Supercast

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They took center court during a recent Utah Jazz basketball game, but it wasn't to score a point or make a free throw. Two Jordan School District teachers are being honored as “Most Valuable Educators” or MVEs by the Jazz organization. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with Mountain Point Elementary School teacher, Charity Horne, and Joel P Jensen, teacher Mandy Truscott, to find out what it takes to be an MVE and what makes them stand out as educators, elevating everyone around them.

We're at Joel P Jensen today to celebrate an award-winning teacher, and we're talking with Aaron Hunter, her principal as well. Aaron, how are you?

Aaron Hunter:
Doing great.

Anthony Godfrey:
I want you to talk a little bit about Mandy Truscott and why she won this award. Tell us a little bit about this award and what's happening.

Aaron Hunter:
Yeah, so the Jazz and Instructure who run Canvas, they nominate, I want to say this is the first year. I'm not sure, it's a pretty new award. But yeah, people nominate teachers throughout the state for the Most Valuable Educator Award. Mandy was nominated and I can wholeheartedly say, I've known Mandy for a decade, and she's an amazing teacher. You can’t see her classroom, there's no kids in here. But if you walked in, you could, you could already tell by the way things are organized that she's a wonderful teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's very well organized, it's exciting. It's bursting with fruit flavor. It's got colors everywhere, it looks fantastic. And I've known Mandy for a long time, so I know she's a fantastic teacher. Aaron, how would you describe Mandy Truscott?

Aaron Hunter:
So, Mandy Truscott is the teacher. Like if we ever, she never fills referrals out. If we ever got a referral from Mandy Truscott, we would know that it was a very, very serious thing because Mandy just does an excellent job at managing her classroom, keeping her kids engaged. As she mentioned, the growth that her students make is incredible. It's awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you talked about the growth. Tell me, what kind of growth do you see in students who have Mandy's class?

Aaron Hunter:
Yeah. An average student that takes Mrs. Truscott’s class on average makes about three years of growth in reading from beginning to end

Anthony Godfrey:
That's incredible. That's incredible. Awesome. So in addition to there being astronauts, it's a time travel situation as well. Yeah. Because you're making up for lost time.

Mandy Truscott:
Well, that's why we say like they've landed on grade level. They do this like jump and I was like, it's like a little hyper speed. They're in hyperdrive and they eventually can get there, but they have to put in the time and effort.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I'm excited to hear that you got this award, Mandy. Congratulations.

Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. It was really exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your loot. What did you get as a part of this prize?

Mandy Truscott:
There was a thousand dollars to use in my classroom, which was really nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great.

Mandy Truscott:
We got tickets to the Jazz game. There were six of us. We gotta stay in the suite, which was really nice as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Mandy Truscott:
And a personalized Jazz jersey, so that was really exciting as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really?

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Mandy Truscott:
I know. My husband's like,’ let's frame it so you can put it in your classroom.’ And I think we might, cause I don't think I'm gonna be wearing it any time, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And you can sign the jersey for yourself.

Mandy Truscott:
There you go. I could do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, you and I worked together a long time ago.

Mandy Truscott:
Yes. Very long.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. A very long time ago. Most of your career ago, I think. You're teaching reading?

Mandy Truscott:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about that. What do you love about teaching reading?

Mandy Truscott:
I love teaching reading. So I teach remedial reading. So they're kids that are not on grade level, but they don't qualify necessarily for resource services or special ed services. But they definitely still need some help to get caught up. So we kind of catch them, they get put in my class and then that's what we work on, just trying to get them up to proficient grade level.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I can't think of a teacher who would do a better job of making kids feel great about being in the class that is intended to help them catch up.

Mandy Truscott:
It's something they struggle with, so it's not their favorite class.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Mandy Truscott:

But I feel like they do, they do like the class. We have a good repertoire, we have a good relationship.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm sure that part of the reward is seeing the impact on a student realizing they can do something they didn't think they were ever going to be good at.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. It's really exciting to see them make so much progress. So we have like this wall of fame, which you're not in the classroom so you can't see it, but we have this wall of fame where like the kids' names get on the board when they level up, when they increase in grade levels, when they get on grade level. We do a lot of incentives to try and motivate them to do that, and it's really exciting to see. So we always are just pushing them to get on grade level. That's our main purpose.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's look, take us on a tour around your classroom. So I see amazing things happen here. And names of the kids that have landed on grade level.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah, so those are the students who at the beginning of the year were below grade level, but they have since reached all the benchmarks to prove that they are on grade level. And then we have four other sections in the classroom. So the first time they level up or the first time they go up one grade level, they get their name in the ‘I've leveled up one reading level’ column, and then there's a two reading levels, a three reading levels, and a four or more reading levels. And you can see there's 20 kids already who are on the four or more reading levels. I think that like the numbers may be a little misleading. I think some of those kids, they didn't try super hard on the initial assessment.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mandy Truscott:
Which, you know, surprise, surprise. But they do see this progress. And even if they're making progress on lower levels or levels that may be a little bit below where they should be they're feeling success. And that initial success I think helps them for when they do start to encounter more challenging work and more challenging curriculum.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how visual the progress is. Student progress is just right out there for everybody to see. And I have no doubt that it's motivating. Tell me about the planets or the moons that the astronauts have landed on, on this wall.

Mandy Truscott:
I tried to really focus on creating a class community. So I did this like a space theme this year. So we have a little planet up there. I don't know if you can see it very well, but it says JPJ 112. My classroom is room 112.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ah, nice.

Mandy Truscott:
So I told them that we are like a class colony and so each student in my class has a little astronaut on the board and in that astronaut, or on the moon I should say, below the astronaut, it lists information about them. So they gotta tell me who they are at the beginning of the year, and that was really helpful. They did that the very first week of school. So I didn't know them very well, but I was able to take that information and they also filled out like this little star cadet intake form that they filled out so I could learn more about them and what motivated them, what they disliked, anything they wanted to tell me basically.

Anthony Godfrey:
What have some of your themes been over the years?

Mandy Truscott:
Oh, besides my space theme? I did an emoji theme one year. But I really like the space theme. I think I'm gonna stick with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Might stay with it.

Mandy Truscott:
Okay. Yeah. So, we talked about how our learning objective is our mission objective. So we have that over here. Instead of the date, we put the star date.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, love that.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. Anyways, we did they have these reading response journals, but we call 'em mission log. So they write in their mission log.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yes.

Mandy Truscott:
They can earn passport stickers for reading different genres. So yeah, anyways, we kind of did this fun space theme. I kinda ran with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see a bit of a cat corner that has nothing to do with reading, necessarily.

Mandy Truscott:
Nothing to do with reading or with space, but I'm a little bit of a cat lady, so we have a little bit of a cat corner going on.

Anthony Godfrey:
I respect that. I respect that.

Mandy Truscott:
The kids will draw me pictures of cats occasionally.

Anthony Godfrey:
They know what you like. That’s a good thing.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. They know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what was it that initially drew you to teaching?

Mandy Truscott:
I don't, it's kind of a weird story. I did not get my bachelor's degree in teaching. I got my bachelor's degree in political science and I was initially going to join the foreign service, is what I had wanted to do. I interned in DC in the Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. And I became interested in education doing that. And then I came back to Utah, which is where I'm from. And I started to substitute teach just to make a little bit of money and I liked it. And I got a job as a para. And then I decided to go back to school and get a graduate degree in education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm very grateful to whoever was sick and needed you as a substitute.

Mandy Truscott:
It was a roundabout way of doing it, but I'm glad I did it. I feel like it was definitely meant to be, definitely what has become my passion and it became my passion really quickly. So I was a paraprofessional in a special education classroom, and so I initially did special education, I did that for eight years and then I transferred over to general ed and now doing remedial reading in general education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, having worked with you many moons ago, it's no surprise to me that you won this award and I'm really glad to see that you're still teaching and these are some lucky kids.

Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear from Most Valuable Educator Charity Horne.

