Jordan Supercast

By Jordan SupercastEducation Self-Improvement Kids & Family Education for Kids

Jordan Supercast episodes

November 10, 2021 Episode 112: Spanish DLI Students Mark Important Day with Opening of Museum
It was a moving celebration of Dia de los Muertos created, in part, by Spanish Dual Language Immersion Classes at Riverside Elementary School. On this episode of the Supercast, Superintendent Godfrey takes you inside the temporary Dia de los Muertos museum which was organized by 3rd grade teacher Kathy Wride. Find out how students were able to honor family members, including pets who have passed away, by creating altars for them.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was a moving celebration of Dia de Los Muertos created in part by Spanish Dual Language Immersion classes at Riverside Elementary School. On this episode of the Supercast, we go inside the temporary Dia de Los Muertos museum organized by third grade teacher, Kathy Wride. Find out how students were able to honor family members, including pets, who have passed away by creating altars for them.
We are here at Riverside Elementary with Kathy Wride to talk about her Dia de Los Muertos activity. And this is something that's been going on for a while. Is that right?
Kathy Wride:
Yeah. Seven years.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Introduce yourself a little bit and tell us about this activity.
Kathy Wride:
I've been in the Spanish Immersion program since I started about seven years ago. My first year at Riverside, I wanted to bring forth culture, and what better way than to celebrate Day of the Dead and to actually introduce something that is celebrated in a Hispanic culture. That is also why we are a Spanish Immersion school. So this is my baby for the last seven years.
Anthony Godfrey:
So we're standing in the gym right now. We have some music in the background that you can hear, and there is a wall of artwork that the students have put together. But there's also row after row of displays that students have created, and it's really amazing. You have the lights dimmed and it creates a wonderful atmosphere in here. Tell me about Day of the Dead and how all of this works.
Kathy Wride:
Well, the Day of the Dead is celebrated November 1st and 2nd in Mexico and Latin American countries. It's very highly emphasized, more in Mexico. They have a big celebration in their towns and villages and everything. This is just something to celebrate those that have departed. It can be individuals, it can be also pets that have passed away. We do have quite a few, because pets are part of a family. So it's celebrated as celebrating their life. It has nothing to do with death. We recognize, we remember the loved ones that have passed on. It's just something beautiful that they do in Latin American countries and we brought it here to Riverside.
Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk about the wall over here. Let's walk over and take a look at the artwork there.
Kathy Wride:
The wall is just the Calaveras. It’s just a very big symbol that represents the actual person that has passed, or like I said, a pet that has passed. It’s just a representation, like a symbol of life of what they used to be. We don't do any dark colors. It's very pink, orange, all the bright colors you can possibly do. Then it just emphasizes the culture and just the life that the person or pet had.
Anthony Godfrey:
So it's really a celebration.
Kathy Wride:
It's totally a celebration, nothing sad about it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So are there any of these that you can give me any additional detail about?
Kathy Wride:
No. With the movie Coco that came out a few years ago, that actually helped introduce Day of the Dead a little bit more to parents. They were actually able to understand what it was. So that's why I connected with Coco, the movie. Parents were like, “Oh wow! Yes, this is great.” They get involved, they start sharing. But the art is just their interpretation, like a student's interpretation of what a Calavera would be. So their colors, they picked. The only thing they're told: don't black, no dark colors, just bring life to your calavera.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Very good. So there's the Calavera, which is the skull. I see that they're decorating in various ways with various designs. So the skull is a part of it.
Kathy Wride:
Yes, a very big part.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are there any other instructions beyond that? Just no dark colors, no black.
Kathy Wride:
No dark colors, just have fun with it. Just colors that will represent the person that you're thinking about.
Anthony Godfrey:
And it represents a specific individual.
Kathy Wride:
Whoever they're thinking about that moment or pet, depending on who they're doing it on.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about the other component.
Kathy Wride:
The altars, los altares, all have ofrendas on them. Ofrendas can be from objects to food. It's pretty much anything that the individual or the pet liked while they were living.
Anthony Godfrey:
We have a picture of a father and daughter, it looks like.
Kathy Wride:
You can tell right away just by looking at it, he loves popcorn. He likes eggs and bacon and he loves cars and he was a handy person because he has tools on there. There's a lot of race car things on there. Pizza was one of his favorite things. So actually, you can kind of tell a lot on the altar.
Anthony Godfrey:
I don't know either one and it's very touching just to see that.
