Supercast

David Martin:
This idea of Beatles concerts with a large group, choir, performers, dancers, instrumentals, that's kind of where that idea was formed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the impact on you personally.

David Martin:
And knowing that even though our small contribution might seem small, it does make a difference. That's what keeps me coming back. Concert after concert after concert after concert.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. He has a love for music and theater, has performed in national commercials, musical theater, and with the likes of Donny Osmond, and is passionate about teaching and sharing his tremendous talents. On this episode of the Supercast, meet Bingham High School music theater teacher David Martin. He is an incredible educator with an impressive resume, who also happens to perform in a Beatles tribute band, having fun for a good cause, with all concert ticket sales going to charity.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Bingham High School talking with David Martin right before we go into the rehearsal for tonight's performances. We've got a lot to talk about, but introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your time here at Bingham. What do you do?

David Martin:
My name is Dave Martin. I am the theater teacher and I teach stage tech. So that's the behind the scenes of all the shows and musical theater. So, all the song and dance and then a couple of film studies classes, which are great. Then I also oversee the student government efforts here at Bingham High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us how long you've been at Bingham.

David Martin:
I got here in 2022. So this is halfway through my fourth year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Where were you before, and what led you here?

David Martin:
Fun fact, I actually got my degree from the University of Utah in choral education in 2010. I taught choir at Kearns High School for six years and then I had a vocal hemorrhage. So for all you medical people, that's where your voice basically just breaks. I resigned, and I was a stay-at-home dad for six years.  Halfway through that six years. I went and got a master's in public administration from BYU. Then the position opened up and I was a little bit reluctant because I didn't have my degree in theater. I'd done a lot of theater, but I didn't have my degree. Somebody poked and prodded and said, “You should really apply.” Then I got the position. So it's been awesome ever since.

Anthony Godfrey:
Once you applied, you really dove in student government, stage crew, everything else. What has your involvement in theater been?

David Martin:
So my first big production, I'm about to name drop, was . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
This podcast is all about name dropping. Bring it.

David Martin:
I was in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat” with Donnie Osmond at Kingsbury Hall when I was 14.

Anthony Godfrey:
So was he wearing purple socks at the time?

David Martin:
We did the cast party, and we were required. Everybody wore purple socks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Everyone wore purple socks.

David Martin:
Everyone wore purple socks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That was the real, that was that, you got the full Donnie Osmond experience.

David Martin:
Yeah. Which was just unbelievable. You can't write that. There's no way I could have as a, as a kid, or my parents even said, you know, “We're going to play our cards right. That you're going to be in a touring production of one of the most well-known musicals ever,” and especially a fan favorite here in Utah. So as a kid, 14, I just started. I was in music. I played in the band. I played trumpet and string bass in my middle school band. But to be in Kingsbury Hall with that caliber, and we ran it for three months, it just infected me with the theater bug. Then my next big theater thing was Desert Star Playhouse, like in 2006. I was brought in because somebody else had a vocal injury. So they called me up.

Anthony Godfrey:
I did not go. “Hamridge?”

David Martin:
No, similar though. It's actually . . .  so I did a handful of shows there.

Anthony Godfrey:
What was the spoof?

David Martin:
It was “Mission Credibles.” So it was Tom, Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible movies and then like superheroes. So we had like references to The Fly, the Jeff Goldblum, The Fly movie.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

David Martin:
Really fun parody, really, really great. Then I did a Christmas show and then an Indiana Bones spoof the next year. Then kind of took a hiatus. Then my first show at Hale Center Theater was “Pirates of Penzance” in 2010hen I've done 23 at that theater over the last 10 years. That opened up doors to . . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Twenty-three different productions.

David Martin:
Twenty-three different productions.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

David Martin:
So that opened up doors to Music Direct and other theaters. So I've done a music direction for arts councils, Revision Arts, Draper Arts, and then Centerpoint, which is up in Centerville, Ogden Musical Theater, which is up in Ogden. I've been just kind of all over the map with doing shows and it's just been so much fun. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of time. But coming to teach here, I draw so much on my time as a performer. I didn't do the education route, which is okay. I have since learned all of the things, you know, for the instructional side of teaching theater in particular. But I really do draw on my experience. I did “Tuck Everlasting” at Hale, and we did it as our musical theater show last year. It was so cool to be on the other side of it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

David Martin:
I did “Joseph” twice at Hale, and I've done it once here. So it's just really cool to just say like this show touched me so greatly and I want to present this and have the kids be a part of it. We're doing “Drowsy Chaperone” in the spring of this year in April and it's a number. It's my second show at Hale, actually in 2010 and it was life-changing. So I can be where the students are in their experience and say, "I was just like you when this show was opened, you know, to my eyes."

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. I would imagine it is really fun to see a show from both sides of it, where you were the performer and now you're making it happen for these students.

David Martin:
It's almost more emotional for me, I think, as a director now than it was as a performer. Because as a performer, you're very centered around yourself. You only have your job, your songs, your dances that you're responsible for. But to oversee all of the production elements, set design, building, costumes, everything when it finally comes together. I just have so many moments when I'm in the back of the theater, just like sobbing. I really just get so emotional when I'm like, "These are the moments. These are the moments that I wanted to see. And the kids caught the vision and they did it.” It's just awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here because you are performing with your band.

David Martin:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
For the Dance-A-Rama, what's it called? Because it's all of the groups, all the dance groups are performing, and you and your Beatles band are playing for them.

David Martin:
Yeah. I love Dance-A-Rama though. I think we should market that, copyright it, and then sell it to the dance teachers here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. Let's do it.

David Martin:
All right.

Anthony Godfrey:
Trademark. Trademark. Tell us about tonight's performance and what this looks like tonight.

David Martin:
So we've talked about Beatles concerts when I got here, because I just always talk about the Beatles. I can't not. And I've got a great relationship with Gina and Lori, the dance teachers here. They're unbelievable. They help us out with the musical, and we just have a really awesome Performing Arts department. But she just said, "What are your thoughts on a live performance?" And I said, "Done. No question." She's like, "Seriously?" And I was like, "Yes." I'm like, "There's no question. There's no, we need to work anything out. It's just going to happen." We can work it out. And we will work it out. So she said, "Okay," and so then she just gives us the set list. What's been the funnest part about it is there's a lot of songs that we don't typically do. We're opening the first dance, I think it's Dance Co. is “I Am The Walrus.” I've never done “I Am the Walrus.” They're not full songs, which is kind of sad because they're doing just cuts. Minute, maybe minute and a half of one song and maybe full song on some other ones.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm the egg man. I'm the egg man. Goo goo g'joob. All right. Next song.

David Martin:
But it's so fun. We've never done that. So just to do that and then we don't typically do “Ob-LaDi” and I love “Ob-LaDi.” It's a fun, fun, fun, fun song to play. And then we lost a guitarist, couldn't make the schedule work. So he left the band, and then they were like, "Well, why don't you just play rhythm guitar on a bunch of stuff?" And so—

Anthony Godfrey:
What all do you play? Keyboard, bass, drums, guitar?

David Martin:
Yeah, that's it.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's it.

David Martin:
Well, and trumpet maybe if I had some time and I did play string bass. But I play well enough to... I'm a passable player and I think that's, you know. So these are going to feature the really elite teams here at Bingham, the Dance Co. and the ballroom team. Ballroom team’s “Let It Be” is awesome. They're also doing “Imagine” and it is awesome. Dance III, we're doing kind of like a mashup of Beatles and Michael Jackson's “Come Together.” So it's a little faster, a little bit more 80s pop, but super, super fun. Then the moments that I've actually really enjoyed, too, are the clinic, little girls that they've brought in. Little girls and boys that I've brought in to do some of these other numbers, and I just love it. I think and then one of the numbers, spoiler alert, is the Dance Co. girls dancing with their moms. I love that kind of stuff. I love moments where we connect people to real life. And we say that, “No, these moms have been in these girls' corner from the time they were five years old, taking them to practice, taking them to whatever.” Then to have a little moment in the spotlight is so cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what's the song? “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” “Your Mother Should Know.”

