Supercast

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today, we hit the road with an episode we hope will help parents navigate all the nervousness and stress that may come with new drivers. Riverton High School Driver Ed Instructor, Steve Galley invited us along inside the car for a driving lesson with two students. What we learned can help keep everyone students and adults alike safer on the road. We are here at the North parking lot of Riverton High School with Mr. Steve Galley. Steve, introduce yourself a little bit to the listeners of the Supercast. You've worn a lot of hats in Jordan District.

Steve:
I am in my 21st year here at Riverton High, and I've also spent five years at West Jordan High and that's where I got started in Driver Ed. And I've done a lot of coaching as well. And I've been the Department Chair of Driver Ed here at Riverton High, since we opened the school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are there some misperceptions on the part of students and even parents?

Steve:
I think one is sometimes parents think is that they will learn everything about driving in the Driver Education Course, and that we will teach them everything about driving in three hours in the car.

Anthony Godfrey:
So three hours in the car, is that how long the driving time is offering  on the range?

Steve:
Yeah, that's the road time. And then they have range time.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's less than I remembered. It seemed like a lot longer than that at the time.

Steve:
You may have been struggling behind the wheel at that time.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is absolutely true. I continue to struggle.

Steve:
We don't get very much time with them. And so it's critical that parents help them get in their practice time, the 40 hours that they need to do with the students. It's critical that there's a connection between teacher, parents and students so the things they're learning in class are being practiced and worked on with the parents. And when that happens, then we see we see a huge difference when we get in the car with him.

Anthony Godfrey:
If the student wants to start driving and get their license on their 16th birthday, at what age should they start driving?

Steve:
We encourage parents to wait a couple months after their 15th birthday to get their permit. A lot of students are anxious. They get it on the 15th birthday, but it will expire one year from when they get it. Many students turn 16 before the end of the quarter. And so they end up having to pay another $19 and renew their permit. So we encourage them to wait a couple of months. But I think if the student is eager and wants to practice, I like them getting their permit a few months after their 15th birthday so they can start experimenting and practicing. It's not perfect because obviously, you would want them to learn some things from the teacher and from the class that they don't get. We're hoping that parents are not forming a lot of bad habits but that they're becoming more comfortable behind the wheel. You notice a difference with the ones that have had a good number of hours before they get to the class.

Anthony Godfrey:
What advice do you have for parents on being patient with their child in the car?

Steve:
This happens a lot. It's interesting. When you ask students, do you have a freakout parent? They just start chattering and my mom did this and my dad did that. And I ask them who do you like to drive with? I like to drive with my dad because he's calmer. And some say, Oh no, I don't want to drive with my dad. He just yells the whole time. So there's two things we emphasize. One is talking and planning the drive as much as possible. That can't always happen because there are spontaneous drives, but if they can talk about, these are some things that we've learned in class. These are some things that I need to practice. These are things that are going to be on the road test and you can go into the drive with a little bit of a plan. Students tell me the stress level will drop considerably.

And then the other thing is we use a strategy that's called commentary driving. I've taught this for almost 15 years. I really started to emphasize it the last few years. It simply is the student, talking in conversational tone about what they are seeing, what they're predicting, what they're planning on doing. They're going through the whole driving task mentally, but they're talking out loud. This does a couple of really good things. It forces the student to focus on the concepts that they've been learning. They get to repeat terms. They get to emphasize things that their parents may not be talking to them about, but the teacher wants them to do right. And then, the absolute awesome byproduct of commentary driving is that it usually lowers the stress level of the parent, because instead of trying to read the student's mind and guess what they think is going on, they can hear what the student is thinking. And instead of like, if they see the little girl on the bike, instead of arguing about the little girl on the bike, Hey, watch out for the little girl on the bike and you're like, I saw the little girl on the bike  and then you're arguing about that. It's when she, or he says, I see the little girl on the bike. Okay?

Stress level goes down, I'm approaching a stop sign. I'm going to put on the brakes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. So they're really narrating their own driving.

Steve:
Yeah. It's just commentary, driving. It's narration. I know in our classes, we show examples of it. We show videos of it. When we're with students, I don't do as much of it, mainly because we're more experienced, it's easier for us. We're in a marked car. We have shakes. We've had thousands of hours of this so we're really used to it, but parents you're in their car. They don't do this all the time. They may be arguing with their son about cleaning his room. I never have to have that argument with them. We  just focus on driving.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's no baggage you bring to the drive.

Steve:
If a student is really struggling with something, for example, intersections, they're hesitant, they're making wrong decisions. I'm having to intervene and prevent possible crashes. Then I'll have a use commentary driving and within seconds, and parents can do this too, within seconds you will be able to identify what they are not doing, because you'll know what they're thinking. And then you have a better chance of fixing it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I would imagine that if you are along for the ride on a lot of commentary driving, you start to hear your own voice in your head as you're driving.

Steve:
Yes, it can get a little annoying. I've had parents tell me, it's okay, she's really doing the commentary driving. It's been great.

Anthony Godfrey:
But do we have to do it for an entire hour?

Steve:
Probably not.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the things that students struggle with the most?

Steve:
I would say spend time with your parallel parking, first of all,  because I think that's a skill that I've not developed. Most people don't want to develop that. And it's funny, you mentioned that. I personally think it's the least important thing on the road test, but it's the one thing that's talked about and feared so much. In fact, I just read a report this past week. Nevada has dropped parallel parking from their State road test because you don't find very much of it. In downtown areas, I guess, but people don't like to do it. People are more willing to actually drive around the block for a half hour.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'd rather walk six blocks in the rain than parallel park downtown. But I will tell you, there's one thing that I've really noticed last few years. I think driving is more challenging. There's a lot more at stake. It is obviously very dangerous, but we have a lot of students who are just absolutely terrified of going on the freeway.

Steve:
Yeah. we have a lot of parents who are equally terrified to be a passenger on the freeway with their son or daughter driving. So we work on strategies to help them to overcome that fear. I think if you have teachers that are really explaining the road test and we have a really high pass rate here at Riverton, but we also don't test any students. The idea is success and so if they need to work on things, we will slow it down a little bit so they can get better. But I don't think we have so many students that after the fact say, I don't know I was getting so worked up about that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Yeah. Do you find a lot of students wait to get their drivers license more than in the past or not?

Steve:
Not necessarily. A nationwide trend since about 2012 is there are fewer, and this is in every state, fewer students getting their licenses. Some just don't take Driver's Ed. Many take the classroom phase, but don't actually finish all of the driving. And the major studies that are linked have looked at this research. They've linked it to the cell phone, the smartphone. We used to go knock on our friend's door to play. We used to in high school, we would put $5 of gas drive and you'd go to your friends. And of course they still do that stuff, but they have instant connection to not only their friends, but the world on their phone and driving is scary and driving can be. And also, it can be expensive for fuel, car insurance, everything. So not as many students want driver licenses.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's interesting. So let's say someone is listening to the Supercast right now, driving in their car. What mistakes are they probably making if they're listening right now? Talk them through it, what they need to be thinking about, what they're not thinking about.

Steve:
Well, they actually could be distracted by the Supercast.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, you know, it's very engaging content.

Steve:
Yeah. It is audio, so that is better. But distraction is a huge thing. Put your phone down. There's obviously the people that do some major violations of the law, but here's something that you would say, I'm not going to go to jail for this. I'm not a bad person, but you probably should make a complete stop. I see a lot is violating on a right turn on red, which is illegal, unless it's posted that you can't. But you're supposed to stop first. Most people treat it like a green light rather than a red light. Is your seatbelt on right now?

I would ask you, is your seatbelt on? And if it's not on, I've got a question for you. If you're not going to wear it for you, will you wear it for the people that you love? Will you put that seatbelt on?

Anthony Godfrey:
Great, great. And speeding?

Steve:
Speeding, speeding is number one. There's a lot of five over, nine over, my friend's a cop. He said, you can go seven. I mean, you hear all these stories and speed is the number one risk factor in all crashes. It's the most common risk factor that you were going to have.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Do you have any horror stories? Are there some crazy things that have happened out on the road that just kind of surprised you?

Steve:
Most of the really crazy stories are actually not driving related. I haven't been coached, I have an upset stomach, but they usually say it a different way.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Gotcha.

Steve:
Yeah. They're usually things like that, as far as actual driving stuff. When I first got into Driver's Ed, I thought every day was going to be a brush with death. I thought, the kids are just going to be up on people's lawns. It really is pretty tame. We're in a really controlled environment. Our biggest surprises, at least for me, my biggest surprises rarely come from the students. They usually come from other drivers and they are usually adult drivers.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's not that the students are driving poorly. It's that when you're on the road so much, you see some terrible behavior from it.

Steve:
Yeah. And that's their biggest challenge. One reason why they get in a lot of crashes is an experienced driver is able to react to those things because they've been around it longer, whereas a student may not be doing anything wrong or making a minor mistake, but they are not able to predict and react to what is happening to them. And so then they don't avoid the crash or they panic and do something that contributes to the crash. So that's what I mean. That's why all the practice hours are so critical. They can't get enough practice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Oh, wow. I'd never thought of it that way, that it would be the adults reacting to the bad behavior of adults and the mistakes of adults around them that's the difficult part. What do you like most about teaching Driver Education?

Steve:
What is really awesome is that it's different from being in the class with 30 to 40 kids. You're in the car with two or three kids and you're stuck together for two plus hours. Right? You get to know the kids better. I enjoy being with kids and talking to them. And then there's just the real rewarding aspect that what you're doing can be a life and death thing. This is a practical skill that they're going to use probably almost every day of their life. And so there's some personal pride that I want them to be confident. I want them to be skilled. I want them to be safe and we do the best we can with the limited time that we get.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. I was always envious when I worked at the high school level of the Driver Education teachers, because you got to know so many kids when you had them only for a quarter, and you got to know them as sophomores, so then you know them the whole time. You're there, you got to know so much of the student population. I think that's a real advantage. It is awesome. Any advice for when people are driving along and they see a Driver Ed car? What should they do? Any advice there?

Speaker 2:
Be patient keep a good distance. One of our most frustrating things is when we're tailgated, the teacher may actually be giving that student a, an official road test, but on a road test, if there's no danger of, you know, a crash or anything, the teacher may is not going to say anything there. Right? Cause the student has to make the decision. The teacher will jump in. If there's some real danger,

Anthony Godfrey:
It's been a long time since I was involved with Driver Education. But when I worked with the high schools, I learned that there is extra equipment installed in the car. So when you're riding with the student, you have your own break on your side. How frequently do you end up using that?

Steve:
Way, way less than you would ever expect? Not that often at all.

Anthony Godfrey:
Riding with my mom, she thinks there's a phantom break there and she would stomp the bottom of the floor of the car, thinking that I wasn't stopping fast enough. So you have the actual break.

