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Episode 182: Teachers Score Big as Utah Jazz “Most Valuable Educators”
They took center court during a recent Utah Jazz basketball game, but it wasn’t to score a point or make a free throw. Two Jordan School District teachers are being honored as “Most Valuable Educators” or MVE’s by the Jazz organization.
On this episode of the Supercast we sit down with Mountain Point Elementary School teacher, Charity Horne and Joel P. Jensen teacher, Mandy Truscott to find out what it takes to be an MVE and what makes them stand out as educators, elevating everyone around them.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They took center court during a recent Utah Jazz basketball game, but it wasn't to score a point or make a free throw. Two Jordan School District teachers are being honored as “Most Valuable Educators” or MVEs by the Jazz organization. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with Mountain Point Elementary School teacher, Charity Horne, and Joel P Jensen, teacher Mandy Truscott, to find out what it takes to be an MVE and what makes them stand out as educators, elevating everyone around them.
We're at Joel P Jensen today to celebrate an award-winning teacher, and we're talking with Aaron Hunter, her principal as well. Aaron, how are you?
Aaron Hunter:
Doing great.
Anthony Godfrey:
I want you to talk a little bit about Mandy Truscott and why she won this award. Tell us a little bit about this award and what's happening.
Aaron Hunter:
Yeah, so the Jazz and Instructure who run Canvas, they nominate, I want to say this is the first year. I'm not sure, it's a pretty new award. But yeah, people nominate teachers throughout the state for the Most Valuable Educator Award. Mandy was nominated and I can wholeheartedly say, I've known Mandy for a decade, and she's an amazing teacher. You can’t see her classroom, there's no kids in here. But if you walked in, you could, you could already tell by the way things are organized that she's a wonderful teacher.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's very well organized, it's exciting. It's bursting with fruit flavor. It's got colors everywhere, it looks fantastic. And I've known Mandy for a long time, so I know she's a fantastic teacher. Aaron, how would you describe Mandy Truscott?
Aaron Hunter:
So, Mandy Truscott is the teacher. Like if we ever, she never fills referrals out. If we ever got a referral from Mandy Truscott, we would know that it was a very, very serious thing because Mandy just does an excellent job at managing her classroom, keeping her kids engaged. As she mentioned, the growth that her students make is incredible. It's awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you talked about the growth. Tell me, what kind of growth do you see in students who have Mandy's class?
Aaron Hunter:
Yeah. An average student that takes Mrs. Truscott’s class on average makes about three years of growth in reading from beginning to end
Anthony Godfrey:
That's incredible. That's incredible. Awesome. So in addition to there being astronauts, it's a time travel situation as well. Yeah. Because you're making up for lost time.
Mandy Truscott:
Well, that's why we say like they've landed on grade level. They do this like jump and I was like, it's like a little hyper speed. They're in hyperdrive and they eventually can get there, but they have to put in the time and effort.
Anthony Godfrey:
So I'm excited to hear that you got this award, Mandy. Congratulations.
Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. It was really exciting.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your loot. What did you get as a part of this prize?
Mandy Truscott:
There was a thousand dollars to use in my classroom, which was really nice.
Anthony Godfrey:
Great.
Mandy Truscott:
We got tickets to the Jazz game. There were six of us. We gotta stay in the suite, which was really nice as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Mandy Truscott:
And a personalized Jazz jersey, so that was really exciting as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
Really?
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Mandy Truscott:
I know. My husband's like,’ let's frame it so you can put it in your classroom.’ And I think we might, cause I don't think I'm gonna be wearing it any time, so.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And you can sign the jersey for yourself.
Mandy Truscott:
There you go. I could do that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, you and I worked together a long time ago.
Mandy Truscott:
Yes. Very long.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. A very long time ago. Most of your career ago, I think. You're teaching reading?
Mandy Truscott:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about that. What do you love about teaching reading?
Mandy Truscott:
I love teaching reading. So I teach remedial reading. So they're kids that are not on grade level, but they don't qualify necessarily for resource services or special ed services. But they definitely still need some help to get caught up. So we kind of catch them, they get put in my class and then that's what we work on, just trying to get them up to proficient grade level.
Anthony Godfrey:
And I can't think of a teacher who would do a better job of making kids feel great about being in the class that is intended to help them catch up.
Mandy Truscott:
It's something they struggle with, so it's not their favorite class.
Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.
Mandy Truscott:
But I feel like they do, they do like the class. We have a good repertoire, we have a good relationship.