Kathy Wride:
Yeah. They go all out, with individuals, with pets, you see like their favorite toy. Like we have one over here. This was a little kitten, his name is Whiskers. You can see, he loved playing with string with the little toy ball and the little fluffy mouse and there's even some cat food. We have pictures of course of the animal.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. Whiskers looks like a bit of a rascal.
Kathy Wride:
Yeah, and you learn a lot about the person that has passed because everything that's on the altar is something that symbolizes and represents that person.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the reactions you've seen from students as they have gone through this process of creating the altar?
Kathy Wride:
The best thing that I've actually heard from parents is that they appreciate doing this with their students because they're able to bring history back. Something that maybe the student at the time didn't know, a loved one they didn't really get to meet. They're like, “oh, tell me more.” The first two years I did this, there were tears. It was just the joy of having this, just being able to spend family time together. That has been the biggest thing that I've been told. ‘Thank you for letting me share my history with my child. Thank you for letting us bring back a loved one.’ So this has just been able to connect parents with their students. Just being able to bring back a little bit of family history.
Anthony Godfrey:
So sometimes they're creating an altar for someone they may not have met either.
Kathy Wride:
Absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. It's clear just looking over this, that a lot of thought and love and hard work has gone into creating some very touching memorials.
Kathy Wride:
Yeah, honestly, I get super emotional just because I love seeing the connections it has with the parents.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.
Kathy Wride:
This year we asked the dual immersion teachers to make an altar. I have one and another English immersion teacher did one and she's fantastic. The teachers were able to share with their students some personal things about themselves. Mine's right here. It's very simple, but it tells a lot about my poor dog that decided to pass away because cancer took him away. I was able to remember him and I spoke to my students about him. Then there's another one over here. This is from another teacher. She was able to share with her students in Spanish, because she's one of our Spanish immersion teachers as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
These are pictures of her parents I assume.
Kathy Wride:
I'm assuming those are grandparents. So she was able to create one and the students got to know a little bit more about her family. It just creates connections, not just with family, but with teachers and their students.
Anthony Godfrey:
So there are connections with those who've passed, but also with the friends around you who can support you now that they know you a little bit better and they know who you've lost and what your connection is to them. I love yours with the picture of Einstein over the top. That's a great picture of your dog having a great time in the snow.
Kathy Wride:
I choke up because I don't get sad. I was pregnant with my last daughter, my last child, and I have a picture. One of the last things that I took of him by my side when I was pregnant, and he would just cuddle with me. So I share that with my kids and then we just remember him and remember the best times.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's a great lesson to students to remember the good times and to really empathize with what other people have been through.
Kathy Wride:
You just feel a love. This is all about love. You feel them, you can feel that family connection, you can feel who this person or who this pet was, what a difference they made in your life. Whether it's for the student themselves or for their parents or their grandparents, things like that. So there's just that connection that I love.
Anthony Godfrey:
What an immersive, important learning opportunity. This is incredible.
Stay with us. When we come back, students talk about the altars they created to honor family members who've passed, including beloved pets.
Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
Is this every grade 1st through 6th?
Kathy Wride:
Yes, 1st-6th. We have some kindergartners that decided to do it, and we also have a preschooler that did it as well, but we have first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. So it's just amazing, like just the detail that goes into all their altares.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, and when they know that they're doing it year to year, then they're probably thoughtful over the course of the year, about who am I going to honor? What am I going to do this time?
Kathy Wride:
Yes. Sometimes they even use the same one, but they add another detail they may have found out and they're like, ‘oh, this is great.’ You know? So it's just cool to see, it's amazing to see.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the connection just deepens over time.
Kathy Wride:
For sure. It's amazing.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's really something. With COVID and everything that's been going on, does this take on a greater significance?
Kathy Wride:
Absolutely. We do have some altars that are of individuals that have passed because of COVID. So instead of remembering the sad part of COVID, they remember the person's life and it just creates, like I said, a bigger bond. It helps you remember the good, not when they were sick, not when they were ready to go. It just helps you reconnect with the person.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's interesting because even though I have no connection to anyone represented here, I'm thinking about my own family, my friends and my pets, and it makes you cherish what you have. Thank you so much.
Tell me your name.
Abby:
I’m Abby.
Anthony Godfrey:
Abby, what grade are you in?
Abby:
Sixth grade.
Anthony Godfrey:
Will you tell me about your altar and who you honored?