Steve:
I do that in non-Driver Ed cars when I'm in the passengers. It's just natural because we just rest our foot so you're ready to go.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, hey, let's hop in the car.

Steve:
Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks to Driver Ed instructor, Steve Galley for sharing some important, safe driving tips for teen drivers, and for those of us who have been behind the wheel for decades.

Anthony Godfrey:
Up next, we'll talk to Maddie and Jane, two Driver Ed students who are learning to be safe and responsible young drivers, thanks to their instructor, Mr. Galley.

Break:
Do you want to know what's going on in Jordan School District? Maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story? Check out our website at http://jordandistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at Jordan District. Let's connect today. We are here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you name these cars, Mr. Galley?

Steve:
No, we don't name them. We're in car #71955.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, okay. Oh ladies, tell us your names.

Maddie:
Maddie and Jane.

Anthony Godfrey:
Maddie and Jane. Jane's at the wheel. Jane. How much driving have you done?

Jane:
Oh, you're in safe hands. Don't worry.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm not worried at all. I'm quite excited actually. So what do you guys think about getting your driver license? Are you pretty excited?

Maddie:
I actually already got mine and it's way fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is there a new sense of independence?

Maddie:
Oh yeah, for sure. It's kind of overwhelming, but I like it. Okay. Jane, where are you going to take us?

Jane:
Well, that's Mr. Galley's decision.

Anthony Godfrey:
Mr. Galley tells you which way to go? Have you done the commentary driving we were talking about?

Jane:
Not in this car, but with my parents, yes I did.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what do you think, does that help you think through the driving?

Jane:
Yeah, a lot. It really helps actually.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when will you be 16? When will you be eligible to get your license?

Jane:
Next Wednesday.

Anthony Godfrey:
Next Wednesday. Are you prepared to get it on your birthday?

Jane:
I hope so. Yeah.

Steve:
Yeah. When we're done, she's going to be taking her test today.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow. Dynamite! Well, thanks for waiting. You guys. I enjoyed talking to Mr. Galley so much. So, all right, I'm ready.

Steve:
Okay, Jane, let's go left. We're going to go out of the parking lot. We're going to go actually drive. She's doing great. So far. We got out of the parking lot. Well, Jane's focused, but relaxed. Jane, tell me what you see. What's happening in front of us.

Jane:
A lot of kids on the sidewalk.

Steve:
What else is gonna see to your right Jane? Do you see those two lights? We've got to be under 20 when we hit these lights. Not under 20. There we go. We're now under 20, stale green light, that was stale. Four seconds left on the clock.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you just call it a stale green lights?

Steve:
A light has been green a long time. Let's see if Maddie knows the clues. What are some of the clues to know if a green light is fresh or stale?

Maddie:
You look at the crosswalk signs and see how much time is left on them.

steve:
And what if we approached a green light and you saw a white pedestrian signal, that's fresh. That is a fresh green light. So this helps them to make a better quicker intersection decisions. If you know the light is fresh and you're within seven seconds or so, then you're going to be going through that light. So now you can start focusing on other things. If it's a stale green light then depending on how far away we are, we're looking for what we call the point of no return, which we use the second arrow or the end of the left turn lane line, whichever one is closest to the intersection. Instead of being surprised by yellow, instead of reacting late, instead of panicking, we are trying to teach them to prepare for that in advance,

Jane:
The light just turned green so it was fresh. And so I can go straight through the light and then blind spot check and speed up.

Steve:
Yes, we work on actually using our turn signals. Do you think this is good following distance? Explain this.

Jane:
It should be a two second gap.

Steve:
So how you check?

Jane:
You pick a landmark like a light post or a pole, and when the car in front of you passes that object, you start counting and it should be two seconds away.

Steve:
So how far away from this suburban are we?

Jane:
For about five seconds guaranteed. I'm going to be paying better attention to my driving after that.

Steve:
What are you doing right here Jane?

Jane:
Load is excellent. Habit 14 is when you come to a stop behind a car, be far away enough that you can see the back of their tires.

Steve:
Excellent.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I don't do that. That's good. You're supposed to see the back of their tires, Jane, is that right?

Jane:
Yes. That makes sure you have plenty of space in case something comes up.

Steve:
You can react last track check and make your turn into the first corresponding lane. Excellent, great speed. Limit 35 car pulling out right in front and a school zone.

Jane:
Yeah.

Steve:
Okay. So earlier when we talked about adults doing wrong things, the driver that just pulled out should have never pulled out right there. And it did surprise Jane a little bit.

Jane:
Yeah. I did see them pull through.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about driving?

Jane:
Just like the freedom, I guess.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you drive with your parents?

Jane:
Yeah, before I got my license.

Anthony Godfrey:
How much driving did you do with them?

Jane:
Definitely more than 40 hours.

Anthony Godfrey:
I have to narrate a little bit here that Jane did an amazing three point turn. The thing that you always worry about when I'm making a 3 point turn is that it becomes a six point turn and she did great. There was a big brick mailbox right in front of her. She just eased right up to it, knew just how close to get. Nailed it.

Jane:
Thank you very much.

Anthony Godfrey:
No, the maneuver didn't nail the mailbox. Completed a well executed three point turn.

Steve
There was one maneuver that Dr. Godfrey said was his favorite to our right. Do you see the one to our right here?

Jane:
The blind spot or the handshake?

Steve:
No, this maneuver here.

Jane:
Oh, the parallel parking. Yeah.

Steve:
He loves it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love it?

Steve:
He constantly working on it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. I'm refining my skills always.

Steve:
Do you want to practice it now?

Anthony Godfrey:
It might be kind of funny. Let's practice it. Let's try it.

Steve:
So let's get set up for it properly. Let's do a straight line backing so we can approach while she gets ready. I think parallel parking is the least important maneuver. And this is what I would say to Jane. I would much rather that she is an All-American intersection, a decision-maker driver than to be the world's best parallel parker.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's good advice going into this. By the way, Jane is testing today. And so I admire that she's willing to ride around with me on test day. But she should be very confident going in. She's done great!

Steve:
Okay. Let's do this. I'm just going to talk you through this and  I'm only going to jump in if I think you need a little bit of help. So for the listener, we're looking at two tall orange cones. We've got two red painted marks on the curb. And so we're not really parking between cars and we have a big tree planted in the middle. Okay. So signal, rear view mirror, blind spot. And we're going to pull over somewhere about three feet away from that cone. And we're going to get it parallel in, that's good, signal popped off and Jane's putting it back on. Right. Here we go. We turn it hard right, and then we just go very slow. This is a good speed. We want to get about halfway in and this is good. Okay. We may be a little close to this cone. When most people back in, they rarely actually do the backing perfectly. So at this point, correcting straightening, centering if you can do that. It really doesn't matter if you make some minor mistakes on the initial backend. So what do you think you need to do here?

Jane:
I moved back a little bit.

Steve:
Yep. This is one of our hybrid cars too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. I can tell it keeps shutting down, which would have thrown me in Driver Ed.

Steve:
Yeah. If we take 17 minutes to parallel park, it will shut down. Okay. Now we are just inside the gutter. This is legal parking straightened centered. And with the pressure of a microphone, you did it right.

Anthony Godfrey:
The only time I've been scared on the whole drive with you is when I thought Mr. Galley was going to make me parallel park.

Steve:
I actually thought about it. But then I remembered that technically you are my boss.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this. This has been awesome, Mr. Galley. Thank you so much for talking with me and taking me on a drive, Maddie and Jane. Congrats on having your license and Jane, I have every confidence you are going to pass this test with flying colors.

Jane:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for a great drive you guys. We had a lot of fun with Jane and Maddie and their instructor, Steve Galley. Hopefully you heard something here today that will help you as parents navigate all the anxiety that may come with having new teen drivers in the house. Thanks to everyone for listening. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. On today's edition of the Supercast, we get a look inside the agricultural program at West Jordan High School. It's a program that looks nothing like Ag classes of the past. Here, high-tech combines with live farm animals, like Winston, the pig and the greenhouse to teach students where their food comes from. For students who may never have set foot on a farm before, it is a learning environment they love. All right, we're here with Cody Gull, in his classroom. There is an enormous skeleton of a horse with no name, apparently. And we also have several rabbits, floral arrangements, a number of juniors and seniors, and who knows what else he has because he teaches a wide range of classes. Cody, very nice to meet you.

Cody:
Nice to meet you.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do we have going on here today?

Cody:
This is my equine science class and we are talking about nutrient deficiencies in horses.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I hear we might be snipping, some buttons.

Cody:
Some rabbit nails, too. Trisha, do you want help with that? Do you want me to hold her?

Anthony Godfrey:
Trisha are these bunnies names?

Speaker 3:
That's Bruce and Karen,

Anthony Godfrey:
Is that based on some kind of obscure pop culture reference I'm not aware of it?

Trisha:
She wants to talk to the manager.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see. Karen wants to talk to the manager.

Trisha:
I'm going to help you clip them. April, come on over. So Trisha's going to hold them and I'll tell you where to clip.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is it kind of scary to do that. Is it hard? Which is the harder job holding the rabbit or clipping the nails?

Student:
Holding it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is it a rabbit?

Student:
Yes. The technical term is a rabbit. Bunnies are babies. And so you want to make sure that when you're clipping you are clipping gray. That's where the light part of the nail ends. So about right there because there's veins inside of there. So you don't want to clip too high up and hold tight in case he doesn't like it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Is this Bruce or Karen? Bruce seems very calm about this, like he doesn't know what he's in for. Oh wow. It's kind of like a whole punch that is just coming around the rapid toe. Is there anything lucky about rabbit toes as opposed to rabbits feet or rabbit toe nail?

Student:
I think the lucky part is not getting scratched as you are pulling them out of the cages and holding them. That's lucky.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why do you clip the Bunny's nails?

Student:
We do them so that when students get them out to handle them, they don't get scratched because they're super, super sharp and they draw blood very easily.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you ever do a manicure?

Student:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
For a bunny-cure. That doesn't exist?  Just  a buff and clear polish.

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Can I touch Bruce?

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can I like, oh wow, Bruce is very soft. Bruce has gray and white, very big dark eyes. I like Bruce. Bruce is very chill. Does someone take equine science if they have been around horses or they're just interested or who signs up? Who's mostly has interest in that sort of class?

Cody:
Ag kids So a lot of these kids took my animal science class or floriculture class. And so it was basically through recruitment. I only actually have one student in here that has horses at home, in this class. She's a barrel racer. So she has extensive experience with her own horses. But other than that, everyone else just, they were able to take this class because of word of mouth, through my other animal science classes that I teach. And just something that they were interested in.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how long have you been teaching here now?

Cody:
This is my second year at West Jordan High School and second year teaching.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great. So you teach equine science. What other classes?

