Supercast

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was a moving celebration of Dia de Los Muertos created in part by Spanish Dual Language Immersion classes at Riverside Elementary School. On this episode of the Supercast, we go inside the temporary Dia de Los Muertos museum organized by third grade teacher, Kathy Wride. Find out how students were able to honor family members, including pets, who have passed away by creating altars for them. 

We are here at Riverside Elementary with Kathy Wride to talk about her Dia de Los Muertos activity. And this is something that's been going on for a while. Is that right?

Kathy Wride:
Yeah. Seven years. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Introduce yourself a little bit and tell us about this activity.

Kathy Wride:
I've been in the Spanish Immersion program since I started about seven years ago. My first year at Riverside, I wanted to bring forth culture, and what better way than to celebrate Day of the Dead and to actually introduce something that is celebrated in a Hispanic culture. That is also why we are a Spanish Immersion school. So this is my baby for the last seven years.

Anthony Godfrey:
So we're standing in the gym right now. We have some music in the background that you can hear, and there is a wall of artwork that the students have put together. But there's also row after row of displays that students have created, and it's really amazing. You have the lights dimmed and it creates a wonderful atmosphere in here. Tell me about Day of the Dead and how all of this works.

Kathy Wride:
Well, the Day of the Dead is celebrated November 1st and 2nd in Mexico and Latin American countries. It's very highly emphasized, more in Mexico. They have a big celebration in their towns and villages and everything. This is just something to celebrate those that have departed. It can be individuals, it can be also pets that have passed away. We do have quite a few, because pets are part of a family. So it's celebrated as celebrating their life. It has nothing to do with death. We recognize, we remember the loved ones that have passed on. It's just something beautiful that they do in Latin American countries and we brought it here to Riverside.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk about the wall over here. Let's walk over and take a look at the artwork there.

Kathy Wride:
The wall is just the Calaveras. It’s just a very big symbol that represents the actual person that has passed, or like I said, a pet that has passed. It’s just a representation, like a symbol of life of what they used to be. We don't do any dark colors. It's very pink, orange, all the bright colors you can possibly do. Then it just emphasizes the culture and just the life that the person or pet had.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's really a celebration. 

Kathy Wride:
It's totally a celebration, nothing sad about it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So are there any of these that you can give me any additional detail about?

Kathy Wride:
No. With the movie Coco that came out a few years ago, that actually helped introduce Day of the Dead a little bit more to parents. They were actually able to understand what it was. So that's why I connected with Coco, the movie. Parents were like, “Oh wow! Yes, this is great.” They get involved, they start sharing. But the art is just their interpretation, like a student's interpretation of what a Calavera would be. So their colors, they picked. The only thing they're told: don't black, no dark colors, just bring life to your calavera. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Very good. So there's the Calavera, which is the skull. I see that they're decorating in various ways with various designs. So the skull is a part of it. 

Kathy Wride:
Yes, a very big part. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Are there any other instructions beyond that? Just no dark colors, no black.

Kathy Wride:
No dark colors, just have fun with it. Just colors that will represent the person that you're thinking about.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it represents a specific individual.

Kathy Wride:
Whoever they're thinking about that moment or pet, depending on who they're doing it on. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about the other component. 

Kathy Wride:
The altars, los altares, all have ofrendas on them. Ofrendas can be from objects to food. It's pretty much anything that the individual or the pet liked while they were living.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have a picture of a father and daughter, it looks like.

Kathy Wride:
You can tell right away just by looking at it, he loves popcorn. He likes eggs and bacon and he loves cars and he was a handy person because he has tools on there. There's a lot of race car things on there. Pizza was one of his favorite things. So actually, you can kind of tell a lot on the altar. 

Anthony Godfrey:
I don't know either one and it's very touching just to see that.

Kathy Wride:
Yeah. They go all out, with individuals, with pets, you see like their favorite toy. Like we have one over here. This was a little kitten, his name is Whiskers. You can see, he loved playing with string with the little toy ball and the little fluffy mouse and there's even some cat food. We have pictures of course of the animal.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. Whiskers looks like a bit of a rascal.

Kathy Wride:
Yeah, and you learn a lot about the person that has passed because everything that's on the altar is something that symbolizes and represents that person.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the reactions you've seen from students as they have gone through this process of creating the altar?

Kathy Wride:
The best thing that I've actually heard from parents is that they appreciate doing this with their students because they're able to bring history back. Something that maybe the student at the time didn't know, a loved one they didn't really get to meet. They're like, “oh, tell me more.” The first two years I did this, there were tears. It was just the joy of having this, just being able to spend family time together. That has been the biggest thing that I've been told. ‘Thank you for letting me share my history with my child. Thank you for letting us bring back a loved one.’ So this has just been able to connect parents with their students. Just being able to bring back a little bit of family history.

Anthony Godfrey:
So sometimes they're creating an altar for someone they may not have met either.

Kathy Wride:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. It's clear just looking over this, that a lot of thought and love and hard work has gone into creating some very touching memorials.

Kathy Wride:
Yeah, honestly, I get super emotional just because I love seeing the connections it has with the parents.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Kathy Wride:
This year we asked the dual immersion teachers to make an altar. I have one and another English immersion teacher did one and she's fantastic. The teachers were able to share with their students some personal things about themselves. Mine's right here. It's very simple, but it tells a lot about my poor dog that decided to pass away because cancer took him away. I was able to remember him and I spoke to my students about him. Then there's another one over here. This is from another teacher. She was able to share with her students in Spanish, because she's one of our Spanish immersion teachers as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
These are pictures of her parents I assume.

Kathy Wride:
I'm assuming those are grandparents. So she was able to create one and the students got to know a little bit more about her family. It just creates connections, not just with family, but with teachers and their students.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there are connections with those who've passed, but also with the friends around you who can support you now that they know you a little bit better and they know who you've lost and what your connection is to them. I love yours with the picture of Einstein over the top. That's a great picture of your dog having a great time in the snow. 

Kathy Wride:
I choke up because I don't get sad. I was pregnant with my last daughter, my last child, and I have a picture. One of the last things that I took of him by my side when I was pregnant, and he would just cuddle with me. So I share that with my kids and then we just remember him and remember the best times.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's a great lesson to students to remember the good times and to really empathize with what other people have been through.

Kathy Wride:
You just feel a love. This is all about love. You feel them, you can feel that family connection, you can feel who this person or who this pet was, what a difference they made in your life. Whether it's for the student themselves or for their parents or their grandparents, things like that. So there's just that connection that I love.

Anthony Godfrey:
What an immersive, important learning opportunity. This is incredible. 

Stay with us. When we come back, students talk about the altars they created to honor family members who've passed, including beloved pets.

Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
Is this every grade 1st through 6th?

Kathy Wride:
Yes, 1st-6th. We have some kindergartners that decided to do it, and we also have a preschooler that did it as well, but we have first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. So it's just amazing, like just the detail that goes into all their altares.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, and when they know that they're doing it year to year, then they're probably thoughtful over the course of the year, about who am I going to honor? What am I going to do this time?

Kathy Wride:
Yes. Sometimes they even use the same one, but they add another detail they may have found out and they're like, ‘oh, this is great.’ You know? So it's just cool to see, it's amazing to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the connection just deepens over time.

Kathy Wride:
For sure. It's amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's really something. With COVID and everything that's been going on, does this take on a greater significance?

Kathy Wride:
Absolutely. We do have some altars that are of individuals that have passed because of COVID. So instead of remembering the sad part of COVID, they remember the person's life and it just creates, like I said, a bigger bond. It helps you remember the good, not when they were sick, not when they were ready to go. It just helps you reconnect with the person. 

Anthony Godfrey:
It's interesting because even though I have no connection to anyone represented here, I'm thinking about my own family, my friends and my pets, and it makes you cherish what you have. Thank you so much. 

Tell me your name.

Abby:
I’m Abby.

Anthony Godfrey:
Abby, what grade are you in? 

Abby:
Sixth grade. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Will you tell me about your altar and who you honored?

Abby:
So I'm honoring my great, great grandpa Howard. He worked at an oil field, he made spinning wheels and stuff like that. He made the newspaper a lot for making all of his spinning wheels. 