Anthony Godfrey:
I'm sure that part of the reward is seeing the impact on a student realizing they can do something they didn't think they were ever going to be good at.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. It's really exciting to see them make so much progress. So we have like this wall of fame, which you're not in the classroom so you can't see it, but we have this wall of fame where like the kids' names get on the board when they level up, when they increase in grade levels, when they get on grade level. We do a lot of incentives to try and motivate them to do that, and it's really exciting to see. So we always are just pushing them to get on grade level. That's our main purpose.
Anthony Godfrey:
Let's look, take us on a tour around your classroom. So I see amazing things happen here. And names of the kids that have landed on grade level.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah, so those are the students who at the beginning of the year were below grade level, but they have since reached all the benchmarks to prove that they are on grade level. And then we have four other sections in the classroom. So the first time they level up or the first time they go up one grade level, they get their name in the ‘I've leveled up one reading level’ column, and then there's a two reading levels, a three reading levels, and a four or more reading levels. And you can see there's 20 kids already who are on the four or more reading levels. I think that like the numbers may be a little misleading. I think some of those kids, they didn't try super hard on the initial assessment.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.
Mandy Truscott:
Which, you know, surprise, surprise. But they do see this progress. And even if they're making progress on lower levels or levels that may be a little bit below where they should be they're feeling success. And that initial success I think helps them for when they do start to encounter more challenging work and more challenging curriculum.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love how visual the progress is. Student progress is just right out there for everybody to see. And I have no doubt that it's motivating. Tell me about the planets or the moons that the astronauts have landed on, on this wall.
Mandy Truscott:
I tried to really focus on creating a class community. So I did this like a space theme this year. So we have a little planet up there. I don't know if you can see it very well, but it says JPJ 112. My classroom is room 112.
Anthony Godfrey:
Ah, nice.
Mandy Truscott:
So I told them that we are like a class colony and so each student in my class has a little astronaut on the board and in that astronaut, or on the moon I should say, below the astronaut, it lists information about them. So they gotta tell me who they are at the beginning of the year, and that was really helpful. They did that the very first week of school. So I didn't know them very well, but I was able to take that information and they also filled out like this little star cadet intake form that they filled out so I could learn more about them and what motivated them, what they disliked, anything they wanted to tell me basically.
Anthony Godfrey:
What have some of your themes been over the years?
Mandy Truscott:
Oh, besides my space theme? I did an emoji theme one year. But I really like the space theme. I think I'm gonna stick with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Might stay with it.
Mandy Truscott:
Okay. Yeah. So, we talked about how our learning objective is our mission objective. So we have that over here. Instead of the date, we put the star date.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, love that.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. Anyways, we did they have these reading response journals, but we call 'em mission log. So they write in their mission log.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yes.
Mandy Truscott:
They can earn passport stickers for reading different genres. So yeah, anyways, we kind of did this fun space theme. I kinda ran with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see a bit of a cat corner that has nothing to do with reading, necessarily.
Mandy Truscott:
Nothing to do with reading or with space, but I'm a little bit of a cat lady, so we have a little bit of a cat corner going on.
Anthony Godfrey:
I respect that. I respect that.
Mandy Truscott:
The kids will draw me pictures of cats occasionally.
Anthony Godfrey:
They know what you like. That’s a good thing.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. They know.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what was it that initially drew you to teaching?
Mandy Truscott:
I don't, it's kind of a weird story. I did not get my bachelor's degree in teaching. I got my bachelor's degree in political science and I was initially going to join the foreign service, is what I had wanted to do. I interned in DC in the Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. And I became interested in education doing that. And then I came back to Utah, which is where I'm from. And I started to substitute teach just to make a little bit of money and I liked it. And I got a job as a para. And then I decided to go back to school and get a graduate degree in education.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm very grateful to whoever was sick and needed you as a substitute.
Mandy Truscott:
It was a roundabout way of doing it, but I'm glad I did it. I feel like it was definitely meant to be, definitely what has become my passion and it became my passion really quickly. So I was a paraprofessional in a special education classroom, and so I initially did special education, I did that for eight years and then I transferred over to general ed and now doing remedial reading in general education.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, having worked with you many moons ago, it's no surprise to me that you won this award and I'm really glad to see that you're still teaching and these are some lucky kids.
Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear from Most Valuable Educator Charity Horne.
Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Mountain Point Elementary and we have Principal Elizabeth Felt here and Charity Horne, the Most Valuable Educator award winner. We're gonna talk with Charity about her experience, but first Elizabeth, tell me about Charity Horne as a teacher.
Elizabeth Felt:
I can't stop saying wonderful things about Charity. Charity is one of those bright lights here at Mountain Point. She is one of those teachers that goes above and beyond for every single student here in the building. She is well known by all of our parents. She is a cheerleader for everybody. She's in the hall constantly sharing just exciting things that are going on in her classroom. And when she goes out for bus duty, she's the most cheerful person out there. She is waving people down to get them down the lane to pull forward and people love it. They smile at her, which is a great thing.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now that is a remarkable accomplishment. I've worked the curb at elementary schools over the years. That is not a place where love is shared very much. So that's pretty exciting. And from the moment I walked in, I could tell the energy that she has.
Elizabeth Felt:
Absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey:
Charity, tell me about winning this award. How did all that come to be?
Charity Horne:
Well, I got an email and I thought it was spam and I thought, ‘Oh, this has to be a joke.’ So I responded and just said, ‘Hey, is this for real?’ And she responded and said, ‘Yes it is. And you were nominated by some parents for the award and one of the nominations stood out to us. So we chose you.’
Anthony Godfrey:
How nice to be nominated. Now, it's never fun to talk about yourself.
Charity Horne:
No.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what were some of the nominations? Elizabeth, did you get a chance to read those?
Elizabeth Felt:
No, I actually didn't because, like Charity, I thought it was spam. I hadn’t heard of it before.
Anthony Godfrey:
When you get an email that says you won and it has all these exclamation points, you do wonder.
Elizabeth Felt:
Yeah. So I remember debriefing with Charity in the hall and we're like, ‘Did you get this email?’ ‘Yeah, I got this email.’ ‘What do you think we should do?’ ‘Is this real?’ Yeah. And so then when we reached out and we were like,’ okay, I think they wanna do something. So I don't know what that looks like because they're not really sure what it looks like.’ So we're like, okay, well let's just go for a ride and it's gonna be great. We’ll see how it goes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you thought they were fake prizes at first?
Charity Horne:
Totally. Totally.
Anthony Godfrey:
But what were the real prizes that you ended up winning as a result?
Charity Horne:
Well, I earned a thousand dollars. And then I got to go to the Jazz game with my family and take my boys and we went and got in the suite. Then they gave me a Jazz jersey and the Jazz Bear came to our school and recognized me on stage.
Anthony Godfrey:
A personalized Jazz jersey from what I've heard.
Charity:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And what's the Jazz bear like close up?
Charity Horne:
He is fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?
Charity Horne:
Yeah. Yeah. He messed with my hair.
Anthony Godfrey:
Does he smell kind of earthy?
Charity Horne:
Ah, you know, I was so nervous. I didn't notice.
Anthony Godfrey:
So they honored you on the floor during a Jazz game?
Charity Horne:
Yes. They honored me on the floor during the Jazz game as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's pretty exciting.
Charity Horne:
It was so awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me what grade you teach first of all.
Charity Horne:
First grade. I teach first grade.
Anthony Godfrey:
First grade. That's awesome. What do you love about teaching first grade?
Charity Horne:
Honestly, just the innocence of the kids. They're just, they're so excited to be here. They're so excited. They just love you no matter what, you know? And they don't judge you. I mean, you cannot comb your hair and it won't matter. You know, adults tend to judge.
Anthony Godfrey:
But they notice everything about you too don’t they?
Charity Horne:
They do. They notice it all. They do. And I'm like, you know what? It's okay. I didn't do, my hair today. Okay, Mrs. Horne
Anthony Godfrey:
So did they ever say ‘What's wrong, Mrs. Horne?’ when you thought you were covering it up?
Charity Horne:
No, but they have pointed out blemishes or zits or anything that's wrong with you.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you have to go in ready a little bit?
Charity Horne:
A little bit, yeah. But they don't care. I mean, they're just, they're excited to be here.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Now how long have you taught first grade?
Charity Horne:
I've been teaching first grade for six years. This is my sixth year in first grade. And I've taught two years of second grade.
Anthony Godfrey:
So two years of second grade, six years of first grade. How many hugs does that equal over those years?
Charity Horne:
Millions.
Anthony Godfrey:
Millions of hugs.
Charity Horne:
It’s a lot of hugs.
Anthony Godfrey:
That is the good part.