Break:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian? Commercial pilot? Programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant. These are just some of the programs offered as part of Career and Technical Education. CTE in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment or for a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and Technical Education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with the Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District visit cte.jordandistrict.org today and let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Mountain Point Elementary and we have Principal Elizabeth Felt here and Charity Horne, the Most Valuable Educator award winner. We're gonna talk with Charity about her experience, but first Elizabeth, tell me about Charity Horne as a teacher.

Elizabeth Felt:
I can't stop saying wonderful things about Charity. Charity is one of those bright lights here at Mountain Point. She is one of those teachers that goes above and beyond for every single student here in the building. She is well known by all of our parents. She is a cheerleader for everybody. She's in the hall constantly sharing just exciting things that are going on in her classroom. And when she goes out for bus duty, she's the most cheerful person out there. She is waving people down to get them down the lane to pull forward and people love it. They smile at her, which is a great thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now that is a remarkable accomplishment. I've worked the curb at elementary schools over the years. That is not a place where love is shared very much. So that's pretty exciting. And from the moment I walked in, I could tell the energy that she has.

Elizabeth Felt:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Charity, tell me about winning this award. How did all that come to be?

Charity Horne:
Well, I got an email and I thought it was spam and I thought, ‘Oh, this has to be a joke.’ So I responded and just said, ‘Hey, is this for real?’ And she responded and said, ‘Yes it is. And you were nominated by some parents for the award and one of the nominations stood out to us. So we chose you.’

Anthony Godfrey:
How nice to be nominated. Now, it's never fun to talk about yourself.

Charity Horne:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what were some of the nominations? Elizabeth, did you get a chance to read those?

Elizabeth Felt:
No, I actually didn't because, like Charity, I thought it was spam. I hadn’t heard of it before.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you get an email that says you won and it has all these exclamation points, you do wonder.

Elizabeth Felt:
Yeah. So I remember debriefing with Charity in the hall and we're like, ‘Did you get this email?’ ‘Yeah, I got this email.’ ‘What do you think we should do?’ ‘Is this real?’ Yeah. And so then when we reached out and we were like,’ okay, I think they wanna do something. So I don't know what that looks like because they're not really sure what it looks like.’ So we're like, okay, well let's just go for a ride and it's gonna be great. We’ll see how it goes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you thought they were fake prizes at first?

Charity Horne:
Totally. Totally.

Anthony Godfrey:
But what were the real prizes that you ended up winning as a result?

Charity Horne:
Well, I earned a thousand dollars. And then I got to go to the Jazz game with my family and take my boys and we went and got in the suite. Then they gave me a Jazz jersey and the Jazz Bear came to our school and recognized me on stage.

Anthony Godfrey:
A personalized Jazz jersey from what I've heard.

Charity:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And what's the Jazz bear like close up?

Charity Horne:
He is fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?

Charity Horne:
Yeah. Yeah. He messed with my hair.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does he smell kind of earthy?

Charity Horne:
Ah, you know, I was so nervous. I didn't notice.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they honored you on the floor during a Jazz game?

Charity Horne:
Yes. They honored me on the floor during the Jazz game as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's pretty exciting.

Charity Horne:
It was so awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me what grade you teach first of all.

Charity Horne:
First grade. I teach first grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
First grade. That's awesome. What do you love about teaching first grade?

Charity Horne:
Honestly, just the innocence of the kids. They're just, they're so excited to be here. They're so excited. They just love you no matter what, you know? And they don't judge you. I mean, you cannot comb your hair and it won't matter. You know, adults tend to judge.

Anthony Godfrey:
But they notice everything about you too don’t they?

Charity Horne:
They do. They notice it all. They do. And I'm like, you know what? It's okay. I didn't do, my hair today. Okay, Mrs. Horne

Anthony Godfrey:
So did they ever say ‘What's wrong, Mrs. Horne?’ when you thought you were covering it up?

Charity Horne:
No, but they have pointed out blemishes or zits or anything that's wrong with you.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you have to go in ready a little bit?

Charity Horne:
A little bit, yeah. But they don't care. I mean, they're just, they're excited to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Now how long have you taught first grade?

Charity Horne:
I've been teaching first grade for six years. This is my sixth year in first grade. And I've taught two years of second grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
So two years of second grade, six years of first grade. How many hugs does that equal over those years?

Charity Horne:
Millions.

Anthony Godfrey:
Millions of hugs.

Charity Horne:
It’s a lot of hugs.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is the good part.

Charity Horne:
Because they move on, but they still love you, so they still come back and hug you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so it's not just the hugs when they're there.

Charity Horne:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's the after-hugs.

Charity Horne:
Yeah. That's my older students.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's pretty exciting.

Charity Horne:
It's awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to someone who's thinking about teaching elementary school?

Charity Horne:
Honestly, it's a hard job, but you have to have, your heart's gotta be in it. You gotta wanna make a difference and you gotta love helping little kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's one of your favorite things to teach in first grade?

Charity Horne:
I like teaching math.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?

Charity Horne:
Math.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the math skills that first graders are learning right now?

Charity Horne:
Adding and subtracting within 20, learning to make a 10, regroup.

Anthony Godfrey:
Regrouping. Yeah. I try to regroup as much as I can. It's good.

Charity Horne:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a good skill to have.

Charity Horne:
It's a good skill to have.

Anthony Godfrey:
What drew you to teaching initially?

Charity Horne:
Well, I graduated with education and back then, it was too much work, so I was like, ‘I'm not gonna be a teacher. There's no way. It's so much work.’ But so, and quickly after that, I got pregnant with twins. So my life changed to mommy mode and I ended up opening up a daycare and was gonna do a tumbling studio, and all these different branches of life going different directions. And when my daycare kids had kind of moved on and I decided to look at the school and just see if there was a part-time aide position. And I got hired as a math aide. And my Principal at the time, Mandy Thurman, called me and said, ‘Hey, I hired you as a math aide, but I talked to the district about reactivating your license. I really need teachers. What do you think? I think you'd be great.’ And thought about it. And it was just a gut feeling that it was something I needed to do. So I did it and it was a thousand times harder than it was back then.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it does get harder over time.

Charity Horne:
It does get harder over time, but I think that that hard work just makes you a better person and a better teacher. You'll learn from mistakes, you'll learn from positives, you learn from everything and you just become better. So one of the things I love, I came up with it a couple of years ago. I had heard another teacher was doing it and I thought it was phenomenal, but teaching kids that they can do hard things. And so I came up with a motto that I wanted them to say every morning. And it goes, ‘I can do hard things. I know if I think positive, work hard, and try my best, I will succeed. I believe in myself, I can do anything.’ And it's kind of one of those things that I want them to know. Know that like even in life, not just first grade, life gets hard sometimes. And if you work hard and you just do the best you can, you know you're gonna succeed.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And I'll bet they remember it years later.

Charity Horne:
I have kids, a girl that I taught in first grade at Riverton Elementary goes to school here, I think she's in sixth grade and she's like, ‘Hey Mrs. Horne, how are you? I remember our motto.’ So she still remembers it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then she recites it for you.

Charity Horne:
Yeah. Well, it was funny cuz I actually went running with one of my first grade parents. And we were going around the track and I hate running, I hate cardio. And so I'm just like, ‘I can't do this.’ And she's like, ‘I can do hard things.’ So we just started running and we were doing the motto. She was like, ‘See, it works for adults too.’ So I just think it's a strong quality that I have just for anybody. Like you can do it. You know, our first reaction is sometimes, ah, that's too hard. I can't do it. But if you just learn that you can do whatever you put your mind to, if you keep working on it, you'll get it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. I would assume that as a first grade teacher, you get to see a ton of progress.

Charity Horne:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Charity Horne:
That's probably one of my favorite things about first grade, I feel like I do such incredible work. Because if you look at their beginning of the year tests and handwriting and writing journals, and then you go to the end and I'm like, holy cow. I taught them. You know, as a team, we work together to teach narrative, informative, and opinion writing. They can add and subtract. They're just, they're just bright little humans.

