Supercast

Lisa Blodgett:
I was invited to participate with the Saluting America Band Directors Marching Band for the Rose Parade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lisa's skills go well beyond her abilities as a musician.

Marianne Johansen:
Expectations without a doubt. That's what makes you such a great band teacher. That's what makes you such a great teacher overall. She expects greatness out of the kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a high note in the very successful career of a Jordan School District music educator. On this episode of the Supercast, meet majestic elementary school music teacher Lisa Blodgett, who just returned from marching in the Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade. Find out why Blodgett was one of the more than 300 band teachers and directors from across the country selected to march in the prestigious parade and what it felt like to be on the national stage cheered on by thousands along the five-mile route. We're talking today with Lisa Blodgett, a teacher at Majestic Elementary Arts Academy. Lisa, thanks for talking with us.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
You had a pretty exciting week. Tell us about what happened last week.

Lisa Blodgett:
I was invited to participate with the Saluting America Band Directors Marching Band for the Rose Parade on New Year's Day and was one of 360 band directors from across the nation. Actually, every single state had a representative plus there were some people there from Canada and Mexico also. So it was kind of a North America thing. We were all invited to come march in the parade, but it wasn't just we just showed up and march, we actually had a lot of preparations that we had to do beforehand to get ready for this event.

Anthony Godfrey:
So who was the director of the directors?

Lisa Blodgett:
So that's crazy because when they walked up and said, “Who's the director of those standing the line, everybody raises their hands.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Everybody raises their hands. Like, I'm the director.

Lisa Blodgett:
A gentleman that teaches at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. So this whole project started with a lady named Karen Suelle. And her husband was a band teacher and he passed away. He had taught for many, many years and he had passed away and she wanted to keep a memory of him going. So she created this foundation and they had this band march back in 2022. It was going to be a one-and-done deal. But it became such a thing and people across the nation started asking for it. They went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and then it came back and the Rose Parade wanted it again. So they put the band back together again.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. We're getting the band back together.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah. They said getting the band back together and I had been it in 2022. I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool. And so I kind of had reached out a couple of years ago and said, hey, there's another event. You know, I'd be interested in being part of it if possible. And so I received notification a little over a year ago, “Hey, we've been invited to the Rose Parade” and there was an application process. So it wasn't just like, oh, yeah, I want to go do it. I actually had to submit an application. And so I put that in and sat and waited and waited and waited and waited. And a few months later, I got a “you've been accepted to come march.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That's exciting. So what sort of preparation did you do? How did you guys get together and practice when you're from far and wide?

Lisa Blodgett:
Yes. I never played with any of these people before.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Lisa Blodgett:
And so they sent us out the music back in August, actually, and they let us choose a part or assigned us a part. And so we all pulled up our music and we had five songs and so we had five songs that we rotated through. And so we had to memorize each one of those because we were going and we're just playing no music in front of us. So it is a process of listening to the music, getting familiar with the music and then starting to memorize it. It's not something you can sit down and do overnight or in a week or two. So it's a matter of . . . And then not only it's a five-and-a-half-mile parade. And so there's the endurance of walking also. So they they encourage us to get out, start walking, get out, start walking 120 beats a minute. That's two steps every second. You don't understand.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's not a stroll and it's not a run. It's walking at a particular pace for a long time.

Lisa Blodgett::

And breathing and playing an instrument. So they're like, get out and start conditioning yourself, get the music memorized so that we show up that we're ready to rock and roll. So everybody shows up ready and prepared. So it's like when I'm teaching school too, you know, talking to my kids about, you know, we need to be prepared. If you're not prepared and you don't know your music, you know, your stuff, you know, we're not going to be as good of a group. So everybody that expectation is there is everybody showed up prepared. And so day one rehearsal, we're ready to rock and roll and just put everybody together into one piece.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did your neighbors say anything when they saw you walking down the street playing the trombone as a, you know, preparation for the parade or did they just figure, “oh, that's Lisa. There she goes.”

Lisa Blodgett:
I actually didn't take my trombone out in the neighborhood.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK. OK.

Lisa Blodgett:
I walked and I actually walked around the band room a couple of times in between classes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Was it more of a workout or less of a workout than you were expecting when you actually did it?

Lisa Blodgett:
Actually, the walking part wasn't too bad because I like to get out and I like to walk a lot. The part that was the hardest for me was the holding the horn and the horn angle up. You get a lot of kind of . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, yeah. You've got the upper body strength. That's a whole body workout.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah. So, holding the instrument up and then the first part of the parade, we continually played for the first mile and a half without stopping just because of all the TV cameras. You don't want to cut away. So as we went through camp, the first day we were rehearsing in California, I was like, oh, man, what did I get myself into? And day two was better day three. By the time we did the parade day four, it was great.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did everyone seem well prepared? I'm assuming so.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah. People came very well prepared. The first night we got together, they actually opened up three big ballrooms in the hotel and they set the block in chairs. So the block is as long as a football field. Essentially, that's how long because there's 360 people in the band, 12 people in a row. So they just set us in the hotel room and we all sat in chairs and watched the conductor and just sat down and started playing. And it just came. It came right together right away.

Anthony Godfrey:
So how many beats per minute, did you say?

Lisa Blodgett:
One hundred twenty beats.

Anthony Godfrey:
One hundred and twenty. Do you now walk at one hundred and twenty beats per minute just automatically?

Lisa Blodgett:
When I, when I go out, I would when I go walk, I'd actually sing the songs in my head. So yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK, let's go walk a hundred and twenty beats per minute. Let's walk out of the office here for a second. OK, let's just walk at one hundred twenty beats per minute. I'll follow you. And while we're while we're walking at one hundred twenty beats per minute, what were the songs that you were playing?

Lisa Blodgett:
So we played a song that was actually put together for this particular parade called “Strike Up the Saints.” So it was a little bit of mixture of “Strike Up the Band” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

{SINGING]

Anthony Godfrey:
OK. All right. I'm holding my horn up. I'm already exhausted. So this is it's not like a super-fast walk, but it feels faster as you go along. You're keeping a good steady beat here. All right. Now I'm lost in the school as we're walking. I don't know where to go. So I'm going to keep following you. So everyone was well prepared. How many times did you practice and how much time did you spend practicing?

Lisa Blodgett:
So we practiced the first evening for two hours and then the next two mornings we got together. Actually three mornings and we spent about two and a half hours . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Lisa Blodgett:
Average actually practicing through. But then we had other events we went to play to in the afternoon. So morning was rehearsal time and then afternoon is performance time.

Anthony Godfrey:
So that's a that's a lot of preparation leading up to not very much time together and a lot of opportunities to play.

Lisa Blodgett:
Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, here we're back at the principal's office. Poor Doug has been holding the microphone and walking backwards. We just finished our walk and that was not very long. And I actually did feel that a little bit, like just keeping that steady pace is different from any other walking even if you're walking for exercise.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah. And think about being rained on pretty good tips.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Now that's the other thing. It was raining hard on you guys. I understand that it stopped in time for the game but that wasn't your concern. The parade was soaked.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah. When we, as we are stepping up and waiting our turn to step off, the rain had slowed down and we had had some ponchos on and we pulled the ponchos off right before it was our turn to step up online. And then the rain just started coming down, and actually all the way through all the TV cameras the first probably mile and a half, it rained pretty good on us. And then it actually let up and finally stopped.

Anthony Godfrey:
How does the trombone sound in the rain?

Lisa Blodgett:
It sounds great in the rain.

Anthony Godfrey:
Good acoustics.? So the trombone seems tricky to me because you don't get to just push a button and now you know that that's going to you know your instruments going to play the right note. You have to get it to just the right spot. Is it as hard as I think it is to learn that?

Lisa Blodgett:
It's got seven positions. The trumpet has seven finger combinations and the trombone has seven trombone positions that you learn by feel. But you know there's a little bit of adjustment during . .  depending on what partially you're playing on. But there's seven general positions to find yourself on.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does it throw you off to be walking at 120 beats per minute and have it angled up and have it raining and have the cameras on you?

Lisa Blodgett:
There's a little bit of thinking when you do all that stuff at the same time.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'll bet it's exhausting. But you did get some good camera time, I understand.

Lisa Blodgett:
I did. I was really surprised. So I landed a spot on the front row of all 360 people. There were 12 of us on the front row, and I was right in front of the camera.

