduced to these new tools and a bit of a light bulb goes off in their heads. Oh, I can do this. I wonder what I can do with this tool. How can I apply that same tool into this content area? It's not necessarily a specific story, but just a common theme of what the teachers are doing. I actually emailed our staff last night, just asking them what was their favorite tool. And I was actually amazed by the responses that I'm getting, we're getting a wide variety of tools here. Like why is your.me thinks central, Near Pod is noon for video conferencing, Khan Academy, Google Classroom. And one thing that's been great that I made sure to email the teachers a few days ago just to give them some encouragement that this is brand new for many of them, it's almost like we're becoming first-year teachers again. And we've got even a few teachers at our school that are first-year teachers. So they're feeling this doubly, and it can absolutely be overwhelming. One thing I really wanted to make sure is that it's okay to not be perfect at this. It's okay to not have everything down right at the get go. We gotta take things one step at a time.

Superintendent:
So what have you seen happen with teachers as they've expanded their digital teaching capacity?

Melissa:
This actually just happened yesterday. A teacher on Bryan's team came and was sharing. I just asked her how things were going and how she's feeling about things and if things are getting better. It was really cool to see a sense of mastery as she has taken on these digital tools. And she said, it's been really cool. I've been able to refine my process every single weekend and feel like it's improving to the point where it's very efficient. And then she read me an email that a parent sent her about how wonderful she has been in creating and designing her content. The parent thanked her because it it was very organized. It was very structured. It was very easy to find out what was assigned, where to find things. And she was thanking this teacher for her work. So it was really cool to see her. I think all teachers start out with a little sense of frustration and how are we going to do this? And then to see her have a sense of mastery yesterday in referring to this parent email, it was really cool to see.

Superintendent:
That's exciting. And I love to see that type of progress. And I know that parents have been really patient as well. They've understood that we're trying something new. That we're going into new territory and it's really strengthened that partnership between teachers and parents as well. Bryan, do you have any advice for parents as they help support their students through digital learning during the school dismissal?

Bryan:
Oh, I think it's important that parents are not afraid to ask questions. If there's a tool that they're struggling with, or if there's an assignment that they may have a question with. I know that just for me, I've had students message me or email me saying that this tool isn't working properly, reminding me that I forgot to put it in the submit button for them to turn in their assignments. So it's been great for me to go back in and just do that quick fix. We're all still learning how to use these tools in the way that we want them to be used. And so it's absolutely okay for parents and for students to email the teacher with any questions that they have on the tool. If they don't know how to use it, or if the teacher needs to make a tweak here or there, just so that the students can turn it in. We are all in this together as a community. The teachers, the students, the parents, the administrators, we're all in uncharted territory and in an event that's completely unprecedented. And it's just been very encouraging to see everyone come together as a community, working and helping each other out, wherever it is needed.

Superintendent:
Well, I know you're both very busy. Thank you very much for taking the time to be on the Supercast and thank you very much for everything you're doing to help the Jordan Ridge community have the best experience possible with digital learning.

Melissa:
Thanks for having us.

Superintendent:
Thank you. We'll take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk with digital teaching and learning administrator. Ross men love to talk about what's happening out there and how teachers and students and parents are adapting to the school dismissal and online learning.

Break:
I'm Steven Hall, Director of Jordan Education Foundation. In today's challenging and uncertain times is more important than ever to support one another. Here at Jordan Education Foundation, we invite you to join us in providing food for children so they are not hungry. Each $10 donation to the Foundation will help us feed one student for a weekend. With food and hygiene in Principal's Pantries at Jordan District Schools depleting and in high demand, every financial contribution made will help us to keep these pantries filled for students who would otherwise go without. Jordan Education Foundation exist due to the generosity of people who care about kids and teachers. If you would like to donate to help kids from going hungry, visit jordaneducationfoundation@jordandistrict.org, or contact the Foundation at (801) 567-8125. Thank you. Together, we can make a difference.