Abby:
So I'm honoring my great, great grandpa Howard. He worked at an oil field, he made spinning wheels and stuff like that. He made the newspaper a lot for making all of his spinning wheels.
Anthony Godfrey:
What's something you learned about him that you didn't know before this project?
Abby:
I didn't know he made his own spinning wheels.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really unique talent. Where did you get the idea to honor him?
Abby:
My parents and I were just thinking about him.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you feel a connection to him that you didn't feel before?
Abby:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
It looks really good. What did you make here? What is that?
Abby:
That’s an oil field. It's an oil tank because he worked there.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the spinning wheel was on the side in addition to his work?
Abby:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you have a picture of him and it looks really nice an article about him too. Oh, that's exciting. Well, thank you very much. Great work.
Tell me your name.
Ellie:
I'm Ellie.
Anthony Godfrey:
Ellie, tell me about your altar.
Ellie:
This is my dad's uncle, Rick. I think he died a couple of months ago and I never actually got to know him very well. He owned horses and he and my dad would go and ride all the time. I never have seen his horses, but it's really cool to hear about. I was told that he really loved pie. He liked all kinds of pie and he loved fishing. He would just go all out with the outdoor stuff. And because I didn't know him very well, I don't understand it all, but I do think that he was one of my dad's biggest role models in his life.
Anthony Godfrey:
What did you think of just doing this project in general?
Ellie:
At first I didn't really care for it very much, but every year you keep doing it, and the more it ends up kind of like meaning something to you. I did a different person or a pet every year and it just became really special.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's wonderful. Well, great work. It looks really nice and I'm sure your dad is proud and I'm sure it meant a lot to your dad. Okay. Thank you very much.
Tell me your name,
Audrey:
Audrey
Anthony Godfrey:
Audrey, talk to me about your altar.
Audrey:
This was my great grandfather Stanley Jones. He had his own construction company. He really liked York Peppermint Patties. He used to do carpet cleaning before he did construction, and he really liked animals.
Anthony Godfrey:
Who are some of the other people that you honored?
Audrey:
My mom had a friend who’s son died of a brain tumor, so I did him. I've done my grandma and my grandpa and my great grandma.
Anthony Godfrey:
Very nice. Well, obviously it's had an impact on you and I really appreciate your talking with me about the altar. All right, thanks. Great job.
Tell me your name.
Sofia:
Sofia
Anthony Godfrey:
Sofia, talk to me about the altar. Who are you honoring here?
Sofia:
So this is my grandma. Her name is Grandma Beryl. She's my dad's grandma and my great-grandma. She died the day after Mother's Day, this Mother's Day. She really liked chocolate.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah? Do you like chocolate as well?
Sofia:
Sometimes it depends on the type.
Anthony Godfrey:
Not as much as she did though. Huh. Obviously she just passed away recently, so you know her.
Sofia:
We would usually go to her house for family dinners. I think she had four sons.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do you know about her because of this project?
Sofia:
I learned that she hated peaches, but she would can them every year for her husband because her husband loved peaches.
Anthony Godfrey:
So she hated peaches, but loved her husband. Oh, that's really cool. So what do you think about this project?
Sofia:
It's really fun because you get to learn a lot of things about your ancestors and it's a fun way to just learn.
Anthony Godfrey:
Who are some of the other people you've honored over the years?
Sofia 5:
I think I honored my dad's great grandpa and the wife of his great-grandfather.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Well that looks really nice. I love the roses and the circle around the picture of her face. Is that a picture of you and her in the heart there?
Sofia:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I really like that. And the candles that you have lit electronically they're on top of the altar and the beautiful designs on those candle holders. Is this a project that you'll remember after elementary school?
Sofia:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. It's had an impact on you. Okay. Thank you very much for talking with me about that. That's very cool. Thank you.
Thanks for joining us on the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
19 min
November 04, 2021 Episode 111: A Clay Pot Creation in Art Class with Superintendent Godfrey
She is bringing out the inner artist in young students with creativity and confidence. On this episode of the Supercast, we meet an amazing visual arts teacher at Westvale Elementary School helping students realize their potential by engaging them in art projects that are fun and exciting. Find out what happens when Superintendent Godfrey gets his hands on some clay in the class.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She's bringing out the inner artist in young students with creativity and confidence. On this episode of the Supercast, we meet an amazing visual arts teacher at Westvale Elementary School, helping students realize their potential and possibilities by engaging them in art projects that are both fun and exciting. We're here with Mrs. Rachel Henderson, who is the visual arts educator for Westvale Elementary. Thanks for spending time with us today.