Anthony Godfrey:
A school supervisor showed me the other day, what a first grade student had done over the course of the year. They were so excited for the progress they'd made. And they showed, you know, the writing that they did at the beginning of the year and the writing they're doing now. And it's really cool to see, this huge progress kids make.

Charity Horne:
It’s incredible. They make a ton of progress. And even with reading, I mean, they're barely connecting those sounds and letters and putting 'em together. And by the end, they're reading full passages.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for spending the time, and most of all, thanks for everything you do to help create a great experience for these first graders.

Charity Horne:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was an evening of reflection, recognition, and celebration. Students from schools throughout Jordan School District came together in song and dance to celebrate Black History Month in a meaningful way. On this episode of the Supercast, hear from students who participated in the performances and why they're passionate about educating others on the importance of Black History Month.

We're here at Elk Ridge Middle School for Black Excellence Night. Our Legacy is the name of the celebration tonight, and we're here with three of the students who are participating. Introduce yourselves, and what grade you're in, and what school you're from.

Marc:
I'm Marc. I'm from West Jordan High School and I am the BSU President.

Adjoa:
I'm Adjoa and I'm from Herriman High School. I'm the BSU President as well.

Siriya:
I'm Siriya. I go to Copper Hills High School. I'm a senior and I'm also BSU president.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, I'm in the presence of three presidents. That's awesome. So tell me, what are you looking forward to tonight? What are you excited about?

Marc:
I'm really excited to see all the other schools cause I haven't been able to see what they're doing. But I'm really excited also to see just the Black Excellence in the auditorium.

Adjoa:
This is my first meeting that I've been to and I'm super excited to just see what it's all about and seeing all the different dances and the different BSUs. My BSU will be hopefully showing up too and will be our first time because our school is just barely new this year, so, super excited.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Siriya:
I'm also excited to see all the other BSUs or other people that are gonna perform and just Black Excellence altogether.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are the things that you hope the audience takes away from their experience tonight? As they're walking to their cars, they're driving home, as they're thinking about things this weekend, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

Marc:
I want them to be educated. I want them to see that Black Excellence is prominent in Utah.

Adjoa:
It's very important that we help spread just awareness that we are here and that we do have cultures and that we are a community.

Siriya:
I really hope people actually see the diversity of like what Marc said because it's obviously a predominantly white state. And so obviously I hope they take away something from this and they actually leave feeling educated.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me what each of your schools is contributing to the event tonight.

Marc:
So West Jordan High School is contributing a song and a poem done by me. The song and the poem are written by me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, really?

Marc:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what the song and poem are about or the title. Tell me a little bit about it.

Marc:
So the title of the poem is I'm a Black Man and then the song is Freedom.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Great.

Adjoa:
I am the student highlight this year and I will be talking about my BSU efforts in raising money for our school's fundraiser, Hearts of Gold.

Anthony Godfrey:
What were some of the things that BSU did for Hearts of Gold?

Adjoa:
We made a whole bunch of cookies and then we sold those cookies during lunch periods and we decided to do some at a basketball game and we raised money.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this is a chance for you to connect with the community, connect with parents, but as students for you to connect with other schools as well?

Adjoa:
Yes, of course. It's gonna help us out a lot in figuring out different ideas to do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what Copper Hills is doing tonight.

Siriya:
So my BSU is going to be performing two different dances. So we're gonna be performing an African dance and an African American dance, which has African American artists.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Looking forward to it. So you're all Presidents of the Black Student Union. Tell us about what the Black Student Union does in your school.

Marc:
So, so far this year the Black Student Union has helped a lot with charity season. Our charity this year was Tiny Tim's Toys for Tots. The BSU, we held a social for Tiny Tim's Toys for Tots, and we made these little cars and it only takes $2 to make each car. And so we had people donate money and whatnot. So we got a bunch of money and then each $2, we gotta make one car for that.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I know that BSU is just getting underway at your school, but what are some of the things that you already have going?

Adjoa:
Black History Month is coming up and my BSU is planning on some really fun activities. We've got a whole bunch of posters that we made today and we're going to be putting them up as like a gallery in our library. And so it'll be going all around the library. We have a whole bunch of posters and each poster has several different Black heroes and events that have happened in Black culture and history. And at the end of the month, during like the last two weeks, we'll be doing a spirit week for like the two weeks cuz we have break. So we're just adding those weeks together and so our whole entire school will be involved in dressing up on certain days. Like we have 70s Day, we have Jazz Day, we have Blackout Day where our whole BSU will be wearing our brand new sweatshirts that we just made with our new logo on 'em. And then we'll be having a social on our last day over Spirit Week where everyone from our whole entire school and all the other schools are invited. And we'll also be doing personal invites to the different culture clubs that we have at our school to come and join us so then we can all like, join together and get to know each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about at Copper Hills? What has the Black Student Union been up to there?

Siriya:
So we've also been doing fundraisers and the last biggest event thing that we like really did was a clothing drive during the winter for like kids and just families that don't have really like anything. And we just donated a bunch of fleece blankets, and clothes, socks, just everything, and toys. And also with Black History coming up, my school's gonna be doing a pop-up museum with a bunch of Black historical figures and we're so excited for that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there's a lot of education, a lot of fundraising, a lot of outreach to others, and making sure that you're helping those around you in the community. So, congratulations. It's obviously your great leaders and that wonderful things are happening at your schools as a result of your efforts. So thanks for talking with me and I can't wait to see the performances tonight, so thanks again. Stay with us. When we come back more on the Black History Month celebration.

Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
We also have Toni Brown, one of our specialists here. Now you've been involved in all of the planning here, this has been talked about for quite a while.

Toni Brown:
So this kind of program has gone on in other districts, but we're really excited to bring it to Jordan School District for the first time because we have so many active BSUs that have so much to contribute.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about some of the things that are happening tonight. I understand that Black icons are taped to the back of each of the chairs. Talk to me a little bit about that project.

Toni Brown:
We're seeing the Black Excellence Program this year as kind of a kickoff to Black History Month. So on the back of the chairs, there are different Black history makers and icons. People from Rosa Parks, and Beyoncé, to Michelle Obama, and Sojourner Truth, we're spanning gender and time just trying to highlight different people from our history.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what are some of the other activities that are happening? I know there's some dances, poetry, music, and we have a Senegalese food truck as well.

Toni Brown:
Yeah, we're really excited for that. It's gonna be great food. There's gonna be all kinds of flavors and we're hoping that everybody tries it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm looking forward to it. We'll give it a try. Senegalese food truck. I've had a lot of corn dog food trucks, but not a Senegalese food truck. Why is this an important night Toni?

Toni Brown:
The Black Excellence Program is important because this is our first opportunity to bring kids from BSUs across the district together so that they can build community, so that they can display their talents, and so that they can celebrate their culture. That's what it's all about tonight. We're here to be together and enjoy each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a fabulous reason to throw a celebration like this and I'm looking forward to seeing all the students. I got to see a little bit of a preview of some of the performances. I think it's gonna be a great night.

MC:
My job right now is to introduce our next performer. He is a student performer. His name is Marc from West Jordan.

Marc:
Freedom
Oh, freedom by God.
Oh, freedom.
Oh, freedom.
Free, free at last.
Into the new day.
Free, free to glory.
Free, I am free now.
Lord, by God.
I am the son of a King.

Thank you all.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are an impressive group of Jordan School District students determined to make a difference and win in national competition with the development of a unique school safety app. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside the JATC North Web Design class, where students are already in the running for a prestigious honor on a national stage because of their determination to help students stay safe in schools across the country. They want to do it with a specially designed app they hope will give people peace of mind in an emergency.

We're here celebrating CTE Month at the Jordan Academy for Technology and Careers, the North campus at around 90th South and Bangerter, talking with the Web Design teacher. Go ahead and introduce yourself.

Melinda Mansouri:
My name's Melinda Mansouri and I've been at the technology center for the last 11 years and my program is web design. Our students, our goal is entry-level work upon graduation or completion of the program. So our students not only learn about design and code, but they are able to go in and do internships with schools and business partners by the end of the program.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they're ready to work when they graduate from high school and get an entry-level job in web development. Right?