Superintendent:
We're back with Ross Menlove, Digital Teaching and Learning Administrator to talk about what's happening out there and how we're adapting. Ross, thanks for joining us.

Ross:
Hey, it's great to be here with you today. Thanks for inviting me.

Superintendent:
We talked with Ross back in our first Supercast episode about the Corona virus back at the beginning of March, before there was any school dismissal. A lot has been put in place to help provide support to teachers. I know that teachers have worked very, very hard to put this in place, and you have a lot of Digital Teaching and Learning Specialists who have just dived in and really made things work. Tell us a little bit about what's happening out there.

Ross:
So  what we're doing with our Digital Learning Specialists, they're kind of the phone tree help for anybody who needs some help with how to use the programs and how to access the programs. One of the great things we've done is we've created that hotline here at Jordan District and get those phone calls because as part of this team, I myself have taken on a few schools. And so the parents that are part of those schools call me, and it's been fun just talking to the parents and getting their insights, but they're just a lot of questions about making sure they're supporting their kids. But the conversations I've had with parents and students has all been positive and the same from the Digital Learning Specialists. They'll get phone calls from parents, from grandparents, from students. And a lot of them just have questions about what they're doing and they're all positive and they help them out and support them and answer their questions and move on. It's been really fun to be part of.

Superintendent:
I really loved the way that hotline was set up because it automatically forwards, based on the menu choices that the caller makes to the cell phones or the home phones of the Specialists who are working from home and through reprogramming the phones, Mike Heaps, our Director of Information Systems was able to set that phone tree up so people can reach your Specialists and get one-on-one help with their needs at home.

Ross:
Yeah, it's been great. The other thing we're doing is our website, our http://digitallearning.jordandistrict.org. That website we updated every day. There are new tutorials for teachers, for parents, for students, new ideas, all of our contact information is on there. And it's just a way we can keep updated everyday to the new things that are coming out and new possibilities. That's really fun. Teachers will email me and say, Hey, have you ever tried this or principals email and say, Hey, can you get this out there for people? And would you update that website every day? Probably five or six different people can go and look at it and learn more about this online learning process.

Superintendent:
Tell us the web address again.

Ross:
So that is http://digitallearning.jordandistrict.org. The hotline number is (801) 567-8999.

Superintendent:
And that's available Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Is that correct?

Ross:
That's correct. And that'll be closed the Thursday and Friday of spring break, but every other weekday that hotline is available.

Speaker 7:
That's true. And also on the, on the website, you can find our email addresses and probably the digital learning specialists by the different schools. So people have questions. They can email us anytime. Yeah,

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm really excited about how my keeps our information systems director was able to reprogram the calling system. So that based on the menu choices made by the caller, they can be connected directly to someone who can help with their specific question. And it connects to the cell phones of digital learning specialists who are working from home, and that all happens automatically. So parents can be quickly connected to someone who helps. And I think that's, that's really exciting. So Ross, tell us about some of the innovative and exciting things that you have seen happen. Are there teachers who are maybe nervous about doing this at first that are now really enthusiastic about being able to teach online?

Speaker 7:
So let me tell you about an experience I had working with some teachers, their kindergarten teachers. I won't tell you exactly what school are at to kind of help them out, but they called me that second day after the school closure. And one of them would just in tears, just like, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know what I'm doing. And I kind of just coached her through a little bit of what we set up, kind of we've created a template to help teachers be able to put content online. And she, her and her team took on that challenge. And they at a kindergarten level is pretty fun. The other day, I contacted the teacher to see how things were going, and she invited me to be part of her Google meet session with her class. And so she sent me that link and I was able to watch her teach kindergarten kids online. And then with their canvas course, the kids get on there. And she has daily videos for the kids to watch. They have a Nearpod session for a couple of those sessions that go through each day. It was really fun actually to watch these kindergarteners get online, interact with their teacher, interact with the other classmates. And it was in a very structured format. I mean, she kind of set up the expectations at the beginning of the meeting with the students and they behaved really well. And it was actually really, really fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Remember in cabinet meeting, we had you there right before we felt like there might be the possibility of a school dismissal that had happened in some other States. And we asked you to show us a canvas course with some of the preloaded lessons for kindergartners. And I was amazed at how engaging it was and how it was just spot on to the curriculum. And it must've, I've, I'm, I'm envious that you got to sit in on that kindergarten class and I'm really impressed. That's a good, that's a good example of how, you know, for some teachers, this is something that's very new. And they, they just said, you know, I'm going to embrace it and get some help and let's, let's see what we can do. And I've just been very impressed because I know how difficult and stressful it can be.