Rachel Henderson:
Thanks for coming, appreciate it.
Anthony Godfrey:
The reason I'm here is because I was at the school for some other reasons, walking around, and I saw your room. I couldn't resist it and I wanted to know more about it. So we're back and I just want to find out, first of all, tell us a little bit about your background in coming to this position. Then let's talk about what you do here and why it's so important.
Rachel Henderson:
Okay, great. So I have my degree in fine arts, so I have a BFA. I got that in Idaho and moved here with my husband's job. When you get your kids into the school system, they ask you to come and do PTA. So we do PTA. They ask you to come volunteer. So I did all those things. Then all of a sudden they're like, “Hey, you have a teaching degree, come teach for us.” So it kind of just fell into my lap. I've been teaching art here for about eight years now. My degree is in secondary, but I have a certification for elementary. So they hired me through the BTS, Beverley Taylor Sorenson Learning Arts Program. They hired me through that program, which is amazing. I've been doing it ever since, and I just love it the best job ever. I can't think of anything I'd rather do.
Anthony Godfrey:
The BTS program is really exciting because it has allowed us to expand the art offerings, performing and visual, in all of our elementary schools so that everyone has a specialist or a teacher that can help out. I love your enthusiasm for it. Your enthusiasm is obvious as you look around the classroom. There is not a square inch that isn't covered with something related to art, and yet it all feels very calm and very inviting. Can you tell me a little bit about what you have up around the classroom here to draw kids in?
Rachel Henderson:
So I figure you better be, you know, inspired by the art room. I've got hard work cut out for me. So I just like to make it colorful. I want it happy. No matter what's going on with the kids during the day, I want them to come into the art room and be happy. Kind of have that aha moment like, ‘oh, I can breathe. I can relax. I can just be’. So the happier I can make it the better. The more inspiring I can make it the better. So color to me is the obvious choice. We take advantage of the rainbow for sure.
Anthony Godfrey:
Everything is color-coded and there are lots of messages that jump out. One of them, ‘The growth mindset versus the fixed mindset’. I suppose you probably run into that when teaching art. “I'm not an artist, so I don't, you know, I'm not good at art.” How do you address that?
Rachel Henderson:
So our first project, this year, addresses that head on. We did a little project by Peter Reynolds, The Dot. It's about a little girl who's very, very unsure of herself. Doesn't think she's an artist. Doesn't think she can draw or do anything. Her teacher just gives her great advice and says, 'make a mark and see where it goes.' Our whole job is to really just give them a creative environment for them to let their creativity show through. So I'm not saying 'this is the next step, this is the next step.' I want to see what they can create by giving them some inspiration around the room, by showing them a few techniques, showing them different supplies. I love to put art supplies in front of kids that have never had them before. So they can explore, they can create, and then they discover what they like and what they want to make. So really it's just about letting them show me what they can create. Giving them the freedom and the space to do that in.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. Part of what's fun for me is that you get the material in front of you. Whether it's clay or a watercolor crayon or whatever else. There's an instant impact from what you've done. You've created something right off the bat and you want to hone it and you want to improve it, but there's an impact. There's a sense of efficacy right away and not everything we do during the day has that. But art does offer that sense of efficacy and the sense of playfulness and creativity. I like the way you described that. Ken Robinson talked about an industrial approach to education versus an agricultural approach. The agricultural, creating that fertile atmosphere for learning and creativity. I love that you've created that fertile atmosphere. Like you say, you put the materials in front, you create this great environment and then you allow them to express themselves.
Rachel Henderson:
Exactly. That's the goal anyway.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the materials that you have around here. First of all, yarn, paper plates, glue. I wish my entire life were as organized as your room is.
Rachel Henderson:
We’ve got a little of everything. Everyone else's trash is the art room's treasure. We can make a project out of almost anything. So that's another plus in my job is to expose the kids to more than just paper and pencil, right? We get to explore a little bit more.
Anthony Godfrey:
I've never seen quite an array of not only paintbrushes, I think you have every size of paintbrush and foam paintbrush I can imagine, but you have like nine colors of tape as well.
Rachel Henderson:
We do. We make good use of all the colors around us, right? We'll incorporate that in one project or another.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear from some students about their canvas in the classroom.