Cody:
I teach equine science. I teach animal science one and then animal science two, which is just a more advanced animal science. We go into a little more detail. It's a little meatier, but it's also quite a bit more hands-on because the kids are able to take that animal science one class, that gives them the science part of things. And they learn all the terminology. And then they're able to apply it in animal science to two specific things. I also teach a floriculture and greenhouse management class and that class is super fun and also super hands-on. All of my classes are very hands-on, but the floriculture class is the most hands-on. We make a monthly floral arrangement that we are able to sell to faculty and staff and community members. And it's all student work. They choose the arrangement that they make every month. They choose the flowers that go in that arrangement. They choose everything. They learn the business end of things. They learn how to run a floral business the first half of the year. And then the second half of the year, starting in January, we are working in our greenhouse.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if they're behind on getting a flower arrangement together, do you tell them to put the pedal to the metal?

Cody:
That's a great one. I've never used that one, but I'm going to start using it now.

Anthony Godfrey:
I was just checking. I think I've never met a teacher who teaches a wider range of subjects than you do. I know they're all kind of outside and nature related, I suppose, but floral arranging and equine science. That's quite a wide range. What made you interested teaching those subjects?

Cody:
I come from a background of agriculture, fairly extensive. I'm from Spanish workers and so I was able to kind of grow up on the farm, doing all these sorts of things from having my own horses and cows and pigs and all sorts of different animals. And through high school, I was able to be involved in an agriculture education program and in the FFA. And it was something that I knew when I was a sophomore. I needed to be an Ag teacher and I wanted to be an Ag teacher. And so I just followed the plan and the rest is history. Here I am.

Anthony Godfrey:
I like the way you say that I needed to be an Ag teacher.  You just knew that's what you needed to do was what I needed to do by my sophomore year. That's fantastic. Well, I have to admit that everything you teach is way out of my range of talent and ability. So I'm thrilled that you're here and that you're teaching.

When we come back, we'll introduce you to Winston the pig. He's just one animal playing an important role in Ag Education at West Jordan High School.

Break:
Hey, you okay? Yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter, get the safeUT app. Download it now. Available on the Apple app store, Google play or safeUt.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome back. Now it's time to find out what goes on in the greenhouse and small farm setting behind West Jordan High, as part of the Agricultural Program. Walked out behind West Jordan High School. I thought, there are facilities available to students here for this program.

Cody:
For the Ag Program right now, we have our full production greenhouse, where we were able to grow all sorts of different flowers and a variety of different vegetables. We also are in the process of creating a mini-animal lab. We will be getting a barn, just a small 20 by 20 foot barn to put out here by the end of this month. Students are able to purchase a market, go and market lambs to raise for the Salt Lake County. Fair. A lot of the students that we have here in our program don't come from an agricultural background. And so with it being a more urban area, we need to, I really believe in the importance of giving students these hands on opportunities like exhibiting an animal at the Salt Lake County Fair. And so providing a place for that animal and providing the entire learning experience from when they get the lamb or the goat to the time they get to sell it and make money on that end.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it would be surprising to a lot of kids exactly what is involved in raising the animals that provide food for them ultimately, at the end of the line. And I'm excited to see what's going on. I think I heard a pig in the background.

Cody:
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What does that noise from the pig? It's an oink, but what does it mean?

Cody:
He's trying to escape you. That means leave me alone.

Anthony Godfrey:
What is your name?

Student:
Brendan.

Anthony Godfrey:
Brendan, do you consider yourself a pig master?

Student:
Not really.

Anthony Godfrey:
I liked dogs, but you like pigs and what's the pig's name?

Student:
Winston

Anthony Godfrey:
Winston. That's a very sophisticated thing. I liked that. Have you handled pigs before this class?

Student:
I have not. He's actually a miniature pig, not that that's actually a thing. There's no such thing as an actual miniature pig because he could grow up to be 300 pounds, but he's about five or six months old now and weighs right around 40 pounds. You just have to be very careful what you feed them and how much, because they can grow up to be big pigs.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the ultimately, size of the pig depends on what you feed it.

Student:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And so how does the pig interact with students in your classes? How do you use the pig as part of the instruction?

Cody:
So when we are talking about different animals behaviors or different training, we can incorporate him into that. We can also talk about the confirmation of the animals when we're doing livestock judging and things like that. Pointing out specific things on the pig or on any animal is always a really, really valuable tool to use. If the students can see it and touch it, it's usually very valuable and they're able to remember that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, no, Winston wanted to eat the microphone. We're going to keep that from happening. What are you feeding Winston?

Cody:
Right now we are giving him just some mini-pig treats and they are blueberries and cream flavored. But in general, we feed him an 18% protein hog feed.  We just give him about a half a pound a day, and that is what he eats. And then he also loves marshmallows. Those are his favorite.

Anthony Godfrey:
He loves marshmallows, blueberries and cream. Is he a millennial pig? Does he eat only organic?

Cody:
Probably.

Anthony Godfrey:
You talked about animal behavior earlier. Can you tell about Wilbur's behavior and what there is to learn about behavior from Wilburn?

Cody:
Yeah. So when we were getting him out of the pen, when he was making that noise and it sounded really aggressive, that sounded like it was forming syllables.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.

Cody:
That was his way of saying, I would really prefer if you don't bother me. But obviously, once he was out and he's getting treats, he's singing a different tune.

Anthony Godfrey:
So like many humans, he's resistant to change, but once he settles in, he can see the benefits of being out and having some blueberries and cream.

Cody:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So is it difficult for students, once they've raised an animal in your program to then sell it, knowing that it's going to become food?

Cody:
That is a great question. Diana here was one of the very first to experience that just last year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about your experience last year. What did you raise?

Student:
I raised the lamb.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what was the lamb's name?

Student:
I didn't give him a name until I sold it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Until you sold, then you gave it a name, as you said?

Student:
Yeah, it's because I didn't want to get too attached. I thought that naming it would, you know, I'd be too friendly with it. And then it'd be harder for me to sell him.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you feel like even without a name, you gained this close connection to the animal?

Student:
Yeah, butI knew it was for food and I didn't want to get too attached to it.

Anthony Godfrey:
You'd be able to have that experience without this class.

Student:
Definitely not. I don't think I would've been interested in purchasing a livestock animal and raising it just because I've never been interested in lambs or goats or anything.

Anthony Godfrey:
What is it that made you want to take the class?

Student:
It was my last science credit I needed, to be honest and I thought, okay, I'll just animal science. I don't need any other credits. So with animal science, I'll be able to stop. And then he introduced the idea of having lambs and I thought, yeah, what the heck? I've never done it before. You know, this should be an experience,

Anthony Godfrey:
But that's a good thing. That's what happens sometimes is those high school requirements make you take a class you might not otherwise take and you learn some things about the world and what interests you.

Student:
Yeah. So I got my animal science credit. All my science credits are complete and I'm in his animal science II..

Anthony Godfrey:
So what would you say to parents and students who are maybe considering this?

Student:
Oh, definitely do it. It's so much fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
You learn a lot?

Student:
Yeah. A lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you care more about animals having taken this class?

Student:
Yeah, for sure. You know how to take care of them correctly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you feel like you could live off the land now?

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Well, that's good. Brendan. I think you experienced the circle of life, a little bit earlier, didn't you? What happened earlier with Winston?

Student:
It looked like he was sniffing my boot and either something came out of his mouth or his nose, but he moved away. And there was, there was just something on my boot.

Anthony Godfrey:
So something came out of Winston and onto your boot, these things happened. I'm wearing one of my favorite pairs of dress shoes, so Winston and I are probably not going to get very friendly right now. I'm not dressed for Winston, but Winston is grateful. He is not paying me much attention. He's rooting in dead leaves and who can blame him. So you know, this is part of the bargain, right? I guess that sometimes things come out of animals and land on you. And you're good with that.

Student:
Yeah. Just an adventure, really.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. It is an adventure. You can't say that about every class, it's an adventure. I liked that. Do you think Wilbur has a pretty good life here?

Student:
Yeah, I think he does because it helps us learn new things about pigs and animals. So yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Winston seems to be enjoying himself. Do pigs wag their tails because he kind of seemed to be a minute ago.

Student:
Yeah, it seems pretty happy.

Anthony Godfrey:
What about the chickens? You turn and look around and suddenly there's another animal.

Cody:
Okay. So the chickens are one of my students SAE projects, Supervised Agricultural Experience. And what that means is when a student enters any of my Ag classes, they are required to fulfill an SAE project of some kind. That project includes anything involving agriculture. So it can be something as simple as researching careers in agriculture and then writing about what they learned. And that gives them that career exploration, part of an SAE. They can purchase a chicken coop with chickens and that's their project. Caitlin owns these chickens. They obviously are housed here at the high school because she's not able to keep them at her own house. But she has five hens. Each of them lay about an egg a day and she's able to take those eggs home to her family. And she's actually started selling some to close friends and relatives as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That's exciting. So chickens, pigs, rabbits, what else? What's next?

Cody:
Chicken, pigs, chickens, pigs, and rabbits are what we have right now. If you were to come back in April, we will have 10 to 12 lambs and 10 to 12 goats that kids will have purchased to raise at the camp.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fair. So I love the, how, how students talk about a project. You know, we talk about project based learning, but if you look at raising a goat or sheep or a pig and seeing that whole process all the way through, that's true project based learning, It's really cool to watch all of their hard work pay off because in the interim, my hard work pays off.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And when you put it that way, you really do get to see the difference and see the result of your work. The sense of efficacy must be very high for participation in this class when you really know that the effort you put into something brings a result.

Cody:
Along with that, the program here, when I started two years ago, had about 30 active FFA members and we've more than doubled. We've got about 75 active FFA members now. And I went from having maybe 150 to 180 kids in my classes to having over 200 this year. And so I'm seeing that program grow and seeing other kids hear about that from their friends, from their family. Having them come, be involved, it is really a great feeling for me. But it's even better and more rewarding for the kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, classes grow like that when there's a great teacher. So thanks for being a great teacher and providing an awesome experience for kids. Appreciate it. We'll be back in just a few moments. Stay with us.

Break:
You want to know what's going on in Jordan school district, maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story. Check out our website@jordandistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Jordan district. Let's connect today, Kim. Nice to see you. Nice to be with you. Tell everyone a little bit about yourself.

Kim:
My name is Kim Newbrough. I am the Career and Technical Education Coordinator at Mountain Ridge High School. I'm a former Agriculture teacher. I taught Ag at West Jordan High School for 19 years before I moved over to being a CTE Coordinator.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us some about the Agricultural Science courses that are available throughout the District and the experience students can have.

Kim:
We're lucky in Jordan School District. Every high school in our District and our two JATCs have an Agriculture Program. Some of them are budding and growing and some of them are thriving. We teach, as you heard, the wide range. We have flora-culture, greenhouse management, equine science, small and companion animal programs. We have a landscaping program at the JATC South. At the JATC North we have a Vet Tech program. It's just huge, all the different offerings that we have in our District.