Charity Horne:
Because they move on, but they still love you, so they still come back and hug you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so it's not just the hugs when they're there.
Charity Horne:
No.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's the after-hugs.
Charity Horne:
Yeah. That's my older students.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's pretty exciting.
Charity Horne:
It's awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to someone who's thinking about teaching elementary school?
Charity Horne:
Honestly, it's a hard job, but you have to have, your heart's gotta be in it. You gotta wanna make a difference and you gotta love helping little kids.
Anthony Godfrey:
What's one of your favorite things to teach in first grade?
Charity Horne:
I like teaching math.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?
Charity Horne:
Math.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the math skills that first graders are learning right now?
Charity Horne:
Adding and subtracting within 20, learning to make a 10, regroup.
Anthony Godfrey:
Regrouping. Yeah. I try to regroup as much as I can. It's good.
Charity Horne:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's a good skill to have.
Charity Horne:
It's a good skill to have.
Anthony Godfrey:
What drew you to teaching initially?
Charity Horne:
Well, I graduated with education and back then, it was too much work, so I was like, ‘I'm not gonna be a teacher. There's no way. It's so much work.’ But so, and quickly after that, I got pregnant with twins. So my life changed to mommy mode and I ended up opening up a daycare and was gonna do a tumbling studio, and all these different branches of life going different directions. And when my daycare kids had kind of moved on and I decided to look at the school and just see if there was a part-time aide position. And I got hired as a math aide. And my Principal at the time, Mandy Thurman, called me and said, ‘Hey, I hired you as a math aide, but I talked to the district about reactivating your license. I really need teachers. What do you think? I think you'd be great.’ And thought about it. And it was just a gut feeling that it was something I needed to do. So I did it and it was a thousand times harder than it was back then.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it does get harder over time.
Charity Horne:
It does get harder over time, but I think that that hard work just makes you a better person and a better teacher. You'll learn from mistakes, you'll learn from positives, you learn from everything and you just become better. So one of the things I love, I came up with it a couple of years ago. I had heard another teacher was doing it and I thought it was phenomenal, but teaching kids that they can do hard things. And so I came up with a motto that I wanted them to say every morning. And it goes, ‘I can do hard things. I know if I think positive, work hard, and try my best, I will succeed. I believe in myself, I can do anything.’ And it's kind of one of those things that I want them to know. Know that like even in life, not just first grade, life gets hard sometimes. And if you work hard and you just do the best you can, you know you're gonna succeed.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And I'll bet they remember it years later.
Charity Horne:
I have kids, a girl that I taught in first grade at Riverton Elementary goes to school here, I think she's in sixth grade and she's like, ‘Hey Mrs. Horne, how are you? I remember our motto.’ So she still remembers it.
Anthony Godfrey:
And then she recites it for you.
Charity Horne:
Yeah. Well, it was funny cuz I actually went running with one of my first grade parents. And we were going around the track and I hate running, I hate cardio. And so I'm just like, ‘I can't do this.’ And she's like, ‘I can do hard things.’ So we just started running and we were doing the motto. She was like, ‘See, it works for adults too.’ So I just think it's a strong quality that I have just for anybody. Like you can do it. You know, our first reaction is sometimes, ah, that's too hard. I can't do it. But if you just learn that you can do whatever you put your mind to, if you keep working on it, you'll get it.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. I would assume that as a first grade teacher, you get to see a ton of progress.
Charity Horne:
Absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey:
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
Charity Horne:
That's probably one of my favorite things about first grade, I feel like I do such incredible work. Because if you look at their beginning of the year tests and handwriting and writing journals, and then you go to the end and I'm like, holy cow. I taught them. You know, as a team, we work together to teach narrative, informative, and opinion writing. They can add and subtract. They're just, they're just bright little humans.
Anthony Godfrey:
A school supervisor showed me the other day, what a first grade student had done over the course of the year. They were so excited for the progress they'd made. And they showed, you know, the writing that they did at the beginning of the year and the writing they're doing now. And it's really cool to see, this huge progress kids make.
Charity Horne:
It’s incredible. They make a ton of progress. And even with reading, I mean, they're barely connecting those sounds and letters and putting 'em together. And by the end, they're reading full passages.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for spending the time, and most of all, thanks for everything you do to help create a great experience for these first graders.