David Martin:
“Mother Nature's Son,”

Anthony Godfrey:
“Mother Nature's Son?”

David Martin:
No, it's not. It's, it's “Hey Jude.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, “Hey Jude.” Very good. Very good. Yeah, that's cool that the mothers and daughters get to, get to dance together.

David Martin:
It's awesome and it's really just full circle when you see the little kids get up there and they're discovering dance for the first time. Then you see your seniors who are the dance ballroom team captains who are so polished in this art form. And I love it. I think if anything, the performing arts are my favorite way to come together, pun intended, because I think there's just something energetic and euphoric about live. So I think that's what's probably the coolest part about this whole thing tonight, is that live dance and live music is just really cool. It's a really cool dynamic.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. More with Mr. Martin and his love for everything Beatles

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.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk to me about the band and some of the events you've been a part of.

David Martin:
So we formed like in 2014. They were a neighborhood band. They all kind of hung out together and played music, and then the guitarist was a good friend of mine and fellow teacher at Kearns, who said we're putting together this state fair just up off of 48th West. By Glenmore Golf Course and he said,  “We're gonna do five numbers or something. We need a bass player.” So I was like, low stakes, whatever you need. So I came in. I had not really played bass at all. Like I'd picked the bass up every 10 years or something and I had to get ready for a gig or something and they're like we need a bass player. So I met the group. Devin and Lisa Ashby, Skip Cavell and Sean Bastille, and Bob Osberg was my buddy. So we did a handful of numbers. We did “Mustang Sally.” We did “Proud Mary.” We did “Old Time Rock and Roll.” Pretty easy and I just thought this is a one-and-done and they're like, “Well why don't you come back? Why don't you come back and we'll do another thing. We'll find something. We'll go to the state fair.” So I got more and more and I was playing bass a little bit more. About the same time, I was teaching junior high, and no offense to junior high teachers, it did not bode well for me. I had a really hard time.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was not a match.

David Martin:
It was not a match. So I said, “How am I going to spruce up my end of the year? I got to do something because I'm four months in and I'm just tapped.” So I said, “Well, we're going to do a Beatles concert at the end of the year, and we're going to just do all Beatles music and, why not? We'll just do a live band. So the band I used for those concerts was somebody different, but this idea of Beatles concerts with a large group, choir, performers, dancers, instrumentalists, that's kind of where that idea was formed. Then in 2016, about the same time, I was so we played with the band kind of off and on for different functions. In 2016 a good friend of mine was diagnosed with ALS, and I said, “I want to do a Beatles concert for him. We'll call it Beat ALS and we'll feature all of the performers from the community and it'll be awesome.” So it was a one big night at Cottonwood High School. It sold about a thousand tickets and we raised ten thousand dollars and I dished it off all to an organization and basically started from scratch after that. I was like, “What am I thinking?” So I thought, “You know? I love this idea of doing this ALS Beatles concerts, and I love the idea of doing concerts with kids.” So this band was just there and they were like, “We love the Beatles and we love doing this,” and Lisa, one of the female singers in the band, her aunt actually was diagnosed and passed away from ALS. So it was a really interesting connection. So then that band became the Beat ALS band. We've done 15 junior high and high school concerts and they don't ask to be paid. They don't ask for anything outside of a t-shirt, and so that became . . . we would just do all these performances and intermix between these performances would be these ALS concerts and so that's kind of what kept the band going for now. You know we're 11 years.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the impact on you personally as you have spent this time raising money for those with ALS and just to help others through your music.

David Martin:
So like the first concert we had 23 vocalists, guitarists, instrumentalists, 23. We had a full orchestra from Cottonwood High School, we had members of the Odyssey Dance Troupe, we had aerialists, we had  . . . and I just was depleted by the end of that concert. It was six months of my life trying to prep that. So I was so just, in the headlights the entire time, and I remember when that concert finished it was like, “Oh that's good that's done,” and then I had a guy that worked with me that was like, “We should maybe look at maybe doing another one of these.” So he kind of pushed me on it and since that time 2017, 2018 I just have these moments where I feel like it is making a difference. We don't raise a ton of money just because of the nature of concerts. I mean unless you're debuting at Shea Stadium, you're not going to get you know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

David Martin:
But our main goal has always been to just improve quality of life for the patient and knowing that even though our small contribution might seem small, it does make a difference and it provided hospice or it provided, you know food, or whatever that is. My favorite, very favorite moment of any concert is when a guy that we've benefited named Darren Redden, who had had ALS for six years and he had a trach, which is just so complicated when it comes to quality of life. It was at Elkridge, Elkridge Middle with Keith Goodrich, and it was our biggest. We raised $12,000 that night, but Keith also has 400 kids in his program so we did “Hey Jude” and during the “nah-nah’s” he started doing donuts in his wheelchair, and it was like, and his cute daughters Livia and Lexi, who were barely in high school when their dad got diagnosed . . . to just see an entire auditorium. Bingham was here, it was here at Bingham, which is even cooler. Fifteen hundred people just sending everything that they could to this family saying like, “I don't know you, and I don't know if $12,000 is going to scratch the surface in your financial struggles with this disease.” But I've had so many moments in those concerts where we're singing “Hey Jude” and we're doing the “nah-nah’s” and the kids are just enveloped in the music and the audience is enveloped in the music and it helps that the Beatles are the greatest band. I don't even have to do anything. I just put their music out there, and everybody just embraces it, but then to say these are the meanings behind the songs or these are the takeaways, and these kids get a chance to do something with that talent, do something with their performing arts abilities for the better, that's what keeps me coming back concert after concert after concert.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well that's a huge impact and unforgettable moments for the people involved, and I'm just really excited to have you here Bingham, and bringing that energy here. Now I understand that not only have you had theater experience, but you have had film experience in at least an advertisement I know. Tell me, weren't you were you the doting father when someone was filling out a form or taking a test or what was it?

David Martin:
So that was for the ACT. That was kind of funny, just you know having been in the education realm and doing an ACT commercial was a little, it was a little weird right, because I'm like I do this like you know pre-ACT day, on ACT day, and you guys are like marketing you know. For that it's just it's just a little bit fun. But my first commercial was actually a T.C. Christensen, who did “Seventeen Miracles,” and kind of a well-known Utah film director and it was for Peterson's Fresh Market. I was the watermelon whisperer, so . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow I'm a fan of Peterson's but I have never bought a watermelon there. Maybe I should.

David Martin:
So I talked to watermelon, that was my big acting debut but since then I've actually been really fortunate I did a Subway commercial that like debuted in the in the Midwest, like in Detroit or something Michigan. I can't remember but that was kind of fun. Then Donovan Mitchell, I got to share the screen with Donovan Mitchell for a U of U Health commercial.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I remember that commercial. That was you.

David Martin:
That was me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

David Martin:
Then probably the biggest one, which is kind of silly to say . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
You fake injuries really well that was good that was good.

David Martin:
So the biggest one probably was Larry H. Miller Used Car Supermarket because Larry H. Miller owns the Megaplexes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh so it was shown before movies.