Break:
Do you simply love learning online? We can't wait to have you join the amazing teachers in our brand new Jordan Virtual Learning Academy. In Jordan Virtual Learning Academy schools, we offer innovative, fun and flexible online learning with daily, real-time instruction from teachers. Enrollment is currently open for all K-12 students in Utah. Start on the path to personalized virtual learning success now at http://connect.jordandistrict.org. That’s connect.jordandistrict.org.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your names and what grade are you in? You're both in sixth grade? Okay, cool. What are you working on here?
Student #1:
These are like dots from the book. It talks about the dot and you can make anything with just a blank piece of paper.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what are you making with your blank piece of paper?
Student #1:
Types of like balls and like shapes in them.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So what do you have here? What is this? Describe this to me.
Student #2:
So it's supposed to be a baseball. So I did the Xs first in a white crayon, and then I put red over it for the like side streaks, and then I put white in the background.
Anthony Godfrey:
Why did you choose a baseball?
Student #2:
Because it's one of my friend's favorite sports.
Anthony Godfrey:
How did you get these Xs? You did that with a white crayon in advance?
Student #2:
Yeah.
Student #1:
That's how I did the flower and the star.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So you did the flower and star the same way? What are some of the favorite projects that you remember doing?
Student #1:
In third grade, a turtle, like a clay turtle.
Anthony Godfrey:
You remember making a clay turtle back in third grade huh? Tell me about the clay turtle.
Student #1:
We sculpted it, then we created it and colored on it. And we made a habitat.
Anthony Godfrey:
You made a habitat too? Where does your turtle live? What kind of habitat? Was it a city turtle or a country turtle?
Student #1:
Country.
Anthony Godfrey:
Country turtle. So you made a pond? What was the pond made out of?
Student #1:
Paper and like Sharpies.
Anthony Godfrey:
Hmm. What's your favorite project?
Student #2:
Definitely when we did our portrait, like half of our face.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you did a portrait that was half of your face. So like a profile? What medium did you use? Was that a pastel, gouache, watercolor?
Rachel Henderson:
I think we did, was it crayon? Was it crayon and then watercolor crayon, and then colored pencil. We used a little bit of everything, right?
Anthony Godfrey:
What's a watercolor crayon?
Student #2:
It's like a normal crayon, except when you color it and then you put water over it and then it kind of looks like paint.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are there any of those around that we could check out? All right. We're going to check out a watercolor crayon. What did you like about your portrait?
Student #2:
How we got to like, like everything about it. It was really fun to make.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you still have it?
Student #2:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Where did you put it?
Student #2:
Up in my room.
Anthony Godfrey:
When you said, “yeah”, it's like, well, obviously I still had it. Yes. So you have it up in your room. What other work do you have in your room from this class?
Student #2:
It was in third grade when we did the equations. Where you had to make up an equation and you had to kind of like disguise it, but they had to try to guess the equation that you did.
Anthony Godfrey:
So did you start with an equation and then make it into an image? Or how did that work?
Student #2:
So you came up with an image or not an image, an equation, like a multiplication equation. Cause we were in like third grade, so you always multiply. So you choose the numbers, you write them. Well, you wouldn't fully write them down, but you would like make them into something else other than the actual number. Then you'd have to go through the entire paper doing like, let's say you did two, then you'd have to do how you did the two the same way down the paper. So they have to kind of like, guess the equation that you did.
Rachel Henderson:
Do you want to show him how these work, guys?
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Let's see how those watercolor crayons work. I think you kids call it a mashup. Is that correct? Combining those two things. Oh no, you didn't have to do it on that work of art, but is it feeling right? Does it feel right to add it to that one right there? Okay. Good.
Student #2:
So you color in whatever you're coloring in.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Do you mind if I tried a little bit just to see if it feels like your regular crayon, am I going to mess it up? All right. Let me know if I go astray. I'm pushing a little bit hard to start with. So it feels maybe it resists a little bit more than a normal crayon, a little more drag,
Student #2:
A little nicer.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good color. Okay. Keep going. Sorry. I got carried away. I kept coloring once I got started.
Student #2:
So after you color the whole thing in where you want it to be colored in.
Anthony Godfrey:
It just looks like crayon so far.
Student #2:
Yeah. And then you go
Anthony Godfrey:
There’s some white paper showing through. Are you going to color it all the way to that end too? Or do you need to?
Student #2:
Yeah, in a second.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Sorry. I got in the way of your process. Go ahead.
Student #2:
Then you take water and it will start like going together.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, I like that. So it kind of blends as you've just put the water over there. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Now it doesn't make a totally solid color yet. Now you use this for your portraits, huh? That's nice. I can see that working out nicely.