Charity Horne:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
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By Jordan Supercast
4.7
4141 ratings
They took center court during a recent Utah Jazz basketball game, but it wasn’t to score a point or make a free throw. Two Jordan School District teachers are being honored as “Most Valuable Educators” or MVE’s by the Jazz organization.
On this episode of the Supercast we sit down with Mountain Point Elementary School teacher, Charity Horne and Joel P. Jensen teacher, Mandy Truscott to find out what it takes to be an MVE and what makes them stand out as educators, elevating everyone around them.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They took center court during a recent Utah Jazz basketball game, but it wasn't to score a point or make a free throw. Two Jordan School District teachers are being honored as “Most Valuable Educators” or MVEs by the Jazz organization. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with Mountain Point Elementary School teacher, Charity Horne, and Joel P Jensen, teacher Mandy Truscott, to find out what it takes to be an MVE and what makes them stand out as educators, elevating everyone around them.
We're at Joel P Jensen today to celebrate an award-winning teacher, and we're talking with Aaron Hunter, her principal as well. Aaron, how are you?
Aaron Hunter:
Doing great.
Anthony Godfrey:
I want you to talk a little bit about Mandy Truscott and why she won this award. Tell us a little bit about this award and what's happening.
Aaron Hunter:
Yeah, so the Jazz and Instructure who run Canvas, they nominate, I want to say this is the first year. I'm not sure, it's a pretty new award. But yeah, people nominate teachers throughout the state for the Most Valuable Educator Award. Mandy was nominated and I can wholeheartedly say, I've known Mandy for a decade, and she's an amazing teacher. You can’t see her classroom, there's no kids in here. But if you walked in, you could, you could already tell by the way things are organized that she's a wonderful teacher.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's very well organized, it's exciting. It's bursting with fruit flavor. It's got colors everywhere, it looks fantastic. And I've known Mandy for a long time, so I know she's a fantastic teacher. Aaron, how would you describe Mandy Truscott?
Aaron Hunter:
So, Mandy Truscott is the teacher. Like if we ever, she never fills referrals out. If we ever got a referral from Mandy Truscott, we would know that it was a very, very serious thing because Mandy just does an excellent job at managing her classroom, keeping her kids engaged. As she mentioned, the growth that her students make is incredible. It's awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you talked about the growth. Tell me, what kind of growth do you see in students who have Mandy's class?
Aaron Hunter:
Yeah. An average student that takes Mrs. Truscott’s class on average makes about three years of growth in reading from beginning to end
Anthony Godfrey:
That's incredible. That's incredible. Awesome. So in addition to there being astronauts, it's a time travel situation as well. Yeah. Because you're making up for lost time.
Mandy Truscott:
Well, that's why we say like they've landed on grade level. They do this like jump and I was like, it's like a little hyper speed. They're in hyperdrive and they eventually can get there, but they have to put in the time and effort.
Anthony Godfrey:
So I'm excited to hear that you got this award, Mandy. Congratulations.
Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. It was really exciting.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your loot. What did you get as a part of this prize?
Mandy Truscott:
There was a thousand dollars to use in my classroom, which was really nice.
Anthony Godfrey:
Great.
Mandy Truscott:
We got tickets to the Jazz game. There were six of us. We gotta stay in the suite, which was really nice as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Mandy Truscott:
And a personalized Jazz jersey, so that was really exciting as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
Really?
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Mandy Truscott:
I know. My husband's like,’ let's frame it so you can put it in your classroom.’ And I think we might, cause I don't think I'm gonna be wearing it any time, so.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And you can sign the jersey for yourself.
Mandy Truscott:
There you go. I could do that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, you and I worked together a long time ago.
Mandy Truscott:
Yes. Very long.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. A very long time ago. Most of your career ago, I think. You're teaching reading?
Mandy Truscott:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about that. What do you love about teaching reading?
Mandy Truscott:
I love teaching reading. So I teach remedial reading. So they're kids that are not on grade level, but they don't qualify necessarily for resource services or special ed services. But they definitely still need some help to get caught up. So we kind of catch them, they get put in my class and then that's what we work on, just trying to get them up to proficient grade level.
Anthony Godfrey:
And I can't think of a teacher who would do a better job of making kids feel great about being in the class that is intended to help them catch up.
Mandy Truscott:
It's something they struggle with, so it's not their favorite class.
Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.
Mandy Truscott:
But I feel like they do, they do like the class. We have a good repertoire, we have a good relationship.