David Martin:
I would get stopped just by so many people left and right like, “you're the, you're the guy from the . . .  I've seen you before.” Then in terms of films, we . . .  there's a group here in Utah called Working with Lemons. They're a family out of Riverton. Their big breakout was they do live action music videos but they did “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and it got over 400 million views and likes. So then that kick-started them into their film career. They've done countless Disney adaptations or music videos plus some musical theater but they've done three films. They did one called “Night of Wrath” and I played a dad. Then they just did a live a modern day telling of “Sense and Sensibility” and I was the man in the bookstore. So if you're like, what? Who's the man in the bookstore, that's me.

Anthony Godfrey:
That’s you.

David Martin:
Then lastly in 2019, I think, “Forgotten Carols” which is a well-known performance that happens here in Utah. Michael McLean wrote it. It's like 34th year or something, but they recorded a staged version of that to show during COVID and so I got to be in that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, cool.

David Martin:
That was on Amazon Prime and a couple of my students over the Christmas break texted me and they're like, “Is this you?” I'm like, “Yeah.” I'm a huge hit at Deseret Book.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. That's great. but really the ACT commercial was your favorite I'm sure.

David Martin:
It was just so funny because they were like, “We're gonna put you in this sweater. You have to be like this cool dad.” I'm like, “Can I not just be a cool dad, just because that's what I am gonna like.” “No, we're gonna put you in a sweater.”

Anthony Godfreyu:
Cool dad sweater.

David Martin:
Yeah, cool dad sweater, and it was just fun. It was fun and I will say though, the Subway gig was the school teacher. So he was talking, he's in the class. The commercial starts with the camera coming up to a row of desks and I'm like, “Listen, the only salvation I have as a teacher, the only sanity I get as a teacher, is when I get to have my bacon. You know cheddar melt.” So the kids, and they had a couple cuts of the of the commercial, where the kids like went straight up “Lord of the Flies” where I'm like you know, fantasizing about the sandwich, and then I come out of my trance. . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Going nuts.

David Martin:
And the kids are like face pain and a disco ball and a tuba. It was, and they actually said but they said in the in the um, like after I got cast and we were kind of meeting, they're like, “We chose you because you were a school teacher,” because I told them in the audition. They were like, “Yeah, we chose you because you were a school teacher.” I'm like, “Thank you.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's opening doors left and right.

David Martin:
Finally.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for everything you do here at Bingham. You do so much and we really are very fortunate to have you here and thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

David Martin:
Hey, happy to do it and you know one of these times, you're gonna have to strap on the guitar and come over and uh, and play a couple numbers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Pull me in on something less complex than “I Am the Walrus” and you're on, you're on.

David Martin:
You got it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you 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.

(upbeat music)

Michelle Lovell:
Terra Linda has risen to the top of the District for first grade data for middle of year.

Aubrey McDonald:
We always talk about in our class what do we want to do?

Students:
Cross our midline.

Aubrey McDonald:
And so when we do something with art and then write about it we're definitely crossing our midline.

Student:
It helps us remember.

Michelle Lovell:
You are being very intentional about your students’ reading needs and the progress they're making.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are improving literacy by making clay model animals, like a tiny toxic octopus and a very interesting elephant. It's all in support of a language arts curriculum called “Wit and Wisdom” that is fostering critical thinking in students across Jordan School District. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to Terra Linda Elementary School, where a team of first-grade teachers is finding unparalleled student success using this rich Wit and Wisdom reading experience, and they're inviting parents to be part of it all.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Michelle Lovell and Aubrey McDonald talking about Wit and Wisdom and the way it's used in a first-grade classroom here at Terra Linda. Thanks for talking with us today.

Aubrey McDonald:
I'm happy to. Thanks for coming.

Anthony Godfrey:
Michelle, talk generally about Wit and Wisdom. We added that in the last couple of years in Jordan School District. What is it and what is it intended to accomplish? And then let's talk about how it's been adapted for use in this first grade classroom so effectively.

Michelle Lovell:
So Wit and Wisdom is a curriculum resource that we use in Jordan School District for language arts standards. This program is meant to be a knowledge-based knowledge-building program and it incorporates looking at reading text, it incorporates looking at art, talking and dialoguing about what they're learning, diving into text, finding text evidence, doing writing activities, and it does not have a phonics component. We still use UFLY for phonics, but the big pieces of Wit and Wisdom address those vocabulary, language, speaking, listening, and text-dependent kinds of pieces of the core.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is the rich reading experience that students get in conjunction with the phonics that they're learning.

Michelle Lovell:
Absolutely, and one of the pieces that we love about Wit and Wisdom is how deeply kids learn about topics because the reality is, if you aren't able, if you don't know a lot about a topic, you really can't speak to that topic, and if you can't speak to the topic, you can't write about it either. So being able to talk about something and have a deep knowledge base is a precursor to being able to write effectively about that topic. One of the things that I have really loved about Wit and Wisdom is going into classrooms and seeing the discussions kids have and I've just seen it in classroom after classroom with students talking about a book and bringing out parts of the book and having just amazing discussions about what they're reading, and because they have such strong discussions, that impacts what they can write about.

Anthony Godfrey:
The content knowledge is a really important companion to the just reading skills that we're teaching, so that they're getting this deeper knowledge, they're able to write about it, they're able to discuss it and there's some context for the reading that they're learning and there's some joy in reading these books and learning about the world around them.

Michelle Lovell:
Yes absolutely, and being able to also realize you can go back into a text you once you've read something and you want to talk about the details that we're giving kids the skills to be able to go back into a book, look for text evidence, cite textual evidence, which is — that's a skill that they're going to always need throughout their lives, and then relate those texts to other texts that they've read, relate them to other things that they're learning, art, science, social studies, all of those pieces coming together to build a huge knowledge base for kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
And to make a little twist on a common phrase, you're learning to read and learning while you read about all of these different topics, and as we visit this classroom today, we're going to learn about animals and what students learned about animals, which is really exciting for a first grader in particular.

Michelle Lovell:
Yes, and that's one of their science topics: learning about animal habitats and what animals do.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's that overlap of getting a lot of things accomplished with the same with the same work that's being done in class.

Michelle Lovell:
That's correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've talked about fidelity versus integrity when using Wit and Wisdom in the classroom because this was a big lift. It was a big shift for students and for teachers from what we had been doing previously. So talk about the difference there.

Michelle Lovell:
So when we're talking about fidelity, we mean that we don't want to change any element of a curriculum, that it needs to be read verbatim and we're not going to change anything in the curriculum. Integrity means that we're going to have the outcome of the curriculum, and we're going to meet the learning goals and the objectives but teachers have a little more autonomy to make instructional decisions based upon their student needs. And so our goal with Wit and Wisdom is that teachers would read the analyze section of the lessons and read the learning goals and stay true to those, and as they're going through the lessons, to be able to make those teacher moves regarding how many questions they're asking and what types of questions, scaffolding background knowledge when it's needed, helping students who are reluctant learners to build that that knowledge base, and then even adding in and bringing in other topics as they, as what's happened in this classroom, where they're incorporating pieces that they're staying true to the Wit and Wisdom lessons and the integrity of the lessons, but they're building in and upon that, to bring in art and other pieces of science.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which brings us to Aubrey everything that she's doing with her first graders to make sure that this learning comes alive and is memorable and you've really got their brains firing on all pistons so talk about what you have done here in this classroom and what you did last Friday, your showcase.