Anthony Godfrey:
And we're standing in the greenhouse behind West Jordan High School. You told me, as we walked in, you said this was your favorite place. Tell us about why.

Kim:
Well, I actually had this greenhouse built when I was here teaching. I had a smaller one and they it tore down, my barn and my greenhouse, to expand the football stadium and then built this beautiful greenhouse. This is my happy place because we start with this tiny little seed and then we get to see things grow. Kind of like with our agriculture students, they come in with no knowledge and then it grows and expands, which is really important because we live in a day and age where people are agriculturally illiterate. Yes, we're so far removed from the family farm that people think, Oh, I can just go to the store and get my food. Well, I had a saying on a bulletin board in my classroom that said "Agriculture, without it, you would be hungry and naked." And I truly believe that because people think I just go to the store and buy my clothes.

It takes the farmer to raise the cotton to make their clothes. And it takes a farmer to raise their food. And people often think that agriculture is just growing a food and crops, but it's so much more. We're the largest employer in the United States. You've got to have somebody who comes up with new seeds and new strains of seeds. So you've got science. You've got people who have to transport your food from point A to point B, so we've got truck drivers. We've got food scientists. We've got marketers, everything that we do ties back to agriculture.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, when you said agriculturally illiterate, you kind of looked at me like you could tell that's exactly me. You know, you get joy out of seeing a seed grow. I get a full-grown plant and I end up with dead leaves and a flower pot of death. So I should have taken your class. I should have taken your class in high school. I wish I could go back in time and do that. What do you wish that parents and students who might be considering a class knew about Ag Science opportunities in Jordan?

Kim:
That they're the best classes for students to take because we teach students how to work. I think that parents need to understand that their kids are going to learn so much more than you know. Everybody thinks, Oh, they're just a farmer. Farmers are the smartest people we have because they have to understand the weather. They have to understand when to plant. They have to understand when to harvest. They have to know when to water and fertilize. If parents knew how much their kids could gain and know about themselves for agriculture. I had an amazing agriculture teacher when I was a student in high school who made me want to be an Ag teacher. And I have a former student who is now an Ag teacher. It's awesome to know that you can touch and have that influence in students and watching your students, who never thought that they would be involved in agriculture, pound on your truck window when you're buying sod and saying Kim, guess what? And I said, you're working in agriculture. It's like, yeah. Who would have thought? There's so many opportunities for students to grow. And the leadership opportunities through the FFA change kids' lives.

Anthony Godfrey:
You had me at kids learn how to work, because I think it's so easy to spend time on a screen or doing other things. But when you're out here, Winston needs attention. There's nothing else you can do. You have to take care of him. So I think this is awesome. Thank you very much for talking with us and thanks for all you've done over the years to continue Ag Science.

Kim:
It's a pleasure. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks to everyone who took time to give us a closeup look at what Agriculture Programs look like in our schools today. They provide a wide range of opportunities for students interested in agriculture related careers, and they build excitement about learning. Now, any of you listeners out there who realized that I called Winston Wilbur later in the program, get extra credit and you really get extra credit. If you know that I called him Wilbur, because that's the pig in Charlotte's Web. Thanks to those of you who joined us today. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see ya.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. School counselors make a difference in young lives throughout Jordan School District every single day. But do you know what they really do? Let's head to the halls of West Jordan Middle School and see some middle school students.

Student:
School counselors help with any kids that have a problem, emotionally or physically. They also discuss many things for our future and education. They are someone that could probably change your classes, the school counselor. like if you have problems, you can go to school counselor and talk to them. Counselors are someone that helps you get through class. Go to the school counselor to take honor classes and AP classes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Today we're celebrating school counselors. If you've ever wondered what they really do, how they can help parents and students, this episode of the Supercast is for you. We're about to dispel the myths and explain all the ways counselors can help you and your students. Here to tell us about the important work being done is Secondary Counseling Specialist, Stacee Worthen. Stacee, welcome to the Supercast.

Stacee:
Thank you Superintendent.

Anthony Godfrey:
So all of us have been to school. We've been to middle school. We've been to high school. We've met with counselors at various times, but things change over time. And many times, as adults we think, well, I went to high school. I know what high school was like. And so we may all think that we know what counselors do, right? Can you help us understand better what does the modern middle and high school counselor do these days? How do they help kids?

Stacee:
That's a good question, because counselors wear many hats. A lot of parents will just assume that counselors are academic advisors, scholarship advisors. But what counselors do is so much more. We actually are trained to look at the whole person. So as that student comes in, we might be doing a schedule change, but we're looking at that whole student as an individual, as we're looking at their schedule. We're looking at why does this child want a schedule change? Do they need to be challenged? Do they need to be put into AP courses? Do they need concurrent? Is that a better fit? Are they having some learning issues that maybe we need to work with the teachers to see if there are some interventions that we can put into place? Maybe we need to implement some Special Ed testing because we see some disparities in how they're doing in specific classes.

We also do groups. We run groups. We look at anytime a student is struggling with stress, anxiety, suicidal ideation, where that mental health support within the school that can really start meeting in a responsive, quick way to get that student some help. Initially, maybe we're doing some cognitive behavioral training, some techniques with that student to try and get them back into class to be successful. Or maybe we're calling the parents to work with the student to maybe implement something that's a little bit more involved. Maybe we're giving some references to some counseling that might be more long-term and beneficial for that student. Maybe we're referring to our in-school LCSW to give them some supports that way. There's just really a lot of things we're doing now that I think weren't done when we were in high school.

I never saw my school counselor. I didn't even know who that person was. I just went there for schedule change. Now, there's a framework that's in place. We were able to look at the whole child. Start with where they're at. If they're struggling with social or emotional behavioral, we start there. If they're being successful and they have a career path that they're interested in, we're supporting them by giving them some more opportunities for classes for our JATC South or JATC North, Concurrent Enrollment, those types of things. So really, we do a lot more than most people would think.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not only is a counselor able to connect students to other resources that might help them, whatever their situation may be. But I think we underestimate the resource that the counselors themselves can be to students beyond just a schedule change or scholarship information. They can provide support in crisis or just to bounce things off of so we don't get to a crisis. And I know that counselors have worked very hard to structure CounselingCenters so that they are constantly availability for someone who drops in and has an immediate need.

Stacee:
Right. And I think that what you're going to look at statistically is that support school counseling is what students say. If they have one adult in the building that they can go and talk to when they are struggling, then it's timely and they're responsive to that child's needs. Then they are much more successful longterm in school.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what's nice about the position of a counselor is that it's a unique position to be able to help a student. I've been a teacher, I've been an Assistant Principal. I've been a Principal. I've never been a counselor. But in each of those roles, I relied on counselors to reach kids in a way that I wasn't able to in the role that I was playing.

Stacee:
Right. Right. Because nothing that school counselors are doing is punitive, right? We're there to support, empower, just be a listening ear, get to know the student. That's one of my favorite things in working with kids is just getting to know them. Sometimes counselors say, I'm not just a schedule changer, but this is one really awesome opportunity for me to get to know kids. So, you know, they come in wearing a cross country tee shirt. Hey, are you on the cross country team? And once that student has that connection, like I'm interested in their life, I'm interested in getting to know them, then they know that they have one more adult that if they're having a bad day, maybe they broke up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or maybe they failed a quiz. I'm that one adult in the building, you know, that this is a safe place for me. I can just go, I can take a deep breath, step away for a second, have an adult who's just there to listen. And then I can go back to my everyday.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why not? What would you say are some of the myths around school counselors? What do people misunderstand about the role of the school counselor would you say?

Stacee:
I think that we're just schedule changers. We're just there to build a schedule, that we're just there to to do academic advising or that we know everything about college and universities and scholarships. I think that that's kind of a myth. I think that another important myth is that we don't provide mental health services to students. That is most of our training. If you look at the University of Utah, their actual program for school counselors is 90% mental health based training. And I think that's one of the biggest myths we're encountering is that school counselors don't do mental health. We actually are trained and we do that. It's just not long-term. It's not something that we can do an hour a week, every week for 10 weeks.

Anthony Godfrey:
And if there is a need beyond what a School Counselor is immediately able to provide, we're able to refer parents and students out to other resources and have a lot of connections to allow us to access help.

Stacee:
Absolutely. We have a long list of mental health providers available to all of our Jordan School District students. We also have the Jordan Family Ed that we can refer to and they can receive services there for mental health. We have a lot of access points for students and parents as school counselors that if we feel there's something, in addition, to what we're doing that a child needs, we can absolutely do that for that parent and for that student.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if a parent is worried about their child and would like a counselor to meet with them, what's the best way to make sure that happens?

Stacee:
The best way is to call and schedule an appointment to meet face-to-face with that counselor. I wouldn't drop in. I would absolutely call first and schedule an appointment. You can call, or you can email. Just contact that counselor and ask them to make it contact with your student. And I would think that they can make it routine. They don't need to say your mother called and would like me to meet with you. They're counselors. They know how to make that smooth transition, and make that point of contact and get that started.  Because of course, you know, if you say, Oh, your dad called, and he's saying that you're struggling with this and that, or you broke up with your girlfriend, right now. Absolutely we're going to just say, Hey, I just wanted to check on you, see how you're doing? Like, how are you transitioning to Copper Hills High School? Or how are you doing here at Riverton, whatever, wherever they are, right?

Anthony Godfrey:
The helicopter of anxiety is flying around. But once the student gets in the counselor's office, there is a landing pad for that anxiety to find a rest spot. I think that our counselors are awesome. You just get a student in there with the counselor and that opportunity is going to be created for the student to kind of unload, make a connection. So I guess I would just say to parents listening, I would encourage you to contact the school counselor and have them reach out to your child and just call them down and say, how are things going? If you're worried about your child at all, it's a great way to get some support.

Stacee:
Yeah, absolutely. Counselors go into the business because they love kids and they want to see them be successful. And you develop connections with those kids because you love them and want to see them succeed . And Jordan School District counselors are amazing, and they're really doing some really great, amazing, cool things. We've got some schools with some Wellness Rooms, we've got groups that are going, we've got all sorts of supports in place that counselors have access to that they're working on to try and help these kids be successful because they love kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we head out to West Jordan Middle School and West Jordan High School to talk with a few counselors.

Break:
If you're always looking for opportunities to learn something new, why not join us for the next Jordan Parent University? Jordan Parent University is an opportunity for parents to better understand issues that impact their own students and education. It's an evening class designed to help parents with things like planning for the road beyond high school, better understanding students' social and emotional health and wellness. And knowing who to call when there are issues involving a school or a student. Jordan Parent University is free and open to the public. For a list of upcoming classes, times and locations go to http://jpu.jordandistrict.org. See you there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Mark Jones at West Jordan Middle School for National School Counseling Week. First of all, happy National School Counseling Week.

Mark:
Thanks. It's a good week.