Anthony Godfrey:
What's something you learned about him that you didn't know before this project?

Abby:
I didn't know he made his own spinning wheels.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really unique talent. Where did you get the idea to honor him?

Abby:
My parents and I were just thinking about him.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you feel a connection to him that you didn't feel before? 

Abby:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
It looks really good. What did you make here? What is that?

Abby:
That’s an oil field. It's an oil tank because he worked there.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the spinning wheel was on the side in addition to his work? 

Abby:
Yes. 

Anthony Godfrey:
So you have a picture of him and it looks really nice an article about him too. Oh, that's exciting. Well, thank you very much. Great work. 

Tell me your name. 

Ellie:
I'm Ellie.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ellie, tell me about your altar.

Ellie:
This is my dad's uncle, Rick. I think he died a couple of months ago and I never actually got to know him very well. He owned horses and he and my dad would go and ride all the time. I never have seen his horses, but it's really cool to hear about. I was told that he really loved pie. He liked all kinds of pie and he loved fishing. He would just go all out with the outdoor stuff. And because I didn't know him very well, I don't understand it all, but I do think that he was one of my dad's biggest role models in his life.

Anthony Godfrey:
What did you think of just doing this project in general?

Ellie:
At first I didn't really care for it very much, but every year you keep doing it, and the more it ends up kind of like meaning something to you. I did a different person or a pet every year and it just became really special.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's wonderful. Well, great work. It looks really nice and I'm sure your dad is proud and I'm sure it meant a lot to your dad. Okay. Thank you very much. 

Tell me your name, 

Audrey:
Audrey

Anthony Godfrey:
Audrey, talk to me about your altar.

Audrey:
This was my great grandfather Stanley Jones. He had his own construction company. He really liked York Peppermint Patties. He used to do carpet cleaning before he did construction, and he really liked animals.

Anthony Godfrey:
Who are some of the other people that you honored? 

Audrey:
My mom had a friend who’s son died of a brain tumor, so I did him. I've done my grandma and my grandpa and my great grandma.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very nice. Well, obviously it's had an impact on you and I really appreciate your talking with me about the altar. All right, thanks. Great job. 

Tell me your name.

Sofia:
Sofia

Anthony Godfrey:
Sofia, talk to me about the altar. Who are you honoring here?

Sofia:
So this is my grandma. Her name is Grandma Beryl. She's my dad's grandma and my great-grandma. She died the day after Mother's Day, this Mother's Day. She really liked chocolate. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah? Do you like chocolate as well?

Sofia:
Sometimes it depends on the type. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Not as much as she did though. Huh. Obviously she just passed away recently, so you know her.

Sofia:
We would usually go to her house for family dinners. I think she had four sons.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you know about her because of this project?

Sofia:
I learned that she hated peaches, but she would can them every year for her husband because her husband loved peaches.

Anthony Godfrey:
So she hated peaches, but loved her husband. Oh, that's really cool. So what do you think about this project?

Sofia:
It's really fun because you get to learn a lot of things about your ancestors and it's a fun way to just learn.

Anthony Godfrey:
Who are some of the other people you've honored over the years?

Sofia 5:
I think I honored my dad's great grandpa and the wife of his great-grandfather.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Well that looks really nice. I love the roses and the circle around the picture of her face. Is that a picture of you and her in the heart there? 

Sofia:
Yeah. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I really like that. And the candles that you have lit electronically they're on top of the altar and the beautiful designs on those candle holders. Is this a project that you'll remember after elementary school? 

Sofia:
Yeah. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. It's had an impact on you. Okay. Thank you very much for talking with me about that. That's very cool. Thank you. 

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She's bringing out the inner artist in young students with creativity and confidence. On this episode of the Supercast, we meet an amazing visual arts teacher at Westvale Elementary School, helping students realize their potential and possibilities by engaging them in art projects that are both fun and exciting. We're here with Mrs. Rachel Henderson, who is the visual arts educator for Westvale Elementary. Thanks for spending time with us today.

Rachel Henderson:
Thanks for coming, appreciate it.

Anthony Godfrey:
The reason I'm here is because I was at the school for some other reasons, walking around, and I saw your room. I couldn't resist it and I wanted to know more about it. So we're back and I just want to find out, first of all, tell us a little bit about your background in coming to this position. Then let's talk about what you do here and why it's so important.

Rachel Henderson:
Okay, great. So I have my degree in fine arts, so I have a BFA. I got that in Idaho and moved here with my husband's job. When you get your kids into the school system, they ask you to come and do PTA. So we do PTA. They ask you to come volunteer. So I did all those things. Then all of a sudden they're like, “Hey, you have a teaching degree, come teach for us.” So it kind of just fell into my lap. I've been teaching art here for about eight years now. My degree is in secondary, but I have a certification for elementary. So they hired me through the BTS, Beverley Taylor Sorenson Learning Arts Program. They hired me through that program, which is amazing. I've been doing it ever since, and I just love it the best job ever. I can't think of anything I'd rather do.

Anthony Godfrey:
The BTS program is really exciting because it has allowed us to expand the art offerings, performing and visual, in all of our elementary schools so that everyone has a specialist or a teacher that can help out. I love your enthusiasm for it. Your enthusiasm is obvious as you look around the classroom. There is not a square inch that isn't covered with something related to art, and yet it all feels very calm and very inviting. Can you tell me a little bit about what you have up around the classroom here to draw kids in? 

Rachel Henderson:
So I figure you better be, you know, inspired by the art room. I've got hard work cut out for me. So I just like to make it colorful. I want it happy. No matter what's going on with the kids during the day, I want them to come into the art room and be happy. Kind of have that aha moment like, ‘oh, I can breathe. I can relax. I can just be’. So the happier I can make it the better. The more inspiring I can make it the better. So color to me is the obvious choice. We take advantage of the rainbow for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Everything is color-coded and there are lots of messages that jump out. One of them, ‘The growth mindset versus the fixed mindset’. I suppose you probably run into that when teaching art. “I'm not an artist, so I don't, you know, I'm not good at art.” How do you address that? 

Rachel Henderson:
So our first project, this year, addresses that head on. We did a little project by Peter Reynolds, The Dot. It's about a little girl who's very, very unsure of herself. Doesn't think she's an artist. Doesn't think she can draw or do anything. Her teacher just gives her great advice and says, 'make a mark and see where it goes.' Our whole job is to really just give them a creative environment for them to let their creativity show through. So I'm not saying 'this is the next step, this is the next step.' I want to see what they can create by giving them some inspiration around the room, by showing them a few techniques, showing them different supplies. I love to put art supplies in front of kids that have never had them before. So they can explore, they can create, and then they discover what they like and what they want to make. So really it's just about letting them show me what they can create. Giving them the freedom and the space to do that in. 

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. Part of what's fun for me is that you get the material in front of you. Whether it's clay or a watercolor crayon or whatever else. There's an instant impact from what you've done. You've created something right off the bat and you want to hone it and you want to improve it, but there's an impact. There's a sense of efficacy right away and not everything we do during the day has that. But art does offer that sense of efficacy and the sense of playfulness and creativity. I like the way you described that. Ken Robinson talked about an industrial approach to education versus an agricultural approach. The agricultural, creating that fertile atmosphere for learning and creativity. I love that you've created that fertile atmosphere. Like you say, you put the materials in front, you create this great environment and then you allow them to express themselves.

Rachel Henderson:
Exactly. That's the goal anyway.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the materials that you have around here. First of all, yarn, paper plates, glue. I wish my entire life were as organized as your room is.

Rachel Henderson:
We’ve got a little of everything. Everyone else's trash is the art room's treasure. We can make a project out of almost anything. So that's another plus in my job is to expose the kids to more than just paper and pencil, right? We get to explore a little bit more.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've never seen quite an array of not only paintbrushes, I think you have every size of paintbrush and foam paintbrush I can imagine, but you have like nine colors of tape as well.

Rachel Henderson:
We do. We make good use of all the colors around us, right? We'll incorporate that in one project or another.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear from some students about their canvas in the classroom.