Melinda Mansouri:
Yes. I have students all over the state working as web developers at different universities and schools. It's a great student job, whether they're doing freelance web development or actually doing some work-study jobs at the universities and there's so many websites and there's lots of work.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's a lot of work out there. Obviously, I'm on websites all day long and they all need a web developer. So tell me about what the experience looks like from a student perspective. It's four classes out of your high school schedule. It's available to juniors and seniors, is that correct?

Melinda Mansouri:
All of that's correct. Next year we also have what's called a Code Boot Camp that is specifically for some of our high schools that aren't able to offer Programming I that will help bridge the students from those high schools into the full programming that's offered here at the JATC or they can stay and be web developers, in which case they would have the chance to get more skills and more experience.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how do they get more information about the summer program?

Melinda Mansouri:
Oh, if you go to the website at jordantech.org there is all sorts of program information and there's an apply button. Everyone has to apply to come to the tech center, but don't be afraid of that. The apply is just a way for us to gather information and be able to add you into our programs. But don't be intimidated by it. It's pretty easy. It's just a Google form.

Anthony Godfrey:
And there's a morning option and then an afternoon option.

Melinda Mansouri:
Yes. And our students spend the other half day at their home high school doing what they've been doing. And so we also have transportation and so don't feel like you have to have a car to come to the tech center. You can ride the bus. We have buses from every high school and you can arrive by bus at your school and then take the tech center bus or the opposite on the way home.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if this is something of interest there aren't really obstacles in the way, jump in and give it a shot. Now tomorrow you're out at schools giving students some real-world experience. Tell me about that.

Melinda Mansouri:
Yes, each student is placed at a different school in Jordan District, whether that's with counseling center websites or different websites at all of the different schools. And they work in partnership with the person who's in charge of web at the school. We do updates, sometimes if they have a big project like a directory that takes a lot of hours of time, we'll help with some specific projects. Not every school has someone trained in website development, and so it's a real win-win. My students are working on the professional skills needed and we are so lucky to have Jordan District, everything from teachers to administrators, who are their mentors and helping them gain professional skills.

Anthony Godfrey:
And we benefit from the students' creativity and newfound skills.

Melinda Mansouri:
Yes, it's a win-win. And then the students head out into some type of a business internship fourth quarter. They spend a minimum of 40 hours doing real website work for a real business so that they've built their portfolio so that they're ready to work.

Anthony Godfrey:
They can show actual work they've done for a company and it doesn't have to be something they want to do as a lifelong pursuit. It can be like you were saying earlier, a side job or just something to get them through school, kind of a part-time job, or it can turn into a full-time career.

Melinda Mansouri:
It's a great place to start. And even if your intention is to do something else, whatever business you work for will have a website, and that ups your value if you can help work with the web developer for that website. An know if a change is a small change or if you're asking for a big change. Clients don't often know which they're asking for. So these are just great skills to have in today's job market in general.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic.
Stay with us. When we come back more with Melinda Mansouri and her tech savvy students

Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with three of the students in the Web Development program. Go ahead and introduce yourselves and what high school you're coming from.

Amanda:
My name is Amanda and I come from West Jordan High.

Dalton:
My name is Dalton and I come from Riverton High.

Jacob:
I'm Jacob and I come from West Jordan High.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about this app that you've developed. First of all, it sounds pretty interesting.

Dalton:
So it's a tracking app for schools, so in an emergency, they can find students quickly and potentially save or reduce injuries in schools.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what was the inspiration for creating an app like this?

Amanda:
Well, I think basically how the situations we've been through in our schools, like when there is a fire or something like that and people can't get out safely or quickly enough, and that's where it came from, I think.

Anthony Godfrey:
So just out of concern for student safety. Tell me about the mock-ups and where are the ideas taking you right now.

Jacob:
So right now using Adobe XD, which is a mockup program, we've kind of made a layout of what we want the app to look like, and we've made paths and we've made notifications that will pop up when there's an emergency. And so we're using this to kind of formulate how it's gonna work. We've also made an actual physical website, like just using a code editor, me and my partner Aiden. And so it will, like, it's a working prototype. It doesn't have any of the backend stuff that will actually notify people yet.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it sounds like developing an app is a lot more complicated than some people might think.

Jacob:
Oh, yes. Extremely complicated. And we're also, another part of this is setting up actual hardware on doors. That is going to be a challenge because we're developers, not really engineers, so we're gonna have to find a way to do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, ultimately what will the app accomplish based on the concept that you're working on right now?

Dalton:
So currently we have it set up for it, there's a potential for it to work as a kind of attendance system, which kind of incentivizes students to carry their ID badge with them so that we can actually track them in an emergency. So for example, there's an earthquake and part of the building collapses where students can't get out of the building and there's potentially more debris falling down in the building. First responders need to get there quickly so that they can get the clear out of the way for students to get out and so they don't get hurt.

Anthony Godfrey:
So in other words, we're able to find students in an emergency using hardware mounted above the door as long as students are wearing an ID badge and if we use the ID badge for attendance purposes, then students are required to wear the badge and then the system works in case of emergency. If you were trying to sell me on the app and it was fully developed, what are some of the things you would tell me about why we ought to use this app?

Amanda:
I would say for safety to keep students more safe in the schools, basically.

Anthony Godfrey:
So is this mostly an app that's designed for administrators and emergency service workers? Anyone who's responsible for tracking students in case of emergency?

Amanda:
Exactly, especially for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, if this app were to take off, there are tens of thousands of schools in the country. So it has a really big potential and student safety is always first on our minds and on everyone's mind across the country. What are some of the obstacles that you've run into? Obviously, it's a complicated process and I think you talked with some of our own security personnel. What are some of the difficulties that you've come up against as you've explored this idea?

Jacob:
So yes, we have talked with the district safety advisor and he gave us some really good advice. So one of the biggest concerns right now is security and privacy. So if we're tracking where kids are in a building, like that information won't be compromised and used to someone's advantage. And that's a really big concern. But we have we have combatted that by having, when someone like logs into the system, it will send out an email to, I mean, hypothetically it will send an email out to all the parents whose students are involved. So they know not only that someone's logged in, but if their child is safe or in danger. We've also thought about automating like the 911 call. When someone logs in it automatically calls 911 so that no one is just logging on for fun or for their personal gain.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So the 911 kind of becomes the alarm system that's connected to anyone logging in. So you'd log in only in case of emergency? Is there a parent application so that parents could track where their child is throughout the day?

Jacob:
Again, we're still in the beginning phase just working stuff out. We have thought about that. We have thought about even having students have an app that they could log in themselves to track or even have their phone be their badge that they sign in with. But we're not really sure. We're still kind of working it out, but we got possibilities open.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. I love the way you're exploring the idea.

Dalton:
One concern with allowing parents to track students is it becomes a security problem, whereas someone who isn't their parent might be able to figure out login information and access where the child is in the building. So if someone were to specifically target an individual student, they might end up being able to just track them with our system, which is a big problem with enabling parents to track their own students.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And you're doing a nice job obviously of thinking through all the security concerns. And have you thought about an opt-out for parents where parents could choose not to have their student participate?

Amanda:
Yeah, that's basically, yeah, we have this idea that maybe some parents wouldn't like their students to be tracked and we would give a form out to parents and they could sign if they want their student in or not.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. All right. You're entering this app and this concept into a contest sponsored by Samsung. Tell me about how that's going.

Jacob:
So yeah, Samsung has given us $2,500 right now in Samsung products. And we're gonna use that I think for phones, for mobile development. And so then we can actually test our app on phones and the next phase will give us, I think it's like 10 grand with an additional like video media kit so that we can actually film and document our stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when will you find out the next level of the competition?

Dalton:
It'll be February 15th.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have you submitted everything?

Dalton:
It's all done, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Well, I wish you luck. Tell me what's the name of the competition?

Amanda:
Samsung Solve For Tomorrow.

Anthony Godfrey:
So we've talked about the app, tell me more about the class. Of course, you're creating this app as an offshoot of the things that you're learning here, but tell me about the class in general, especially for those who might be considering enrolling.