Anthony Godfrey:
You showed me some of that before the interview, and that's pretty exciting. It's really cool for you to get that airtime. Well-deserved after all that work that you put in.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah, I shared it with the students today. I have the parade and I didn't tell them there was a big shot of me coming up and we were just watching it. And then all of a sudden, that face image comes up of me, and the kids all just went crazy. “Yes, Mrs. Blodgett!”

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm sure they were really excited. So when did you get back?

Lisa Blodgett:
I got back Saturday night late.

Anthony Godfrey:
So that made for a busy winter break for you.

Lisa Blodgett:
It was, but it was a fun winter break.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah unforgettable. Have you performed in parades before?

Lisa Blodgett:
I'm in the Army Band and so we do quite a few parades here and there. So it's not something I haven't done. Obviously, when I was in college I did a lot with the marching band and stuff. But having the experience with the Army Band, I'm doing a parade or two or sometimes up to six a year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So do you travel around doing that? Where have you done parades with the Army Band?

Lisa Blodgett:|
So mostly in-state because we're a National Guard Unit. Last year in 2024, there was an expert team of eight of us that actually went to Morocco to participate in the International Military Music Festival. Most of the bands had 30 to 60 people in it and there was eight of us. And we actually marched down the street, the eight of us playing, and we put on a little field show on to at the end where we performed for all the important people there. So that's the craziest marching thing I've ever done because it was such a small element.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well thank you very much for taking time to talk with us. Thank you for being such a great example to these students about how playing an instrument can impact your life in a positive way and create opportunities for you. Thank you for being such an important part of Majestic Elementary Arts Academy.

Lisa Blodgett:
Thank you. I love it here. There's great faculty here and great staff to be a part of.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back more with Lisa Blodgett and her principal, Marianne Johansen.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
In Jordan School District, communicating and connecting with parents is really important and that's why we're very excited about ParentSquare. ParentSquare has replaced Skylert as the district's new communication platform. With ParentSquare, you'll receive all District and school communication via email, text, and/or the app based on your preference. All messages can be translated to your preferred home language indicated in Skyward and it takes less than a minute to set up your notification preferences. You can use the ParentSquare app on any device. The app is available at parentsquare.com/sign-in. We look forward to connecting with you through ParentSquare.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with Lisa's principal, Marianne Johansen. Thanks for talking with us.

Marianne Johansen:
Anytime.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, Lisa's skills go well beyond her abilities as a musician. Talk to us about her impact as a teacher here at Majestic Elementary Arts Academy.

Marianne Johansen.
Oh, how long is your podcast, Dr. Godfrey? I could go on for days.

Anthony Godfrey:
Never long enough for our listeners. They always wish it was longer.

Marianne Johansen.
I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do. Lisa makes such an impact here. She impacts our behavior in positive ways. She impacts our climate and culture in positive ways. One of the most easily measurable ways that she impacts our school is her ability to not only teach music, but math. She is a phenomenal math teacher. A few years ago, I overworked her by asking her to not only teach band, but teach math. I had a fifth, sixth split. The home-room teacher was teaching the sixth graders their math, while Lisa was teaching the fifth graders their math.

Anthony Godfrey:
It sounds like that went very well.

Marianne Johansen.
It went very well. The year before Lisa took on this little endeavor, 23% of our students in fifth grade made typical or better growth in math. And the year that Lisa took over, 72% of students of students in fifth grade made typical or better growth in math.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. You nearly tripled the percentage of students who...

Marianne Johansen.
And overshot the state average as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. Lisa, tell me about the relationship between math and music.

Lisa Blodgett:
Math and music really go hand in hand because you've got to be able to subdivide and break music down, and it directly correlates with how you work with math numbers and stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is there ever a time signature that has an improper fraction, or is it always a smaller number on top of the larger number?

Lisa Blodgett:
No, there's not always a smaller number on top. Sometimes you're in 12/8 time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So sometimes there is an improper fraction. See, kids, we're combining math and music even as we speak on the podcast here.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah, and we can actually take a measure of... you know, you've got... music is mostly in 4/4 time, and we can actually take it and break down into fractions. And we'll teach them, you know, you've got one quarter, one quarter, one quarter, one quarter for the four beats. I've actually done with the kids in class before. I'll be like, "What's one half plus one quarter?" And, you know, "How much of the measure are we filling up?" I've actually made them figure math out that way.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, that's really integrating the arts into instruction because a lot of times it's the pizza, "Okay, here's the pizza, and where's half the pizza?" But now you're saying, "Okay, let's look at this measure. Let's look at the music that you're playing and how that's divided up." That's really impressive that you're able to pull those things together.

Lisa Blodgett:
Yeah, and with the sixth graders, too, we get into breaking it in the eighths because there's more pieces there, and then we end up into the other time signatures they don't see very often. I even make them play in 5/4 time to stretch their abilities.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's great. What do you think makes her such a great math teacher?

Marianne Johansen:
High expectations without a doubt. That's what makes her such a great band teacher. It's what makes her such a great teacher overall. She expects greatness out of the kids, and because she cares so deeply about the kids, they rise to that occasion. That year she taught math, she had some kids who have really struggled to make typical growth or demonstrate their capacity and their knowledge.

Anthony Godfrey:
They had a history for years of not seeing the type of success that she helped them achieve.

Marianne Johansen:
Yes, sometimes I think we call them clickers. When they take the test, they're done in like 3 minutes because they just click all the things and then they submit the test. Lisa took the time. She hand-wrote a letter to every single kid in that class and told them what quality she saw in them and why she thought that they could do it. I didn't have a single kid finish that test quickly that year. I had every single kid really giving their all and really putting in the effort. Because the last thing any of our kids would ever want to do is let Miss Blodgett down. They love her and they would do anything for her.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's it right there. That relationship and the expectations, and really creating an environment where the kids want to be at their very best. And they know that they have the help needed to do that.

Marianne Johansen:
Yes, they know that she will do whatever it takes. She's tutored kids after school. She's met with them during her lunch breaks. They know where to go if they need support, and they know where to go to get the help. They know that she believes in them and that she expects them to get there because she will help them get there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sounds like a great candidate for Educator of the Year. Oh, wait! She has been Educator of the Year. No surprise that she has achieved that honor.

Marianne Johansen:
No surprise.

Anthony Godfrey:
Because really that's incredible what you've been able to do with those students. So thank you for that.

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.

Coach McBride:
The world is about adversity and how you handle adversity and you got all this social media where all these kids are very mean to each other. You've got to get beyond that so somebody doesn't get their self-image spoiled.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, and the negativity sticks with you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. He is known for his winning ways at the helm as head football coach at the University of Utah, leading the Utes to historic success over 12 exciting seasons. We're talking about Ron McBride or Coach Mac as many have come to know him over the years. On this episode of the Supercast, we have the honor of sitting down with the legend and hearing firsthand about his time coaching, recruiting, and giving young athletes opportunities they never thought possible. Find out how Coach Mac is continuing his passionate work in our schools today with the Ron McBride Foundation, making sure at-risk youth have every chance to succeed. Plus, hear how Coach Mac impacted the life of one of our very own, Valley High School Principal Jacinto Peterson.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking today with Coach Ron McBride. Mac, thank you so much for being here today.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely, Superintendent. Hey, I'm glad to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a real thrill. I've been telling my friends I get to talk to you today.

Coach McBride:
You got to tell that to my wife.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have felt your support in Jordan School District through your foundation, and I think it was high time that we just talked with you about the great things that you have going and all the support that you give to our kids in need. So we just wanted to talk with you about the foundation and where that came from.

Coach McBride:
Actually, Lavell Edwards and myself started it nine years ago. The thing was to help the underserved kids and to give them a chance to see a brighter side of life. Basically, from the time I was in high school, junior high, I was always very involved, particularly with my teammates that were underprivileged because I came from a lower middle East LA neighborhood. So I understood, and my parents were month to month trying to keep afloat.

Anthony Godfrey:
So through your own experience and your experience with players who were underprivileged, you've always had this focus on helping people.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely, yeah. So I've always been. So when I retired from Weber, then and Lavell and I were doing the radio show on Fridays. So we said, "Let's start this foundation." West Jordan Middle was one of our first schools.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've done a lot of work with them consistently over the years.

Coach McBride:
Oh ya, lots. First of all, the principals, the vice principals, the people that worked there were outstanding. The librarian was outstanding.

Anthony Godfrey:
She really is.