Aubrey McDonald :
So for finishing module two, the end of module task is actually to write an informative paragraph about an animal, and we thought what could we do to mix that up a little bit, to add some art and to add a science standard in there as well. So last year my team and I we came up with having the students sculpt an animal. It had to include their unique feature and then we had them write what the animal was, what the unique feature was, and then what how the animal uses that unique feature because that's what the whole module was about is how can we learn from animals and their unique features. Last Friday we held a showcase and we invited students, all the students in the school they could come visit each of the three classrooms, and then we also invited some people from the community and the school district and then from 12:30 to about 12:55 we invited parents to come in and look at the projects. The students were so excited to share with their parents, and many of them have siblings in the school as well so you could just see the little first graders faces light up when big brother and sister came in and they had something exciting to share with them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah and the pride in the learning that's taken place in the project that they have is really fun to see. Now they each wrote a paragraph about their about, their animal and they also sculpted the animal and put it in kind of a setting. So talk us through some of these projects that you have here on the table.

Aubrey McDonald :
Well one student decided, she did jellyfish and she actually made it a little jellyfish family.

Anthony Godfrey:
I would think it would be pretty hard to make a jellyfish out of clay but that's a very good representation. It's and, is the color did they color it with markers after work?

Aubrey McDonald :
Yes so we I had some markers and we did the coloring. Last year we had so this is our second year. Last year we put them on paper plates and they drew a little bit of a background and I thought well why don't we do some butcher paper this time and because the paper plate has the ridges and things so just to make it a little look a little bit nicer. So we just wrapped some cardboard in their color of what the setting for the environment, their habitat that they wanted it to be in.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah yeah, we test at various times to see the progress that students are making, and you showed me earlier today the progress that first grade students in Terra Linda are making. Talk to me about that, Michelle.

Michelle Lovell:
Yeah it was really exciting to see. We have midterm goals where we want the kids to meet learning goals in the middle of the year so they'll be on target to meet goals at the end of the year and Terra Linda has risen to the top of the District for first grade data.

Anthony Godfrey:
I want you to say that one more time.

Michelle Lovell:
Yeah, Terra Linda has risen to the top of the District for first grade data for middle of year and that was just really exciting to see. In talking with your administrator, you know she mentioned that you are being very intentional about your students’ reading needs and the progress they're making, and you're being very strategic about instruction and intervention. She also mentioned that you have coaches that work with you in the building and that you all — that it's really a community effort. She also mentioned that you bring in your parents and include your community in your students' learning, and this is a great example. Aubrey, how does it feel to know that you have shown such incredible growth, such great scores at the middle of the year.

Aubrey McDonald :
Well, we did it as a team. So, Mrs. Davis and Miss Carlson definitely shared. We shared all the success together.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back find out what a tiny toxic octopus and interesting elephant have to do with Wit and Wisdom and student success in literacy.

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:
So at this end of module two, you wanted to do a performance task that was not just paper and pencil. Tell me about what got you here and why you chose this particular kind of project, and then we'll talk with Logan and Maddie about their projects.

Aubrey McDonald:
We actually started this project and we did it last year. We were thinking about a way to have the students show us what they knew that wasn't just a paper pencil test. So we thought, I thought why don't we have them sculpt something with clay. So we got this white modeling clay, and then the performance task is to after learning about many different animals and their unique features, they were to create a model of an animal and its unique feature, and then we had them write what animal it was, what the unique feature was, and then what they do with that unique feature.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is a lot to take in. I think it's really exciting, first of all, to tie literacy to learning about animals and to bring art into it and allow them to do some sculpting instead of just writing the answers. What sort of responses have you seen with from students when they're able to interact with the material and the information they've learned in this way? 13:51

Aubrey McDonald:
My students have really enjoyed it and it was nice because this year we invited the other students in the school to come look at the projects. The second graders last year remembered that they did this project, too. A lot of them were even able to tell us their animal and their unique feature. So having them interact with the clay and then write about it, I think helps them. It'll be something that they'll remember.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Aubrey McDonald:
Maybe even for let's hope for all of elementary school but I know they definitely remembered for the next year too.

Anthony Godfrey:
It gets their brain firing in different ways. I love that they got to come back and see what the fresh batch of first graders did this year and reminisce about their own work when they were younger in first grade not the older second graders that they are now.

Aubrey McDonald:
I had put out all the books that go with this module when we had visitors and many of the students from that were in the class last year were excited to see the books again. Then these guys, my students currently, just love to read the books and we always talk about in our class what do we want to do?

Students:
Cross our midline.

Aubrey McDonald:
Cross our midline. Yeah and so when we do something with art and then we write about it we're definitely crossing our midline because when we cross our midline what does it help us?

Student:
It helps us remember.

Anthony Godfrey:
Crossing the midline is using your left or right brain?

Aubrey McDonald:
Yeah, using both sides of the brain.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's wonderful.

Aubrey McDonald:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Logan, tell me about your project. What animal did you sculpt and what did you write about your animal? What unique features does your animal have?

Logan:
My animal is a blue-ringed octopus and its unique feature is poison in unexpected ways with its teeth.

Anthony Godfrey:
Poison in unexpected ways with its teeth. Tell me about that.

Logan:
So it like bites you and you don't even know it's there but you can die.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really? Hopefully I will never meet a blue-ringed octopus.

Aubrey McDonald:
Stay away from them, yes. Do you remember if the octopus was big or small?

Logan:
Small.

Aubrey McDonald:
Small. Yeah it can fit in your hand.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh really?

Aubrey McDonald:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this is a tiny toxic octopus. That's terrifying. Why did you choose such a scary animal?

Logan:
I have honestly no idea.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know I have no idea how you chose that one. Okay that's great. I see that you have not only sculpted this very cool orange blue-ringed octopus but you put him on — is this now this is paper, blue paper that represents the ocean?

Logan:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the yellow is that the beach? Is that the sand?

Logan:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow that's very cool you've put him in a whole environment there. Does he have a name?

Logan:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
No name? Do you want to think of one right now?

Logan:
No.

Aubrey McDonald:
Logan doesn't always like to be creative so I was really excited to see that he really got into making the octopus because Logan is more like, “get to work, get my work done, and don't really want to draw a picture” so he put so much detail into it.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is a lot of detail. It looks really good. For someone who may not love creativity all the time this is very creative. Now I'm just gonna do a little audit of your octopus okay, is that all right?

Logan:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
An audit means I'm going to check the details of your octopus. Here we go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Yep, eight legs. That's quite an authentic octopus you have there. Very cool, Logan. Is this your favorite animal?

Logan:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
What is your favorite animal?

Logan:
A lion but we didn't learn about lions.

Anthony Godfrey:
You didn't learn about lions. One day you will probably learn about lions, or maybe you already have. Have you already read some things about lions or do you just like them?

Logan:
I like them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can I look at your handwriting here? That is really impressive. “My animal is a blue-ringed octopus, and its unique feature is poison.” This is really, really well done, Logan. I'm super impressed. Nice job.

Aubrey McDonald:
Good job, Logan.

Logan:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right Maddie, let's talk about yours here. What animal did you choose and what is the unique feature of this animal?

Maddie:
My animal is an elephant. Its unique feature is its trunk. It uses its unique feature by squirting water.

Anthony Godfrey:
Squirting water. Wow and why did you choose an elephant? What do you like about elephants?

Maddie:
Because they like because they're my favorite and I like them and I have a stuffy at home.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have a stuffy that's an elephant? What's your stuffy's name?

Maddie:
Ellie.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ellie the Elephant. Perfect name. Aren't you excited that elephants were one of the animals in your book?

Maddie:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Because you got to choose your favorite animal. Now talk to me about your sculpture here. It looks really good.

Maddie:
So this is a baby elephant and I drawed a tree with apples and oranges on it and then I did water with apple squirt on it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, I did wonder about that. So there's a lake cut out here it looks like. Is that kind of a lake? That water? And then I saw a big red splotch covered colored in the middle.