Anthony Godfrey:
I'm sure that part of the reward is seeing the impact on a student realizing they can do something they didn't think they were ever going to be good at.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. It's really exciting to see them make so much progress. So we have like this wall of fame, which you're not in the classroom so you can't see it, but we have this wall of fame where like the kids' names get on the board when they level up, when they increase in grade levels, when they get on grade level. We do a lot of incentives to try and motivate them to do that, and it's really exciting to see. So we always are just pushing them to get on grade level. That's our main purpose.
Anthony Godfrey:
Let's look, take us on a tour around your classroom. So I see amazing things happen here. And names of the kids that have landed on grade level.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah, so those are the students who at the beginning of the year were below grade level, but they have since reached all the benchmarks to prove that they are on grade level. And then we have four other sections in the classroom. So the first time they level up or the first time they go up one grade level, they get their name in the ‘I've leveled up one reading level’ column, and then there's a two reading levels, a three reading levels, and a four or more reading levels. And you can see there's 20 kids already who are on the four or more reading levels. I think that like the numbers may be a little misleading. I think some of those kids, they didn't try super hard on the initial assessment.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.
Mandy Truscott:
Which, you know, surprise, surprise. But they do see this progress. And even if they're making progress on lower levels or levels that may be a little bit below where they should be they're feeling success. And that initial success I think helps them for when they do start to encounter more challenging work and more challenging curriculum.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love how visual the progress is. Student progress is just right out there for everybody to see. And I have no doubt that it's motivating. Tell me about the planets or the moons that the astronauts have landed on, on this wall.
Mandy Truscott:
I tried to really focus on creating a class community. So I did this like a space theme this year. So we have a little planet up there. I don't know if you can see it very well, but it says JPJ 112. My classroom is room 112.
Anthony Godfrey:
Ah, nice.
Mandy Truscott:
So I told them that we are like a class colony and so each student in my class has a little astronaut on the board and in that astronaut, or on the moon I should say, below the astronaut, it lists information about them. So they gotta tell me who they are at the beginning of the year, and that was really helpful. They did that the very first week of school. So I didn't know them very well, but I was able to take that information and they also filled out like this little star cadet intake form that they filled out so I could learn more about them and what motivated them, what they disliked, anything they wanted to tell me basically.
Anthony Godfrey:
What have some of your themes been over the years?
Mandy Truscott:
Oh, besides my space theme? I did an emoji theme one year. But I really like the space theme. I think I'm gonna stick with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Might stay with it.
Mandy Truscott:
Okay. Yeah. So, we talked about how our learning objective is our mission objective. So we have that over here. Instead of the date, we put the star date.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, love that.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. Anyways, we did they have these reading response journals, but we call 'em mission log. So they write in their mission log.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yes.
Mandy Truscott:
They can earn passport stickers for reading different genres. So yeah, anyways, we kind of did this fun space theme. I kinda ran with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see a bit of a cat corner that has nothing to do with reading, necessarily.
Mandy Truscott:
Nothing to do with reading or with space, but I'm a little bit of a cat lady, so we have a little bit of a cat corner going on.
Anthony Godfrey:
I respect that. I respect that.
Mandy Truscott:
The kids will draw me pictures of cats occasionally.
Anthony Godfrey:
They know what you like. That’s a good thing.
Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. They know.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what was it that initially drew you to teaching?
Mandy Truscott:
I don't, it's kind of a weird story. I did not get my bachelor's degree in teaching. I got my bachelor's degree in political science and I was initially going to join the foreign service, is what I had wanted to do. I interned in DC in the Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. And I became interested in education doing that. And then I came back to Utah, which is where I'm from. And I started to substitute teach just to make a little bit of money and I liked it. And I got a job as a para. And then I decided to go back to school and get a graduate degree in education.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm very grateful to whoever was sick and needed you as a substitute.
Mandy Truscott:
It was a roundabout way of doing it, but I'm glad I did it. I feel like it was definitely meant to be, definitely what has become my passion and it became my passion really quickly. So I was a paraprofessional in a special education classroom, and so I initially did special education, I did that for eight years and then I transferred over to general ed and now doing remedial reading in general education.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, having worked with you many moons ago, it's no surprise to me that you won this award and I'm really glad to see that you're still teaching and these are some lucky kids.
Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear from Most Valuable Educator Charity Horne.