Coach McBride:
Oh, yeah. And she cares. I mean, I think we did a book club was the first thing we did over there, right?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
This was many years ago. She was so appreciative and loved the kids so much. She was so excited about what we were doing, you know. Then I loved the principal, you know, and she was awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you're able to bring resources to a school, and you see that the school has these caring adults that are trying to do their best for kids, it's got to feel good that you know that those resources are going to the right place.

Coach McBride:
Well, West Jordan Middle always followed up with whatever, you know. I mean, you go over there and check with their .  . .  watch the after school program. The lady that ran it, Ivy Erickson, one of the best people in the world.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, she's done like it.

Coach McBride:
But first of all, she the kids, she's all into the young people.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Coach McBride:
She's all into the young people that have problems and she's a good listener.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
And so she's excited about what she does.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
So it's easy to go there and watch her in action.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm thrilled that you picked West Jordan Middle and they really are amazing people there.

Coach McBride:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's been some turnover since you started.

Coach McBride:
Well, yeah, Dixie was a principal and she's at a bigger job.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right.

Coach McBride:
And I tell you what, she's, first of all, her dad, I think, was a principal at that school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. That's right.

Coach McBride:
And she has a real history in education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.

Coach McBride:
She's a great lady. You know what I mean? The great thing about when she was at West Jordan, it was always open anytime.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
We would go by to check out what they were doing or talk to the kids or whatever, but it was always very open to us. I think it was, that was the first school that, when Jerry Sloan was sick, we kind of dedicated that school to Jerry back then to begin with. So we called it “Jerry's Kids” to begin with over there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Coach McBride:
And then, of course, Jerry had problems and finally, his problems took his life. It was too bad.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it is. You were really instrumental in helping those after-school programs happen at West Jordan Middle School.

Coach McBride:
Oh, absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
That made a huge difference for those students.

Coach McBride:
Oh, yeah. I mean, they had-- And they had a lot of things going on. Besides sports, you know, they had Pokémon and they had chess club, it's ceramics club. So they had a lot of things.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. It was all this pent-up need from the kids and interest from the adults in providing those opportunities. Yeah, yeah. And when you come in with those resources with caring adults and needy kids, it was just an-- it's an incredible combination.

Coach McBride:
And they--

Anthony Godfrey:
And you've allowed us to do things we couldn't do on our own.

Coach McBride:
Oh, absolutely. And you know, they have a lot of-- since they've kind of redid West Jordan Middle, they have a whole bunch of access to things they didn't have before.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
The shop classes are really good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
Because, you know, in today's economy, it's important that young people know how to do a trade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Coach McBride:
Because that's where all the money is right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right.

Coach McBride:
Trade-- so more young people need to go into trades because they're paying a good wage, you're going to make a good living, and you're going to be working every day.

Anthony Godfrey:
AI doesn't fix things or remodel things or repair things, you know?

Coach McBride:
Yeah, but we have a huge need in that sector.

Anthony Godfrey:
This feels like an extension of what you were able to do as a football coach.

Coach McBride:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You gave kids opportunities as a football coach. Talk to me about the relationship.

Coach McBride:
Well, I always-- you know, we always divided the locker room into three segments because of red, yellow, and green. So the red guys were about 10% of your football team and these are guys that were underappreciated, needed academic help, needed structure help, you know? Just needed to put them on a different line. So we would put our red guys with our green guys and therefore, then they would get them to thinking a different process.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see.

Coach McBride:
The idea is to take the red guys and get them to the yellow and get the yellow to the green. So you hopefully, by the time they graduate from college, that they were all into the green zone where they could take care of their own problems, take care of their own situations, handle adversity, do things that people have to do to be successful.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's a lot of work off the field to help them become everything they can be.

Coach McBride:
It's a lot of brainwashing.

Coach McBride:
So, yeah, you just have to change the way people think.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Coach McBride:
And if you put them around people that think different, then they slowly buy into it. What I find now with these red people, when I go to different places in Hawaii or in the South or anything, all these kids that play for me are academic people now. That's all they want to talk about is, "Oh, my kid's in college. He's doing this. He's doing this." And all of a sudden I says, "Well, I guess you got the message a long time ago."

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it definitely worked. So, the message was, "There's more than football, and we need to prepare you for that."

Coach McBride:
Yeah, football is a vehicle. And if you don't do what I say, then I can take football away from you. So therefore, the kids, they want to play football, so if they want to play football, they have to get an education, they have to become the kind of citizens you want them to become.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's figure that out, yeah. Now, you coached one of our principals.

Coach McBride:
Oh, yeah, Jacinto.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
His story is unreal because I can still remember going to that high school, and then he was living with his grandparents in a trailer out in the middle of nowhere. I said, "Well, how do I find the trailer?" "Well, go down this dirt road, turn right at where you see this dog tied up, and then turn left, and then you'll see the trailer, right."

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Coach McBride:
They were beautiful people, you know. And Jacinto's had so much success here, and I'm so proud of him because he's always been a stand-up man.

Anthony Godfrey:
He's an incredible leader.

Coach McBride:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
He’s a great educator and he's saving a lot of kids.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, well, he understands it all because he lived through it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, absolutely. When you first met Jacinto, what were your impressions?

Coach McBride:
Oh, I loved the kid. You know, he was easy to talk to, good communicator. I loved his grandparents, his grandma, you know. They're all just great and all they were interested is in getting this kid in a better spot for his life.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
So they all wanted the same thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
You accomplished that, and he's changed a lot of lives as a result. So thank you for that. You did me a big favor by sending Jacinto our way.

Coach McBride:
I'll tell you what, he did me a big favor by coming here. So he's the best, that kid.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell me about the foundation now. Tell me about your operations and how people can help if they wanted to.

Coach McBride:
So we started out with nothing, basically. And then we're up to, I think we got 32 schools now we support, between Ogden, Salt Lake, Canyons District. We got schools in all those places and so we gave away a little over $400,000 last year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Amazing.

Coach McBride:
In different schools. And everybody on our foundation has a school that they're responsible for. And we got, when we have our meetings, everybody reports on their schools, what's going on. And then I visit as many as I can.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've been very visible. Very hands on with us.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, because what you want to do is you can't have a foundation and then the guy's name on it, you know, who's that guy? But I love the kids because the kids are so much fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Nobody says, “who's that guy?” I've seen you in school so many times, interacting with the kids, interacting with the adults.

Coach McBride:
Oh yeah, we have a lot of laughs when we go and then getting to know different kids and watching them go through the system.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, it's all fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Middle school kids in particular, you can't help but have a good laugh when you're around middle school kids.

Coach McBride:
Well, middle school kids are making some decisions that are important to their lives. Because that's kind of that age group where you kind of start thinking, you know, a little more than you really should know, or you think you know more, and you're starting to question things, and you call it a growth spurt. So you got to make, you got to try to get these kids to think a little different and think beyond where they think they can be.

Anthony Godfrey:
They're having a growth spurt in every aspect of their lives, really. It's a big time.

Coach McBride:
Well, it's a huge time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, you're right. Stay with us when we come back. More with Coach Mac and he talks with us about the recent coaching changes at the University of Utah.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. You can find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
Are you looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? Jordan School District is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education, as a classroom assistant or a substitute teacher. Apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire custodians and bus drivers. In Jordan School District, we like to say people come for the job and enjoy the adventure. Apply today at employment.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
There have been a lot of changes in the football world lately. What do you think of all the coaching shifts?

Coach McBride:
I'm in the middle of most of it every day because every time somebody gets leaves or something they call and say, “I'm going.” Obviously, some of those guys that Kyle took with him to Michigan were guys that played for me. A lot of staff have played for me. With Lewis Powell leaving, Doug LSI leaving, Jim Harding leaving, Jason Beck leaving. Those guys all have a history with all those guys. That was tough. I talked to most of them before they left and tried to talk them into staying. Now Morgan has hired some really good people. So it looks like Jordan Gross is going to be the old line guy, which is a great take. I think they're bringing back Noki who worked for me up at Weber as one of the D-line guys. They just hired Bumpus back as a wide receiver guy, which is a good hire. Then Colton Swan, who was my defensive coordinator at Weber, he's now the defensive coordinator. Luther's back, which is good. Colton is good. Sharif is good. Jordan will do a nice job with the offense. Kevin McGivin is going to be the offensive coordinator. He worked for me at Weber and was up at Utah State. We lost some good ones, but we hired some good ones.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's good to hear your take on that and your connection to all those folks.