Maddie:
I actually mean that's ketchup.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, you actually mean that it's ketchup. Okay, so there's water and ketchup and a tree with apples and oranges and a baby elephant that squirts water. This is not what I expected to see today, Maddie. Oh and the sky. This is the sky, Maddie? Oh I like that. And you wrote your name in the sky.

Maddie:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Describe your elephant for those who are listening to this podcast.

Maddie:
I actually love the eyes, too, creepy.

Anthony Godfrey:
The eyes are pretty large. You think they're creepy?

Maddie:
Yeah. ‘Cuz it . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, they are big. I guess you could say they're creepy. I do see the big ears on the elephant though and the big trunk and you colored it gray. Did you do that with a marker?

Maddie:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is well, this is really cool. I really love this. It's really nice talking with both of you. I'm very impressed with your reading and your writing and your creativity in making these sculptures. I'm really excited to see how well you're doing here in first grade. Thank you for spending time with me after school today.

Maddie:
Thank you.

Logan:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did parents react when they came in and saw their students' work?

Aubrey McDonald:
We had a really big turnout of parents and the students were so excited. They read it to their parent and then their parents. They would take their parent around and say, “Oh, you have to look at my friend’s. Oh look at this other friend’s. So they were just dragging them across the classroom, showing them all the pieces that all of their friends' pieces and they were really excited. Parents really enjoyed being here. Sometimes there's not a lot of opportunities for parents to come in during the school day to see things and so we wanted — this was another reason why we really like this idea is it gave us a chance to invite parents into the classroom and showcase the learning instead of just sending home. ‘Oh here's the test where the paper pencil test where they took and they wrote an informative paragraph about an animal.’ This gave something for to include more people.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that you pulled families in the way that you did and this is really exciting. It's a great implementation of the program. So many layers to this activity with literacy and art and science. Just really exciting to see this. Thank you so much for everything you're doing here.

Aubrey McDonald:
Thank you so much for visiting. It's great to have guys come and give some feedback or and see the things that we're doing.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how you thank your team. That's really how this works is when a whole team of teachers works together intentionally, and I'm thrilled to get to see it. So thank you for this wonderful classroom that you have.

Aubrey McDonald:
Thank you so much and I wish that we could have all, a whole team could have been here to chat with you too because we have really come together as a team, and we're really working hard and focusing on that. Like you had said we wouldn't be successful if we didn't have each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's exciting. Thank you.

Aubrey McDonald :
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.

Student:
Now that we've won, we're going to be building some things that we can put in a box that they'll send up to the edge of space and we'll measure the amount that these different data storage units are going to... like what just happens to them.

Student:
It'll reach 60,000 feet

Student:
And we are going to test how the radiation and pressure there affects the electronics.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. You could say they are hitting new heights as winners of a NASA Aerospace Engineering contest. On this episode of the Supercast, we head to JATC North to hear how four students will be working with NASA TechRise engineers over the next 18 months to bring an experiment they proposed to life. They'll be working on an experiment with real-world applications that will be launched using NASA's high-altitude balloons, a dream come true for these incredibly talented students.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here at the JATC North campus to talk with Amber Saffen and some of her students about the Aerospace Engineering program. Amber, thanks for talking with us today.

Amber Saffen:
Yeah, welcome. Welcome to our program.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me how you and your students are now involved with NASA.

Amber Saffen:
Yes, so our CTE coordinator right at the beginning of the school year sent an email our way that NASA has a competition called NASA TechRise where students can write proposals for an experiment to be sent up into the stratosphere, and so as part of my program, I was like, "Hey, we're the aerospace program. That seems pretty dang relevant." So fresh to the program, my students got in and they did some research and they put together some proposals of some things that useful experiments they thought would be good to send up there. And then just a couple months ago, I got an email that one of those proposals had been accepted. And so I'm here with four of my students and they wrote a proposal and now NASA will be working with them once a week for the next 18 weeks to build the proposal. Gave them, is going to provide $1,500 for them to buy the supplies, is going to help them learn how to do it, and then that will be shipped back to be go up on the WorldView balloon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's meet your students and have them describe to me what this experiment is all about. Introduce yourselves, tell us what grade you're in, and what school you're from.

Student:
All right. My name is Blake Bigler. I'm a senior at Mountain Ridge High School.

Student:
My name is Canyon Bullock, and I'm a senior at Herriman High School.

Student:
My name is Mason Rice, and I'm also a senior at Mountain Ridge High School.

Student:
My name is Zach Hull, and I'm a senior at Riverton High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Someone tell me about this experiment, what's involved exactly. What will you learn from being a part of this?

Student:
Yeah, we created this proposal like six months ago, but basically what it is, is we designed an experiment where we are testing how data storage is affected and how it works in space with like radiation and lower pressure. So now that we've won, we're going to be building some things that we can put in a box that they'll send up to the edge of space and we'll measure the amount that these different data storage units are going to, like what just happens to them.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, how do you send this up? How far up does it go? What is all that going to look like?

Student:
So what we will be doing is we will be taking different data storage types like hard drives, disk drives, flash drives, things like that, and we will put them in a box, which we will attach to a weather balloon.

Student:
It'll reach 60,000 feet and then once it reaches 60,000 feet then it'll gradually go down where they can pick up all the tests and then take them back to the facility.

Student:
And we are going to test how the radiation and pressure there affects the electronics.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's the theory? What do you think might happen once you send that information up? I assume you'll send a zip drive up as well, a couple of floppy disks.

Never mind. No, don't worry about it.

Student:
I don't know that a five and a quarter floppy would fit in the box.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, it's going to be that small.

Student:
It's not particularly large.

Anthony Godfrey:
That makes sense.

Student:
We have to use a SATA size disk drive because a standard five and a quarter would just be too much.

Student:
We think we're going to put different amounts of insulation around the drives. So we're thinking different materials.

Student:
Lead, aluminum, foil, things like that.

Student:
So we're just trying to stop the radiation from reaching the data encoding because otherwise the radiation can scramble that and then your data that you send up there is no longer useful.

Anthony Godfrey:
So is it the radiation and the altitude? You're measuring the impact of both on data storage. Is that right?

Student:
Yes. It will mostly be the radiation because that's what we'll be getting through into the storage. But the pressure will also be being tested on the other parts of the experiment.

Anthony Godfrey:
I understand they're going to send you some money for materials to conduct this experiment. Somebody want to speak to that?

Student:
On the subject of materials, we're currently in a storage crisis. Things like RAM and NVMe drives and things like that are all way more expensive, like three times, four times. So great timing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, if you change your mind, I do have some of the large and small floppy disks available in my home. And if you really want to take your experiment to the next level, just let me know. We can include that. Tell me what interested you in being part of the Aerospace Engineering Program to begin with.

Student:
Well, for me, my dad's a pilot at Delta, so I've always been kind of interested in aviation. And I also am pretty decent at math and science, and I like those things, I'd say. So I thought that I'd try to put them together and do aerospace engineering.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm not sure I would be surprised that he's really decent, but I appreciate the humility. So that's pretty cool. So have you traveled lots of great places with those pilot flight benefits of your dad's?

Student:
Yeah, I've traveled some pretty cool places.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you want to be a pilot, or what do you want to do with your knowledge and with your science and math skills?

Student:
Well, that's kind of what this class is doing for me, is I'm trying to figure out if this is something that I'd want to do. And I think that this opportunity to work with NASA has definitely, like, it's got me a lot more excited about aerospace engineering, and it's, a lot more interested in this now for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. How about for you? Why did you decide to be part of this class?