Anthony Godfrey:
It is a good week. How long have you been a school counselor?

Mark:
About 10 years.

Anthony Godfrey:
10 years. Where have you been?

Mark:
I did two years in Davis County, and then I chose wisely and headed down this direction and have been at West Jordan Middle ever since.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're glad you're here.

Mark:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what do you like most about being a school counselor?

Mark:
Just all the different jobs, meeting, all the different people, constantly moving and changing. And you get to see a lot of the success stories, which is fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you wish parents and kids knew about being a counselor?

Mark:
Oh, just so many resources are available to parents and students. And the first thing that comes to mind is he'll change my schedule and you know, four weeks a year, that is what we do. But the rest of the time, there's so many free college programs and free community programs. And, you know, we all could use some help with one thing or another. It's available. It's there, just reach out. There's a lot that we do down here, a lot we can help.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are the ways that you interact with parents as a school counselor?

Mark:
Well, we certainly host a few nights during the school year where we bring them out and introduce them to some of these programs. We invite them for the four-year planning meetings we do with the students where we go over colleges and career options and different pathways. Those are probably the two biggest in middle school.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if a parent wanted to contact you, is it better to call, email, just drop in or schedule an appointment? What's the best way?

Mark:
All the above. You can just drop in, you can call. If you go to our website, you'll see our smiling faces. If you click on that, it brings up a form, you fill that out, hit submit and it comes right to our screen. And then we'll touch base and set something up.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Now we're here with Rochelle Watson at the West Jordan High School Counseling Center. All of the offices I ever go into, counselor offices are very inviting. And  you have Kermit the Frog with the light saber and Ms. Piggy as "Pigcess Lea", a pink princess. However you wanna say that.  Very nice. Tell me, how long have you been a counselor here at West Jordan?

Rochelle:
This is my seventh year.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what made you want to become a school counselor?

Rochelle:
I had a really fantastic school counselor when I was in high school that I never forgot. He did a lot to help me and my whole life and the trajectory of my life. And so I always thought this would be something that I would like to do myself.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. What do you like most about being a school counselor? You just like working with the kids?

Rochelle:
I love being able to get to know them and their families and really helping them in meaningful ways.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's great. Thanks for everything you're doing.

Rochelle:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Karen Williams at West Jordan Middle School. How long have you been a counselor here at West Jordan Middle?

Karen:
This is my seventh year all here at West Jordan Middle.

Anthony Godfrey:
Seventh year as a school counselor?

Karen:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I understand you had a career before school counselor.

Karen:
I did. I was a Sandy City police officer.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what are the differences between being a Sandy City police officer and the school counselor?

Karen:
Well, one of the biggest differences that I'm not arresting kids. I'm working with them, and people are generally happy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.

Karen:
I did five years in the Youth Unit. I was assigned to two elementary schools where I taught DARE and then three years as a middle school officer. So that started the idea that working with kids in this capacity is a little bit more fulfilling than just arresting and taking them out of school.

Anthony Godfrey:
So rather than on the enforcement side, you're more on the encouragement side, being able to help students earlier on, perhaps in that process. I know that our police officers are very helpful and encouraging with students. And there's been a real focus on connecting with communities and families and being a positive influence on students through the DARE program and some other things. What do you like most about being a school counselor?

Karen:
There's a few things I like. Forming the relationships with the students and letting them see adults on a different level and joking around with them, having fun with them. The other two counselors I work with, I know it's the same for them. We all have these kids that we just have connected with. There might be a bad weekend, but they know when they can come in Monday morning and see us  and walk out, hopefully, feeling a little bit better.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for talking with me. It's really nice to meet you.

Karen:
Oh, you're welcome.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. We're here at West Jordan Middle School with Wendy Petrovich, a counselor, and I just realized that we have something in common. We have both visited all 50 States. You're quite the traveler.

Wendy:
Yes, I am. I love to travel.

Anthony Godfrey:
Where else have you been besides all the other 50 States?

Wendy:
I have traveled to Asia a couple of times. Jordan, that country is a biggie. Quite a few trips in Europe and Australia.

Anthony Godfrey:
What was your last state visited?

Wendy:
North Dakota.

Anthony Godfrey:
North Dakota. Last on your list.

Wendy:
Nobody goes to North Dakota on accident. You have to go to North Dakota.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. My purpose was we were driving cross country in a station wagon in the eighties. What do you wish parents and students knew about school counselors?

Wendy:
You know, there are a lot of kids that don't know even to come into us. So I wish that they all knew we like to talk to them and that they are always free to contact us and come and visit.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's great talking with you. Thanks for everything you do. I appreciate you very much. We're here with Brent, who has been a counselor here at West Jordan High for a year. This is his first year here. He was at Herriman High School for a couple of years before that. Happy National School Counseling week.

Brent:
Right. Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming out here.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do you like being a school counselor?

Brent:
I love it. It's different than I thought it would be. There's a lot of stuff that comes with education that you just didn't really expect. A lot of tasks that have to just get done, like scheduling and helping students graduate. But I think the biggest thing for us is we get to help a lot of students just reach their potential. We get a lot of students that are doing really well and also students that are not doing well and we get to help both of those kinds of students really reach the goals that they have. And that's really rewarding.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you wish parents and students knew about school counselors?

Brent:
That our training is about the whole student. It's really focused on helping the whole student be successful. So we do have training in mental health and as school-based mental health. We also have a lot of resources and we can help students that way as well. We couldn't run groups and do individual counseling along with all of the other stuff that's really important, like looking at graduation requirements and being prepared for college and career readiness and making those plans as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for being one of those adults that has a huge impact on student lives. Thanks to our school counselors who took time out of their busy schedules to visit with us. We appreciate all the wonderful work they do for students and families stay with us. Up next, Stacee Worthen gets to lie to the Superintendent in our version of Two Truths and a Lie.

Break:
In Jordan School District, the possibilities are endless for anyone looking to grow with a team of professionals, working together to provide the very best for students in education. If you're looking for a great job with great pay and benefits in a supportive environment, head to http://workatjordan.org and find your future career in Jordan School District. People come for the job and stay for the adventure. Explore the many options. Apply today at http://workatjordan.org

Anthony Godfrey:
We're back, we're here with Stacee Worthen and celebrating National School Counselors Week. Happy National School Counselors Week to all the counselors out there. As I've told Stacee before, I have a soft spot in my heart for counselors because my mother-in-law was a counselor. And that's how I met my wife. She actually set us up, but she set us up two years after we'd been working together. So it was the longest job interview of my life. But at least I passed. Tell us, first of all, just very briefly about your counseling background.

Stacee:
Initially, I started as a secondary teacher. I taught history and English language arts. Then I moved into an ESL teacher coordinator and my principal said, Hey, you'd be a really good school counselor. And I took his advice. I got my Master's. I started out helping. I helped in St. George, open Desert Hills High School as a counselor there. And then I moved here, started at Sunset Ridge Middle School, and then I moved up to Copper Hills High School. And now I'm Secondary Counselor Specialist for Jordan School District.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you've been a counselor at the middle school and high school. What have you liked about being a school counselor?

Stacee:
I love everything student centered. I love learning about the whole child, learning what we can do to empower them to be the best individual they can be, learning about their strengths, their weaknesses, how we can build them up, empower them to talk to teachers, to talk to parents, to be successful. And then learning how to deal with some of their own inner issues like stress, anxiety. At the end of the day, watching them leave your school as this amazing young individual who is coming into their own or excited to experience life and what it has to offer. It's really rewarding.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Stacee Worthen to hear her Two Truths and a Lie, her chance to lie to the Superintendent. What have you got Stacee?

Stacee:
When I was seven, I was a bucked off of a horse named Humphrey Bogart.

Anthony Godfrey:
The horse was named Humphrey Bogart. Yes. Wow. Okay.

Stacee:
I was the homecoming queen at Fairfield High School my senior year.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're giving a lot of detail in all of these. That's very deceiving.

Stacee:
Right. Okay. And my second favorite person, after husband, is my dog, Charlie.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Okay. Boy. To involve animals, but homecoming queen, I don't know. You kind of lit up when you said that. I'm going to say homecoming queen is the lie.

Stacee:
No, that is true.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is true. All right. Wow. I was right. But you were lighting up for that one.

Stacee:
It's funny, because you know who cares? It's just, there were 200 kids in my High School, so hey.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Charlie, tell me about Charlie.

Stacee:
So Charlie is actually my dog. He's a soft coated Wheaton, and he eight months old. I love him, but he's not your second favorite person? No, my dog, Sammy, who is a Havanese.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Okay.

Stacee:
He's a tiny little princess dog. My husband and I actually had that discussion just last week. Like, who's your favorite person after me? I'm like, hmm, Sammy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does Sammy ever pass your husband up and take the number one slot?

Stacee:
Most days.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Fair enough. All right. Does he know which days those are?

Stacee:
It's pretty clear.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Thanks again to Stacee for being here to celebrate Counselors Week. We love our counselors. Stop in and say hi, or ask them to say hi to your students. And remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today, we're talking about an exciting new program which will allow some high school juniors and seniors to sleep in. If they choose, you can start school at 9:00 AM. We're talking about a first of its kind. Late start blended learning program, which is being piloted in all Jordan School District High Schools in the upcoming school year. Students will have to provide their own transportation for the late start. This is an option, not required, but we are excited about the possibilities. Here to talk about the program and how it will work is Instructional Design Specialist, Michelle Truman. So you've done blended learning for about 20 years. How would you define blended learning? Let's start with that.

Michelle:
The main thing that you have to think of the difference between blended learning and a technology rich classroom. In blended learning, students have some control over the pace of their learning, the place of their learning. So whether that's sitting on a beanbag in a classroom or on their bed at home or at the kitchen table. The path of their learning, there's some choice involved in that as well. So those three are the things that are going to distinguish blended learning from a traditional classroom that's too technology-infused.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that makes a lot of sense because if those three things are flexible for students and for teachers, there's a lot higher chance of engagement.

Michelle:
Absolutely. Who doesn't want choice? Right? Do you want the blue lollipop or the red lollipop? Well, I like red better. Okay. Well, here you go.

Anthony Godfrey:
Everybody wants choice. And this provides choice, not just about where you learn or how fast you learn, but even when you learn. We'll talk more later about what a blended learning model is. But basically it's an online course that still allows students the chance to interact in person with the teacher, as necessary. We're setting up classes like this at each of our high schools. We have a total of 36 teachers teaching 13 different courses that will allow students that level of flexibility that hasn't been available before. We know the health benefits for students, not just physical health but social and emotional wellness that can come from being able to sleep on a rhythm. That makes more sense as a teenager. Even when teenagers try to go to bed early or do go to bed early, they're on a different pattern and they're on a different rhythm. As anyone who's been watching the news knows it's been a hot topic lately, but it's something we've been working on for a while. And I'm really excited to have Michelle here to talk about what the program's going to look like. So Michelle, tell us a little bit about what this program is starting to shape up to be out in our high schools.