Break:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian? Commercial pilot? Programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant. These are just some of the programs offered as part of Career and Technical Education. CTE in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment or for a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and Technical Education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with the Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District visit cte.jordandistrict.org today and let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Mountain Point Elementary and we have Principal Elizabeth Felt here and Charity Horne, the Most Valuable Educator award winner. We're gonna talk with Charity about her experience, but first Elizabeth, tell me about Charity Horne as a teacher.
Elizabeth Felt:
I can't stop saying wonderful things about Charity. Charity is one of those bright lights here at Mountain Point. She is one of those teachers that goes above and beyond for every single student here in the building. She is well known by all of our parents. She is a cheerleader for everybody. She's in the hall constantly sharing just exciting things that are going on in her classroom. And when she goes out for bus duty, she's the most cheerful person out there. She is waving people down to get them down the lane to pull forward and people love it. They smile at her, which is a great thing.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now that is a remarkable accomplishment. I've worked the curb at elementary schools over the years. That is not a place where love is shared very much. So that's pretty exciting. And from the moment I walked in, I could tell the energy that she has.
Elizabeth Felt:
Absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey:
Charity, tell me about winning this award. How did all that come to be?
Charity Horne:
Well, I got an email and I thought it was spam and I thought, ‘Oh, this has to be a joke.’ So I responded and just said, ‘Hey, is this for real?’ And she responded and said, ‘Yes it is. And you were nominated by some parents for the award and one of the nominations stood out to us. So we chose you.’
Anthony Godfrey:
How nice to be nominated. Now, it's never fun to talk about yourself.
Charity Horne:
No.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what were some of the nominations? Elizabeth, did you get a chance to read those?
Elizabeth Felt:
No, I actually didn't because, like Charity, I thought it was spam. I hadn’t heard of it before.
Anthony Godfrey:
When you get an email that says you won and it has all these exclamation points, you do wonder.
Elizabeth Felt:
Yeah. So I remember debriefing with Charity in the hall and we're like, ‘Did you get this email?’ ‘Yeah, I got this email.’ ‘What do you think we should do?’ ‘Is this real?’ Yeah. And so then when we reached out and we were like,’ okay, I think they wanna do something. So I don't know what that looks like because they're not really sure what it looks like.’ So we're like, okay, well let's just go for a ride and it's gonna be great. We’ll see how it goes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you thought they were fake prizes at first?
Charity Horne:
Totally. Totally.
Anthony Godfrey:
But what were the real prizes that you ended up winning as a result?
Charity Horne:
Well, I earned a thousand dollars. And then I got to go to the Jazz game with my family and take my boys and we went and got in the suite. Then they gave me a Jazz jersey and the Jazz Bear came to our school and recognized me on stage.
Anthony Godfrey:
A personalized Jazz jersey from what I've heard.
Charity:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And what's the Jazz bear like close up?
Charity Horne:
He is fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?
Charity Horne:
Yeah. Yeah. He messed with my hair.
Anthony Godfrey:
Does he smell kind of earthy?
Charity Horne:
Ah, you know, I was so nervous. I didn't notice.
Anthony Godfrey:
So they honored you on the floor during a Jazz game?
Charity Horne:
Yes. They honored me on the floor during the Jazz game as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's pretty exciting.
Charity Horne:
It was so awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me what grade you teach first of all.
Charity Horne:
First grade. I teach first grade.
Anthony Godfrey:
First grade. That's awesome. What do you love about teaching first grade?
Charity Horne:
Honestly, just the innocence of the kids. They're just, they're so excited to be here. They're so excited. They just love you no matter what, you know? And they don't judge you. I mean, you cannot comb your hair and it won't matter. You know, adults tend to judge.
Anthony Godfrey:
But they notice everything about you too don’t they?
Charity Horne:
They do. They notice it all. They do. And I'm like, you know what? It's okay. I didn't do, my hair today. Okay, Mrs. Horne
Anthony Godfrey:
So did they ever say ‘What's wrong, Mrs. Horne?’ when you thought you were covering it up?
Charity Horne:
No, but they have pointed out blemishes or zits or anything that's wrong with you.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you have to go in ready a little bit?
Charity Horne:
A little bit, yeah. But they don't care. I mean, they're just, they're excited to be here.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Now how long have you taught first grade?
Charity Horne:
I've been teaching first grade for six years. This is my sixth year in first grade. And I've taught two years of second grade.
Anthony Godfrey:
So two years of second grade, six years of first grade. How many hugs does that equal over those years?
Charity Horne:
Millions.
Anthony Godfrey:
Millions of hugs.