Jacob:
So yeah, this class is awesome. We not only do coding for development, we also do the design and learn how to make a beautiful website.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the art and science of it?

Jacob:
Yes, art, yes. And that's what differentiates us from computer programming is that we also do Digital Me in this class. We all certify in Photoshop and Illustrator in the first couple of months and that helps us prototype and design websites.

Anthony Godfrey:
And do you look at websites differently now that you're seeing things from the design end?

Dalton:
Yeah, it's quite a bit different. When I took programming here last year and in that class, it's all about the code, and when I wasn't expecting the amount of art that goes into designing a website and how much time it takes just to get a simple website set up.

Anthony Godfrey:
So maybe there's a better appreciation for the websites that you access knowing how much work it takes?

Amanda:
Totally.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks very much for spending time with me. I'll let you get back to your projects. Good luck in the competition and my fingers are crossed for you.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a program designed to help students learn a language in new and effective ways while enhancing cultural awareness. On this episode of the Supercast, we visit with Chinese Dual Language Immersion students and teachers from Southland Elementary School to find out why they love learning another language. Find out what happens when we follow the students on a fascinating field trip to a Buddhist temple.

We're here with two teachers from Southland Elementary School on the field trip to the Cambodian Buddhist Temple. Thank you very much for letting me join you. Go ahead and introduce yourselves, please.

Xiaoyu Fan:
This is Xiaoyu Fan. I'm the fourth-grade teacher at Southland.

Jia Wei:
I'm Jia Wei, the Southland sixth-grade teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what is the purpose of the field trip here? It's been really interesting hearing from them about the Buddhist religion, about and about the temple. Tell me about what you hope the students gain from this experience.

Xiaoyu Fan:
So we feel like this field trip provides a great opportunity for the students, not only in the immersion-like environment in the school but also brings that immersion experiment like experience for them outside school as well. And the purpose of coming to the Buddhism temple is to let them know, because Buddhism is the most people worship in China, it's their major religion. So we would like to have the students have an opportunity to not learn, not necessarily learn about the religion, but to expose them to the more diverse culture.

Jia Wei:
I agree with what Ms. Fan said. I think it's important for students to be more open-minded to the cultures and the philosophies and realize we can work together with other people also.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was fascinating to watch the kids. I got to sit up front. They were rapt with attention. They were paying close attention. They're fascinated by all of this. So I think it's really a rich cultural experience for them to be able to do this. So thank you for going to the work to make this possible.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Thank you. It's an honor to have you to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about teaching here in the United States and teaching in the Dual Immersion program.

Xiaoyu Fan:
It's, to me, it's such an eye-opening experience because in China usually you have one subject taught by one teacher. But here we have, we get to teach all different subjects in our language, in Chinese. And I think it's definitely seeing how much students learn, seeing how much students are able to say in Chinese, and see how much students love about the culture and learn about the culture and really immerse in that culture. It's very fascinating

Anthony Godfrey:
Learning a foreign language for me has always been important. My father was a foreign language teacher, but I still am always impressed when I see a teacher stand in front of children this young and speak rapidly and they understand and they respond. It's really, really remarkable. So thanks for doing such a great job with them.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Thank you. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your experience teaching in the United States and in the Dual Language program.

Jia Wei:
I think the best part is to grow with my students together to understand the language. I think my students taught me more than I taught them in the language immersion program. And they helped me to understand myself and the cultures.

Anthony Godfrey:
Students grow very close to each other when they're together. I know that they mix up the classes somewhat, but you pretty much get to know the same kids through those elementary years in particular. Tell me about the value that you see in that.

Jia Wei:
The value is to be, to find out who they are, and to find out what we can do for the world.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, this is an exciting program. It's an exciting experience. Thank you for everything that you're doing to make this such a great learning environment for kids.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Thank you so much. Thank you.

Jia Wei:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hi Kimball. What grade are you in?

Kimball:
I'm in sixth grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kimball, tell me about your experience here today.

Kimball:
It was pretty cool. It was fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the things that you learned?

Kimball:
I learned that the monk, like anyone can be the monk. I thought just males should be the monk, but girls can also be the monk.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what did you learn about what it's like to be a monk? What is a monk's life like?

Kimball:
You can't eat. Like you have to eat only at like 12:00 or like 12:00 or under and you can't eat anything after that.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was the fasting all afternoon and evening that made me decide. I don't think that's my path.

Kimball:
Yeah. Seriously.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's pretty impressive though. Tell me about being in the Chinese Dual Immersion program.

Kimball:
It's great. You speak Chinese, the teachers are awesome. They're so kind and if you don't understand anything they're like really welcome and like help you.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're in sixth grade now. Do you remember what it was like in first grade when you were just starting out?

Kimball:
I do.

Anthony Godfrey:
What was that like?

Kimball:
At first, it was kind of weird. I remember the first day I was sitting there and I was like, can I speak English? Is that okay? Cause I don't know any Chinese and they were really nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
They were nice about it.

Kimball:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:

And now do you need to speak any English in class?

Kimball:
Not really, no.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you start to think in Chinese when you're not even in class?

Kimball:
Yeah. Well, but when I'm in English, I think in English. But when I do Chinese I'm thinking in Chinese and saying Chinese.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're able to switch back and forth?

Kimball:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great. Teach me a little bit of Chinese here.

Kimball:
Nǐ hǎo is hi.

Anthony Godfrey:
Nǐ hǎo

Kimball:
Zàijiàn is goodbye.

Anthony Godfrey:
Zàijiàn

Kimball:
Zàijiàn.

Anthony Godfrey:
Zàijiàn. Okay. And what’s your favorite word?

Kimball:
I like Píngguǒ.

Anthony Godfrey:
Píngguǒ.

Kimball:
Píngguǒ, it’s apple.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's cool. Yeah. Okay. Very nice meeting you Kimball.

Kimball:
Yeah. Nice meeting you too. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me your name.

Eden:
My name is Eden.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Eden, what grade are you in?

Eden:
Fifth.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what do you like most about being in Chinese Dual Immersion?

Eden:
I don't know. I really love being in Chinese Immersion cuz it's so fun to see what we have in common with Chinese culture. And also it's really fun to learn new things cuz it's like you can always learn new things and have something to look forward to.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you think it keeps your brain firing a lot to be learning Chinese every day?

Eden:
Yeah it does take a lot of like thought and stuff to like learn Chinese, but like after doing five years of Chinese, it's like getting slowly easier.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have you been surprised at how much Chinese you've been able to learn?

Eden:
Yes, I am really surprised. I remember when I was like in first grade and I couldn't understand Chinese at all and now I can understand and whenever I hear someone at like the grocery store speaking Chinese, I can understand them. It's really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's kind of like a secret language that you get to use with your friends, right?

Eden:
Yeah. My dad has been learning it and sometimes we talk at home with him and my mom is just like, waka, waka, waka.

Anthony Godfrey:
She just doesn't even know what to say.

Eden:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's really fun that you have your own language. What would you say to parents who are thinking about putting their kids in a Chinese Dual Immersion program?

Eden:
I'd say they should try it. It's okay if it's not like that easy for them, but I always like to try new things and I'm so glad that I tried it. It was really awesome. It may be hard at first cuz like it's a whole new language, you know, but like I know that if you can just keep going with it and try it then you can do it. But like, if it's way too hard then that's okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love your curiosity that you always wanna learn new things. That's awesome. Thanks for talking with me.

Eden:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Please introduce yourself.

Raymond Hour:
My name is Ray. I am the director at Utah Cambodian Community Buddhist Temple. And my job is to coordinate, help the monks and the priest and the community what they need for our temple in terms of operation and that kind of stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much for allowing our students to come and visit today. You had some great questions from them.

Raymond Hour:
I do. The student here they ask very good question. Then some of them look like they understand the philosophy and the basic one. And hopefully when they grow up they study more and then they have very open-minded.

Anthony Godfrey:
I like when you asked them about karma. Tell me about their answers.