Speaker 7:
Yeah. But that's kind of what the great things about the digital learning specialist for teachers. They just provide just a different mental perspective, just add, add a little insight, you know, cause the teachers are the specialist, they know what they're doing. We can provide just a different perspective and they can take that and they run with it and they have so much fun. And it's fun just to be part of those classes. I've, I've joined in probably five or six classes each week and just kind of watch the teachers do their thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
What advice would you give for parents who have difficulty maybe getting their kids to be involved with online learning, or maybe not knowing how they as parents can be, can, can help,

Speaker 7:
You know, it's interesting. You mentioned that because I have a kindergartener and it's been fun, like watching him. I mean, yes, I know digital learning. And so I've kind of taken a couple steps back in. My wife has kind of done and she's not as well versed in this. And she's, you know, came to me with those types of questions and what I've encouraged her to do is just reach out to the teacher. And so she reached out to the teacher, they had like a Google meet session with a parent and the teacher, just to talk about what's going on, talk about different expectations. You know, that's the thing is our teachers want to communicate with the parents as much as they want to communicate with the students. They want everyone to find success and everyone to be happy, you know, and just reaching out to the people who are there is the one thing that I tell parents just to read it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know there are some times that are scheduled with teachers and students, but there's a lot of flexibility. Also, should parents be structuring time? Is that the most effective or is a level of flexibility important? What's the, what's the best approach?

Speaker 7:
Well, what we've found with students is that students learn best in small chunks of time. And so the advice I would provide to parents is set aside a time that is consistent each day. So every day there's a time set aside when they're, they're going to do their schoolwork and they do that. And then, you know, in small chunks and that might be depending on how old they are or their attention span, 15 to 30 minutes, then let them go run around and let them go play for five or 10 minutes and then bring him back. You know if we try to sit them down and have them bust out the schoolwork for extended period of time, multiple hours, the parents are going to get frustrated and students will get frustrated. But if we kind of break that down into small learning chunks, you know, and that some that teachers do in the classroom every day is they break down their learning and chunks. And then they do an activity without learning. They bring it back, provide some instruction and then they go do another learning activity and provide kind of like those different environment and breaks. But the structure is important to have that going each day. So a kid knows what to expect

Anthony Godfrey:
Ross, thanks for being with us. And thank you for the support that you're providing to parents, students and teachers. You've done an amazing job. And the way you've been preparing things in this district, it's as if you knew this was going to happen, because you've really built in the structure to provide support. And I'm really pleased with the way things have gone. I'm, I'm really excited about all of the positive feedback I've been hearing and hats off to all your digital learning specialists. They've worked so hard and they've been so dedicated and, and you and your team and everyone associated with digital learning and in the teaching and learning department has just done a bang up job of, of moving this forward and helping support teachers in their great work. So thank you very much, Ross. I appreciate it. We know there are many challenges associated with such an abrupt switch to digital learning, but I deeply appreciate the efforts of parents, students, teachers, and digital learning specialists. It moving us so quickly down this path. We're grateful for. Everyone's willingness to dive in and make the best of a difficult situation and learn some new things along the way. Thanks again for joining us. And remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there eventually.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony "got to maintain social distancing." Once again, we're conducting this Supercast using Google meet. There are a lot of difficult situations folks are dealing with, and everyone is impacted in an individual and different way by the Corona virus and the shutdowns that have happened as a result. But there has been a lot of innovation, creativity, and kindness that has exhibited itself out in our schools. And I wanted to highlight some of the wonderful things that I know are happening in response to this terrible circumstance. And today I get to Google meet principal ABR SP at Columbia elementary school. And I also get to talk with Natalie ticks a lunch clerk at foothills elementary. Start by checking in with ABR, speak to see what's been happening at Columbia during the school dismissal. So Abe, tell us a little bit about yourself. You've been at Columbia for two years now.