Break:
Do you simply love learning online? We can't wait to have you join the amazing teachers in our brand new Jordan Virtual Learning Academy. In Jordan Virtual Learning Academy schools, we offer innovative, fun and flexible online learning with daily, real-time instruction from teachers. Enrollment is currently open for all K-12 students in Utah. Start on the path to personalized virtual learning success now at http://connect.jordandistrict.org. That’s connect.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your names and what grade are you in? You're both in sixth grade? Okay, cool. What are you working on here?

Student #1:
These are like dots from the book. It talks about the dot and you can make anything with just a blank piece of paper.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are you making with your blank piece of paper? 

Student #1:
Types of like balls and like shapes in them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So what do you have here? What is this? Describe this to me.

Student #2:
So it's supposed to be a baseball. So I did the Xs first in a white crayon, and then I put red over it for the like side streaks, and then I put white in the background.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why did you choose a baseball?

Student #2:
Because it's one of my friend's favorite sports.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did you get these Xs? You did that with a white crayon in advance?

Student #2:
Yeah. 

Student #1:
That's how I did the flower and the star.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So you did the flower and star the same way? What are some of the favorite projects that you remember doing?

Student #1:
In third grade, a turtle, like a clay turtle.

Anthony Godfrey:
You remember making a clay turtle back in third grade huh? Tell me about the clay turtle.

Student #1:
We sculpted it, then we created it and colored on it.  And we made a habitat.

Anthony Godfrey:
You made a habitat too? Where does your turtle live? What kind of habitat? Was it a city turtle or a country turtle? 

Student #1:
Country.

Anthony Godfrey:
Country turtle. So you made a pond? What was the pond made out of?

Student #1:
Paper and like Sharpies.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hmm. What's your favorite project?

Student #2:
Definitely when we did our portrait, like half of our face.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you did a portrait that was half of your face. So like a profile? What medium did you use? Was that a pastel, gouache, watercolor? 

Rachel Henderson:
I think we did, was it crayon? Was it crayon and then watercolor crayon, and then colored pencil. We used a little bit of everything, right? 

Anthony Godfrey:
What's a watercolor crayon?

Student #2:
It's like a normal crayon, except when you color it and then you put water over it and then it kind of looks like paint.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are there any of those around that we could check out? All right. We're going to check out a watercolor crayon. What did you like about your portrait?

Student #2:
How we got to like, like everything about it. It was really fun to make.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you still have it? 

Student #2:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Where did you put it? 

Student #2:
Up in my room.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you said, “yeah”, it's like, well, obviously I still had it. Yes. So you have it up in your room. What other work do you have in your room from this class? 

Student #2:
It was in third grade when we did the equations. Where you had to make up an equation and you had to kind of like disguise it, but they had to try to guess the equation that you did.

Anthony Godfrey:
So did you start with an equation and then make it into an image? Or how did that work?

Student #2:
So you came up with an image or not an image, an equation, like a multiplication equation. Cause we were in like third grade, so you always multiply. So you choose the numbers, you write them. Well, you wouldn't fully write them down, but you would like make them into something else other than the actual number. Then you'd have to go through the entire paper doing like, let's say you did two, then you'd have to do how you did the two the same way down the paper. So they have to kind of like, guess the equation that you did.

Rachel Henderson:
Do you want to show him how these work, guys?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Let's see how those watercolor crayons work. I think you kids call it a mashup. Is that correct? Combining those two things. Oh no, you didn't have to do it on that work of art, but is it feeling right? Does it feel right to add it to that one right there? Okay. Good. 

Student #2:
So you color in whatever you're coloring in.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Do you mind if I tried a little bit just to see if it feels like your regular crayon, am I going to mess it up? All right. Let me know if I go astray. I'm pushing a little bit hard to start with. So it feels maybe it resists a little bit more than a normal crayon, a little more drag,

Student #2:
A little nicer. 

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good color. Okay. Keep going. Sorry. I got carried away. I kept coloring once I got started.

Student #2:
So after you color the whole thing in where you want it to be colored in.

Anthony Godfrey:
It just looks like crayon so far. 

Student #2:
Yeah. And then you go 

Anthony Godfrey:
There’s some white paper showing through. Are you going to color it all the way to that end too? Or do you need to?

Student #2:
Yeah, in a second.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Sorry. I got in the way of your process. Go ahead.

Student #2:
Then you take water and it will start like going together.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, I like that. So it kind of blends as you've just put the water over there. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Now it doesn't make a totally solid color yet. Now you use this for your portraits, huh? That's nice. I can see that working out nicely.

Student #2:
We did like a cityscape and it was like where you were looking up at like tall buildings. Then we would color these in and then we would paint them with water.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of different colors of the buildings. Okay. You have a really interested me in this turtle project, can you show me a couple of those methods that they learn in first and second grade?

Rachel Henderson:
Here is our clay bin and we have colored clay. I usually get them going with white. Little pouch, just perfect for little hands so that they can also paint it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can we try it with big hands? 

Rachel Henderson:
Yes, absolutely. No, you're great. You just tear it open. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Now these are all for those listening and these are all single serving packs of clay.

Rachel Henderson:
Perfect. For little hands.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, Crayola Model Magic. Bust it open. It is great because it's nice and soft. All right. Well, let's see. I'm going to pull up a brightly colored stool, even the stools are color coded. Okay. So tell me what's one of the methods that you teach them in first or second grade, that would help me make a turtle.

Rachel Henderson:
In first and second grade, we learned how to do things like pinch pots. Exactly what you're doing with the clay right now. You're working it with your hands. You're working it with your fingertips, pinching it, getting that sticky feeling gone so it can make a shape. 

Anthony Godfrey:
I just started doing that, I couldn’t resist it. It feels good.

Rachel Henderson:
It is. It’s very tactile. Kids want to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Plus, nobody else touched it. It's only mine. 

Rachel Henderson:
It’s purely yours. Everyone gets their own. They don't have to share.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. So now I've kind of kneaded it a little bit and played with it. So what happens next? 

Rachel Henderson:
The thing about clay, the thing I love the most is that it's so forgiving, right? If we make a mistake with clay, guess what you do? You roll it back into a ball and you get to start over. There's no tears. Everything can be redone. It's all okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. I'll bet you do encounter some tears when a project isn’t going just this way and ‘oh no, I messed up.’ 

Rachel Henderson:
We’ve got some perfectionists with us for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good lesson too. How do you fix the mistake? 

Rachel Henderson:
That’s a lot of over time saying, “It’s all about the process. Not so much about a beautiful finished product, but the process. What did you learn? How did you feel when you were making this? Was it a good experience?” And 9 times out of 10 it is. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Another great lesson that transfers to other classes and to life in general. So I've pinched.

Rachel Henderson:
So roll it into a ballI. Roll it into a ball and we'll do a simple pinch pot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Should I roll it against the table? Is that the best way to do it?

Rachel Henderson:
You can do either one. I have the kids roll it on the table, they roll it in their hands. That way, if they have this supply at home, they can do it at home.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Now I'm feeling perfectionist because it's feeling more like a 20 sided die than like a round piece.

Rachel Henderson:
We say all the time, there's no perfect in art, right? There's no perfect in art. Perfection does not exist. We do not strive for it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if there's no perfect, then you are excused from trying to pursue that. Right?

Rachel Henderson:
Right. Then you're free to just work and try your hardest. So we have a ball and now the essence of a pinch pot is to take your thumb and just push right in almost making a small donut. Right. You don't go all the way through the clay. You just make that round little circle. And then, because it's called a pinch pot, we take the ends of our fingers and we just start pinching. We start pinching and pulling and pinching and pulling. We're making a circular shape and we're working the clay up as we go. And from time to time, we'll get saucers that are flat, that don't keep the shape. So we show them little techniques. I'll show you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've got a little bubble forming.