Student #2:
We did like a cityscape and it was like where you were looking up at like tall buildings. Then we would color these in and then we would paint them with water.
Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of different colors of the buildings. Okay. You have a really interested me in this turtle project, can you show me a couple of those methods that they learn in first and second grade?
Rachel Henderson:
Here is our clay bin and we have colored clay. I usually get them going with white. Little pouch, just perfect for little hands so that they can also paint it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Can we try it with big hands?
Rachel Henderson:
Yes, absolutely. No, you're great. You just tear it open.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now these are all for those listening and these are all single serving packs of clay.
Rachel Henderson:
Perfect. For little hands.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right, Crayola Model Magic. Bust it open. It is great because it's nice and soft. All right. Well, let's see. I'm going to pull up a brightly colored stool, even the stools are color coded. Okay. So tell me what's one of the methods that you teach them in first or second grade, that would help me make a turtle.
Rachel Henderson:
In first and second grade, we learned how to do things like pinch pots. Exactly what you're doing with the clay right now. You're working it with your hands. You're working it with your fingertips, pinching it, getting that sticky feeling gone so it can make a shape.
Anthony Godfrey:
I just started doing that, I couldn’t resist it. It feels good.
Rachel Henderson:
It is. It’s very tactile. Kids want to do it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Plus, nobody else touched it. It's only mine.
Rachel Henderson:
It’s purely yours. Everyone gets their own. They don't have to share.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right. So now I've kind of kneaded it a little bit and played with it. So what happens next?
Rachel Henderson:
The thing about clay, the thing I love the most is that it's so forgiving, right? If we make a mistake with clay, guess what you do? You roll it back into a ball and you get to start over. There's no tears. Everything can be redone. It's all okay.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. I'll bet you do encounter some tears when a project isn’t going just this way and ‘oh no, I messed up.’
Rachel Henderson:
We’ve got some perfectionists with us for sure.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good lesson too. How do you fix the mistake?
Rachel Henderson:
That’s a lot of over time saying, “It’s all about the process. Not so much about a beautiful finished product, but the process. What did you learn? How did you feel when you were making this? Was it a good experience?” And 9 times out of 10 it is.
Anthony Godfrey:
Another great lesson that transfers to other classes and to life in general. So I've pinched.
Rachel Henderson:
So roll it into a ballI. Roll it into a ball and we'll do a simple pinch pot.
Anthony Godfrey:
Should I roll it against the table? Is that the best way to do it?
Rachel Henderson:
You can do either one. I have the kids roll it on the table, they roll it in their hands. That way, if they have this supply at home, they can do it at home.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Now I'm feeling perfectionist because it's feeling more like a 20 sided die than like a round piece.
Rachel Henderson:
We say all the time, there's no perfect in art, right? There's no perfect in art. Perfection does not exist. We do not strive for it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So if there's no perfect, then you are excused from trying to pursue that. Right?
Rachel Henderson:
Right. Then you're free to just work and try your hardest. So we have a ball and now the essence of a pinch pot is to take your thumb and just push right in almost making a small donut. Right. You don't go all the way through the clay. You just make that round little circle. And then, because it's called a pinch pot, we take the ends of our fingers and we just start pinching. We start pinching and pulling and pinching and pulling. We're making a circular shape and we're working the clay up as we go. And from time to time, we'll get saucers that are flat, that don't keep the shape. So we show them little techniques. I'll show you.
Anthony Godfrey:
I've got a little bubble forming.
Rachel Henderson:
There's different things with the clay that you can do. So if you're like, ‘oh, this is more of a bowl, not a pot.’ I can say, let's fold it back in. Let's make it more upright. Let's fold it back in. Like I said, clay’s very forgiving, right? We can always smooth things out later. Hold your hand in a cupping shape. Use the end of the table to make a nice lip. There are lots of little tricks you can do. We don't even need any tools for this. This is just our hands. We're going around and around. If we wanted to add maybe a stem or if we wanted to add a handle, we could pull some clay off there and do that. But then at the end we dry them upright, so they're little domes. Then the following week, they come back and they get to paint them. So that's a very simple project. And this actually, incidentally is the shell for our turtle. So skills that they learned way back when we utilize again, when they come back for third grade.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I think it's great that first, second and third grade, there's this progression of skills. And that the sixth graders we talked to remembered the turtle as their very favorite project right off the bat.