Speaker 3:
Yeah, that's right. This was my second year.

Anthony Godfrey:
And did you teach elementary previous to that?

Speaker 3:
Yeah, I taught first grade for 12 years. It was awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
You are somebody who has a great time at work. You love being at the elementary. Tell me what you love about elementary school.

Speaker 3:
Oh, elementary kids are the best they love being at school. And when you're the principal of an elementary school, you're like a superstar. You walk down the halls and everyone loves and greets you and as excited to see you still. So that's what I love most about being at the elementary.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes, that is a wonderful thing about it. And I certainly miss being at a school for that very reason. I know how much you love being there and, and, and how engaged you are. What are some of the things that have been happening at your school to kind of make the most of, of the situation and continue to maintain those connections with kids and, and with the faculty?

Speaker 3:
Yeah. So nine teachers that have been awesome and that's actually our motto as a faculty is it'd be awesome for kids and they have been awesome. They've been doing an incredible job rolling out the online curriculum as well as just connecting with kids in different ways that they normally are used to. We had the big parade with the help of West Jordan police department. We went through the neighborhoods and we sure we kept their social distance and honked. And the kids all came out with their parents on their porches and on their balconies and waved. And it was, it was just an awesome experience. That's one, there's one example of ways that we've been trying to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know you had at least one teacher who went out and visited homes and put some signs in front yards. Tell me about,

Speaker 3:
Yeah, we have two second grade teachers that visited each of their students' homes and we have a lot of apartments. And so they would, they put signs like great job on your online curriculum this week. You did awesome. And also thanks to their parents, like awesome job, getting your kids online. Cause sometimes that's a battle is to get the kids to get online and parents are a huge help in that. So they visited every single home. They didn't knock on the door or anything. They just left the sign on the, on the grass or on the front porch thing. Thank you for all you do.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Did you hear some response from parents about that?

Speaker 3:
Oh yeah. It's been nothing. Parents actually were quite touched. They, there were parents that commented on our social media sites or sent me a direct email to saying, thank you, thank you for your teachers that just care so much about our kids that they're willing to do that. So,

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I think that's amazing. You're also one of the sites that has been offering breakfast and lunch. And tell us about that. I know we've worked hard at social distancing as we offer that breakfast and lunch and that that's now a curbside service where we don't have anyone coming in the building. Is it kind of fun to just even get to see the kids from a distance for a short time?

Speaker 3:
Yeah, so we do, we're lucky enough to have a, both at our school. And then we have a trailer park that is a little, a little far away for the kids to actually walk here to our school. And so the district's been nice enough to provide a way for us to take meals to the trailer park. And there's a little park right in the middle of the trailer park. And we hand out the meals to the kids in the trailer park and we have about a hundred, maybe 120 kids that come that live in that trailer park that all come and get their food and they're thrilled to see us. They're always just, I think it just makes their day, obviously, as we all know, sitting around your house all day in a small space can be a little boring. And so when they have the chance to just come outside, at least wave to someone they know and smile and get their lunch it makes a huge difference in their day. So well also here at the school, we have about a hundred to 150 people that show up to get one here at school. And they're, they're thrilled to see us as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
And because of the federal government changing their guidelines, those lunches are free for any child 18 or under who shows up. And that's part of the nice thing is you can just give them a lunch. We don't have to enter in numbers. We don't have to track anything. Just every child gets a lunch and, and I've really liked that what I was impressed with when I came over to see lunch operations a week or so ago is how well you knew your community. You just said, you know, we have a neighborhood that you know, the park that would be, they're going to have difficulty coming over to the school. Is there any way we could get a bus over there? And I was just really impressed that you knew your community so well. And boy getting the bus over there was a great idea because it's, it's obviously helping a lot of kids in a lot of families. So thanks for being so in touch with everything.