Rachel Henderson:
There's different things with the clay that you can do. So if you're like, ‘oh, this is more of a bowl, not a pot.’ I can say, let's fold it back in. Let's make it more upright. Let's fold it back in. Like I said, clay’s very forgiving, right? We can always smooth things out later.  Hold your hand in a cupping shape. Use the end of the table to make a nice lip. There are lots of little tricks you can do. We don't even need any tools for this. This is just our hands. We're going around and around. If we wanted to add maybe a stem or if we wanted to add a handle, we could pull some clay off there and do that. But then at the end we dry them upright, so they're little domes. Then the following week, they come back and they get to paint them. So that's a very simple project. And this actually, incidentally is the shell for our turtle. So skills that they learned way back when we utilize again, when they come back for third grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I think it's great that first, second and third grade, there's this progression of skills. And that the sixth graders we talked to remembered the turtle as their very favorite project right off the bat.

Rachel Henderson:
It’s a favorite for sure. 

Anthony Godfrey:
That's really cool. Okay. Well, um, what is the fate of my turtle? I guess I will just smash him back into the clay from whence he came.

Rachel Henderson:
The beauty of clay. Roll back into a ball, put it in a bag and you can come back to it another time.

Anthony Godfrey:
That this feels really good. When you had it in your hands showing me stuff, I kind of wanted it back. Because it's quite fun.

Rachel Henderson:
Very relaxing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very nice. All right. I'm going to put it back in your package here. What ideas do you have for parents who may want to incorporate more art in their kids' lives or give them more of a creative outlet at home?

Rachel Henderson:
This was really apparent when we went on soft closure, right? We had lots of kiddos that were like, ‘wait a minute, Ms. Henderson, I don't have clay at my house. I don't have watercolor crayons at my house.’ And I assured them, there were numerous things we did online with pencil and paper. If you could just give your children pencil and paper, and time, and a space. I've noticed that if there was a designated spot in the house or a designated space for them, they felt more free to create. Rather than cluttered with everything else. So if you just give them a little space, paper, and pencil, there is no end to what they can do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for letting me get a little taste of what the kids get to experience here. It's obviously a great experience for them and an important part of their education here at Westvale. So thanks again.

Rachel Henderson:
Thank you. Appreciate you coming.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is an entirely new approach to teaching students how to read and succeed. On this episode of the Supercast, find out how Jordan School District's Literacy Launch program is already helping students learn to read at higher levels than ever before. The results we're seeing in the classroom are bringing some teachers to tears, beyond excited about their student success. We're talking with Mandy Thurman and Michelle Lovell about literacy and our Literacy Launch in Jordan School District. There's nothing I'm more excited about. Tell me how it's going. First of all, we started this piloting last year. Just tell us where we are right now. How does it feel?

Michelle Lovell:
Well, we are really excited about the progress that we've made. And as far as we know, every school in Jordan School District has jumped in. Every elementary school has jumped in and already started in this process. And we're hearing great things from schools.

Anthony Godfrey:
We certainly are, and I'm hearing a lot of positives as well. It's a lot of hard work. Teachers are putting in a ton of effort. Our coaches are working really hard. We have our administrators on board and part of the effort as well. And we also have a lot of ESP employees or our classroom assistants who are involved in helping provide support. So everyone's diving in and working really hard and great things are already happening, even though the training district-wide only started a few months ago, this last summer.

Mandy Thurman:
Right, we trained nearly 1200 teachers, every K-6th grade teacher received two full days of training. We wanted them to really understand the why of everything that we were doing, the data that led us to this decision, and then what it was that would look different in their classrooms this year. I think teachers were nervous at first and had a lot of anxiety. But, like Michelle said, they've just jumped right in, given it a try, and now we're really hearing positive things from them.

Anthony Godfrey:
What I keep hearing is just how connected people feel to the program once they see the results from even just the initial implementation of what's been put in place.

Michelle Lovell:
I have been visiting with several of our schools just recently. What we've been hearing is most of them are in at least the first or second cycles of instruction. They're seeing kids move and change, gain skills. We're just seeing some excitement happening in the District.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, the training happened this summer, as you described, it was two in-person days, one day of virtual instruction and then a day just to work with your team or independently to be ready to implement the program this year. You talked about the intervention cycles. That's a 15 day cycle. Tell me what that looks like for a student. What happens at the beginning? What happens during that cycle? And then what happens right before the next one is in place?

Mandy Thurman:
So we start with the Acadience information that we get. That's our statewide assessment that we use in Kindergarten through 3rd grade, and we're also now starting to use fourth through sixth grade. We use that information to identify students who might have some struggles with reading. From there, we do more diagnostic testing and both phonological awareness and phonics to really identify what skills it is that each individual student needs. Then teachers work as an entire grade level, not just individual classes, but they group those students on the grade level, according to the very targeted, specific skill that each student needs. Then for a 30 minute window of time, every day, during that 15 day cycle, they receive really targeted, specific instruction on the skill that they need. After those 15 days, we re-look at the data, we reassess the kids and then we regroup them based on what they need at that point in time. So it's very fluid. Kids are constantly moving and growing and then moving into the new groups that they need.

Anthony Godfrey:
What I love about that is first of all, that it's targeted instruction that is matched up with the exact skills that the student needs to improve in. The other is that it's on a regular basis, that students are regrouped and assigned based on the skills that they still need. In the past, students have been assigned to a group for a very long period of time and really couldn't essentially test their way out of that group and increase their skills once they were ready to do that. So I love that things are moving so quickly for students and they're able to advance as a result. Tell me a little bit about what parents should be watching for with their students who are in elementary.

Michelle Lovell:
So there may be some changes that parents see. One of those changes will be that they won't see a guided reading level come home. Kids are no longer grouped by a level of the alphabet. So we used to say, kids are reading on a level F or a level J, but now the students are grouped based on a needed skill. So a teacher may say to parents, your student is working on learning the long vowel, silent E pattern in reading, or your student is learning long vowel patterns, long vowel teams, or learning how to break apart multisyllabic words. So it's more targeted instruction. 

The other thing that parents may see is a difference in spelling. They may not get a traditional spelling test where kids just memorize a list of unrelated words, because we know that's not the most effective way to teach spelling. Instead, kids will learn word patterns so that they can spell any word that has that word pattern. So it will be a little bit of a shift and some things that parents can really do to help support their kids, one teacher put it, I think so beautifully. She said, “we need to be the tour guides of the world.” 

There are two pieces of reading. One part is we have to be able to get words off the page. We have to teach kids to decode, but then the other part is kids have to know what those words mean. They have to have some background knowledge and they have to have some of that information as well. So when those two things come together, when we can decode, and we know what those words mean, now we have reading comprehension. So what parents can do is be that tour guide of the world. They can read with their kids and talk about the vocabulary words that are in books. They can talk about that background knowledge. They can have experiences with the kids talking about plants that are in the yard or talking about experiences they're having as they're making meals, or as they’re visiting places and helping kids develop that really rich background knowledge that is so critical for all learners.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great reminder that reading really connects us to all other kinds of learning and allows us to experience really anything. So great reading skills are so essential for students to be successful in the future, but also to feel successful now and to feel really good about what they're doing in school. The other thing to keep in mind is that, as you've pointed out, K-3 is really the initial focus, but this is something that teachers at the upper elementary levels have also been trained on. What's wonderful about that is that even students who have gotten past third grade still missing some skills are able to fill those gaps.

Mandy Thurman:
Yeah, absolutely. We know that there are many of those kids right now. We use the saying, ‘in the younger grades we learned to read so that in the upper grades, we can read to learn’. Really, by third grade, that's where we want kids so that they have those foundational skills to decode the words on the page and be able to actually read the words. In the upper grades, what we're really working at is the content. Now they need to be able to read to access their science or their social studies and to make sense of what they're reading. But we know that we still have kids in those grades that don't have the full capability of decoding all the words. So we have some curriculum in place for the first time teaching in the classroom, as well as this intervention process that we talked about, that those kids in those upper grades will participate in as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the results are really, really exciting. I've heard from people at every level, K-6, talking about how exciting it is. Not just to feel like they know what needs to happen next in ways that they didn't before, but just seeing how their kids feel in their class about the success that they've experienced. The confidence that it gives them, as you said, to access all kinds of other knowledge. Because they say to themselves, ‘Hey, I'm a successful reader, and I know I can get better.’ There's a sense of efficacy that comes with that. ‘I know that I wasn't getting it, and now I am. And it's my effort that got me there.’