Coach McBride:
The interesting thing, a guy that I coached with at Wisconsin, Fred Jackson, worked for the Michigan football program for 27 years. They retained him. Today I get a picture with him and a couple of the Utah people. They sent it to me. I said, "I can't believe how old you are, Fred."

Anthony Godfrey:
When I've talked with people who worked with you in the past, they talk about kindness and loyalty. That you are just extremely loyal. When someone needs help and they ask you, you're all in. You're there to help. That's been your career and it's been your passion in retirement with this foundation. You're a dedicated loyal friend who wants to help people have a better life.

Coach McBride:
The whole key to our civilization are young people. What we have to do is create positives for them that they can go beyond what their parents have done. The key to the whole thing is, I want to have a positive voice on education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.

Coach McBride:
The more you invest, the more you have a voice. The voice has to be positive. It can't be negative. It has to be that if you have a problem, you've got to adjust to the problem and solve it. The world is about adversity and how you handle adversity. Are you equipped? Can you handle the problem? All these kids at that middle age are asking questions, and you've got all this social media. Kids are very mean to each other, and this social media. You've got to get beyond that so somebody doesn't get their self-image spoiled.

Anthony Godfrey:
The negativity sticks with you.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
It has an outsized impact way beyond. I know that even if you hear a negative comment from someone you don't know, it sticks with you at that age in ways that are so damaging.

Coach McBride:
Oh yeah. I mean, when I say cut out the noise, but with all these cell phones, these kids get a lot of noise.

Anthony Godfrey:
Like you were saying, you're lifting them at such an important time, providing these resources to our middle school kids.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely. Hopefully, we will continue to grow.

Anthony Godfrey:
If people want to help, they just go to RonMcBrideFoundation.org and they can make a donation right there.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely. We don't spend a lot of money paying people so we only have two people that we pay.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're also helping with Joel P. Jensen and with Majestic Elementary. Majestic, our elementary arts academy, a very unique place.

Coach McBride:
Oh my, it's so much fun over there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, yeah.

Coach McBride:
How they've incorporated the music with the teaching, with the learning and very positive people.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, they are. A lot of great energy.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, extremely.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're a good match for that school.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, oh yeah. They're great. I like the process. It's an interesting way of education. It's an interesting way to keep the kids involved. And then your teachers over there are heavily involved in that formula.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, no, they're all in. They're all trained.

Coach McBride:
Oh yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
They approach education in a whole different way.

Coach McBride:
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
And your support really makes some incredible experiences possible. So you bought the pianos for the piano lab, is that right?

Coach McBride:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I remember when we started down the academy pathway, and we wanted to make it a music school, and that was a big obstacle, is being able to get those keyboards in there.

Coach McBride:
Oh yeah. Well, it's all, you know, if you're going to have that kind of school, you've got to have good instruments and you've got to have a way to, you know, and you've got to make it first class.

Anthony Godfrey:
I received an email from someone at the state level who had attended their program right before the winter break and they were so impressed with how important this clearly was to the families of the students who were benefiting from the program when they all came there. It's just, it's a whole community impact. You've done a lot of great work with Joel P. Jensen as well, offering those after school . . .

Coach McBride:
Karen Moore, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Karen Moore at...

Coach McBride:
Yeah, yeah. She's a good leader, very good leader.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
And she's great. Yeah. So yeah, you've hired some really good people in your district.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you. We really do have good people everywhere.

Coach McBride:
Very extremely positive role models for the kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have these strong relationships that stay because you create strong relationships to stay with.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, absolutely. So it doesn't stop because your eligibility is up.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Coach McBride:
And you're basically in these kids' lives forever. My wife, she's on social media, I guess, with around 200 players. So every morning she's answering their questions, answering what their problems are. And then she'll come in and she'll say, "Hey, so and so's got a problem. You need to get ahold of them." So he's doing well. So we have one of the kids play for me at a heart attack two days ago. So she's been on the phone taking, "How is he? How's he doing?" And then I'm on the phone with his family. And yeah, so yeah, it's just... But that's where it's supposed to be.

Anthony Godfrey:
Doesn't surprise me a bit that you're still in touch with those 200 players.

Coach McBride:
Yeah, well, it's probably more than that. It's fun to watch them have kids and then see how they handle their kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure, sure.

Coach McBride:
We've had a lot of... Kids have had a lot of success.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's amazing. What are some of the success stories you remember with your students that are most meaningful?

Coach McBride:
Well, you know, probably all starts with Joe Mosley back in high school. Overfeld High School was a minority school and Piedmont Hills was the first place that I coached. So they were busing kids from Overfeld to Piedmont, minority kids and Joe was a really good football player. So, he wasn't showing up. And he wouldn't get on a... They were busing these kids. He wouldn't get on the bus.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yah.

Coach McBride:
So then I said, "Okay, I'm going to pick you up every morning. Get you dressed. Take you to McDonald's and then we'll go to school." And he said, "You're not going to do that." I said, "Yes, I am." So I'd show up. I'd get him out of bed and make sure he got dressed. "Okay, we're on the way to McDonald's." And then I'd make sure he got home at night. I did that for maybe almost a year until I got him squared away. And then he became a leader in the school. And then he became in charge of all the gang units in San Jose. He just retired recently, so I was kind of the guest speaker at his retirement. This was 60 years ago.

Anthony Godfrey:
My goodness.

Coach McBride:
So everywhere there's a success there is a Joe Mosley story.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of stories like that.

Coach McBride:
And some of you failed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Coach McBride:
I mean, so some people, you try to help them, try to put them right, and then they just keep falling back into a pattern. So sometimes you fail and I know the failures and I know why.

Anthony Godfrey:
A lot more successes, sounds like.

Coach McBride:
Well, yeah. I would say, yeah. I think we're on the positive side of—

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, for sure.

Coach McBride:
But there are, you know, everybody has problems.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's true. Well, thank you, Mac, for supporting these three schools in our district and for what you do in the broader community throughout the state and just for the positive impact you've had in Utah for so many years. Thank you.

Coach McBride:
Well, it's a good agenda and it's important. So it looks like we're in this for the long run.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love it. 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.

Zaidi Aleman:
Learning English is really a bridge that you can cross over and you can realize your dreams, your biggest dreams, you can do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how you describe that. Learning English is a bridge to your dreams.

Zaidi Aleman:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And really at that point then knowing two languages at that deep level becomes a huge asset.

Zaidi Aleman:
Absolutely it is a huge asset.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They have worked hard learning the English language trying to be the best they can be, making changes in their own lives and the lives of generations to come. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to a very emotional WIDA graduation. WIDA stands for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. Listen as we talk with graduates about the great pride they take in their achievement, becoming proficient in the English language, listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Find out what this milestone means to the multilingual students and their families now and well into the future.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here at West Jordan Middle School to talk with Michelle Love-Day, the Director of Language and Culture Services, about the event that's scheduled for tonight. Michelle, introduce yourself and talk to us about what's happening.

Michelle Love-Day:
I'm Michelle Love-Day, Director of Language and Culture Services, and tonight we're hosting our second annual Multilingual Family Night. However, this is more than just a family night. It's a celebration of our students who have passed the WIDA, which is showing linguistic aptitude and a celebration of their English learning skills.

Anthony Godfrey:
What level do students need to achieve to graduate? Because a lot of people might see language skills in different ways. This is a deep level of language acquisition.

Michelle Love-Day:
Exactly. So language skills are not by grade level that we would think they are. So in the WIDA it is scored levels one through five. And so in order to reach aptitude and language acquisition you have to have a 4.2 composite score and a 3.5 on their written and speaking. So some of these students can pass the scores and be qualified and linguistically proficient by sixth grade. However, some students, if they've arrived and come to our country new in seventh grade, they may not be proficient till 10th and 11th grade. So everyone is different.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's not about the grade level. It's about the WIDA level, one through five.

Michelle Love-Day:|
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what does a one represent and what does a five represent?

Michelle Love-Day:
A one means that students can communicate with simple vocabulary words and words that will help them go to the bathroom or go to the lunchroom and play with friends on the playground. A level five means they're proficient and they have the content area vocabulary that will allow them to be successful in science, math, social studies classes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So someone who's able to carry on conversations, who to the casual observer might seem like they have a good grasp of the English language, would be but may not have the academic knowledge yet. What number would they be?

Michelle Love-Day:
They could be at a level one, two, or three. And it depends because they're tested in their listening, reading, speaking, and writing. So they might be able to understand you and have a great conversation but then when it comes to writing an email or a letter they would probably struggle a little bit depending on their practice and their skill level.