Rachel Henderson:
It’s a favorite for sure.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's really cool. Okay. Well, um, what is the fate of my turtle? I guess I will just smash him back into the clay from whence he came.
Rachel Henderson:
The beauty of clay. Roll back into a ball, put it in a bag and you can come back to it another time.
Anthony Godfrey:
That this feels really good. When you had it in your hands showing me stuff, I kind of wanted it back. Because it's quite fun.
Rachel Henderson:
Very relaxing.
Anthony Godfrey:
Very nice. All right. I'm going to put it back in your package here. What ideas do you have for parents who may want to incorporate more art in their kids' lives or give them more of a creative outlet at home?
Rachel Henderson:
This was really apparent when we went on soft closure, right? We had lots of kiddos that were like, ‘wait a minute, Ms. Henderson, I don't have clay at my house. I don't have watercolor crayons at my house.’ And I assured them, there were numerous things we did online with pencil and paper. If you could just give your children pencil and paper, and time, and a space. I've noticed that if there was a designated spot in the house or a designated space for them, they felt more free to create. Rather than cluttered with everything else. So if you just give them a little space, paper, and pencil, there is no end to what they can do.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for letting me get a little taste of what the kids get to experience here. It's obviously a great experience for them and an important part of their education here at Westvale. So thanks again.
Rachel Henderson:
Thank you. Appreciate you coming.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
19 min
October 28, 2021 Episode 110: Brand New Literacy Program Helping Students Read & Succeed
It is an entirely new approach to teaching students how to read and succeed. On this episode of the Supercast, find out how Jordan School District’s Literacy Launch program is already helping students learn to read at higher levels than ever before. The results we are seeing in the classroom is bringing some teachers to tears, beyond excited about student success.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is an entirely new approach to teaching students how to read and succeed. On this episode of the Supercast, find out how Jordan School District's Literacy Launch program is already helping students learn to read at higher levels than ever before. The results we're seeing in the classroom are bringing some teachers to tears, beyond excited about their student success. We're talking with Mandy Thurman and Michelle Lovell about literacy and our Literacy Launch in Jordan School District. There's nothing I'm more excited about. Tell me how it's going. First of all, we started this piloting last year. Just tell us where we are right now. How does it feel?
Michelle Lovell:
Well, we are really excited about the progress that we've made. And as far as we know, every school in Jordan School District has jumped in. Every elementary school has jumped in and already started in this process. And we're hearing great things from schools.
Anthony Godfrey:
We certainly are, and I'm hearing a lot of positives as well. It's a lot of hard work. Teachers are putting in a ton of effort. Our coaches are working really hard. We have our administrators on board and part of the effort as well. And we also have a lot of ESP employees or our classroom assistants who are involved in helping provide support. So everyone's diving in and working really hard and great things are already happening, even though the training district-wide only started a few months ago, this last summer.
Mandy Thurman:
Right, we trained nearly 1200 teachers, every K-6th grade teacher received two full days of training. We wanted them to really understand the why of everything that we were doing, the data that led us to this decision, and then what it was that would look different in their classrooms this year. I think teachers were nervous at first and had a lot of anxiety. But, like Michelle said, they've just jumped right in, given it a try, and now we're really hearing positive things from them.
Anthony Godfrey:
What I keep hearing is just how connected people feel to the program once they see the results from even just the initial implementation of what's been put in place.
Michelle Lovell:
I have been visiting with several of our schools just recently. What we've been hearing is most of them are in at least the first or second cycles of instruction. They're seeing kids move and change, gain skills. We're just seeing some excitement happening in the District.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now, the training happened this summer, as you described, it was two in-person days, one day of virtual instruction and then a day just to work with your team or independently to be ready to implement the program this year. You talked about the intervention cycles. That's a 15 day cycle. Tell me what that looks like for a student. What happens at the beginning? What happens during that cycle? And then what happens right before the next one is in place?
Mandy Thurman:
So we start with the Acadience information that we get. That's our statewide assessment that we use in Kindergarten through 3rd grade, and we're also now starting to use fourth through sixth grade. We use that information to identify students who might have some struggles with reading. From there, we do more diagnostic testing and both phonological awareness and phonics to really identify what skills it is that each individual student needs. Then teachers work as an entire grade level, not just individual classes, but they group those students on the grade level, according to the very targeted, specific skill that each student needs. Then for a 30 minute window of time, every day, during that 15 day cycle, they receive really targeted, specific instruction on the skill that they need. After those 15 days, we re-look at the data, we reassess the kids and then we regroup them based on what they need at that point in time. So it's very fluid. Kids are constantly moving and growing and then moving into the new groups that they need.