Speaker 3:
Well, thank you. I, I just was worried about those kids. I, I, they were on my mind constantly.

Anthony Godfrey:
The other things that you've that you're aware of, that teachers are doing to manage teaching online to stay connected with kids. I know this is a, a huge, a huge burden on, on teachers to suddenly shift everything online and engage in a different way. And I know they just plain old miss the kids too on top of everything else, but

Speaker 3:
Right, right. Yeah. So it's been a huge cooperative effort, not just with our teachers, but with our support staff as well to get this up and running. And I'm sure this is the case that many schools across the district and state is, it was a huge undertaking to go all online. And it took a lot of effort and a lot of cooperation from our staff, but there's a lot of cool and interesting things. Our teachers are doing one of our, well, our fourth grade, they are Skyping with scientists throughout the community and throughout the nation. And so they're getting online with scientists and getting their kids online with scientists and having discussions with these, these experts in their field about not only the virus, but the curriculum that they're working on at the time. And so that's been really fun for the kids is to be able to talk and relate to scientists across the nation.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they're not just saying, well, how do we replicate what we've done in the classroom? They're saying, let's take it to the next level and how we can leverage this new circumstance to do some things we might not have done otherwise.

Speaker 3:
Right. Right. Yeah. And a lot of our lower grade teachers, something that they'd been doing is they've been reading stories to their kids online, through their Facebook pages or they're just sending them a video of them reading. So they still get that connection with their peers, with their teacher, and they still are able to hear their teacher read. And that's something that kids love. It that's the best moment of the day having taught first grade is just reading to your kids, reading to your students. And there's such a connection that happens when you're reading to them that it's it's something you don't want to lose. And I truly love doing that. So they've been trying to keep trying to continue that as they do it online. Now,

Anthony Godfrey:
It's exciting that they've found a way to keep that going. And you mentioned the assistance at a title one school in particular, there are more assistance than there may be in another school. And I've just been very impressed at how assistance dive in, find new ways to connect to kids and support teachers. And they just keep working and they're so dedicated, and this has been a big shift for them too. It's a lot of work for them as well. And yet they stay engaged and are big part of, of making this work,

Speaker 3:
Right? Yeah. We have our assistants doing a variety of things. We're trying to get them to do more from home, but some of the things they do or we have our PE assistant providing online PE curriculum and different activities they can do at home. And for their PE we have some of our assistants doing a lot of translating to Spanish for our teachers and even providing direct instruction over the internet to students that need additional help in English. And we have art are some of our assistants helping teach art and providing curriculum and art and just, there's just a ton that they do. And we couldn't have done this without our assistance.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have been, I've been super impressed with just how every employee in Jordan district has jumped in custodians, bus drivers, lunch workers have all sometimes had to do different jobs that they've never done before. We have a lot of bus workers that are helping with the distribution of lunches with custodial services. And everyone has just kind of pitched in to, to see what needed to be done. And it's impacted every employee. And everyone's really risen to the occasion.

Speaker 3:
Yeah, I've seen people are more than willing to do anything that, that our paraprofessionals are cleaning doorknobs and out, picking up garbage and just helping in any way. And then the bus drivers, I am impressed with that. They are best drivers. Not only hand out lunches here at the school, but they also go up to the trailer park and help there and they love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's been great talking with you. You're an amazing principal. You always make it fun. And I really appreciate your taking the time to talk with us and share some of the awesome things that are happening.