Michelle Lovell:
One of the things that we've also done is we've increased the classroom instruction. So teachers, not just intervention, but in their daily instruction are focusing more on the science of reading. They're focusing on teaching kids those spelling patterns and those word patterns, that decoding process that they need. It's been fun because one group of kindergarten teachers was excited because they had found when they did their first Acadience test, just with the increase in tier one instruction, the classroom instruction, that they had almost their whole class scoring above level. They started out at the very beginning of the year with about half of the class below level, but by the first Acadience test, all but three in each class had moved to above level. So they were just excited to see that happening, and it's been fun to watch.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does it make you wish a little bit that you could be in the classroom and experience it firsthand with your own students?

Mandy Thurman:
Yeah, absolutely. I think what's happened is really an empowering process, empowering teachers, empowering students. I think it would be really exciting to be back in the classroom and try some of these things ourselves.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know that this has been a ton of work for both of you. You provided how many trainings this summer?

Michelle Lovell:
I think at this point it's been 18 trainings?

Mandy Thurman:
I think we're at 21. We did 16 over the summer. 32 full days in the summer and I think we've done four additional rounds.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's been a huge push after a very difficult year and I commend you for your work. There's also a great support structure for teachers to be sure that we're helping them through the implementation process.

Michelle Lovell:
We have a structure set up to support teachers where every teacher, after each Acadience window, spends half day with a teacher specialist, and with their administrator, with an area superintendent. Going through student data, making sure students are grouped correctly, asking any questions that they may have, making sure that that they feel good about the lessons and that they're seeing that kind of growth. It's been really exciting to be in those meetings with the teachers as we're going through that process and providing that support that teachers really need and desire.

Anthony Godfrey:
I’ve heard such great things about the teacher specialists and the support that they've provided, and the coaches that are out there helping teachers. So it's really not just a team of teachers working together at a grade level, but it's all of the support around them. I really can't thank you enough for putting that in place and, and being such a great support to teachers after that initial training and implementation.

Mandy Thurman:
Well, thank you and we just want to thank you for all the support that's allowed us to get to this point. Without your support and your enthusiasm and passion behind early reading, I don't think we could have done what we’ve done.

Michelle Lovell:
I agree with that 100%, thank you. I agree we have some phenomenal teachers, coaches, teacher specialists, and AOSs, administrators, yourself. Thank you so much for what you are doing for kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a really exciting effort and I can't wait to see where it takes us. Thank you both very much for the time and for all your great work.

 Stay with us. When we come back, we'll head into a classroom at Heartland Elementary School, where the new approach to teaching literacy is leading to some exciting outcomes in reading.

Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
We’re here with Leslie Fiskell, 3rd grade teacher at Heartland Elementary. Thanks for spending time with me. 

Leslie Fiskell:
Thank you for having me here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit from a third grade teacher's perspective, what it's like to be a part of this literacy launch. I know you've been doing it since last year when Heartland started to pilot the program.

Leslie Fiskell:
Well, I find it exciting because we have three programs we're using. We're doing 95%, Really Great Reading and Heggerty. We're teaching a lot of phonics and the kids are learning a lot about reading.

Anthony Godfrey:
How does this feel different from reading instruction for you as a teacher in comparison to how it felt before these programs were put in place?

Leslie Fiskell:
Before these programs you were putting your own reading lessons together. I don't believe it was maybe as systematic and explicit. This program has a scripted lesson for you and the kids have their manipulatives and things they use. So from a teacher, as far as preparation, there really is very little. And for the students, they have things to help them engage in the learning. 

Anthony Godfrey:
For the listeners, explain what a manipulative is.

Leslie Fiskell:
Okay, well, they have letter tiles. The letter tiles could be, you know, it's the letters, the vowels, and then, long vowels. So there are tiles they use to make words. It also comes with syllable words, little boards where they can write the syllables, and it's just a good, good program.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it allows them to physically engage with tiles and arrange syllables and sounds together. So that's a deeper level of engagement to be able to physically be part of the learning.

Leslie Fiskell:
It is. It's a lot better than just here's your whiteboard and marker, and you write a word. This breaks the word apart. It shows them how the word comes together. And then of course they can write it. 

Anthony Godfrey:
It really reemphasizes that there are components to words that come together. Sounds and letters that come together to form words.

Leslie Fiskell:
Yeah. Phonemes, the sounds and how those sounds come together to make the words. I think perhaps we were lacking in that area before we weren't teaching phonemes. I'm not sure we knew about phonemes, you know, but now we do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does it feel like you're able to address more specific student needs rather than just generally improving reading? Focusing in on a very specific skill that they need to become a better reader?

Leslie Fiskell:
I think the Really Great Reading program, is that the only one we're talking about or can we talk about the other ones? The Really Great Reading program really addresses the whole class. So you might be learning long vowels but maybe on your own level in your skills group, you might be doing 95% and that's where you're really targeting that child's need. But all of them together they're connecting, and when those kids can make that connection, you know, we're finger stretching. In 95% we're finger stretching and Really Great Reading and all of the programs are connecting. 

Anthony Godfrey:
You’re finger stretching, tell me about finger stretching.

Leslie Fiskell:
Well, that's our sounds, our phonemes. We're counting our phonemes. How many phonemes in a word. So if it's like talk, it would be t, a, l, k, so you'd have four phonemes. So the students are learning that. And again, they're engaged because there's an action there.

Anthony Godfrey:
I tried the Heggerty instruction. I've been in kindergarten classrooms and gone through that with students. It's really interesting just how engaged they are and how focused they are when there's that physical component, where you move your hands along with the syllable and ask them to put that together in a word. It's just really quite something to see those young students latch onto it.

Leslie Fiskell:
They have their choppers. It's engaging to pull out your choppers, those are your hands. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, exactly. It's really exciting to see. What do you think it's like for students at this point compared with previous instruction they've received in literacy?

Leslie Fiskell:
Well, I think it's exciting for the students that are really catching on. I mean, everyone's catching on at some point, but to be able to answer those questions, we just all do it together. They're engaged, they have their manipulatives, their letter tiles I should say,  that they're making their words. I think it's very beneficial for the students because they're learning the rules of our language and how to read.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about teaching reading?

Leslie Fiskell:
Well, that's a big question, right? Right now I've got to tell you I'm loving our programs. I absolutely love Really Great Reading. It's my favorite. The reason I like it is because I'm learning too. Who knew why was was spelled w a s? Now I know. I'm this old and I know. It's the schwa, it’s flexing. So I love Really Great Reading and I love it for them because I think if you can learn all that stuff at a young age, you're going to be a great reader.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely. Schwa flexing is something I haven't talked about enough, obviously, because flex, flex, flex to the schwa. It's going to stick with me. I really appreciate the time that you've taken and I love that you're focused on learning as a teacher. Those who are not in the classroom may not, let me back up a little bit. I know that the central part of being a great teacher is learning and I admire you for being so enthusiastic about learning something new, even though you've been teaching reading for a long time.

Leslie Fiskell:
Right. I will tell you, and I thought I was doing a good job teaching reading, but I am doing a much better job now with these programs.

Anthony Godfrey:
Outstanding. Thanks for all your hard work.

Leslie Fiskell:
Okay, 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 out there

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Join us as we go to South Jordan Middle School to visit a teacher who traded in their recording studio for a classroom.

We're here at South Jordan Middle School with Brian Anderson. Just from the looks of what's sitting around him,iIt's going to be a really interesting interview. But first, Brian, thanks for taking the time. 

Brian Anderson:
You're welcome, thank you. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about your teaching career before we get into all the other stuff.

Brian Anderson:
Well, I definitely have an interest in working with kids and when I came back from doing a little stunt at chiropractic school, I drove the school bus. When driving the school bus, I did some field trips, when doing the field trips I met some teachers. Well, when I met the teachers and I met the students, it just started filling my heart, that I wanted to kind of be a teacher and represent that somewhere. So I started subbing. I started subbing with the Jordan School District and after subbing for four years or so, I looked into getting into the program through, at that time it was ARL, it’s changed a couple of times. I found a charter school that allowed me to teach a few classes there at AISU. I taught audio production, songwriting, photography, film, and a few things like that. They went out of business, so I went back to driving some more bus and, I don't know, this is just a fluke, I went in to check on some insurance stuff at the district and my heart just said, go talk to somebody, see if there's any openings right now with teaching here. I asked if I could speak to someone who was over hiring and they said, yeah, go talk to this person. And the person that they sent me to was actually the wrong person, but that person knew Nicole and said, I think she's looking for someone who might fit your background, cause I have a digital media background.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the wrong person became the right person. 