Student:
I've been doing, like, taking engineering programs at JTEC for a while now, and I just thought that aerospace would be the next one. And I was like, that's pretty interesting, but it's been my favorite one so far. And I think it's been really cool learning about things that fly, and rocket ships, and airplanes, and everything that flies. I think it's all really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
What other engineering classes have you taken here?

Student:
Engineering Principles, CAD Mechanical Design, Architecture, Civil Engineering. I was going to do Robotics, but I opted out on that one. But this is the coolest one so far.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. How about you?

Student:
I always wanted to be an engineer, but I didn't know which kind. This is my first engineering JTEC class. And I decided to go with aerospace because I really like NASA and SpaceX, and I think that planes and rocket ships are really cool. So I just decided to take this class, and this class inspired me to start my, well, not start, but I'm going to start my degree in mechanical engineering with an aerospace emphasis at BYU.

Anthony Godfrey:
And for other engineering programs, the sky's the limit, but the sky's not the limit for aerospace.

Student:
No, not for this one.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you want to continue your studies at BYU, ideally.

Student:
Yep.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. Well, I'm glad you're getting a start here. That's awesome. And it's great that you've been able to narrow that already to aerospace. How about you?

Student:
So I'm actually in aerospace and robotics right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
So flying robots is really your thing.

Student:
Yes. So I've always found both interesting. Like, I would take apart toys to figure out how they work, and rockets are just awesome. There's no doubt about it. But I took these classes because it's just fun for me.

Anthony Godfrey:
How long before robots are our overlords?

Student:
Ideally, never.

Anthony Godfrey:
But let's be realistic. We're just here on the podcast. When's it going to happen?

Student:
If it's going to happen, it will be within the next century, I believe.

Anthony Godfrey:
I like how you leave the door open that it might not happen, but at least we've got a few years left. All right. Tell me, why did you decide to teach aerospace engineering? And what's your background? And how exciting is it for you that your students are now working with NASA?

Amber Saffen:
It's super, super, super exciting. I mean, as a teacher, all I want to do is get opportunities put in front of students so they can fly and do what they want to do. I got my degree in engineering education, and I took over. This is my first year teaching the aerospace course. I took over from Noel Schick last year. She had a good program going through PLTW, and I wasn't able to continue with them this year, though we might jump back on. And so I was looking at any opportunities I had to connect, get into this. I was already teaching the drone course, and I started teaching that because there was a need for it. I saw that there was this huge industry blowing up that we were starting to get college degrees, and I thought, we need to get this in the high school. And that’s my job is, is to connect students. So I started teaching that in partner with Noel's aerospace class, and then when she left the school, I took over aerospace. And so any connection I can make with NASA or anything like that, we have a big aerospace industry here in Utah, with Boeing here. And so there's a lot of opportunities. We have some great college programs, like Mason mentioned, BYU. A lot of the universities have pretty good aerospace programs. So I just want to make sure students get a head start, figure out if that's what they want to do, and then have a head up into getting into those programs so they can work where they want to work.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Mason, you nodded your head a couple of times. Are there specific opportunities that career-wise that you're interested in?

Student:
I would really like to work for either NASA or Lockheed Martin, personally. But that's just because I like the planes and the ships that they make, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lockheed Martin, listen up. Lock in right now. Now's your big chance to grab him.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back more with the students and teacher who are working with NASA TechRise engineers.

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.

Female Voice:
This is from the NASA TechRise announcement.

Male Voice:
“We know that taking on the challenge to innovate and explore is never easy. It takes hard work and courage to share your ideas, and we applaud everyone who submitted a NASA TechRise proposal. From all of us here at WorldView, thank you for participating. We cannot wait to see the final experiments fly.”

Amber Saffen:
. . . link on their website, and some of you might recognize this little paper right here on “The Effects of Low Space Radiation on Electronic Devices and Data Storage.” So . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us what it was like to hear that your experiment had been approved by NASA. Talk us through that scene.

Student:
I just couldn't believe it was totally unexpected. You'll hear all of us say this, but we didn't even recognize it was our project at first because we weren't expecting it. It had been so long.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. You submitted it. You'd kind of forgotten about it. Now all of a sudden you're working with NASA.

Student:
First I saw what was it that Zack jumped up in his chair, and I was like, "Oh, that's so cool. He won the project." And I was like, "Wait a minute."

Anthony Godfrey:
"Wait a minute. I'm part of that.”

Student:
I'm part of that. That's so cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's great.

Student:
Oh yeah. I was also really shocked. I didn't recognize the project. I saw that all these random people were there, so I was like, "Oh, so somebody must have won. And then they pulled it up, and I was like, "Oh my goodness. That's our project. I never would have thought in a million years that would be us."

Amber Saffen:
I found out about a month before I was allowed to tell them, and I found out while I was at a conference in Nashville, and I was looking at my computer, I got the email. I immediately pulled up an email to tell them all and then read the next line that said, "Do not let students and parents know yet," and realized I had to be sworn to secrecy for a month. And that was, it was not easy. I was just so excited for them, and I wasn't allowed to tell anybody.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, NASA also told me that I have to wait for—no, I'm just kidding. Tell me, what do you hope that students gain from a program like this? Because this is the time of year where people are choosing classes for the coming year, and this may not be the first one that pops to mind. And they may wonder, "Oh, am I ready for this? Do I have the math and science skills to be able to be part of it?" What would you say to those considering this, and what do you hope is the outcome for students who are in your class?

Amber Saffen:
Well, the number one thing that I try to teach, and we try to teach here at the engineering department at the JATC, is critical thinking and problem solving. Because no matter what you go into, those are skills that if you develop them, it's going to help you. So even if my students don't go into aerospace, I'm not mad, but I know that the experiences they got here in teamwork and troubleshooting and problem solving and critical thinking, no matter what they go into, that's going to be helpful for them. And so, if I, you know, giving those connections and opportunities to students, if they can take it, and then also giving them those experiences, so if they go do something else, it's still beneficial. I see how much my students grow in a year working together and doing all these hard tasks we do in engineering. And they do. They grow, and it's just so awesome to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Aerospace engineering in particular, but engineering classes in general, are going to be changing a lot over time. And what you just described is exactly the type of education that we hope to be providing. That is problem solving, the sort of skills that you will be able to use no matter what comes your way. You also want the industry-specific knowledge, but really, if you can't problem solve, then you're not going to be able to adapt to future needs. And I just, I love the way you describe that. It's really exciting. What have you loved most about this class? I want to ask each of you, whether it's just a general, something that you've learned, or a particular class, what have you liked most?

Student:
For me, I think it's just how hands-on it is. Our main project is we're building a drone just from scratch. And I think it's really cool being able to solder everything together and program things and just really see a drone just appear out of nowhere because of what you and your group are doing. I think that's pretty cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it gives you a deep understanding of how it all works when you're building it from scratch.

Student:
I just like making my ideas become a reality and just getting what I think would be cool to make it real.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me one of your ideas that you've been able to work on.

Student:
I don't know, our drone, for one. I don't know, we're making like a claw for it right now, and I think it's really interesting to try to...

Anthony Godfrey:
You're making a what?

Student:
Like a claw for the drone.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, a claw for the drone. Oh, wow. Okay. So it can pluck people out of their backyard and transport them someplace else.

Student:
Yeah, I guess.

Student:
It's for stealing hats.

Anthony Godfrey:
For stealing hats. Hey, you know what? You got to start somewhere. How about for you?

Student:
I like just how different it's been from a regular education and how similar it will be to real life. I enjoy it a lot more because there's more creativity and there's more teamwork. And you're not just doing things just to like waste time or get credit. You're actually building something that has a task, that has a purpose, and in the real world can make something happen. So it's very exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there's an application for what you're learning, and really every minute is useful.