Anthony Godfrey:
There may be those listening in who speak a second language who are saying to themselves, "I wonder where I fall? I wonder where I used to fall when I spoke that language more frequently and I wonder where I fall along the scale now?" Now you're going to introduce us to a teacher who has been instrumental in helping move students along, but you've known this teacher for some time now, is that right?

Michelle Love-Day:
That is correct. I think every educator has a pivotal time in their life when their former students become their colleague and so I didn't realize I was at that age of life but I am and so Zaidi Aleman was a former student when I was a literacy coach in Jordan School District and now she's teaching here in our school district again as an educator.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Zaidi, introduce yourself and tell me about what it's like to be a teacher now in front of your literacy coach.

Zaidi Aleman:
Well, I'm Zaidi Aleman. I am a third-grade teacher at Oakcrest Elementary School and it's amazing actually. I never thought that I would come and be colleagues with the people who helped me the most become who I am today. So, it's really inspirational and I really am wanting to be a inspiration to others as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about teaching third grade and helping students with their language acquisition and getting that academic vocabulary.

Zaidi Aleman:
Well, so in third grade we also focus on WIDA Prep and we focus on, like Michelle had said, contextual and tier one instruction. So I was there as a language learner. I came to this country when I was three. I had zero language skills. I had zero English skills and it was hard and I can see that in them. I can see that it is really tough to learn a different language. I was lost and I can see that they were lost as well and so having that contextual like background and being where they are right now gives me so much empathy for them because I was there in their shoes, because I was lost, because I didn't feel enough, because I didn't feel smart enough. But like something I want us to like say to them is that you can do it. It may feel like a wall right now but learning English is really a bridge that you can cross over and you can realize your dreams, your biggest dreams, you can do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how you describe that learning English is a bridge to your dreams.

Zaidi Aleman:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And really at that point then knowing two languages at that deep level becomes a huge asset.

Zaidi Aleman:
Absolutely, it is a huge asset. You can connect with so many more people, have so much empathy for other people and you can be that person who inspires other people to also become who they want to be. So you can be that person to become or you can help that person become who they want to be later in life.

Anthony Godfrey:
I would imagine that this creates also just a personal connection with students when they know that you have experienced the same things that they're going through and they can see that they have someone on their side right away.

Zaidi Aleman:
Yes, absolutely. I just want them to feel like it's not impossible. Like when they look at me or they look at other people like me, they know that it is possible to reach your dreams no matter where you start. Even if you start at zero, that's starting somewhere. You know you can reach your goals, just celebrate the small wins like the first joke that you understand, the first word you pronounce right, the first paragraph that you write, all of that is they're wins and that you're gonna, it's progress. It's progress over perfection.

Anthony Godfrey:
Having a sense of humor in another language is really a big step forward. Dreaming in another language is another big step.

Zaidi Aleman:
Absolutely, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
I said dreaming not nightmare. Nightmare in another language is a whole other thing altogether. Thank you for everything that you're doing and we are very very fortunate to have you in Jordan School District.

Zaidi Aleman:
Thank you so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back more about the WIDA graduation.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
They're out on the job in the rain, sleet, snow, ice, and in the sunshine. As Jordan School District students navigate their way to and from school every day, we are truly grateful for our city crossing guards. Always vigilant and looking out for students to ensure everyone's safety. Because they work so hard protecting our kids, let's give those crossing guards a hand. If you're driving near or around schools, slow down, pay attention, watch for students and staff, and follow instructions from the school crossing guards. And know our cities are always looking to hire crossing guards. If you like kids and need some flexible hours, contact your local city and apply to be a crossing guard today. Together, let's make this a safe and successful school year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome back. In a few moments, we'll talk with some students who are graduating from the WIDA program today. But before we do, let's talk with one of our language teacher specialists. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the work you do.

Letitia Vigil:
Hi, I'm Letitia Vigil, and I'm one of the language teacher specialists for Language and Culture Services. I work with all of the high schools in our district, supporting the multilingual learners and the ELD teachers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Letitia, what are some of the things that you do when you work with students to help support their learning?

Letitia Vigil:
We provide professional development for our teachers. We work with administrators on looking at data for their multilingual learners and how we can set goals with them to help their students reach the next level of proficiency each year.

Anthony Godfrey:
So really, you're meeting lots of students where they are and helping them just take those next steps to progress.

Letitia Vigil:
Yes, absolutely. So we provide the teachers with tools to see what the students can do at each level where they're at, and how we can support them to get them through their language journey.

Anthony Godfrey:
Part of language acquisition is not just everyday language, but it's academic language. That's really sometimes the barrier to success, and what we're really trying to help students be more proficient in. Is that correct?

Letitia Vigil:
Absolutely. I think one of the things that teachers don't realize when they see students that seem to be fluent as they're talking with their friends or on the playground, etcetera, is they're fluent in their social language, but not the academic language, like you mentioned. And WIDA really tests the academic language, so we have to be teaching that in the content areas at school.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the trends you see out there as you're supporting students? It's really hard for, I think, anyone to put themselves in that situation if you haven't experienced it before. Just coming into a school, not knowing the language socially or academically in some cases, and just needing to make some rapid progress. Tell me about the trends right now and how that's going.

Letitia Vigil:
As far as trends, I'm just thinking like students that, I guess, feel more supported at school and feel more welcome by their teachers and by the school in general, tend to thrive more quickly because they can feel safe and feel like it's a place that they can learn and a place that they want to be. And so also teachers that are getting their students speaking more in activities in class tend to excel quicker.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's not just about supporting students, it's also about supporting teachers and educators to help them feel prepared to help students who are learning another language really be at their best.

Letitia Vigil:
Yes, so teachers, if they haven't had a multilingual learner in their class or they haven't had to experience that, it can be a real challenge if they get a set of newcomers that don't speak any English. So we have been teaching teachers in our ESL endorsement for years and that's something that we do for free now and so it really is a great asset for teachers to have that endorsement so that they can be prepared for when they get those students. But it is still a challenge and we're there to support them. We can go out to PLCs and we can again host PDs at their school or do whatever the school needs us to do to help the teachers feel supported.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you for all the hard work you're doing and for helping our teachers help our students be at their very best and I know even better things are ahead that progress is just going to continue so thanks for everything you're doing. Thank you for your support and thank you for being here. Let's talk with a couple of students now about their experiences. We're talking now with two WIDA graduates who will be among those who are honored tonight. Introduce yourselves and tell us the grade that you're in and where you go to school.

Student:
Hello, my name is Alina Gunas and I come to West Jordan Middle School and I am a ninth grader.

Student 2:
Hi, my name is Danie Pumaccajia and I'm in 11th grade and I'm at Herriman High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your journey to becoming a WIDA graduate. When did you come to Jordan School District and what schools have you attended? What's the journey been like to get here?

Student:
So I've been, I've, I came here since kindergarten and it was for WIDA. It took a long time and it was very stressful at first because I didn't know because I have a lot of, I have Hispanic parents at home so I grew up speaking Spanish most of the time and when I got to the elementary and I started doing WIDA, it took me, it took me a very hard time. I would like to think about how hard it was like how if I would pass it or not and I almost did pass it a couple of times but it, it took a while for me to realize that it's actually, it's doing me good and last year it made me realize that even if I didn't pass it, if I don't pass it, it's still helping me with my English even though I've been here forever, you know, I was born here but it's helping me, helped me like socialize with people and that's why I just love doing it. Like I just love doing the WIDA, and I'm like never, I'm not embarrassed of saying that I, it took me like since last year to pass it.

Anthony Godfrey:
But it's very admirable that you just kept trying, that you didn't say, “This is not for me. I can't do this.” Were there people that encouraged you along the way?

Student:
Yeah, a lot of my teachers they encouraged me they're like, “Just pass it, just pass it”  and a lot of my family as well like and that's what encouraged me a lot to pass it this year, last year so yeah they really helped me a lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
How does it feel now after all of that effort and all of that time that you have achieved your goal?

Student:
It feels great. I feel really accomplished that I accomplished something and that I just feel really great and I hope that a lot of people, a lot of other students like pass it too because it's honestly a really great program and it's just...

Anthony Godfrey:
Today was a good day.

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well I'm just you know referencing your shirt. Tell us about your journey to get here.

Student 2:
I arrived at the USA like one year and a half ago so first I started my journey learning English in middle school. I was at the end of the year and it was difficult to make me understand with teachers of the friends that I had. I passed with a last year in my high school and I think that most of my teachers and my family were there to help me.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you think was the biggest factor in your success?