Raymond Hour:
Oh, they are so good. They understand and say, do good thing in life, many thing come back in return. They call good karma. Do bad thing in life, many bad thing might come back. And he say that the bad karma. I say, wow, you understand it so good.

Anthony Godfrey:
I remember the first student said if you do bad things, that will come back to haunt you. I thought that was a pretty good summary as well.

Raymond Hour:
That is correct. Always. That's why I try to encourage students and other members, Hey, just do good, help each other. Whatever. You can even talk to an elderly. Donate a little bit. It makes you feel good. That's called good karma.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you for being so welcoming and allowing our students to be here.

Raymond Hour:
Oh, you're welcome. It's very good education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you.
Stay with us. When we come back more with our Chinese Dual Language Immersion students and a trip to Chinatown.

Break:
Hello, I'm Tracy Miller, President of the Jordan School District Board of Education. There are seven members on the Board of Education, one in each voting district. We are committed to listening and serving our constituents as we work together to provide the best possible learning environment for the students we serve. As members of the Jordan Board of Education, we believe it is our duty and responsibility to: increase student achievement; provide parents with the choices they deserve and desire; recognize and reward quality in educators; empower school leaders through policy governance and professional development; and communicate with the public, legislators, business leaders, cities, and parents. We invite you to get to know the Board member who represents you in your voting district and to please join us at our monthly board meeting held on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Or listen from the comfort of your home, on our live stream. For more information and to find your Board member, visit jordandistrict.org. With parent and community input and support, we will continue our work to give students every opportunity to succeed in Jordan District schools and beyond. Thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now we are at the Chinatown Market. Is that correct?

Jia Wei:
Yeah, that is absolutely right.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Now tell me, this is a large grocery store with all Chinese products.

Jia Wei:
Yes, it is the biggest one in the whole county.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me what is the activity that the students are engaged in right now?

Jia Wei:
So students going to learn the Chinese food and the merchandise, whatever they interested and they're gonna bring something to the class and talk about that in a Kiva.

Anthony Godfrey:
So do they get to kind of choose what is most interesting to them?

Jia Wei:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then come back and explain it?

Jia Wei:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can we go take a walk down the aisle and you can show me something?

Jia Wei:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Let's walk through. If they wanted to stop by, where is the market located?

Jia Wei:
Okay, it's on the State Street in South Salt Lake.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let’s see what we've got. I see belt fish here. I've never had belt fish.

Jia Wei:
I've never seen that before.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about turbo fish?

Jia Wei:
Nope.

Anthony Godfrey:
No turbo fish. Okay. So it's full of surprises for you as well?

Jia Wei:
Yes, yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some things that you might have expected to find here that you can't see elsewhere?

Jia Wei:
Maybe some spices or chopped meat.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Jia Wei:
They have a very thin sliced pork for the Chinese New Year Hot Pot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Looks like we have pork heart and pork liver as well.

Jia Wei:
It's called fish meatball, I think.

Anthony Godfrey:
A fish meatball. Fish ball with dried mushroom. I had that for breakfast.

Jia Wei:
Really?

Anthony Godfrey:
No, I'm just kidding. Okay, so we're on the candy and cookie aisle, it looks like here in this market. Are you seeing anything that looks good to you?

Student 1:
Well, they're these cookie things that look like straws or just like any cookie things, they just look very good. They just look good because I have something called Piroulines. If you know what those are, and they're just really good.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about this right here? It looks like it's bursting with fruit flavor.

Student 1:
I don't really like jelly.

Anthony Godfrey:
You don't like jelly?

Student 1:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
So that's not gonna work?

Student 1:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
Anything else? What else looks good here? How about you? Egg rolls. Egg Rolls. Crisp is what it says. Do Crisp Egg Rolls sound good in a canister with a smiley face on it?

Student 2:
I like the ducks. It's really cute.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so the cute package. Maybe you can judge a snack by its package. Anything else look good to you guys?

Student 3:
These like weird rice things. They just look kind of like interesting to taste.

Anthony Godfrey:
They do look interesting. Just kind of an odd cereal kind of stuck together.

Student 3:
Because for me I like trying new foods. That's why it's like so fun to try Chinese candy and things because I've never had it before.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does it surprise you that all this is available here? Not that far from where you live?

Student 3:
Kind of. I didn't know Chinatown was even a thing in Utah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can you read the label for me?

Student 3:
Reading Chinese labels

Anthony Godfrey:
What does this one say?

Student 3:
I don't know.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think this one says you should buy this. It will taste really good in your tummy. I mean, that's a rough translation.

Student 3:
I don't think it says that, but good job you tried!

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Thanks for making me feel good. All right. Good luck shopping.

Student 3:
Okay, thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. We're talking with one of the parents here, volunteering on the field trip. Introduce yourself.

Amy Nicholson:
My name's Amy Nicholson.

Anthony Godfrey:
Amy, you and I've met before, but you have several students in this program over the years, right?

Amy Nicholson:
Yes, I do. I've had two of my own and then I've had three nieces and nephews that I take care of after school that have been in the program.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me what impact this program has had on them.

Amy Nicholson:
Oh, it's amazing. It's fantastic. They have been able to move forward quicker in college and they've been able to use it in some job settings and they love to use it at restaurants and be able to communicate. So I think it's a great asset for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have you seen an impact on their learning generally?

Amy Nicholson:
I think that they did pick up reading better and I think their communication skills are better.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it gets the brain firing in a different way and opens you up to additional learning for sure.

Amy Nicholson:
Yeah. I agree.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's an exciting field trip, so let's get back to it.

Amy Nicholson:
All right. Hey, thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're on the cookie and candy aisle it looks like. Tell me, what should I be paying attention to? What's the best stuff here?

Xiaoyu Fan:
Since you're American, you probably wanna pay attention to sweet stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, the sweet stuff.

Xiaoyu Fan:
And you're at the right spot.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, perfect.

Xiaoyu Fan:
We have chocolate, we have mochi, we have vanilla wafers, we have that one is called ChocoPie, but they're kind of like Ding Dongs in the states and they're all really good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, the ChocoPies look good. Okay. What would challenge me the most?

Xiaoyu Fan:
Seaweed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Seaweed.

Xiaoyu Fan:
How about you try this one?

Anthony Godfrey:
This one. The seaweed. The big roll of seaweed.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Yep. Big roll of seaweed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Xiaoyu Fan:
That's like an entrepreneurial level.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Xiaoyu Fan:
It's like an entry level.

Anthony Godfrey:
Entry level. Alright.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Yeah. Next level up for you will be spicy. Something spicy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Alright.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Like a dried octopus or dried squid.

Anthony Godfrey:
Spicy dried octopus.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Would you like to try that?

Anthony Godfrey:
That is out of range for me a little bit. That's not on this aisle, right?

Xiaoyu Fan:
It’s not on this aisle.

Anthony Godfrey:
What is the spicy dried octopus section?

Xiaoyu Fan:
It's over there on that aisle. I'll take you there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, let's take a look. Oh wow.

Xiaoyu Fan:
This might be the next level for you. It's a little bit spicy. It's called salted salmon.  A salted egg salmon skin.

Anthony Godfrey:
Salted egg salmon skin. Wow.

Xiaoyu Fan:
So they take this huge salmon and they skin it, and then they dry the skin and they put some salted egg yolks on the outside for coating. And they dry for a long time. And that's what it becomes like. It tastes like a fish chip.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Wow. And then we see these chips are the lobster on the front. Yes. What are the lobster chips?

Xiaoyu Fan:
Supposedly they're made with lobster flavor. They're like lobster chips.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Yeah. All right.

Xiaoyu Fan:
They're good too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, there are lots of great delicacies here and I can tell the kids are really excited to experience some different things.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Yes, they are loving it. This is a great experience for the students to immerse themselves, not in the classroom setting, but also in the real setting. All these stuff that they see, they see in books, but they don't know what they are. They don't know what they look like. So bring them here. It's like dream come true.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Do you think some of them will come back and bring their family and continue to explore different foods here?