Michelle:
They are initially coming in for the late start at 9:00 AM, and that is exactly what's happening. Teachers volunteered at each of the high schools to participate in this. And when I say volunteer, they volunteered to be instrumental in changing education for kids in Jordan School District. What we're going to do is take the traditional curriculum where teachers typically lecture, give assignments, kids go home and practice via homework. What we're doing is creating fully online, interactive, engaging courses that kids can work on at home, at any time they choose, whether it's midnight or 6:00 AM. Then when they need extra assistance or they're going to work with their peers, come in and do a chemistry lab. They can come in to their traditional classroom teacher and work on that with him or her.

Anthony Godfrey:
So will the teacher have office hours where they're available outside of normal class time?

Michelle:
Absolutely. Teachers meet periods one through four on one day and periods five through eight on another day. So when kids come in late start would be first period and fifth period. And so if they need some extra help, they can come to school during that block of time and meet with their classroom teacher. But that's also changed. We have one of our schools. They've had two math teachers pair up so what's happening is the first math teacher's gonna come in the standard time for first period. And he will be in the classroom during that time. The second math teacher is going to come to school two hours late and stay two hours later after school. So if I'm a football player and I want to come in and get extra assistance, I would come during that first period of time. But if I'm another type of student who would rather come in after school, we will have a teacher there to support that as well. So these two teachers are going to share that. They're each going to be responsible for their own classes, but they will share that extra assistance giving on either side of the time schedule.

Anthony Godfrey:
So in other words, it creates greater flexibility for students and for teachers.

Michelle:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
So from a student perspective, what this looks like is, rather than signing up for eight classes where I'm going to go to a classroom, I can sign up for two classes, first and fifth period as a blended learning course. And now I don't have anywhere I have to be before nine o'clock. And so I can get some extra rest and set a schedule that more matches my lifestyle as a teenager. Is that correct?

Michelle:
Absolutely. And not only that, it allows for flexibility. So as long as I have an internet connection, I can go to class anywhere.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can think of many reasons that students might want to do this. It might sound like laziness, not starting until nine, but really, there are great health benefits to allowing students to get more sleep in the morning. And there may be health issues that can be addressed by allowing for greater flexibility and in the school day.

Michelle:
Not only that, they will be required to come to school at points during the quarter because if I'm taking a chemistry class, it's great to do an online simulation. But now I've experienced that online simulation, I need to come in and get my hands dirty. I want to play with the beakers and I want to dump solutions and see things that happen. And we need to act like real scientists and that's what real scientists are gonna do. They're gonna study and figure out what they want to do, and what they need to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I have to tell you, if I could go back in time to the 1980s, I would have loved this as a high school student, just having this level of flexibility. I'm excited that our kids are going to have that chance coming up this next year. How are the teachers feeling about it?

Michelle:
It's funny. There's been a little bit of reaction across the board. The teachers are involved, they are go-getter teachers and a lot of them are young. And I say, young, in their thirties. So they have their teaching-chops underneath them. But they have a lot of energy and they've grown up and in this environment with technology. And so they don't see it as an adjunct. They don't see it as something in addition to. It's just part of their everyday. It's not anything unique to them and they're really excited about doing this. They look and say, Oh, wow, this is a lot of work. Essentially when you're putting your content online, you are creating not only a textbook, you're creating a digital online interactive book, and now I've got videos I'm creating, and now I'm creating Nearpod slide decks. And I'm creating all this really rich information that's going to go along. And not only that, I can also add an extra helps if I'm in a classroom and I'm teaching. That's the teaching. If kids didn't get it, then somehow we have to come up with something else to help them. Right? But online, what I can do is I can provide the lesson, and then at the end of the lesson, I can say, and if you need some other strategies to help you, here's a video, here's a text, here's some additional readings.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do we look at blended learning versus just online learning? What's that difference?

Michelle:
With online learning, there's typically not that component of face-to-face.

Anthony Godfrey:
What you've described is exactly what I like about blended learning. There is a human component to it and so it's just one more part of the continuum of learning. A traditional classroom on one end of the spectrum and a strictly online class on the other end of the spectrum. And in between you have blended learning that has positive elements of both. What are some of the myths that you encounter when you're working with people who are not used to blended learning or learning online?

Michelle:
It's that technology is going to replace the teacher. Look at all the research. Every piece of research will show that the biggest component of a child's education is the teacher in the classroom. Now, whether that's a virtual classroom, a blended classroom or a face-to-face classroom, it does not matter. It is the teacher that is the most important thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
So technology is still just another way of connecting to that teacher that is essential to effective education.

Michelle:
Absolutely. Kids need to have a connection with a person, whether it is virtual or live. Like I talked about, my adult students still need me to be able to communicate with them, to look at their papers, to give them feedback, to be there for support, same with the students in our classrooms. They can come to you as a face-to-face teacher and say, Hey, I need assistance with this. You can do that virtually online, but how rich is it to be able to take an online class with all the contents there that I can be up when I'm wide awake at midnight, take my class, understand the material. And if I don't the next day, I send an email to my teacher and say, Hey, I'm going to pop into your class at X time, or can you meet me in the lab and be able to arrange for either a one-on-one or a small group assistance.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's no longer a command performance. It's 7:30 AM, Monday morning time for math. Now, you can match up. You can make that fit into your schedule and everything a lot better.

Michelle:
Say that I'm I'm a football player and we're doing two-a-days because we have this big game coming up. And so I really am not going to have time to do a bunch of work this week. I know that on Saturday, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to do a couple hours worth of coursework. Then I can go take a run, clear my brain, and then I'm going to come back in and do another couple hours. I've now front-loaded all that instruction that I would have had to sit in class and do and get that method of the traditional school model. Now I don't have to. Now I freed up my time because I've completed a week's worth of math on my Saturday when I had the time to do so. And now I can dedicate myself to something I'm passionate about, and that's my sports.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll head out to Riverton High School, where we talk to teachers about blended learning in Jordan School District.

Break:
The possibilities are endless for anyone looking to grow with a team of professionals, working together to provide the very best for students in education. If you're looking for a great job with great pay and benefits in a supportive environment, head to workatjordan.org and find your future career in Jordan School District. People come for the job and stay for the adventure. Explore the many options. apply today at workatjordan.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're at Riverton High School, talking with a couple of teachers who are working on the blended learning project to help allow high school students to have a later start. If they'd like to do, using blended learning is a way to accomplish that. Please introduce yourselves to the folks at home and tell them what you teach.

Teacher:
Hello. I'm Victoria Johnson. I teach biology here at Riverton with my best friend and coworker.

Teacher:
Hi, Bethany Allston. I also teach biology here at Riverton and I'm just happy to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
What interested the two of you in being part of this, in converting some of your classes to blended learning?

Teacher:
Two years ago, we were looking at ways to assess students better. And Tori said, we got to get on Canvas a little. The following year the State purchased the licenses for all public educators to have Canvas. There's also some really cool features on Canvas for teachers to grade. So you can give some really descriptive feedback pretty quickly, which is a godsend for teachers so we can give students what they need faster.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you told me how you started out with putting classes online and using Canvas and kind of moving toward blended learning. You said that it was because you wanted to give better evaluation of student work. What are some of the other factors that made you want to be teaching in this way?

Teacher:
It's just nicer for kids. We have a lot of kids that don't get it the first time we teach it, especially where we have limited time in the classroom. It's just nice to have those resources there in a concentrated area. So students have the ability to go back through what they're learning. If they did miss something, they have resources available to help them relearn. It's also just nice for communication with feedback. What else?

Teacher:
It's great for differentiating education as well. Certain assignments can be assigned to students who maybe need more help. Those assignments don't have to be assigned to everybody. The students who get those assignments, nobody ever knows that they got the extra work. There's some really great futures for meeting kids where they're at and teaching them, moving forward without ever having anybody else know the better.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the learning is more personalized. It's more flexible. Parents can be more involved. And it sounds like it's easier for teachers, in some ways, once you get it up and running. It's probably a lot of work to get to that point though. Is that true?

Teacher:
A lot of share-ability. It does take some time to load everything in and get it in the order you want, but doing that work upfront makes our job as teachers a lot better. We transfer more into a role of mentoring and assisting students in learning rather than just lecturing all day.

Anthony Godfrey:
If there's a parent or student who isn't sure about whether they want to take a blended learning class next year, what would you you say to them to explain what the advantages might be for them individually?

Teacher:
As far as the advantages go, I would definitely say it's more contoured to what they need so we can meet their needs better at an individual level, personalize the learning. Especially with late start, if they need to do the work at home, but they need to do it later so they can get a little more rest that could benefit them. They benefit.

Teacher:
Yeah. It's helpful for students who have different work schedules. We know a lot of students actually work in the morning or if they work in the afternoon, it just helps them be able to do their learning in their own time. And then we are available still as resources to them. They can come in during a selected amount of time or they can email us or video chat or whatever else is needed. It just is a little bit more autonomous for them where they can kind of pick and choose when they get to do their work, with the exception of assessments and labs which they will have to be in class for. So they'll have their schedule, will have to work in order to be here for those mandatory days.

Some other suggestions that we've made, especially in the course descriptions that we've written, are that if the students plan to take a blended learning course, they need to be prepared to be pretty self monitoring, to make sure they get the work done. Of course, we'll check in with them. And we plan to, for lack of a better word, hover over what they've been able to accomplish to keep them on track. But it's going to require some effort on their part to make sure they're keeping up with the class.

Anthony Godfrey:
I like that you described how parents now aren't just relying on Skyward to look up grades. They can get right into the course. And it's probably the sort of format that allows parents to be more involved in their student's education than ever before.

Teacher:
Yes, which we're really excited about.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks to dedicated teachers at Riverton High School for sharing their thoughts on the blended learning. When we come back some final thoughts with Michelle Truman on how your student can get on board.

Break:
Do you want ideas for being happier and healthier? I'm McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness Specialist for Jordan School District. Please join us every week for Wellness Wednesday, a feature on the Jordan District website that offers free and simple tips for improving your health and wellness. We cover a variety of topics to help families with things like reducing stress, improving eating habits, finding more time to build relationships and increasing overall happiness. Check out Wellness Wednesday every week on the Jordan School District http://www.jordandistrict.org For additional health and wellness resources, visit http://wellness.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Back with Michelle Truman, talking about the blended learning late start, that will be available at each of our high schools next year. Students who take at least two classes through a blended learning model, which is a combination of online courses and interaction with the teacher, will not be required to be at school before 9:00 AM, but will still be able to access all of the classes they would if they were registered like everyone else. We're excited about this option. How do students access this?