Brian Anderson:
That’s pretty much what happened. She called her on the phone and said, I've got this guy.” She said “Have him send an application, I'll interview him tomorrow.” She interviewed me. It worked out and here I am teaching here at SoJo Middle School. 

Anthony Godfrey:
How long have you been at SoJo now?

Brian Anderson:
So this is my first year. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow! Great. So this is a recent journey? 

Brian Anderson:
I came right about October in the middle of that pandemic thing and took over for someone who had an opportunity to teach somewhere else. I picked it up from there and had a lot of great help with my coworkers. Shout out to them, they're amazing. Everybody here has just been really helpful and great.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the music because that's the focus of why we're here is to learn a little bit more about that aspect of your career as well.

Brian Anderson:
Yeah, well, I wrote songs and did little things in my bedroom, but I didn't realize what I was doing, it was just for fun. 

Anthony Godfrey:
At what point in your life did you start doing this? 

Brian Anderson:
I did that like at 10 years old, 12 years old. I'd play drums with ice cream buckets and we couldn't afford that stuff. I just did stuff that I don't know, MTV influenced me a lot. MTV then was a lot of the eighties acts. So if you remember the eighties much, they all sang high. So I thought, well, I need to sing high too.

Anthony Godfrey:
They did all sing high and then it would modulate and they'd go even higher at the end to give that an emotional punch. What was some of the eighties music that inspired you initially to pursue it? Who were you trying to imitate?

Brian Anderson:
Well, some of my influences, hands down, were Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Europe, and then some of those rock bands like Mötley Crüe and Whitesnake and even Survivor. Some of the guys that I ended up playing music with later on.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hmm. You played okay. Wow. You played okay. We have a lot of layers to go through here. That's very exciting. So those were some of the bands that inspired you and tell me where it went from there.

Brian Anderson:
So I really didn't know how to pursue this thing. I was clueless. No one did music in my family or my relatives didn't do it. So I just started playing in bars, that's where you could play. There wasn't really anybody that hired anybody. I tried to write more music and slowly started having a little repertoire of songs. Then I ran into this company that I heard about that said, come down and try to promote yourself and raise some money for your business. And I thought, well, ‘Hey, if Starbucks goes there and these other companies go there to raise money, I can be a business.’ So they wanted a lot of money to enter this thing. It wasn't a contest, it just cost a lot of money to go. My dad's never given me a dollar and I didn't have $10,000 and that’s what it costs.

I said, “Dad, I really want to go to this thing. I think I can maybe raise some money to help me get my music started. What do you think?” And he didn't say anything and I'm pretty sure it was dead at that point. And the next day came to me with a $10,000 check saying “Go knock it out, go try it.” That blew me away because my dad doesn't give anyone any money. You know, you make your own money. I was able to go there as an artist, as a musician, I played on stage, raised quarter million dollars and came home, was able to pay him back as $10,000 and moved to Nashville and started knocking doors.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So you raised that money with that performance? Talk about a high stakes interview.

Brian Anderson:
Yeah, didn't see that coming. You know, people came out of the woodwork. I met my music attorney there. My first manager I met there, they knew contacts and as most things happen in most situations in life where you meet someone and then it rolls into something else by contacts and their contacts, etc.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what age were you when this happened?

Brian Anderson:
I believe I was 22.

Anthony Godfrey:
And for your dad to just do that out of the blue, that's tremendous.

Brian Anderson:
I couldn't believe it. It was honestly one of those amazing, impossible things that I just don't understand. I don't know what went through his head when I asked. I could only imagine.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Zero to 60. That's like, you know, you're on your own, you gotta do your thing, and here's $10,000 to pursue your dream. That's very inspiring.

Brian Anderson:
He must've thought he wouldn't have gotten it back. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure, he was saying goodbye to that $10,000, but, wow. That's really incredible.

Brian Anderson:
Yeah. He's a great guy, amazing. I’m just real blessed with good parents.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you, you raise the money, you get an attorney, you move to Nashville. What happens next?

Brian Anderson:
So I'm down in Nashville and I have a manager who's interested in me at that point. I'm ready to move at a hundred miles per hour and they want me to go 10 miles per hour. It was really difficult. Long story short, it didn't work out. I just wanted to move faster than they wanted me to. They wanted me to sit down and write songs for like three years. I'm like, I've got songs now, let's go. So I found some other managers that were a better move for me. They led me to a contact in Sony, the guy that signed the Dixie Chicks worked with them and a few other acts, got in contact with me and we decided to work together and see where that would go. Even though that didn't lead to some great famous career, nor was I even looking for fame, I just wanted to do my music. They helped me a lot and because I was pop country, I got shelved mostly, even though I got to do events and performances with different acts. I got my chops a little more fine tuned, it didn't lead to anything great and I eventually got out of that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Along the way you've got to work with a number of different bands. Let's find out some of the people you've worked with.

Brian Anderson:
Sure, yeah. I went out of that deal into a deal in LA. This guy was more pop rock, and he had contacts with a guy named Jim Peterik, and Jim Peterik is one of the founders of Survivor. I went to his house and we wrote a couple of songs and hit it off. I’ve got that song here, I can show you too. But that song led to a number of concerts and shows and events with some other acts. So I did some stuff with Night Ranger, did some stuff with 38 Special, with Don Barnes, did a show with them at CNN and with Lynyrd Skynyrd. I did an album with Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Anthony Godfrey:
You did an album with Lynyrd Skynyrd? So when people say play some Skynyrd, you can just say, I've been there, done that.

Brian Anderson:
I don’t know about that. This album was a project that we did together called The Day America Cried. It happened after the towers fell and we wanted to put together this project that joined America. I was one of the artists on that project. I was able to go to the studio and work with some of these acts. That's where I've met a number of people, some members of Journey, and I did some shows along the way where we would promote this album called The Day America Cried all over the place. That led to small little venues and intimate venues to super large venues that we were able to perform together.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's the largest crowd that you've played for?

Brian Anderson:
I think 18,000.

Anthony Godfrey:
18,000. Wow.

Brian Anderson:
We also opened for Blessid Union of Souls a couple of times. That was fun because they weren't necessarily a rock band, a great group of guys.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're kind of blowing my mind here. You worked with Lynyrd Skynyrd, members of Journey. You wrote a song with Jim from Survivor. 

Brian Anderson:
Yeah, Jim Peterik. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Tell me a little bit more about that. Is there a moment where you're sitting down with him thinking, okay don't talk about Rocky III. Don't talk about Rocky III.

Brian Anderson:
Of course, those posters are all over in his house. I have this guitar right here that he gave me for Christmas. 

Anthony Godfrey:
He gave you a guitar for Christmas?

Brian Anderson:
Yeah, this is a guitar he toured with and did stuff with Van Halen and all this stuff. He gave me this as a gift.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Now I just need to clarify, I'm sitting right now with you beside a guitar that was used on stage with Van Halen.

Brian Anderson:
Yeah, when he would play and do all his hits and tours with many artists, right? Because he's the real rock star. This is the guitar he used. I was over at his house one day and we were working on another song and he said, “Hey, Merry Christmas. Here's one of my favorite guitars.” I said, “What? That's amazing. I’ve got to find a way to get this home.” Cause the plane, you know, I already had enough luggage and things, I had to figure out how to get it home, but that wasn't going to be a problem.

Anthony Godfrey:
All you do is throw away whatever you brought with you and this comes home on your lap the whole time. I’d buy a separate airline ticket for that guitar if I had to.

Brian Anderson:
Yeah. He's been a big influence in my life on a number of levels. For example, he wrote, with a number of other people, Songwriting for Dummies. He put one of the songs that I wrote on the front cover of it and he put me in the book as well. He featured me in a couple of things with a song I wrote called Empty. So I think that I really owe a lot to him for taking me under his wing and introducing me to a lot of people.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more stories from the studio and the road.