Student:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful.

Student:
Kind of the same thing that Mason said, honestly. It's how hands-on it is, how I'm not sitting at a desk just staring at a screen. You know?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. No, I understand. I appreciate that. That's great. What's the timeline for completing the project, and what will that look like? What are the steps?

Amber Saffen:
We've started meeting with the TechRise team. The students will be meeting with their NASA TechRise team and the NASA engineers they'll be working with this Thursday for the first time. And then they'll be meeting with them once a week for the next 18 weeks to help them learn how to put this together, build the experiment. The box that will be going up on the balloon that they sent us arrived the other day. It's sitting in the classroom. We're very excited to open it. And then they will finish it up around May right at the end of the school year, ship it back to NASA, and then it will be going up in the summer on a Worldview balloon to lower stratosphere. That date is pending on weather, of course, for the launch. But it will be in the summer.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is really going to be rocket fuel for your careers where you think, “Hey, wait a minute. Maybe I do really want to do this. Maybe this is something that I could turn into a profession,” because there's nothing like working with NASA for figuring out whether aerospace engineering is for you. So congratulations. This is really exciting. And I can't wait to hear more about how the experiments go.

Amber Saffen and Students:
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.

Mr. Luchs:
It's a competition between hundreds of different schools and thousands of students.

Student:
It had to be local folklore.

Student:
It was this guy that was exiled in like the mid*-1800s to like Fremont Island.

Student:
I think that that'd make a pretty good ghost story.

Mr. Luchs:
You spend those all-nighters making that color palette just right. That's the small details that separates you from, you know, sixth, seventh place or even two hundredth place.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are talented students being recognized on the world stage because of their passion for filmmaking and their amazing skills in storytelling. On this episode of the Supercast, meet students in the Riverton High School video production class who just walked away with second place in an international video competition as part of the student television network. Find out how a short horror film they produced is getting rave reviews and critical acclaim.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Riverton High School talking with students from the video production program. Introduce yourself, tell us what grade you're in, and what drew you to this program. Why did you want to be part of this?

Brennan Staggs:
Hello, I'm Brennan Staggs and I'm a sophomore and the thing that drew me into this program was the — I've always been into film so I think film is pretty cool.

Rockwood Inkley:
My name is Rockwood Inkley or Rocky and I'm also sophomore. The thing that drew me into this is I just, I love learning new types of art so I guess I saw this and thought it looked cool so I signed up.

Amden Olson:
Hi, I'm Amden Olson. I'm a sophomore and the thing that drew me to this is I've been doing photography for about two and a half years. I run an automotive photography business where we just started doing video so doing this helps me advance in my career and hopefully the video will be a pilot.

Scott Nelson:
Hello guys, I'm Scott Nelson and what drew me to this class was I've always wanted to be a filmmaker when I was a child and I saw that Riverton had video classes and thought it was really exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me what it's like being in this class right now. What are some of the things you've learned and what you love most about it?

Student:
I think I've learned mostly on how to make better videos on film and that's what I love about it.

Student:
My favorite thing in this class is using Premiere Pro and post-production. I find it fascinating.

Student:
I enjoy this class because it has helped me learn more about video composition, which is some of the things that clients really like. If you don't have good composition you're not going to get clients.

Student:
I love this class because it lets me be creative in the morning and I've learned how to use the equipment and how to edit better.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the competition that you just won, the international competition that you just won and what that's all about and what you made that allowed you to win this competition.

Student:
This was a horror fest so we had to make a one-minute horror short film. It had to be local folklore so we spent a while, me and Brennan, spent a while looking for local folklore and we came across this story from the 1860s.

Student:
Yeah, around the mid-1800s. It was a, what was his name? Jean Baptist. It was this guy that was exiled in the mid-1800s to Fremont Island, I believe.

Student:
One of the islands in Salt Lake. He was a grave robber and he got sent to the island and they found a skeleton, I think, at the base of the Jordan River with the words "grave robber" in the skull and it was chained and shackled which they didn't send him to the island chained and shackled. So I thought that'd make a pretty good ghost story.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's ask your teacher to introduce himself and tell us a little bit about the competition.

Mr. Luchs:
My name is Mr. Luchs. This is my fourth year at Riverton High School. I'm the video productions teacher and I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me about the competition, what's involved and who were they up against?

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah, so the competition itself is for an international organization called Student Television Network. They have a lot of different competitions throughout the year. This one is their horror film competition. This one is very unique because throughout the year, their competitions involve lots of categories for all different types of video. And so though it's a competition between hundreds of different schools and thousands of students, your category often has a portion of those students. The horror film is unique because every student in every team is making the same type of prompt. These guys, to my understanding, were up against a couple hundred different first-year student teams, and so getting second place out of all those hundreds of teams, let alone many, many, many hundreds more of students, is very cool. They did have a set of requirements. They required, as they said, to find a local folklore and based the one-minute film on that. They were also required to meet certain story and recording-based specifications, which they did a very good job of doing. Or at least so the judges did.

Anthony Godfrey:
I already like the color tones here. Did you change the color tones at all or is this just what the Jordan River looks like? Because I'm already terrified.

Student:
I did the editing for this.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Student:
So I get every question.

Anthony Godfrey:
How long, how much editing does it take for a one-minute horror video? Because I think people probably underestimate the time that it takes. At least three minutes, I would think.

Student:
I spent an all-nighter and half a day working on the editing for this.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does editing horror films require that you do it in the middle, in the dead of night, really? Is that when you should be editing a horror movie?

Student:
No, but I am the oldest of four siblings. So that's what I get.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you have to wait till it gets quiet.

Student:
So yeah, that's when I get the most peace and quiet to work.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, that sounds fair.

Mr. Luchs:
If I might jump in, I want to give these guys a lot of credit for what he said, too about working overnight and into another day. One thing that's really interesting about being a video teacher is you have students that come to get the grade, and you have students who really give themselves to their projects and program. This is one of many classes, and I didn't require them to spend hours and hours doing this. This was an optional competition.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And he edited this during his fall break. So this wasn't just something he did on a whim. They really dived themselves into it. I think you guys had to record, rerecord like three different times to get all the shots that you needed.

Student:
Yes, we did have to rerecord three times. The first time we weren't very coordinated, and it ended up taking a lot more time to get us all in the right location. And our footage was kind of rushed and not very good. And the second time, the second time, was more like we had equipment malfunction and again, uncoordination. And then the final two times was when we had the actual footage that we filmed.

Anthony Godfrey:
So a lot of logistics, a lot of things to account for that you can't totally control always. And I appreciate that you went back to redo things. I think that's really cool that you dedicated as much time as you did.

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah, and I think that's really why they did so well, because like I said before, they are part of a first-year student film team. Everybody in this competition has, let's say six weeks of prior experience at most, depending on when their school year started. But what separates different first-year students from others is A) the passion and B) the commitment, because I can only teach them so much in six weeks. Their dedication to re-film, film again, get those extra shots that they think that they needed, to spend those all-nighters making that color palette just right. That's the small details that separates you from sixth, seventh place, or even 200th place in the competition. And you have to have skill. You have to have learned in your classes and pay attention for the time you have. But it's really that passion and dedication that makes them stand out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we watch the horror video with the students who produced it.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
So I see the big screen here that maybe we get to watch this video. Can we can we take a look?

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That was chilling. Honestly, honestly, I kind of got-- I absolutely got the chills watching that. So Rocky, you do your own stunts, I see.

Rocky:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Falling on the bike there and you're a grave robber right out of the chute there. So it pulls us in right away and then pulls you in literally at the end.