Michelle:
It's going to be different depending upon the high school. All high schools will have it on their website. Some high schools will be having informational meetings in which parents and students will be invited. All high schools will have some sort of communication come home. There'll be a Skylert, and we will also be sending things directly to parents via your children. So be on the lookout for both of those.

Anthony Godfrey:
So to sum it up, I'm really excited about this because students will have the flexibility to start their day at nine o'clock by taking a couple of blended learning courses. Those courses will include very visual and personalized learning that is connected to a teacher at the school they attend the rest of the day. So they have access to the human being behind all this instruction, and in fact, have regular intervals at which they meet with that teacher. And I think that combination can really kickstart a different type of learning for students and provide the type of flexibility that can help them be healthy and happier at school, and just in general. Absolutely lots of exciting things happening. We're going to take another break. When we come back with Michelle Truman, two truths and a lie.

Break:
If you're always looking for opportunities to learn something new, why not join us for the next Jordan Parent University? Jordan Parent University is an opportunity for parents to better understand issues that impact their own students and education. It's an evening class designed to help parents with things like planning for the road beyond high school, better understanding students' social and emotional health and wellness, knowing who to call when there are issues involving a school or a student. Jordan Parent University is free and open to the public. For a list of upcoming classes, times and locations go to http://jpu.jordandistrict.org. See you there.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're back with Michelle Truman. And now it's her time to lie to the Superintendent. It's only been a few months that she's worked in Jordan School District, so this is her chance to lie to the Superintendent on the Supercast.

Michelle:
Okay. I have two children. I was a speed skater when I was in middle school, and my favorite thing to do is go to the beach.

Anthony Godfrey:
A speed skater in middle school. I did not know there was such a thing as middle-school speed skaters, but there must be. I'm going to say you hate the beach.

Michelle:
No, I love the beach. You know what? I think I might've actually said three truths. Did I say three kids or two kids?

Superintendent:
Two kids.

Michelle:
Yeah. It was supposed to be three. I have two kids. All those were true. I set you up for failure.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Two truths and a lie, but Michelle cannot tell a lie. Michelle is the George Washington of Jordan School District. Please don't chop down any cherry trees, but we appreciate everything else you're doing here. It's awesome. You're doing great. And I'm excited about all of the energy teachers are bringing to this and more to come. We'll talk more as the program gets put into place next year, to talk about what's happening out there. Thanks again, Michelle, for being on the show and remember whether you're at home at school or anywhere else, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. If you have already lost all hope of hanging on to a new year's resolution, you're not alone. It is something entire family struggle with this time of year on this episode of the super cast health and wellness specialist, McKinley Withers shares his thoughts on realistic resolutions and how to make them last working together as a family. But first we have some fun with Riverton elementary school students who have their own ideas about the best resolutions, like taking more naps in the new I'm Dr. Godfrey, what's your name? Kenneth. I want to ask you, do you know what a new year's resolution is? No. No. Do you have any guesses? Yeah. What do you think it might be?

McKinley Withers:
It might be where like, I, it, like, if you were like, promise yourself that, that like, to eat more healthier or to work out more.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did you know what my new year's resolutions were?

McKinley Withers:
Cause my mom does it, have you made any new year's resolutions? Yeah. What is your new year's to get, take, to give my dog more attention.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, did your dog ask you to do that as a new year's resolution? I've got an idea. Good luck with your new year's resolution. I'm Dr. Godfrey. What's your name? Hi Brock. Can you think of any new year's resolutions you would want to make

McKinley Withers:
At Marvin? I think I should nap more. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you want more naps? Do you like naps? What do you like about naps?

McKinley Withers:
The pivot gives me more energy to play.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's very cool. So you decide, I invest in a nap and I can play with more energy. What do you like to play

McKinley Withers:
Tech tag?

Anthony Godfrey:
So you take a good nap and there's more tag left in you, right? Do you know what? When you're my age, you'll probably like naps even more. So you have a lot to look forward to tell me your name, Megan. Hi, Megan. What grade are you in? Do you know where the new year's resolution is?

McKinley Withers:
It's a goal that you make for the new year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very good. Did you make any new year's resolutions? Oh, tell me your four resolutions. They're up here on the board where we're standing outside of Megan's classroom. And there's a, there's a card for a set of four cards, 2020, and each one has a number on it and each one has a resolution inside. So will you talk us through your resolution scan?

McKinley Withers:
So my first resolution was, I will serve people by looking for the, for those who need help, at least every Wednesday. And I can help them. And I drew a picture and it's like,

Anthony Godfrey:
You're saying, let me help. Who are you helping in the picture?

McKinley Withers:
Just some random person that can't tie their shoe.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Oh, they can't tie their shoe. I see the laces there. Okay. Let's see.

McKinley Withers:
The second one was, I will continue to learn my Spanish. Tell me something in Spanish. I don't know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. That's a good resolution. I love that. Yeah.

McKinley Withers:
And then my third one is I will try to be kinder to everyone by being more patient with everyone. Always. My last one is I'll get better up here. Know by practicing at least 15 minutes every day, all day, wait, 15 minutes a day, every day. And then there's a picture of me doing PT.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really good drawing. And I like that. Your hands are up and your fingers are out and you're just ready to bam on the keyboard. All right. Thanks for talking to me, Megan. Good to meet you. I am Dr. Godfrey. Tell me your name. Naomi. Naomi, do you have any ideas for what you might do as a new year's resolution?

McKinley Withers:
Being nice to others?

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great one. So what are some things you could do to be nice to others?

McKinley Withers:
Help them get up and play with other people.

Anthony Godfrey:
A lot of people have trouble keeping their resolutions and your resolution is to be kind to other people. How long do you think you can keep that resolution

McKinley Withers:
For like 50 years?

Anthony Godfrey:
For 50 years. But in 50 years in your sixties, you're just going to say forget it. It's over. I'm not being nice anymore.

McKinley Withers:
Oh, well, my mom told me I have to be nice to my big sisters. I have three sisters.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can you think of any new year's resolutions? Your parents might've made?

McKinley Withers:
I don't really know if they made one.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Can you make a guess at what they might've made? What are some things they might do?

McKinley Withers:
Like keep, so they might make me clean my room every day.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, their resolution would be to maybe make you do something. Yeah. Oh, all right. It sounds like my type of resolution. Do you need to clean your room more often? Naomi. Okay. Do you? Yeah. What happened?

McKinley Withers:
I have a lot of stuff on my floor

Anthony Godfrey:
By Steph. Do you mean clothing? Ah, do you just stuffed things under the bed and into the drawer? Do you put them where they go?

McKinley Withers:
Sometimes I, you stuff it under my bed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you, are you surprised that I knew that you put things under the bed?

McKinley Withers:
Yeah, but my sister got sick of me, like sleeping in the room. Cause I was snoring a lot, but I don't actually snore. I keep telling her

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you keep telling her that.

McKinley Withers:
Yeah. And that's why you have her own rooms now

Anthony Godfrey:
Because of your snoring that never really happened now. How do you know you're not snoring if you're asleep when it happens?

McKinley Withers:
Well, I don't know. I'm just breathing quietly. Any Lisa calls it snoring and she took a video of me sleep.

Anthony Godfrey:
She took a video of you sleeping. Wow. You guys were going to end up in separate bedrooms from the start and you can see this coming a mile away. So she filmed you snoring? Yes. And yet you still say despite video evidence that you were not snoring,

McKinley Withers:
But you at least deleted that video. Cause you didn't want me to see,

Anthony Godfrey:
She didn't want you to see, I saw it on mom's phone. Oh, so she deleted it, but your mom still had a copy?

McKinley Withers:
No, my mom like video in it too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really? So there are two videos of you snoring and you still claim it didn't happen. Yeah, really? Wow. Okay. Well I'm, you know what, there's more to you than meets the eye. I'm pretty impressed. I'm Dr. Godfrey. What's your name? What grade are you in? Sam. Do you know where the new year's resolution is? What is it?

McKinley Withers:
It is a goal for a new year. That goes until the next year. Most of the time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very good. Most of the time? Yes. Sometimes that's right. People don't always make it all here. Did your parents make any new year's resolution? No idea. Okay. Do you have any guesses what they might make if they're making a resolution?

McKinley Withers:
My dad would definitely do try to go to Buffalo, wild wings.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's a good resolution. Tell me your name. Ava. Eva. Do you know what a new year's resolution is? A new year's resolution is something that mostly adults make and their resolution is because the new year is starting. They think, well, in this new year, I'm going to do something different. If you were to make a new year's resolution, something you wanted to do differently in 2020, what would you do?

McKinley Withers:
I would want to go swimming, everything,

Anthony Godfrey:
Go swimming every day. That would be your new year's resolution. Any guess what? Your mom and dad might've made as a new year's resolution?

McKinley Withers:
I think they were like not working anymore,

Anthony Godfrey:
Not working anymore. That's a good new year's resolution, but it does come with consequences. Doesn't it? You might not get to swim as much if they didn't work, their new year's might interfere with your new year's resolution.

McKinley Withers:
That's awesome. Thanks to all the students at Riverton elementary school for sharing their thoughts on new year's resolutions that kids can keep. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back health and wellness specialist, McKinley weathers has some advice for parents and students on how to make our resolutions last be, you want to know what's going on in Jordan school district, maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story, check out our website@jordandistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Jordan district let's connect today.

Anthony Godfrey:
It says McKinley. Weather's third time here with us. He's our health and wellness specialist for Jordan school district. But he's also one of my favorite people to talk with just because he has such great ideas and such insight into how to improve life just on a day-to-day basis, by changing our perspective, changing some of our habits and just changing the way that we approach life and the many things that it throws at us. And I know we're in a mode with the new year either. You're trying to keep your new year's resolutions or you've already abandoned them because many of them don't last very long, but there are some things that we can do to take better care of ourselves and to better meet our goals and, and to really advance and, and, and the little decisions make a big impact. And, and Mr. Mr. Weathers has such great advice on this front that I thought it was timely to have him back and, and talk with us about how we can improve our lives with small decisions and small changes in perspective. So welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be back. You're the first, you're the first person with friend of the show status. So there may be others to come, but it's I'm grateful

Speaker 3:
For that. And it's definitely going in my gratitude

Anthony Godfrey:
Journal. Now that's perfect. That's a perfect segue into the gratitude journal and that's, that's one aspect of having a healthy, healthy life style and, and really good self-care is, is gratitude. That's one important component of self-care. So tell us a little bit about that. Mckinney

Speaker 3:
Is actually it's funny that we, that we started here, but there's actually some research that people are more committed to goals who are, who experienced gratitude more often. So you are more likely to stay committed to, you know, even something like a new year's resolution, if you're experiencing gratitude more often, because you're thinking a little bit more about your future. You're thinking a little bit more about what's gotten you to where you are. So having a practice of gratitude actually does habits. So,

Anthony Godfrey:
So gratitude is a way of reflecting on what has gone right in your life, or what has helped you, or what resources you have available to you. And then assessment of those aspects of your life can really be a good launch to making improvements and actually achieving the goals that we set,

Speaker 3:
Right? Yeah. It, it kind of, it can help instill a sense of hope that your goals are worthwhile and meaningful and that they are going to pay off. If you approach it, starting with you don't even have to be grateful for anything related to the goals, but experiencing gratitude often will help you be more

Anthony Godfrey:
Committed. How do you think parents can help their kids be more grateful and be focused on gratitude?