Charity Horne:
It’s a lot of hugs.
Anthony Godfrey:
That is the good part.
Charity Horne:
Because they move on, but they still love you, so they still come back and hug you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so it's not just the hugs when they're there.
Charity Horne:
No.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's the after-hugs.
Charity Horne:
Yeah. That's my older students.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's pretty exciting.
Charity Horne:
It's awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to someone who's thinking about teaching elementary school?
Charity Horne:
Honestly, it's a hard job, but you have to have, your heart's gotta be in it. You gotta wanna make a difference and you gotta love helping little kids.
Anthony Godfrey:
What's one of your favorite things to teach in first grade?
Charity Horne:
I like teaching math.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?
Charity Horne:
Math.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the math skills that first graders are learning right now?
Charity Horne:
Adding and subtracting within 20, learning to make a 10, regroup.
Anthony Godfrey:
Regrouping. Yeah. I try to regroup as much as I can. It's good.
Charity Horne:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's a good skill to have.
Charity Horne:
It's a good skill to have.
Anthony Godfrey:
What drew you to teaching initially?
Charity Horne:
Well, I graduated with education and back then, it was too much work, so I was like, ‘I'm not gonna be a teacher. There's no way. It's so much work.’ But so, and quickly after that, I got pregnant with twins. So my life changed to mommy mode and I ended up opening up a daycare and was gonna do a tumbling studio, and all these different branches of life going different directions. And when my daycare kids had kind of moved on and I decided to look at the school and just see if there was a part-time aide position. And I got hired as a math aide. And my Principal at the time, Mandy Thurman, called me and said, ‘Hey, I hired you as a math aide, but I talked to the district about reactivating your license. I really need teachers. What do you think? I think you'd be great.’ And thought about it. And it was just a gut feeling that it was something I needed to do. So I did it and it was a thousand times harder than it was back then.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it does get harder over time.
Charity Horne:
It does get harder over time, but I think that that hard work just makes you a better person and a better teacher. You'll learn from mistakes, you'll learn from positives, you learn from everything and you just become better. So one of the things I love, I came up with it a couple of years ago. I had heard another teacher was doing it and I thought it was phenomenal, but teaching kids that they can do hard things. And so I came up with a motto that I wanted them to say every morning. And it goes, ‘I can do hard things. I know if I think positive, work hard, and try my best, I will succeed. I believe in myself, I can do anything.’ And it's kind of one of those things that I want them to know. Know that like even in life, not just first grade, life gets hard sometimes. And if you work hard and you just do the best you can, you know you're gonna succeed.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And I'll bet they remember it years later.
Charity Horne:
I have kids, a girl that I taught in first grade at Riverton Elementary goes to school here, I think she's in sixth grade and she's like, ‘Hey Mrs. Horne, how are you? I remember our motto.’ So she still remembers it.
Anthony Godfrey:
And then she recites it for you.
Charity Horne:
Yeah. Well, it was funny cuz I actually went running with one of my first grade parents. And we were going around the track and I hate running, I hate cardio. And so I'm just like, ‘I can't do this.’ And she's like, ‘I can do hard things.’ So we just started running and we were doing the motto. She was like, ‘See, it works for adults too.’ So I just think it's a strong quality that I have just for anybody. Like you can do it. You know, our first reaction is sometimes, ah, that's too hard. I can't do it. But if you just learn that you can do whatever you put your mind to, if you keep working on it, you'll get it.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. I would assume that as a first grade teacher, you get to see a ton of progress.
Charity Horne:
Absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey:
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
Charity Horne:
That's probably one of my favorite things about first grade, I feel like I do such incredible work. Because if you look at their beginning of the year tests and handwriting and writing journals, and then you go to the end and I'm like, holy cow. I taught them. You know, as a team, we work together to teach narrative, informative, and opinion writing. They can add and subtract. They're just, they're just bright little humans.
Anthony Godfrey:
A school supervisor showed me the other day, what a first grade student had done over the course of the year. They were so excited for the progress they'd made. And they showed, you know, the writing that they did at the beginning of the year and the writing they're doing now. And it's really cool to see, this huge progress kids make.
Charity Horne:
It’s incredible. They make a ton of progress. And even with reading, I mean, they're barely connecting those sounds and letters and putting 'em together. And by the end, they're reading full passages.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for spending the time, and most of all, thanks for everything you do to help create a great experience for these first graders.
Charity Horne:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
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