Rocky:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know what, listeners, I can't describe it. You're just going to have to see it for yourself. Now, I want to ask about one special effect. You couldn't actually see your breath or you could actually see your breath.

Student:
I think I found a PNG GIF and just overlaid it on top.

Mr. Luchs:
Wow. I actually-- I didn't even know that they did that. That just goes back to the test to their attention in detail because there's some things that they weren't told they had to do or how to do it. And I guess they figured it out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I was a language arts teacher and we used to do an exercise where you had to try to write a really short horror story. It's kind of the same thing where you only have so much time and you guys made the most of every second. It just pulls you in really fast. I really love that. I thought that was very cool. How do you guys feel about the final product now that you've put all this effort into it?

Student:
I saw this and I was really proud of all of the effort that Rocky and Brendan put into it. And I felt like they did a lot of things that I wasn't expecting in a good way.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. How about you two?

Student:
I'm really happy with the way it turned out. There were a few things we wish we could have done better.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the art of sensibility. You're always going to tinker. You're always going to think, “oh, I could do this thing or I could do that thing.” There's always the director's cut that comes out later. George Lucas wants to put all the special effects in after the fact. Everybody thinks they could do a little better. But that's why you did so well because you're always striving to make sure that it's the best.

Student:
Yeah, I think the final product of the film is really, really impressive. I filmed some of it, Amden filmed some of it, and Rocky edited the thing, and when I saw the edited portion and the full final product, I was like, this is really impressive. I'm really proud.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hearing the story you based this on and then seeing the product, there's a lot of creativity between the source material and where we ended up. And it's really impressive. I'm excited to see what you guys do from here because that shows just a ton of potential. And speaking of that, are you all going to continue in video production going forward? In these video classes? Now, tell me about what you want to do. What are your goals? Let's start here because you've got a vehicle photography business. Is that right? I was just really excited once I finally got a vehicle, but you're already photographing them. So let's talk about that.

Student:
Yeah, me and my friend Hunter, we met doing aviation photography. So things like the fighter did some of the Air Force Base, the commercial planes of the International Airport, things like that. And we both showed a passion for cool cars like Mustangs, McLarens, Corvettes, things like that. And we decided to start a business to try to make money off of our photos that we would go to car meets and do . . . And it did decently well the first couple months we got upwards of 10, 15 clients. And then after that, we kind of dropped off a little bit because we started school. So we weren't able to take as many as often, but we still have a consistent one or two, maybe three clients a month.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, that's really cool. So they hire you to take pictures of their classic cars or their expensive cars to show them in the best light. How about the rest of you? What are you thinking about building on this success? Do you want to continue with this as a career as a class? What are you thinking?

Student:
Uh, yeah, I mean, I plan on taking Video 2 and 3. I really enjoyed this. I'd like to make a longer horror film. I, but yeah, hobby, just professionally, I'd love to continue doing this.

Student:
I'd also love to continue doing this, not just as a hobby, but maybe a career. I think a director of like a TV show or series would be an interesting career path.

Student:
I really like the art of video. I don't think I'm going to do it as a career, maybe like a hobby-istic side career, like get extra money and stay in the art.

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah, I was gonna say I you mentioned before that we're excited to see where these guys go and nobody's more excited than I am because I . . . because they're sophomores, you know, seeing them be passionate first off. Awesome. And I have two more years that we get to experience things. And so I'm glad they want to experience things because one of the hopes we have for the program is to help them understand where and how this can be a part of their life by the time that they leave and prepare them for that. And I'm sure many of these guys have a lot of different routes they're going to take, but they, they all have what it takes to get to those routes as we, as we keep going these next couple of years together. It's exciting to have discovered this talent and interest so early in their high school career so that they can capitalize on that. I think I mentioned this prior a little bit, but the type of student that we get here in the program is, is fascinating because it's not just the people who love like watching videos online or film. I've had a lot of students who love video, who give up because they didn't realize how much work it takes to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
The students who stick around and really make this program what it is in our advanced classes, they're the ones with a lot of grit. I get people from anywhere from drama programs to yearbook, anybody from a lot of cross country kids. It's anybody who has that desire to make something good and is happy with that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
I love recruiting those kids because you could have a silver screen class. For example, we make a school show and we only have 16 kids and they make a consistent show and they have awesome quality. We've really done some awesome things with that, but those 16 kids work so hard to make it happen.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And I can't explain to you how hard it would be if those students weren't as invested as they are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Tell me about your journey to become a teacher here. You said it's your fourth year here at Riverton. Talk to me about becoming a video teacher.

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah. So I actually have a unique story with video teaching because a lot of the time when you talk to a video teacher or even the CTE in general, they come from the industry where they've been working and they want to change things and they find out that teaching is a good path. I actually decided to start teaching video back when I was high school because I did my own video projects. I was a YouTuber. I was one of the first people to do really silly dumb videos with like gaming YouTube channel back before it was normal.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And so you got a lot of backlash, but my dad supported me and I found out that I loved doing it not because I loved gaming or anything like that, but I love the art of editing and I loved being an entertainer and that led me to try out more types of video. And eventually I decided that I wanted to switch career paths and do something with video, but I also wanted to be a family man and the freelance lifestyle didn't suit me personally. So, I had the thought one day to teach and I would talk to people and outside of Utah and outside of states like Utah, California, Florida, probably there's not as much CTE as we have here. So nobody had ever seen video classes in high school, maybe just the morning announcements that are, you know, sure. But I would talk to people and I'd say, “Hey, I want to be a teacher.” And they're like, “Oh, that's awesome. What do you want to teach?” I'd say, “Oh, I want to teach video.” And they would stare at me like, “Oh, good luck with that.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And here we are, you know, full-time film schedule. I teach so many cool things. I love it. Being a teacher is such a good, good life. It really is.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what's next for this program. Obviously, I can tell that you've been modifying and adapting and making other options available. What do you hope to see in the future?

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah. So we've been so fortunate to be supported in all the growth that we've been doing from reconstructing the room to building new classes. We're at a point that everything's settling down. We've built up the program to what you wanted to be. And the future is really making student experiences shine. These students that have done the Horror Film Fest, they have two more years and can't be more excited about it because their possibilities, there are so many different directions they can take even just in the one program. For example, during Video 2 Film, we teach them a lot of hands-on advanced skills for filmmaking, commercial making podcasts, special effects. But a really cool direction that we do uniquely at this school is we study the industry and career paths. And we do that by first, we give them clients from the real world. My video to students are actually in a couple weeks about to start filming for companies outside of Riverton High School to make commercials for them. That starts a real-world portfolio that they can use to start making money if they want to.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
Because nobody hires you until they see what you have to offer.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Mr. Luchs:
So we're going to teach them that. We're going to teach them how to work with people outside of a teacher in terms of client. Then beyond that, we're going to start doing Zoom video calls with a variety of video professionals in Utah. And we're going to talk to them about their career path, what their job looks like. That way, students can start seeing what video actually means in the real world and whether it's for them or which path that is because there's so many paths of video.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the way that you build those experiences. Let's teach you some skills. Let's get you in some competition. Let's have you work as a team. And then I'm going to create a pathway. If you want to make money doing this on the side or as a career, that's something you can absolutely do. And you just lay out the path for them. I think that's really exciting. And we've talked about the passion that these kids have shown. But it's really exciting to see your passion for this program and to really help bring out the best in students. So thank you for being here and for everything you're doing. I'm excited to watch where this goes.

Mr. Luchs:
Thank you. I'm living that dream like we talked.

Anthony Godfrey:
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.

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.