Speaker 3:
There are, there, there are a lot of ways to increase gratitude. And I think that it's important to find what works for you and your family, because if you force your child to write down three things they're grateful for before they can have their dinner, it may not be, you know, as effective as, you know, something that they choose or that they're a little bit more invested in having a little bit of choice is important, but gratitude journals are a big one, you know, just having, or even just the daily family practice of hunting, the good things that have happened, hunt the good stuff as a way of phrasing that. So, you know, just identifying three positive things that have happened rather than maybe the, the few negative things that have happened can instill kind of that appreciation for the things that do go, right? Because in any given day, there's at least a few things that have gone well.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've heard you talk about this a couple of different times in front of different groups, students, administrators, teachers. And the thing I find interesting is that as I listened to the advice, we've heard a lot about gratitude. We've heard a lot about being grateful, various ways that we can do that. It's deceptively simple. And I think some of the things we'll talk about today are deceptively simple. It seems like it would just be so easy to do that. We overlooked the power that pausing and really focusing on being grateful can have

Speaker 3:
Yeah, it, it really is a, it's a simple strategy, but knowing that gratitude matters is not enough. It's, it's all about making it a repeated practice that feels natural and easy to, to, to continue. So whatever that looks like, if it is a gratitude journal, if it's going to be a pain for you to get out your gratitude journal, and you're not going to want to do it, pick a different goal, right? Find another strategy that you're actually going to look forward to, or you're going to be invested in. Are there other, some other for students

Anthony Godfrey:
And parents that they can use besides a gratitude journal?

Speaker 3:
Well, one, one way to also foster good relationships is pausing to think people. So that's also an ex a gratitude practice. So if there was, you know, once a week, you wanted to call somebody or reach out to somebody and just thank them for something that had that, that had happened. A handwritten note or letter can mean a lot. I had a principal that was really good about that. And I, I think that the interesting thing about gratitude is the benefits of the gratitude giver may actually outweigh the benefits to the reader.

Anthony Godfrey:
[Inaudible] Writing a letter, reading an in person, even just having a daily practice, calling them out.

Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah. Thinking

Anthony Godfrey:
That that will really boost the giver as well as the recipient in terms of their overall health.

Speaker 3:
And a lot of people might might use prayer as a gratitude practice. There are a lot of ways to find gratitude.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome. Ideas about gratitude. The idea is to act, not just think about it. I'm grateful you're here. Yeah. Thanks for [inaudible]. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back more self-care tips and how to maybe take a better approach to thinking about those new year's resolutions. When we come back with McKinley weathers, stick around.

McKinley Withers:
Hey, you okay? Yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter, get the safe UT app, download it now available on the Apple app store, Google play or safe ut.org

Anthony Godfrey:
Back with McKinley weathers. Thanks for joining us. I just said, thanks for joining us. Someone experiencing gratitude, and I am very grateful for our listeners out there. Thank you for, for tuning in and making us a part of your lives. Mckinley's here to talk with us about self care and making those resolutions stick or meeting the goals that we've, that we hope to achieve. And gratitude is a big part of that. We talked about research that suggests that those who are grateful also are able to better meet their goals, but there are some other things that we need to do just in terms of self care, in order to even be in a place to make advancements and, and improve our situation. And you've talked in the past McKinley about the need for ongoing self care. Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.

McKinley:
Well, if you think about wellness in general, it's not something that can be saved up or stored. Everything that you do to improve your wellness will work, but it's not going to last. You can't have a really good year and then stop or you're just never going to have another struggle again. Right? So it's important that we are constantly maintaining it. It can't be saved. I like to call it the wellness waterfall, so it can dry up easily if there's not something feeding it. It's more like a waterfall, not a reservoir. You can't store wellness and then rely on that really good year when times are tough. You have to maintain the same rituals, habits or routines when times are tough and when things are going well.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do we do that? That seems overwhelming to try to keep constantly feeding that need for self care.

McKinley:
It can seem overwhelming, but that's why it's really important that we focus on small changes that are very easy to maintain. An example of that would be, some companies have created what they call an irresistible staircase to encourage people to use the stairs more. So it can be hard if you're faced with either an elevator or stairs and you're going to the sixth floor. You'll probably naturally default to the easiest option, which is the elevator. But if the elevator is difficult to find, and before you get to the elevator you face the most beautiful staircase you've ever seen, oak stairs with big windows and an amazing view. That's going to be more attractive than trying to find the elevator. Finding ways we can make our healthy habits a little bit more irresistible.

Anthony Godfrey:
Parents working with students. If your child has difficulty getting to homework, the irresistible staircase comes in where you create an environment where doing homework pleasant. A well lit spot, maybe with a snack that's quiet. That's a place where you want to be.

Having some way that it's not choosing between, I have all of my favorite video games right here on a comfortable couch and amazing snacks. And then there's that dingy table over there with a textbook on it and a pencil. Any kid is going to go for the video games. So how can we make it more specific?

Anthony Godfrey:
This was my dad's theory with television, because we had a black and white television all through the eighties. It was the nineties before we got a color television and you actually had to turn the TV off and on for the horizontal hold to take place. Otherwise, the picture would just kind of scroll. It was impossible to watch. I didn't realize that M.A.S.H. and Happy Days were actually filmed in color until the nineties, because his theory was kind of like the opposite of the irresistible staircase. If we have a terrible TV, maybe the kids won't watch it. I still got my pop culture fix, but I think to an extent, it's true. It was kind of a miserable experience compared to what it could have been. Yeah. And so, actually in a previous podcast where we talked about nutrition, the idea is to have healthy snacks easily available and readily available. And the problem for me personally is that there's a lot of convenience associated with foods that are terrible for me.

McKinley:
Yes. I think it's very convenient to pull out my phone and burn time as opposed to do the things that they should be doing.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's probably very true for students too. If it's irresistible to you to pull out the phone and it seems very resistible to be working on homework, then where are you going to end up spending your time. With the things that are easy and attractive

McKinley:
Yeah. There's actually a way you could join those two together with it's called temptation bundling.

Anthony Godfrey:
Bundling temptation does sounds like something that Verizon offers, right?

McKinley:
They might bundle and save. So if you can find something that is tempting and enticing for you that you actually enjoy, you can bundle it with the thing that you should do, but you're not as inclined to do. I think it's important that you find ways to actually look forward to the thing you have to do. So if that means every time, if you like soda rather than just say, you've got another goal that you're working on, every time before you're about to sit down and do homework. If that's going to motivate you to do something that you need to do, have the Big Gulp by your side and enjoy it through the process so that you can have something to look forward to.

Anthony Godfrey:
At the break, Sandy, one of our producers was talking about cauliflower crust pizza. I have a lot of other goals to meet before I start eating cauliflower crust pizza, let's just put it that way. I have a lot of other things to work on in terms of how food, before cauliflower gets involved, a last resort for you. I don't use those two words in the same sentence. Generally. I admire all of you out there who do. I just have a lot more steps to get there. And speaking of food, I love food analogies. Tell us about the hamburgers of happiness and how that relates to self-care and meeting our goals and expectations for them.

McKinley:
Okay. So before we talk hamburgers, I'm going to just clarify. When we're talking about self care, it can be easy to think of, for some reason, the image of MaCauley Culkin in Home Alone when he is in the hotel room with all the ice cream and he's watching whatever he wants and just enjoying the moment. That can sound like self care. And to some degree, maybe it is. Every once in a while, it's good to have that indulgence, but treat yourself right. But on the opposite end, sometimes we think self care is only eating cauliflower pizza. If you spend your free time at the gym, you haven't really you've stopped enjoying life because you're taking such good care of yourself.

Anthony Godfrey:
Exactly. So where is the middle between those two?

McKinley:
That's what the hamburgers of happiness is. This is from a psychologist from Harvard named Tal Ben Shahar. There are a lot of different kinds of hamburgers in the world. Some are better than others and you want to find the hamburger that tastes good now, but is also healthy enough that it's good for you later. So it might make it easier to understand if we think about the contrast. There are some hamburgers out there that taste really good now, but are probably bad for us later. There are junk food burgers out there. There are some that are delicious, but they have absolutely no nutritional value, no health benefits. So they're bad for us later. That would be kind of one end of the scale where our self-care would be ice cream, TV shows,  just indulging in the present and we're enjoying the present. But it's to our future detriment that's not good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just so you know, my punch card is almost full at the hamburger restaurant that offers that exact thing.

McKinley:
Okay. Okay. Okay. So you're, well-versed in the junk food burger I'm familiar with. Yes. All of us are. And I think that's important not to beat ourselves up if we're not hitting these exact really high goals. But just doing the best that we can to make small adjustments makes a difference. So, another type of hamburger is called the rat race burger. So that's where we give up the here and now. That's where we're only eating cauliflower pizza. We've sworn off all sweets, all desserts. We spend all of our free time at the gym. That would be like a hamburger that's so healthy that it tastes bad now, but it's really good for us later. That's not what we want. We want the balance of what tastes good now and it's good for us later.

Anthony Godfrey:
So for students, what the burger analogy can teach us is don't sacrifice all of your present for a future, that may or may not be what you expect it to be.

McKinley:
Right. there are a lot of ways we can try and enjoy the good behaviors a little bit more. There are a lot of ways we can make them easier. A lot of ways we can make them more enjoyable,

Anthony Godfrey:
Any parting advice on how to improve our self care, and as a result, get closer to the goals we've set?

McKinley:
I'll give two parting tips. One is just to remember that willpower is never enough. You're just relying on trying harder, or just your willpower. If you've set a goal to eat less candy, but you still have candy in your pantry and you still buy it when you go to the grocery store, your willpower is not going to resist that.

Anthony Godfrey:
I feel like that's a very personal message, by the way, but go on.

McKinley:
And then the other is gratitude. I think that gratitude facilitates staying committed to goals. Sleep, our willpower is also very heavily reliant on whether or not we're getting enough rest. So if we're setting new goals or we're trying new hobbies or routines, we've got to prioritize getting enough sleep. Your willpower needs rest to in order to function. So I would just say sleep is very, very important.

Anthony Godfrey:
We know for students that's  a big problem. That's a big issue. And so focusing on kids getting enough sleep, so they're bringing their best selves to the challenges they face throughout the day.

All right. Well, thank you for joining us again, McKinley.  I'm grateful for what you do for our District. And I'm grateful to the listeners out there. Thanks for joining us. And remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you.