Student 2:
I was really motivated to pass it with that to go and keep my grades high, to participate, to ask questions, and I think that that motivation that I had, that progress helped me a lot, but also all the teachers and all my classes helped me a lot. They were so kind, and they take care of me so well that I could understand the classes. I could do my homework and then practice and understand all the English.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I understand you're a violinist, and that was maybe an early connection that you were able to make in school?

Student 2:
Yeah, in my class of violin I had met a lot of people that were in the same situation as me. They were Spanish speakers, some of them and I created a connection with them to be together and study for their WIDA tests, and also some of them were graduated with that WIDA exam so they helped me a lot with tips and facts about that so it gave me a lot of experience.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. Now that you are WIDA graduates, does it give you some additional confidence in your schoolwork?

Student:
It honestly does. It gives me a lot of confidence because I know that I could help a lot of other people who need help passing WIDA. Right now, during the assembly, if they know who I am and for my school so if they ever need help with anything I will always help them. I will always be open to help them because sometimes it's pretty hard. A lot of people have different levels and it's best. I love helping so I would not mind to help with WIDA.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's awesome that you're focused on helping other people and making sure that that you're paving the way for them as well so that's fantastic. How about you? What does that do for your confidence now that you know that you're a WIDA graduate?

Student 2:
I think that now I had more confidence to take harder classes like AP classes. Now I'm trying to do my best on that and also to help other people, other students that want to graduate in WIDA that want to be better in a class like math or science so it helped me a lot to help other people and also to be better, help me to be better.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great. So what's next for both of you? What do you want to do eventually?

Student:
Eventually I want to go to college and probably right now I want to go further on with Latinos in Action because I am also in, I am the president of Latinos in Action and right now I want to probably when I get into high school I want to make up like a club or something to help people who haven't passed WIDA to like make a program so we can help them pass it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful.

Student 2:
So I'm thinking to take more opportunities in high school, like the clubs, the organizations that have in the school, and also later go to college and maybe study something good science or computer science.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've both built a great bridge to a wonderful future with all the hard work that you've done. Congratulations on everything you've achieved and I wish you the best going forward.

Student:
Thank you. Thank you.

Student 2:
Thank you so much.

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.

Bryan Leggatt:
“The Maestro's Garden” represents the influence educators have, like a sun shining on a garden of thought of flowers, each one better because of that influence. I don't see oftentimes the results of what I'm doing with a student per se, but I can come here and I can paint something, I can stand back and say, "Oh wow, that's what I did today." So it is quite different.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. He is a middle school principal who loves working with students, bringing out the best in them every single day. But there's a secret talent that helps keep Bryan Leggatt going long after the last bell of the day at Elkridge Middle School. On this episode of the Supercast, we find out about Mr. Leggatt's longtime passion for painting and creating beautiful works of art. Hear how he finds inspiration as an artist, sometimes thanks to his meaningful and impactful work as a school principal and the relationships he has built along the way.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking today with Bryan Leggett, who is principal at Elkridge Middle School, and an artist on top of that, and we are here at his home in his home studio. it's really exciting to be here, Bryan.

Bryan Leggatt:
Thank you. Welcome to my studio.

Anthony Godfrey:
First of all, tell us about the structure here. This is just right next to your home and a place for you to work and display your work.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about how long it's been here and the decision to do this.

Bryan Leggatt:
Well, I'll be honest, the studio used to be in my basement.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Bryan Leggatt:
Used to be in a room in my basement until my daughter decided she wanted to move down into that room. And so we thought, okay, that might be a good time to find another location, maybe outside of the house. So this is just an outbuilding here outside of my home and a place that I could just kind of concentrate on my work, listen to good music, paint away, and have a good time. So that's what it was for. We started building this about a year and a half ago, and it took me about that amount of time. I just finished it recently within the past few months that I could start moving into it and kind of displaying my art and finding a bigger space in which I could work. It's come together, I think, pretty nice so far and we'll see where it goes from here.

Anthony Godfrey:
As a sanctuary, how does it compare to the basement?

Bryan Leggatt:
Oh, it's much nicer. I mean, it's much bigger.

Anthony Godfrey:
You really are separated from things. So you can really escape.

Bryan Leggatt:
I can really blast the music.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is this where people can find you when you're nowhere else to be found?

Bryan Leggatt:
Probably. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
“Oh, yeah, he's out. He's out in the studio.” Well, it's gorgeous. I love the attic here that you've got, a little shelf to store your work. And before we get to your work, you have quite a few of the pop bobbleheads here.

Bryan Leggatt:
I tell you, you would be impressed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is there a theme to this collection? Because I see a lot of recognizable figures.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's a theme. My biggest theme is my Star Wars theme over here. So I have lots of funko pops that are Star Wars.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow.

Bryan Leggatt:
I know you love Star Wars as well and I just picked them up over the years. Maybe this is why I do art. Is that I can sell my artwork and buy more funko pops. Who knows?

Anthony Godfrey:
What inspires you in art? Funko pops. That's really what gets me there.

Bryan Leggatt:
Everyone has their inspiration.

Anthony Godfrey:
Before we talk about the work itself, talk to me about the various materials that you like to use. I see acrylics there.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah, I usually just paint in acrylics. They're just a lot faster for me. They're safer. I don't have to deal with, you know, the types of things that might impact my sense of smell. I don't work with oils and so forth. Oh, so I just deal with water, you know, water and acrylic. It allows me to get my paintings done pretty quickly. That's always my goal when I start a painting is to get a lot of it done in one sitting or within a couple of days. Then I let it sit on a wall somewhere and I look at it for a while. And then I make I touch things up. I come back to it. Sometimes I'll even paint over it. I think one of the things I've learned is mistakes are what we do. That's how creative creativity takes place is you make mistakes, you take the risk. And yeah, and so some of these that you see in here, I've they've actually been painted over. And so it's just something that I do. I look at it for a while. And if I don't like it, I'll just paint over the top of it and find something else. But acrylics allow me to do that. And so I enjoy working with acrylics.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you said the acrylics are safer, what I thought you meant initially was not safer than oils that might be toxic, but safer than watercolor, meaning that you can cover over your mistakes where watercolor doesn't allow you to do that.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah, both, with some of the toxicity that goes in that's involved in oils.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Bryan Leggatt:
So I'm just going to stay away from that and stick with something that's a little safer. And I can paint over the top, you know, with as you mentioned with watercolors, sometimes that's just once you put it down on paper, it's hard to adjust it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do I see some watercolors up here, though?

Bryan Leggatt:
No, these are actually still acrylic here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That landscape there . . .

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah. I do a lot of glazing, so some like coats of colors. So sometimes it appears to be a watercolor.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Yeah. I really like that series there. I'd like to talk about the recent show at Riverton City. Tell me about that.

Bryan Leggatt:
Well, yeah, that's the second time I was involved in that show. I submitted a few. So for those that don't know, Riverton, well, the school district puts on a show for educators that are typically artists, art teachers in the District, but can really be open to anyone that anyone that does art. And then they have found a really nice venue. It's the Old Dome in Riverton. So this was the second year that I had one of my pieces. I had a couple last year. I gave them one of my pieces to display this year. It's a piece that really meant a lot to me because it does... It's one that I have been making for a very important teacher in my life and my daughter's life. And that's Kelly Dahan. Many of you know Kelly Dahan.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kelly is an amazing teacher.

Bryan Leggatt:
He's one of the best. One of the best. A couple of years ago, well, for a few years, he helped my daughter get through some tough times at Mountain Ridge. And so I'm really happy for him. I'm just so grateful for what he did. I told him after she graduated, that I would create a piece for him. I even went over to his home. We looked at a spot. I don't know if that spot is still available because it's been a couple years. But he collects art also. I just wanted to add to his collection, so I put a piece together that actually... I'm gonna read you what I wrote. And it's called “The Maestro's Garden.” It's the one right over here.

Anthony Godfrey:
And this is from the plaque that was by the painting.