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Brian Anderson:
This is from a big concert we did. You might recognize this song.

Playing recording of Brian Anderson singing The Search is Over by Survivor.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is one of my favorites. I do love this one.

Brian Anderson:
So he had me perform it for him instead.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really? So this is you? ‘Who am I to blame you?’ I’ve listened to this song hundreds of times. I'm not exaggerating.

Brian Anderson:
I told him, do you know how many girls I've met dancing to your song? That was our first thing. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah. I have swayed to this song many, many times.

 I do see some Grammy swag. I noticed your Grammy shirt as I walked in. Tell me a little bit about that.

Brian Anderson:
When I went to the Grammys, they gave me the Grammy bag and stuff like this.

Anthony Godfrey:
You got the swag bag at the Grammys. Wow.

Brian Anderson:
I went there with Jeff McClusky, who was a radio promoter for everyone, Creed, Lifehouse, everyone. We went there with Sheryl Crow and stayed in their booth. 

Anthony Godfrey:
You went to the Grammy's with Sheryl Crow. Like one does, you know.

Brian Anderson:
You know. It was cool being an honorary member of the Grammy in the Schools. So I was a part of that foundation where the job was to create opportunities for high school students to work with professionals, to get real-world experience and advice about how to have a music career. That just wasn't really in schools. So they had me. My role was to talk about the opportunity at different music conventions to students, about their Grammy camps and to try to get the community to push for more music in the schools.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. That's a very worthy cause. Let's bust out this guitar shall we? Sorry. I just, I would love to get a look at that. I'm a big Survivor fan by the way. Yeah. High on You. 

Brian Anderson:
Oh yeah. So this is it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. May I? This is pretty cool. It's a cream colored fender Stratocaster, isn't it? 

Brian Anderson:
You see how it’s kinda faded a little bit. It’s a wide neck Stratocaster, that's what you'd call it. 

Anthony Godfrey:
A wide neck. Okay. 

Brian Anderson:
You’re touching a guitar there that’s been through quite a few shows.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That feels really good. That is so cool. I can't even believe that.

Brian Anderson:
It’s kind of like performing at the Whiskey a Go Go. They had me play up there.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've played the Whiskey a Go Go? 

Brian Anderson:
I played the Whiskey a Go Go. If you know who's played the Whiskey a Go Go, I think I made a list here. The Doors, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, U2, Van Halen, Guns n’ Roses, Mötley Crüe.

Anthony Godfrey:
Basically my entire time machine fantasy concert list was played at the Whiskey a Go Go.

Brian Anderson:
Yeah. It was pretty cool to show up there and just be on that stage, you know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Was that you performing, were you performing with a group? 

Brian Anderson:
We were the performers that night.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. That’s incredible to perform on that stage. 

Brian Anderson:
It was a high, that’s for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I feel like we could talk all day. That the stories would just keep unfolding. That is so cool. Well, I'd love to hear a song of yours.

Brian Anderson:
Okay. Well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this one.

Brian Anderson:
So as you know, music's not always straight shot up and there's a lot of dynamics in it. One of the times where we weren't sure where things were going with my career, I was traveling to California to do another show with my band. In that car, I'm just thinking, how cool is this, that we're riding to California or driving here. We get to play these shows with some acts and we get to do music for a living. I was just reminiscing on that and I just decided to start writing this song called The Ride. So this is a real acoustic version and I can give you a CD of the more rock version of this.

Brian Anderson singing and playing guitar:

Watching you breathe next to me,
There’s no other place I want to be.
It takes me away to think of you.
I'm holding on, on to you.

Cause I wanna ride,
I wanna ride.
Can you feel it? Can you feel it pass you by?
I wanna ride.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. The crowd goes wild. That's fantastic. That's a hit in my book. That's good stuff. Wow. And just the way that you play, it's obvious that you're very, very skilled. I pick up a guitar and, anyway, it's just so smooth. Well done. That's awesome. So tell me, what advice would you give to parents if their child is maybe interested in music, shows an interest in songwriting, what would you suggest?

Brian Anderson:
I would suggest starting them right away. They may never pursue it, but what it can do for them can open their mind to so many avenues and unlock the doors that might stay shut. That introduced other things that would have never begun because they didn't pursue maybe that passion. It's kind of like math. It's like you might ask yourself, why am I doing this math problem? But it opens up other things inside the mind that might introduce you to be better at something else. I feel that music can connect on so many levels with other people and with yourself and you grow. To have them right away, start doing some kind of lesson on an instrument or even a vocal lesson. Try to get them into songwriting so they can express that talent as a package.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's a lot to be gained, like you said, even if it isn't going to be a career or something that you pursue long term, just from engaging with that and tapping into your creative side. There's a lot of advantage to having that in your life.

Brian Anderson:
Growth can come from that and you would never know it unless you tried to harness it. A lot of it is buried to be honest for me, my music was buried until I was 18. I didn't even know that I really was good at it and could do it until after high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's been a huge treat talking with you. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed stopping by and hearing your stories. You've been closely connected with a lot of music and artists that I've loved over the years. You've been part of that industry, which is just fascinating to me. So thank you so much for spending the time and for everything you're doing for the students here at South Jordan. We're sure lucky to have you here.

Brian Anderson:
Oh, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for letting me go down memory lane again.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It's a program designed to help keep students safe in and outside of school. On this episode of the Supercast, we talk about new technology called BARK, which helps to detect signs of things like cyber bullying, suicidal ideation, and threats of school violence. Listen, and find out how this new technology is already proving successful in saving lives in Jordan School District. We're here today with Angie Rasmussen, our new specialist working with the BARK program here in Jordan School District. Angie, thanks for joining us.

Angie Rasmussen:
Thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Most people don't know what the BARK program is. Let's just start off by having you talk just generally about what it's designed to do.

Angie Rasmussen:
Okay. So it is a software that we have monitoring Google accounts in Jordan School District. So parents can buy it themselves to monitor their students on their electronic devices, but we use it for our school purposes to help flag students who may need some extra support.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just as a clarification for our listeners. I want to make sure that everyone understands that this is only monitoring of school accounts. So chats, emails, documents that are submitted through Google docs, that sort of thing, right?

Angie Rasmussen:
Correct. Yes, so it has to be through their my.jordandistrict.org Google account.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have accounts for students in elementary, middle and high schools so really this reaches students of all ages. 

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, it does. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about how the BARK program works.

Angie Rasmussen:
So it has artificial intelligence that will screen or flag anything in these Google documents, chats, emails, that could be concerning. There's different categories like bullying or suicidal ideation, self-harm, violence, among others. It will categorize the alert and it will also say if it's severe or non-severe. Then there is an imminent category, but those are flagged as severe and then they become phone calls as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when you go through the program, tell us a little bit about what your interaction is with the alerts and how the process works.

Angie Rasmussen:
So they will take a snippet of what they flag as concerning, and sometimes it's highlighted with certain areas that they're trying to show me, this is what we flagged. Then I can look at it and see the context. I can see if it's two people talking to each other in an email or in a chat and get an idea of what maybe the conversation is. A lot of Google docs are used as journal entries or they will chat in real time with each other on a Google doc, the students will. It’s a way to communicate, so it will come in those formats. A lot of times if they're expressing something that could be concerning to adults, that we want to make those connections with kids and help them to prevent anything from becoming a further situation that either leads to violence or additional suicidal ideation.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me again, the categories were non-severe severe and imminent, correct?

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, that's correct. 

Anthony Godfrey:
Can you tell us what the process is for dealing with issues in all three categories? 

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. So non severe, I usually will look at with certain keywords like self-harm or depression, anxiety, because those ones can sometimes be flagged as non severe if they're not using the right words. And so I will still look at those as severe because I want to make sure that I see them. Others will be if there are like two kids who are maybe talking and are joking around and it doesn't have any risk factors to it. I will just document those so I can access them later, but I don't necessarily do anything with it. It's kind of documented. I don't push them to the school is basically what I'm saying.