Speaker 3:
Oh, not a problem. Always going to share. Thanks Dr. Godfrey. Appreciate the time.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. It's been great. Talking with principal AP Osby from Columbia elementary school. Now we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk with lunch clerk from foothills elementary school, Natalie Texan, about the lunch and breakfast service that's been going on at Fu

Speaker 4:
I'm Steven Hall director of Jordan education foundation. And today's challenging and uncertain times is more important than ever to support one another here at Jordan education foundation, we invite you to join us in providing foods to children. So they are not hungry. Each $10 donation to the foundation will have to feed one student for a weekend with food and hygiene, entrenched books pantries at Jordan district schools depleting and in high demand. Every financial contribution made will help us to keep these pantries filled for students who would otherwise go without Jordan education foundation exists due to the generosity of people who care about kids and teachers. If you would like to donate to help kids from going hungry, visit Jordan education, foundation.org, or contact the foundation at (801) 567-8125. Thank you together. We can make a difference.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. We're back on the super cast with Natalie Texan, the lunch clerk at foothills elementary school, they have been doing a bang up job of continuing services. Even during the school dismissal, they're serving a lot of lunches and breakfasts. Natalie, give us an idea of just what's going on over there. Foothills.

Speaker 3:
Yeah, we, we are serving anywhere from two to 300 breakfasts and up to our highest has been 915 lunches. So about 1200 meals a day, 1200 meals sit down. It's been awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are so appreciative our new of our nutrition services workers who are continuing this service know that families are really relying on it. And it's something for them to look forward to in the day, you know, a long days at home and, and they get to come by and drive by and say, hi.

Speaker 5:
Yeah, I had a family today at breakfast, bring cards for everyone, for everyone that's working and just said how much they appreciate it and it's the highlight of their day. And so it was really nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love hearing that. How many people do you have working there on any given day?

Speaker 5:
So we probably have about 13. We have a group of four bus drivers that helped me outside do the counting and serving and going back and forth and getting the milk. And then we have probably eight lunch ladies or some from other schools and they helped put together all the meals. And then we have other elementeries that contribute because there that we don't have, we cook the main meal, but the, all the like goodies brownies and cookies and stuff like that, other elementary that are baking and bringing them to us. So it's a big team project. It's really cool to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
So even with everything that's going on, we're still baking, right?

Speaker 5:
Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what I love about Jordan school district is, you know, everything is from scratch and so they still get the the baked goods and the kids look forward to that. And it's wonderful.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the other things that are being served right now?

Speaker 5:
So breakfast, we alternate one day it's cereal and they have juice in a fruit and extreme cheese. And then the next day will be like a muffin and similar things and then cereal. And then like a cocoa cherry bar, like a protein bar kind of. And then this week we've served hamburgers. That was a big day. That was our 917 sort of hot dogs today is burritos and tater tots, but they always have a cruder vegetable and they have a treat. And it's just a lot of fun. It's really fun when the cars pull up and you see just the appreciation on the parent's face. I have one mom that she gets tears in her eyes. Every time she pulls up and then the kids, you hear them open their sex or their styrofoam container, and they just start clapping and giggling. And it just is, it's a wonderful feeling to be part of it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I may or may not have a few tears myself. It's a lot of hard work to put 900 hamburgers in the hands of kids, all, all within an hour's timeframe. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
Yes. Yeah. So it definitely takes a team and we could not do it without everyone that's here helping the principals even come out. The principal either the principal or vice principal are always out there. Our dare officer is out there whenever he's here one day. I don't remember his name that he's a supervisor for all the best drivers he was here and he helped us. He was carrying milk back and forth supplying us with milk during the lunch rush. And it's just been such a incredible experience to see everyone just pulled together so that these families can be fed.

Anthony Godfrey:
It really is awesome. And like I said, I know families rely on it and it is wonderful to see nutrition workers from different schools working together and the bus drivers being a part of things as well. I've talked with several who have just loved being a part of what you're doing and it's very rewarding for them.

Speaker 5:
Yeah, I think so too. And it's been so fun getting to know other people, you know, and getting to know one of the lunch that you said came, I also do crossing garden and I'm one of her crossing guards. So that was kind of fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's great. Well, I think it just shows the important connection that there is between nutrition services workers and our bus drivers and the kids. I'm sure the kids are excited, not just for the lunch, but to see you guys and to have a little bit of normalcy where they get to see some friendly, familiar faces.