Xiaoyu Fan:
For sure. Actually, before we came here, some of the students, because right now it's during Chinese New Year, they already brought their parents back here. And some of them actually made dumplings at home. They take picture and send it to me. They're like, Mrs. Fan, look, we made dumplings at home. We celebrate Chinese New Year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, that's awesome.

Xiaoyu Fan:
So some of them actually already very familiar with this place. I see some students, they are like tour guide. They're touring their groups, telling them this is what it is, this is what it is. This is really good. So it's really fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's fun for the kids to be tour guides for their family, like you said. The learning goes well beyond the classroom. Congratulations. That's fantastic.

Xiaoyu Fan:
Thank you so much. Thank you.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a full day set aside for students, teachers, and staff in Jordan School District to prioritize their health and wellness at home and in school. The second annual Health and Wellness Day is Friday, February 10th. And while there will be no in-person school for students that day, they are invited to participate in a Wellness Quest with family and friends. On this episode of the Supercast, we explain what the Wellness Quest is and how something called the "SELFIE" model is at the heart of the Wellness Quest curriculum.

We're here in our little studio talking to Casey Pehrson, the school psychologist at Herriman High School. Casey, thanks for joining us.

Casey Pehrson:
Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Health and Wellness Day is coming up. It's our second annual Health and Wellness Day, which is set aside to focus on the health and wellness of our staff members, our parents, and our students educated with Jordan School District. And we're just excited for that day and we want to really talk about how we can each focus more on our own personal health. Casey, you've developed a program called the “SELFIE" Method that you've presented over 150 times. You presented it to our administrators in our opening conference and it's an acronym that reminds us of all the things we ought to be doing to help keep ourselves healthy. So can you go through the acronym? Tell us a little bit about where it started and tell us about yourself as well.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah, so as was mentioned, my name's Casey Pehrson. I'm the school psychologist and I'm at Herriman High School. And this is my eighth year at Herriman High but my ninth year in Jordan School District, so I've also worked at East Lake Elementary and South Hills Middle School. So the "SELFIE" method is an acronym that was actually kind of developed based on experience at all three levels of education. So in elementary, middle school, and high school. But in "SELFIE" the ‘S’ stands for sleep, the ‘E’ is for exercise, ‘L’ is for light, ‘F’ is for fun, ‘I’ is for interaction and ‘E’ is for eating right. And these are kind of elements of self-care. But really, I call it your ticket to thrive because when you do these things you feel better. But a lot of times these things fall to the bottom of the list. We don't take time for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, they're at the bottom of my list I'm afraid.

Casey Pehrson:
You’re not the only one.

Anthony Godfrey:
They need to move up. They need to move up. So that's why we're here. Let's talk about let's just work our way through the list. Let's start with sleep.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah, so sleep. We as a society, we stink at sleep. We're really bad at it. And we tend to stink at sleep in one of three distinct ways. So the number one way that we all stink at sleep is we don't get enough. So if you're not getting enough sleep at night, you're in the majority because that's a lot of us. So for elementary-age kids, they need 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night. For adolescents, they need 8 to 10. That's the window. Research shows that 9.25 hours of sleep is optimal for most teens. And then adults we need 7 to 8. Research leans us a little more towards 7, but 7 to 8 is about the window. So if you're not getting enough, you're in the majority. So the number one way that we stink at sleep is we don't get enough.

The number two way that we stink at sleep is some of us try to splice it. My high school students are really good at this. Where they'll come home from school and they're so exhausted after the school day that they'll crash into a two-and-a-half-hour power nap. And I'm here to bust that myth. There's no such thing as a two-and-a-half-hour power nap. It sounds like I'm against naps though. I'm not against naps. I'm pro nap. Go nap. But you gotta do the power nap right. So in order to actually be a power nap, it needs to be 25 minutes or under, that's your power nap zone. If you're taking a two-and-a-half-hour nap, it's gonna actually exhaust you and steal from your nighttime sleep. Some of my students are doing this so they're falling asleep after school for two and a half hours and then they can't fall asleep for the night until 3:00 AM and a vicious cycle ensues. So splicing your sleep doesn't work. You need to get all of your sleep in one go.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've never heard that term for it. I've heard it termed falling asleep on the couch while you're doing email and letting your iPad fall to the floor.

Casey Pehrson:
That's it too, yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
That’s what we call it around my house.

Casey Pehrson:
That makes sense.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then you wake up, you're up for a while and then you try to get back to sleep and the sleep is disrupted. So that makes a lot of sense. And if you take a short nap, like a 20-minute nap, 25-minute nap, then you don't get pulled down into the abyss that I get pulled into if I nap or fall asleep. It's really hard to recover from that and your night's kind of shot.

Casey Pehrson:
Exactly. The number three way that we stink at sleep is sometimes we get too much. And there's kind of a law of diminishing returns with sleep. It's like Goldilocks, you wanna get the just right amount. If you get too much, you're gonna start negating some of your benefits of sleep. So that just right zone is what we're seeking.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now let me ask you about this. I've read over the years, I seem to recall, that you can actually catch up on sleep a little bit over a weekend. So I have been really open to my 13-year-old sleeping pretty late on a Saturday morning when it's possible. Is that true? Can you kind of catch up and make up a little bit for lost time?

Casey Pehrson:
Not a ton. To some extent you can, ultimately though sleep hygiene's important, and in order to achieve that, you kind of need to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day to get your body in that sort of natural circadian rhythm.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's it Thomas, you're not sleeping in anymore. It's over. Game's over.

Casey Pehrson:
You can still sleep in on the weekends.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, okay. Next. What's the ‘E’?

Casey Pehrson:
So exercise. And there's actually a magic of exercise. You're gonna release endorphins in your body and the best way to describe what endorphins do, they make you feel good. And the best way to get those going in your system is to move your body. We have to make kind of active, conscious choices to put exercise in our day. A lot of the research that I've done, it's talked about how our ancestors they had physical exercise built into their day. It was part of their livelihood. All their jobs involved movement. And so it wasn't really a choice for them. They had to, as part of their survival, they had to go move. We don’t. Like a lot of my work, I do, you know, sitting in a chair talking with people or a lot of people have jobs where they're in front of computer screens and they don't move. And so we've gotta make a little more of a conscious active effort and choice to plug exercise into the day.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure, and finding the time for that is difficult. Is there an optimal time to exercise during the day or is it really a personal choice?

Casey Pehrson:
It depends on what you're trying to do. So for weight loss you're gonna wanna exercise first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. For just general like mood-boosting it doesn't matter as much the time of day. So yeah, it depends on what you're trying to do.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I would guess that you ought to just start somewhere.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah, exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Try to stretch it beyond, say walking back and forth from your car to the office.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah, and building it into what you're already doing as part of your day is crucial. So yeah, even the little things like parking a little further away, those little things can add up.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk to me about ‘L’.

Casey Pehrson:
So the ‘L’ is for light and that's sunlight exposure. And so what gets activated through sunlight exposure is vitamin D, but vitamin D is not a great name for it. Vitamin D isn't even a vitamin, it's a hormone and you have enough of it in you, but it doesn't wake up to do its jobs in you until the sun wakes it up. So in the summertime, super straightforward, 10 to 15 minutes of direct sunlight and vitamin D wakes up and it does all of its jobs in your body and in your brain. It has a bunch of jobs in your body and brain, in your blood, in your immune system, in your heart, in your brain in your bones. Vitamin D has a lot of responsibilities, but it can't do those while it's asleep, while it's dormant. So wintertime we get knocked flat backward here, especially in Utah, you've probably heard the winter blues or seasonal affective disorder, which is aptly acronymed SAD because that's how we feel a lot of times in the wintertime.

Seasonal affective disorder. A lot of that has to do with our lack of sunlight. So the workarounds, how do we get that vitamin D into our system? It's still possible through the clouds and the inversion and the yuck that's outside. But it takes twice as long in the wintertime than it does in the summertime. So 20 to 30 minutes instead of 10 to 15. Ain't nobody got time for that and ain't nobody wanna stand out in the cold for that. So workarounds for winter, you can ingest vitamin D, meaning you can eat it. There are certain vitamin D-fortified foods and a lot of people, they actually get prescribed a vitamin D supplement because a lot of us are running around vitamin D deficient in the winter time.