If it's severe, I can also do that where I kind of look into it and say, oh, this isn't a problem. The example I used was they were playing a game in class and they were talking about this game and she got a high score. Then the kid responded back something about being high and they were talking about the score still, but the program flagged the word high as intoxicated, so that was not necessarily what the context was. So I did not pass that on because it was non-threatening, it was about a game and score.

When it is something that I feel that the school personnel should be aware of and help them to support the student, then I will take the information I have and let the relevant person know whether that's an administrator or a school counselor or a social worker. Then we have some dialogue on how to help the student or support the student, or if they have more questions about how it could be handled, then we can troubleshoot with that. If it's imminent, it is usually a phone call from BARK. So they won't just email me or flag it. They will text me and call me. And if I don't answer, then it's set up to call local authorities for a wellness check.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it can be really an alarm about something that could be happening right away. Have we had a few of those?

Angie Rasmussen:
We have. Since I've been working with the program, which was September 23rd, I've had two where they did call me. One was during school hours on a business day. And then another one was actually over the weekend on a Sunday.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did we get authorities out, parents involved? What happens from there after your call comes from BARK?

Angie Rasmussen:
So I'll take the call and let them know that I'm aware of it, that I'll handle it from there, so they don't dispatch police because then I can look at it. The one during business hours, I worked with the administrators at the school and we got a hold of parents that way. If it's not during business hours and it's an imminent threat, I will call parents directly. If I can't get a hold of them, then I will try to get a wellness check from the police, a non-emergency phone call to go out and visit with the student. But if I can get a hold of the parents and confirm that the student’s safe, then I don't call the police, unless it's something that was further along the line that I would have to do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So of course, parents are always the first call, and then if we can't reach them, then we involve the police as necessary. 

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and then I also make sure administration knows, so they can follow up with the families and make sure supports are in place at school afterwards.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. Because it's not just in the moment that we need to look at that. But when you look at the kind of support that we need to provide for the individual longer-term. Even before you came and we hadn't monitored to that degree, I know that we had some serious situations that we were alerted to by BARK.

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and they did send authorities because we didn't have anyone set up to answer the phone call at the time. I'm familiar with that because I can see that from the past as well, because they had it active for a little bit to test it. It is very helpful in being proactive and preventing emergency situations.

Anthony Godfrey:
You talked about supporting the school and calling them and contacting them about what to do next. That's because you're not just monitoring this, you have a background that helps you really address the problems as well.

Angie Rasmussen:
Correct. So I have been a school counselor since 2008, but also a school administrator. So I can see kind of that mental health side of it, but also the side where administrators are in the building trying to balance and juggle things, but also there to respond if there's crisis situations.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're very fortunate to have you in the position to help filter through the alerts that come in, but also provide support to the parents, administrators, and other authorities that you work with.

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and I envision it as a way to best support families in our communities. So although it comes from a place of education, I think it will help also make those connections in the buildings. If we don't know, students maybe are really seeking those connections in our schools. It's a way to kind of, oh, this person might need an extra check-in or something. They're not on our radar. I don't know them, but I really would like to get to know them and see, you know, who they are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Connecting students to resources as part of taking good care of them. 

Stay with us. When we come back more on the technology that is keeping students safe in and outside of school.

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Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what would you say parents need to be aware of as they're thinking about monitoring and being aware of their students' communications?

Angie Rasmussen:
As far as we go here at Jordan School District, I think it's coming from a place of care and concern. I think that as a parent myself, whenever another adult from my kid's school reaches out to me, I would feel grateful that there is that other set of eyes, or there is somebody looking out for my kid. I want everyone to know that it's not a gotcha type thing. We're not looking for somebody to get in trouble or looking at their conversations to, you know, do anything that's going to punish them. We're not being punitive, I guess what I'm trying to say. We're trying to have their best interest in mind, and we won't won't share information with other people, only the relevant parties, the adults in the building that are directly associated with those kids. So like, you know, the administrators, or their school counselor. When talking with parents, it's like, these are the people that will know because this is how they can help you. So they know it's not something that everyone knows. I think privacy is a big factor of the whole process. Privacy and not being punitive.

Anthony Godfrey:
No, that's really the combination. It's a support because not every student that needs help will seek it. It's a chance for us to be sure that they have the help and assistance that they need.

Angie Rasmussen:
Luckily students, a lot of times will feel comfortable telling friends in these ways. I mean, they're not talking in person, they're telling each other over these chats or emails. So I think that's still a great thing as long as they can get adult help when it's needed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. It's those student interactions with each other that probably produce a lot of the alerts where they're talking to each other, not just writing on their own. I have to admit, I've never thought of the idea of writing someone right within a Google document. That's pretty immediate communication because you don't even have the chance to decide, ‘ok, I've crafted what I'm going to say. Send’ they're just watching you and you type it. So that's real time.

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and I think they think, because we're old, we don't know about it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I just admitted that I’m old enough not to know about it so thank you for the education. Now this isn't a replacement for other things that we do to connect with students, see if they need help, be sure that we're aware of how they're feeling and how they're doing as educators and as parents.

Angie Rasmussen:
Right. It's actually just an additional safety net. So other things that are already in place, even, you know, at home, that doesn't have anything to do with us. We don't regulate at home activities. If they are at home, but using their account for Jordan school, that is still something we would see, and, again, only get involved if it's something we can help with. It's just an additional support that is added as a safety measure. It's a safety net to try and help students out when they might be struggling to connect with someone about something that they need help with.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does the program sometimes over identify issues?

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. Not sometimes, it always does. So it's nice to have that, to have myself, a human looking at it, to see what the actual conversation could be considered and if it is something that's helpful for a student or not. So, you know, technology is great, but humans are still better. And, families making connections with their families at home is still better than anything else.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good reminder as well. This isn't someone sitting at BARK central going through all of these emails, this is an automated process. You receive the alerts and then you, as the experienced, well-educated human goes through the results and determines whether there is in fact a problem.

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. And then it gives me the opportunity to collaborate with the professionals in their building, who know the kids potentially, and know the community and know their buildings the best. We can kind of bounce ideas off each other. Like this is the way it looked to me, you know them, do you think this is something that you would find useful to help that student?

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm actually very glad to hear that problems are over-identified and that we have a lot of false positives if you will, because it's much better than missing something.

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. I agree with you a hundred percent. Something may look like an issue and if it's not, that's the best case scenario.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, with nearly 58,000 students, there's a lot to sort through and there's a lot to be aware of. What's interesting to me is that not only are you able to help individual students, but I can imagine that over time, we're going to be able to start to see a pattern and say, ‘Hey, these are some things that students are dealing with. We're starting to see more concerns about this issue or that issue.’ As we look at the alerts that come up from such a large group of students.

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, it does gather the data. I can look at types of alerts per area too. So I can see if a feeder network has similar issues. You know, if a high school, junior high and elementary system together shares similar issues, we can look at data that shows you that there could be something that administration would want to work on in their school and say, ‘oh, this keeps coming up as a pattern’ and it's showing it's something that you might want to take a look at. What can we do to get something going in your school that might produce positive engagement with students?

Anthony Godfrey:
I really liked that aspect of it. How does it feel to be working with a program like this, having been a counselor and administrator for as long as you have, maybe not using a method like this previously.

Angie Rasmussen:
It's different because again, it's through technology. I find that a lot of the things students talk about are things that I could see them going to their counselor and saying the exact words. I try to put myself in that situation if I were to meet with the student and they told me this, that whatever they're saying, you know, what would I do? Or if it was my own child, what would I do? Then I take that perspective and collaborate with the adults at their school on how to help the student. It's different in that, in that I can reflect before I talk, you know, it's like, it's not happening in real time for me necessarily. So I can see an issue and review my resources and collaborate. When you're in a school, a lot of times things are happening right then in your face, and you don't have as much time to gather composure and think through your different ideas or different ways to help. 

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And I think it's exciting to have another way to help students. In the end, really what we're doing is we're trying to improve their lives and sometimes save them. 

Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. That is going to be something I think that down the line, we will notice that these interventions will be life saving.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much. We're so happy to have you in Jordan District doing this work. I really appreciate your efforts to help support our students in our schools and our families. 

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.