Speaker 5:
Absolutely. You know, the principal has been out there the last two days and the kids get so excited and they just, and also our other munch worker that comes for two hours and she, you know, is helping the lunch workers. They get so excited. And it's just a little bit of normalcy in this craziness. So yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What other things have you had to do to adapt to the school dismissal? I, I, I'm so impressed that it's a hot meal and there's baking going on. And, you know, when you think grab and go, you don't think hamburgers, hot dogs and freshly baked cookies and brownies, but that's, that's just, that's quite a menu.

Speaker 5:
It is. I mean, they have salads in there and ranch dressing, you know, all those things, but we had you know, we, when we first started this a week ago, we were before that we had to serve maybe 30 lunches in 54, no 54 lunches and maybe 15 breakfast. So we weren't sure what to expect. And so our first day was a little bit chaotic and we had to make some shifts and adjustments because we needed to make sure everyone was safe, social distancing wise. And so we made up some signs and put up some hula-hoops if anyone walks into that, you know, that they're safe and how to pull in some more people. So that it's just been a learning curve. But after the first week we would increase increments of a hundred each day. So we started like 450 and then five, six, seven, eight, nine, but it just is working really well. Everyone just working together and we're finding what works and we're getting everyone through so

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's, that's word of mouth right there about how awesome you guys are and how great the meals are that you're serving. That's great. And I love your description of the setup, those hula hoops. I've seen that in a few different locations, the hula hoops where you stand in a Hulu that is spaced apart, and that you're doing all the service outside, is that correct?

Speaker 5:
Yes. So most of the people drive up, but like yesterday was a warm day, so we had more walk-ups. So we just, we have different people in charge of each area so that they can be quickly given their food and they're able to go. And

Anthony Godfrey:
I, I just really appreciate the hard work our nutrition services workers are doing and, and our bus drivers are doing to help support that. It's, it's really incredible.

Speaker 5:
I just appreciate the team, you know, I'm outside and they just bring these amazing meals out and I get to give them, and I get a, I get to have kind of the people perspective of interacting and they're in here just putting together meals quick as they can. And they come out hot. And it's just amazing how everyone works together.

Anthony Godfrey:
I don't know. I don't know how they do it. I really don't know how to do it. It's amazing. Yeah,

Speaker 5:
It is. It's absolutely amazing. And they just go with it and they just keep coming back and working together. So it's a great thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I understand that on top of feeding, 900 kids every day for lunch and 300 for breakfast, you have eight kids of your own. How are things going at home for you?

Speaker 5:
It's good. I have four college students and they're back home and, and it's working out good. My elementary school son, it's harder. We have to do like 30 minute increments or even 10 minute increments and then take a break. So it's a lot of the day

Anthony Godfrey:
We have to do that with my fifth grader too. That's a breaks. Lots of points would really help.

Speaker 5:
It's just, I, I, I have gotten, just gained so much more respect. I had respect for the teachers anyway, and I get to see him every day, but just everything they do, they are amazing. And now to take on doing online schooling for everyone, I think just everyone has stepped up and it's just showed. There's just so much good in our community. And it's just wonderful to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, well said, there's a lot of good in our community. A lot of great people coming together. This brought out the best in some amazing people. And you're certainly one of those. So thanks for all your efforts, Natalie, it's such a thrill to talk with you. Thanks for everything you're doing. And please give my best to the rest of the crew.

Speaker 5:
I sure will. Thanks so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks again to AB Osby and Natalie Texan for talking with us on the super cast today, they are just a couple of examples of how employees have come together and pitched it to get through this circumstance everywhere you turn, people are taking on extra burdens, doing extra work and coming together to create the best experience possible for students. During this school dismissal, I'm immensely proud of the work that each employee in Jordan district is doing. And I'm deeply appreciative to parents and students for adapting so quickly to a new way of learning, stay safe. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there eventually.