Anthony Godfrey:
I never thought about vitamin D as being activated by the sun. I knew we needed to do it and get a little sunshine every day. I didn't realize the full impact of winter and the long list of responsibilities that vitamin D has.

Stay with us when we come back more on the "SELFIE" method. Find out how the ’F’, ‘I’ and ‘E’ can help improve a student's personal health and wellness.

Break:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, let's get to ‘F’.

Casey Pehrson:
The ‘F’ is for fun and we need fun. We need relaxation, we need laughter, we need to be able to enjoy. Fun fact is in Portugal they just passed a law where employers can get fined for bugging their employees outside of work hours. So, and this is actually, it's really bad for us to be on all the time, right? And that's kind of what modern-day jobs have become. And so we need to be able to take that time to separate actually, and relax, laugh, enjoy, just be in the moment instead of being on all the time in work mode.

Anthony Godfrey:
So part of fun is separating from work and really having a life separate from that, even for a few moments or for an hour or just for a small stretch of time. I also heard recently that even if you aren't looking at your phone but it's right near you, you still have a connection to it that prevents as strong a connection to the people and events around you.

Casey Pehrson:
Absolutely. Yeah. When those phones are around, they can create a barrier toward human connection.

Anthony Godfrey:
My phone listener is in my shirt pocket right over my heart as we speak and I'm getting my alerts the whole time so I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm very connected to my phone. So just fun that disconnects us from work and allows us to connect with the people around us.

Casey Pehrson:
That's right.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, take me through ‘I’.

Casey Pehrson:
And that actually is a great segue into ‘I’, which is for interaction. And we need each other. We are social animals and I've learned to be careful how I talk about this with students because some students have called me out and they say, Casey, ‘when you talk about phones, you sound like an old person complaining.’ And I'm like, ‘oh, I don't wanna sound like that.’ So I try to tell them in a way that doesn't offend anybody. And so far this has been the rule of thumb that hasn't offended anybody. So I tell students, ‘Hey, if you interact with other humans in real life, in real-time, you use your texting and social media as a supplement to that, then you're okay. But if you never interact with humans in real life, in real-time, you use your texting and social media as a replacement to real-life social interaction it's not gonna do what it's supposed to.’ So the us being social animals, it's actually science. When you are in the presence of other human beings having a caring, connected, cooperative experience with other humans, your body actually rewards you for it. It releases a chemical called oxytocin. And oxytocin it makes you feel good. You get that from being with other people, having caring, connected, cooperative experiences, not through text and not through social media.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've never heard it put quite that way, and I really like that. So as long as your primary interactions are in person, then having secondary interactions online is still healthy as long as you keep it in check and it's a supplement or a support to the real-world interactions with other humans.

Casey Pehrson:
Absolutely. Yes. Nailed it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, so far, as long as we're interacting with others, we've got the oxytocin, we get little sunlight, we're activating the vitamin D, and then we exercise and we get those endorphins flowing. Our body is saying, thank you very much for taking a "SELFIE".

Casey Pehrson:
That's exactly right.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, let's talk about ‘E’.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah. So ‘E’ is for eating right.

Anthony Godfrey:
Eating right, yes.

Casey Pehrson:
We need to be very careful about what we're putting in our bodies and keep in mind our food is our fuel. So a lot of times I'll ask my students, I'll ask 'em, ‘did you eat breakfast?’ And you can imagine the answer that I get 85% of the time. It's no. 10% of the time my students are like, yeah, I had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and a Gatorade. And I'm like, oh, how do you feel? And they're like, great. And I'm like wait till 10 when that sugar kind of runs out of your system and dumps you off. So we're trying to sustain ourselves on things that aren't designed to sustain us. So we gotta, it's not like if somebody told me, Casey, you can't ever have ice cream again. I'd be like, then no more happiness. Like that would be a terrible thing for me. But we've gotta like kind of balance things out and pay attention to remembering your food is your fuel. And so that's what's gonna fuel you through your day.

Anthony Godfrey:
As long as our primary nutrition comes from healthy foods, we don't have to cut out the secondary foods of ice cream or some other things that we really enjoy. We want to firm kind of base that we build our nutrition on, and then we can have some other things as well. Build those relationships on personal, direct, in real-life relationships and then supplement that online. So it's about where we're focused predominantly. And with sleep too. Get your sleep at night. If you need a short nap, take a short nap, but don't make a nap a main part of how you're getting rest.

Casey Pehrson:
That's a great way of saying it. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
As you've talked with people over the years as you've done this training, I'm sure a lot of people come up to you afterward and tell me about some of those stories that you've heard over the years.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah. One of my favorites, so I was, I'd been working with a student for over a year and he came in one day with his mom and he just looked different in a good way. And I called him out on it. I was like, Hey. I was like, you look brighter. I was like, you are carrying yourself different. You have just a cool energy about you right now. I was like, what's going on? I was like, what are you even doing? And he looked at his mom and his mom looked back at him and said, well, tell her. And he goes, Casey, he's like, it's my "SELFIE". I've been taking care of my "SELFIE" and it works. So things like that when people can see like, I can actually do this and feel the difference. That is so exciting. And that's the cool part about teaching this is this stuff works.

The problem with teaching this though is none of this is revelation. You're not going out of here like what? Exercise? Nobody has ever told me exercise is good for me or I didn't know nutrition mattered. We've all heard this stuff, we all know this stuff, but there's a gap between what we know and what we do and that's the problem. So we've gotta be able to bridge that gap between what we know and what we do. There's a phrase that I love. Information is not transformation. And so how do we make that information? Our transformation is sort of the quest and the challenge in "SELFIE".

Anthony Godfrey:
I was gonna mention what you have already said, and that is that none of this is a shiny new object. It's not a new 90-day challenge where you eat broccoli only from 3:00 to 3:15 every afternoon and suddenly your body changes. It's the stuff we've always known. But I think doing those things in combination and probably making just small incremental changes to start with, instead of completely trying to shift everything all at once can really make an impact. I think sometimes my own problem is that I think, you know, I'm doing fine, I'm making it, I'm, you know, I feel okay, so why am I going to invest? You know, I'm surviving. So I'm not sure that we always see how much of an improvement we could experience if we just take that first little step of committing to an improvement.

Casey Pehrson:
Absolutely. And that's another testimonial that has come in. Actually, a student said, Casey, I didn't realize I could feel better than, okay, I've been feeling okay this whole time. And that was sort of my max. I feel better than okay doing this stuff

Anthony Godfrey:
Better than okay. That's a pretty good slogan.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah. So you mentioned the science of "SELFIE" before and I give this presentation a lot. And I have a whole, usually there's 40 minutes that's devoted to the science of "SELFIE", but I'll summarize it. So I'll spare you the 40 minutes and put it in a sentence. So "SELFIE" is science, there's your sentence. When you're doing this "SELFIE" stuff, all those things that you mentioned, the endorphins, the vitamin D the oxytocin, the vitamins and minerals from food and then others that we didn't talk about. So the glymphatic system, which is involved in your sleep and we get serotonin and dopamine and all sorts of other things that we didn't even discuss yet. All of these things do the same thing. They give you energy and they boost your mood so they make you feel better and energize you.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's a reason that it's called the "SELFIE" method instead of the "SELFIE" experiment.

Casey Pehrson:
That's right.

Anthony Godfrey:
We know it's gonna work.

Casey Pehrson:
Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
You do these things, you're gonna feel better, you're gonna be better off things are gonna be easier. Your mind's gonna be clearer, connections are gonna be deeper and problems don't go away, but you're sure gonna be better equipped to handle them.

Casey Pehrson:
For sure. Yeah, and it's an acronym for your physical health, for your mental health, for your social health. And it works in all of those ways.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, hopefully, we can all do a little better and feel a little better and have a great health and wellness week.

Casey Pehrson:
Absolutely. I’m into that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes, thanks very much.

Casey Pehrson:
Thank you.

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