Bryan Leggatt:
By the painting. So those of you that saw the painting, you've probably read this. But it goes out to really all educators. This is called “The Maestro's Garden.” “The Maestro's Garden represents the influence educators have, like a sun shining on a garden of flowers, each one better because of that influence. The lessons, the examples, the love. The teacher's shining light can be felt for years and this piece represents the many lives each unique in their own ways that could not thrive without caring educators. We are also fortunate to have opportunities each day to influence the lives of our young people. Maestro's in our own beautiful gardens.” So that's what this is. It's a garden of a lot of different flowers. Each one is unique. Not one of them is the same as others. There's about a hundred of them. It just represents the sun shining down on them and their growth. One of the things that happens with educators is we often don't get to see, you know, the future of what happens with our students. Sometimes we'll run into them in the neighborhood or someplace, and then we get to learn about them. If they graduated or what they're doing for their job, what career they've decided to go into. So that's one thing I really enjoy about art is, you know, all day long I can be a principal and work with kids and I don't see oftentimes the results of what I'm doing with a student per se. But I can come here, and I can paint something. I can stand back and say, "Oh wow, that's what I did today."

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Bryan Leggatt:
So it is quite different.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which helps me understand also why you want to make sure that you're able to complete the art, at least the initial version of it, quickly. Because you don't always get that reward. I do tell people that, you know, friends who are general contractors and that we drive by and they can say, "I built that building." And I drive by and say, "Well, I wrote an email in that building. I held a meeting in that building. I made a phone call in that building." But you don't always feel the results of what you do. So this is a really nice tribute to the results of Kelly Dahan's impact in your life and your daughter's life.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah. Well, thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love it. I've seen it. I think it's a beautiful work. And there's a little bit of an, I don't know that it's an abstract aspect to it, but all of the flowers are not necessarily representational. Describe this for those who haven't seen it or who can't see it.

Bryan Leggatt:
Well, I started doing this by painting, actually behind this. This is one of those that's painted over. So I started creating, my idea was this garden and the sun, you know, represent, you know, or help helping out each flower to grow and blossom to bloom. And I just didn't like it. It didn't really, I didn't connect with it. So I started, I just painted over it and I said, you know, I'm going to just stay away from a more realism look to it and go abstract. I think that, you know, you have a round sun, which is kind of like kind of that roundness of, you know, maybe what happens as you develop you, you know, from a square to a circle, not that squares are bad, but, you know, something to, to obtain in life. And all of these are squares or rectangles wanting to become something better, you know, whatever it might be. So there is a square inside that sun representing that teacher, but kind of that idea that even the teachers continuing to grow and develop. And so yeah, each of these, some of these flowers, actually what I did is I started creating just the squares for each flower. And I thought, you know, this has taken me a while so I started something, a new technique, and that is, I just got some unstretched canvas. I threw a lot of paint down on that unstretched canvas, and then I started finding areas that I really liked, and I cut those areas out, and those became other squares that I added to this. So I put canvas on canvas, which I've never done before and so it kind of created. Then I also went in and I masked areas off and I, and I use some, I use some light molding paste to kind of bring it up. So if you look at it from the side, you can kind of see that some are raised a little bit more than others and that's because I've used that light molding paste. I really enjoy using that stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah. I can see that.

Bryan Leggatt:
Then I used, and also what you'll notice is there is a fleck of gold in each one of these flowers. Every single one of the flowers has a fleck of that gold or a little bit of that, you know, that influence from the teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Stay with us when we come back, more with Bryan Leggatt, the principal of Elkridge Middle School.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
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Anthony Godfrey:
For those who don't know, you tell us, tell us, talk us through your career as an educator.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah, so I started back, I got off an LDS mission back in the early 90s. I went to Salt Lake Community College, started, I studied architecture, and I went into architecture because as a kid I loved drawing, I loved being artistic, I played with Legos. That idea of creating something unique was pretty special to me and important. So I started the architecture program there, and at the same time I was teaching English as a Second Language for the District. I was one of those tutors that would go around and help kids during the day. I also, some of you know Moncone Tugmala and Paul Pitts that used to work in the District, special people to me. I taught English as a Second Language at night time, so for the adults, mostly over at West, the old West Jordan Middle School building. So I would go and I would learn all day about architecture and had a fun time doing that, but then I went, but I loved going to work at night and helping these great people. I learned that I didn't really know a lot about construction, so I kind of moved away from architecture and that inspired me to go into teaching. So I got my first job, I opened up South Hills Middle School with Bob Sproul, and that was fun. We had half of our day was spent over, and you know the kids showed up at 12:30 in the afternoon to start school, and they ended at 6:30. We were over at Oquirrh Hills Middle School because South Hills hadn't been finished yet.

Anthony Godfrey:
You were part of the double session.

Bryan Leggatt:
I was a double-session person.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is the stuff of legends many years ago.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah, well, I'm a legend, but the legends were the teachers that shared their classroom with us. So started there after a year, went up to Brighton High School, taught there. Bob moved up there, and so I taught there for a few more years. Got a full-time one-year internship at Copper Hills High School. That was a blessing. And then went up to Butler Middle School, was there for a few years. That was the district switch at that point in time, or the split. I requested to come out west because that's where I live, and went back to Copper Hills for another few years, and then was called on August the 2nd by you to be the principal of Joel P. Jensen Middle School. I was there for 10 years, loved it. It was such a great school. Good people there. Ended up hiring most of the people that work there today. And then was moved to Elkridge Middle School, and that's where I am. This is my fourth year at Elkridge.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I can imagine that most of the people there, you hired. I mean, over a 10-year period, you're going to have that kind of turnover.

Bryan Leggatt:
I have hired quite a few people. I will say, I'm not gifted in a lot of things. I am gifted in hiring really good people. And I have helped my assistant principals learn what types of people to hire, and they're the people that care about kids. That's what I come to town to do.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's obvious that you care a lot about kids.

Bryan Leggatt:
I do, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've dedicated a lot of long hours to making sure that kids get the best experience possible.

Bryan Leggatt:
I try. I try. I've been blessed to have some really good people around me. That's for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, you've done a great job for a very long time, and I'm glad to see that you have this outlet. This means that you can work indefinitely because you have this release, right?

Bryan Leggatt:
There's no end in sight.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's no end in sight. All right, just wanted to lock that down on the recording there. So let's talk about some of your other works. I love this one right here with the ship.

Bryan Leggatt:
Oh, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
With the waves around it.

Bryan Leggatt:
"Call Me the Storm" is what it's called. And so, yeah, you have this is kind of a little bit more Christian-based with kind of like Christ there on the boat, "Calming the Waters." That was from several years ago, quite a few years ago.

Anthony Godfrey:
The boat is pretty far in the distance and is at the center, but the waves are very, very interesting. Colorful in spots. A lot of brown in the waves.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just really a lot of texture to that. That drew my eye right from the start.

Bryan Leggatt:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk about some of your other favorites here.

Bryan Leggatt:
Let's see. What are some of my other favorites? I don't know if I have favorites. I just kind of paint them and then they become my favorite for a little while then I move on to something else. As a language arts teacher, I looked for symbolism and a lot of different pieces of literature. So that has continued with my paintings and having a symbolic nature for most of the things that I paint. And so this is another one of my works. It's basically, it looks like a big iceberg basically, and it's called “Exposed.”  So this also deals with different things that have happened in my life and phases and stuff that I've gone through. So anyway, so this is something that we've had up just in our kitchen and it just kind of shows, as we've all seen kind of that picture of an iceberg with there's a little bit at the top that you can see, but there's a big massive piece underneath that you don't necessarily see. So that's . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the combination of colors here.

Bryan Leggatt:
I appreciate that. There's one more that I want to show over here that I really enjoy. And this is, so I have daughters and we have daughters. That's what I'm good at also is making daughters. I have four of them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well done.

Bryan Leggatt:
So yeah, thank you. And so this right here is called “Her Journey of Courage.” So it's, it kind of has the appearance. So it's a big wing basically and it looks like it's made out of wood in a way. I went in and I actually used a lot of that light molding paste to put over the top of it. This is actually a repaint actually. There's a painting underneath and I went in over the top of it. And in fact, there might be a couple paintings under this. And I have finished with this, which is like a wing, but it's, it's a tattered wing. It's been through a lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Bryan Leggatt:
And it's, so it just kind of represents like the struggle that, you know, females have in the world. And so anyway, that's her, her journey of courage, which means a lot to me and my, my kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a, I love how you use your art to express your love and concern for others.

Bryan Leggatt:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I actually was in the home of an administrator in the District, visiting her after a serious accident and she had a long recovery. She's still recovering and she was very moved by the painting you made for her. There was a Phoenix reference.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it was really, really inspiring for me to hear her describe the impact that that painting had on her. Describe that one for me.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah. Well, I mean, she's just a dear friend of mine. She was one of my assistant principals and had this horrendous accident. And so it's just her battle. I mean, she went through so many surgeries. So I just thought of a Phoenix and how a Phoenix is able to come out of the, you know, through the fire, you know, come out from, from being dead, basically out and, and rise above all of those things that they have had to deal with. And so, yeah, I painted that Phoenix for her to look at and think about because I think it represents her and, and her journey.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a beautiful tribute to, to what she's been through and how she has risen above it.

Bryan Leggatt:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a great connection with the people around you, the people you care about, but also a connection with yourself and a reflection on the experiences you've had. And yeah, it's, it's really inspiring to see this. And I love that we, we had the chance to, to, to experience this. You have a legacy through your artwork.

Bryan Leggatt:
But people also say legacy, but you can go ahead with.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, let's say legacy. All right. You have a great legacy through your artwork. And I am very personally aware of your legacy as a school leader, as an educator. So thank you for everything you've done there to, to touch lives and to make an impact.

Bryan Leggatt😐I'm inspired every, every day to go to work. I love working with kids and with the teachers and staff members I have around me. I feel blessed every day.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, 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 showcase of student talent, musical magic, and seasonal joy. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to Joel P. Jensen Middle School for a holiday music program that will make your spirits bright one note at a time. Listen and enjoy. We're in Ms. Johnson's classroom just after the performance. Tell me about this group of students.

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, this is our concert choir. So it's our students who are taking choir for their second or third year here at Joel P. Jensen. We have a few students who are seventh graders as well who just came to boost our numbers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the process of taking them from not knowing these songs and some of them not having experienced singing, to being at this point. They sounded great.

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, we do a lot of learning up front, doing rounds where students have to really get used to singing their part independently and start learning how to read music. Then it takes us about two months to learn our concert. So usually each class is learning about four or five songs. We start with just learning the notes, and then we try to make it more musical, add dynamics, the louds and softs, and make it more interesting and emotional from there.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm always amazed at how music teachers, both instrumental and choral, are able to have each individual practice their part and then bring everyone together and blend all of that so it's a unified sound. Talk to me about that process.

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, we work with just the altos or just the sopranos, and then sometimes we'll spend like 20 minutes just working on eight measures. So just a really small portion of the song, making sure everyone understands how their part fits in with the rest. Yeah, it's fun to see how everyone is able to find their note and by relying on the other people who are on their part, but then still have that independence from the other parts in the group. It just all comes together so beautifully at the end of the day.

Anthony Godfrey:
So to blend without being lost.

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
I always get lost. Tell me about your journey to becoming a music teacher. How long have you been here and what made you interested in music from the start?

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, this is my second year teaching at Joel P. Jensen and ever. I graduated from college in 2024. So it's been a fun journey to have my first choir. I actually decided to teach music because I had a wonderful middle school choir director and several wonderful piano teachers who made me love music and see the benefit that it could have to my life personally. I felt like I really found a place in choir. It's nice to be able to offer other students now those same opportunities to have connections socially and to understand their emotions better by working through them in music class. It's really rewarding to pass that forward.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's a huge personal benefit. Tell me about one of those instructors who had such an impact on you.

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, so I lived in Pennsylvania when I was in middle school and my choir teacher was named Mrs. Farrell. She had really high expectations for us as a choir class and made us better musicians and better people, teaching us to really care for each other and always seek to do our best at anything we did.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you find yourself doing some things that you experienced in her class, using some of that now as a teacher?

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, for sure. I learned so much from her, from my professors at college and I've found some great mentors here in the District as well, high school and middle school choir teachers that I've been able to steal some of their best ideas from.

Anthony Godfrey:
Good.

Ms. Johnson:
Yeah, it's been great.

Anthony Godfrey:
We love that. Well, whatever you're doing, it's working. They sounded wonderful and I just really appreciate everything you're doing and we're excited to have you here at Joel P.

Ms. Johnson:
Thank you. This is "Beautiful December" by Amy F. Burnin.

Now when the garden awaits, the return of spring.

Now when the silence is deep and blue.

Now when the winter has cast its spell again.

Beautiful December, beautiful December.

Here where the snow is as soft as the woolly land.

Here where the sky falls deep and blue.

Here where the stars are so bright you reach for them.

Beautiful December, beautiful December.

Child, may sleep in peace tonight.

Dream of songs that rise on silken leaves.

When you wake enchanted by snow's fun light.

Sing the songs that came to you in dreams.

Your beautiful December dreams.

When the storm awaits, the return of spring.

Now when the garden awaits, the return of spring.

When the silence is deep and blue.

Deep and blue.

Blue now.

When the winter is cast as spell again.

Beautiful December, beautiful December.

Beautiful December, beautiful December.

Beautiful December.

Blue.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with students who are in concert choir here at Joel P. Jensen Middle School. Tell me, what's it like being in concert choir? What do you love most about it?

Students:
It's good being at Joel P. Jensen in the choir because you get to do concerts and it's fun singing.

I get a lot of opportunities to socialize with other students and reunite as one class and then work on projects altogether.

I feel like I get to express my emotions through my voice while I'm singing and it's just really fun to do that.

It's really fun and Miss Johnson's like the best teacher.

I really like singing in choir with the other choir kids. It helps me feel more united with them and to become best friends with them and there's like lots of opportunities to just go and perform and sing your heart out and it's great.

This is “Like It's Christmas” by the Jonas Brothers arranged by Mac Huff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back more Sounds of the Season from Joel P. Jensen Middle School.

Music]

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
Are you looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? Jordan School District is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or a substitute teacher. Apply to work in one of our school cafeterias, where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire custodians and bus drivers. In Jordan School District, we like to say people come for the job and enjoy the adventure. Apply today at employment.jordandistrict.org.

Ms. Johnson:
This is the Bells of Christmas Medley arranged by Greg Gilpin.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, tell me about Miss Johnson. What's it like being in her class?

Female Student:
She's an amazing teacher. She's very patient and sweet when it comes to her students. If you're ever struggling when it comes to a certain section of the song, you can tell her that, and she will help you out.

Female Student:
She is very kind and she never makes you sing something you don't want to, but she still helps you develop your singing skills and become a better singer.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you sang some great songs, Jonas Brothers and Medley, all of that. What is your favorite holiday song, winter song, or Christmas song, whatever you choose?

Female Student:
I personally really like to sing the Jonas Brothers song because it's more energetic and it's easier to sing those higher notes since it's more... yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Although I'm not a good dancer, I wanted to move to that one. You guys had me going.

Male Student:
My favorite is "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel." Specifically, I like the version with For King and Country “I Need to Breathe." I feel like their voices work really well together.

Female Student:
I like "Silent Night" because it's so peaceful and it's so pretty.

Male Student:
My favorite song is "Wings the Bells It's Christmas" because it has a lot of Christmas spirit and a lot of joy.

Female Student:
I personally like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" because I think it's for adults and kids and families to just sing together, and it's really easy.

Female Student:
I personally like the J I N G O Bells because it's a fun version of Jingle Bells. I also really like "Silent Night." It just brings a lot of peace when you're having a hard time.

Ms. Johnson:
This is "Ring the Bells. It's Christmas" by Douglas E. Wagner.

♪ Ring the bells and spread the cheer of sing noel, noel ♪

♪ Christmas time returns and all around us we can tell ♪

♪ Colored lights upon the tree, gifts for you and me ♪

♪ Herald song in harmony, noel, noel, it's Christmas ♪

♪ Ring the bells and spread the cheer of sing noel, noel ♪

♪ Christmas time returns and all around us we can tell ♪

♪ Golden lights upon the tree, gifts for you and me ♪

♪ Herald song in harmony, noel, noel, it's Christmas ♪

♪ Sing, noel, noel ♪

♪ Sing, noel, noel ♪

♪ Sing, noel, noel ♪

♪ Christmas time returns and all around us we can tell ♪

♪ Golden lights upon the tree, gifts for you and me ♪

♪ Herald song in harmony, noel, noel it's Christmas ♪

♪ It's Christmas

♪ Golden lights upon the tree, noel, noel noel ♪

♪ Christmas time returns and all around us we can tell ♪

♪ Golden lights upon the tree, gifts for you and me ♪

♪ Herald song in harmony, ring the bells and spread the cheer ♪

♪ Sing, noel, it's Christmas time ♪

Anthony Godfrey:
Have a great break! Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you will do today!” We'll see you out there and we hope you have a wonderful winter break.