Anthony Godfrey:
What I love about that is first of all, that it's targeted instruction that is matched up with the exact skills that the student needs to improve in. The other is that it's on a regular basis, that students are regrouped and assigned based on the skills that they still need. In the past, students have been assigned to a group for a very long period of time and really couldn't essentially test their way out of that group and increase their skills once they were ready to do that. So I love that things are moving so quickly for students and they're able to advance as a result. Tell me a little bit about what parents should be watching for with their students who are in elementary.
Michelle Lovell:
So there may be some changes that parents see. One of those changes will be that they won't see a guided reading level come home. Kids are no longer grouped by a level of the alphabet. So we used to say, kids are reading on a level F or a level J, but now the students are grouped based on a needed skill. So a teacher may say to parents, your student is working on learning the long vowel, silent E pattern in reading, or your student is learning long vowel patterns, long vowel teams, or learning how to break apart multisyllabic words. So it's more targeted instruction.
The other thing that parents may see is a difference in spelling. They may not get a traditional spelling test where kids just memorize a list of unrelated words, because we know that's not the most effective way to teach spelling. Instead, kids will learn word patterns so that they can spell any word that has that word pattern. So it will be a little bit of a shift and some things that parents can really do to help support their kids, one teacher put it, I think so beautifully. She said, “we need to be the tour guides of the world.”
There are two pieces of reading. One part is we have to be able to get words off the page. We have to teach kids to decode, but then the other part is kids have to know what those words mean. They have to have some background knowledge and they have to have some of that information as well. So when those two things come together, when we can decode, and we know what those words mean, now we have reading comprehension. So what parents can do is be that tour guide of the world. They can read with their kids and talk about the vocabulary words that are in books. They can talk about that background knowledge. They can have experiences with the kids talking about plants that are in the yard or talking about experiences they're having as they're making meals, or as they’re visiting places and helping kids develop that really rich background knowledge that is so critical for all learners.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great reminder that reading really connects us to all other kinds of learning and allows us to experience really anything. So great reading skills are so essential for students to be successful in the future, but also to feel successful now and to feel really good about what they're doing in school. The other thing to keep in mind is that, as you've pointed out, K-3 is really the initial focus, but this is something that teachers at the upper elementary levels have also been trained on. What's wonderful about that is that even students who have gotten past third grade still missing some skills are able to fill those gaps.
Mandy Thurman:
Yeah, absolutely. We know that there are many of those kids right now. We use the saying, ‘in the younger grades we learned to read so that in the upper grades, we can read to learn’. Really, by third grade, that's where we want kids so that they have those foundational skills to decode the words on the page and be able to actually read the words. In the upper grades, what we're really working at is the content. Now they need to be able to read to access their science or their social studies and to make sense of what they're reading. But we know that we still have kids in those grades that don't have the full capability of decoding all the words. So we have some curriculum in place for the first time teaching in the classroom, as well as this intervention process that we talked about, that those kids in those upper grades will participate in as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
And the results are really, really exciting. I've heard from people at every level, K-6, talking about how exciting it is. Not just to feel like they know what needs to happen next in ways that they didn't before, but just seeing how their kids feel in their class about the success that they've experienced. The confidence that it gives them, as you said, to access all kinds of other knowledge. Because they say to themselves, ‘Hey, I'm a successful reader, and I know I can get better.’ There's a sense of efficacy that comes with that. ‘I know that I wasn't getting it, and now I am. And it's my effort that got me there.’
Michelle Lovell:
One of the things that we've also done is we've increased the classroom instruction. So teachers, not just intervention, but in their daily instruction are focusing more on the science of reading. They're focusing on teaching kids those spelling patterns and those word patterns, that decoding process that they need. It's been fun because one group of kindergarten teachers was excited because they had found when they did their first Acadience test, just with the increase in tier one instruction, the classroom instruction, that they had almost their whole class scoring above level. They started out at the very beginning of the year with about half of the class below level, but by the first Acadience test, all but three in each class had moved to above level. So they were just excited to see that happening, and it's been fun to watch.
Anthony Godfrey:
Does it make you wish a little bit that you could be in the classroom and experience it firsthand with your own students?
Mandy Thurman:
Yeah, absolutely. I think what's happened is really an empowering process, empowering teachers, empowering students. I think it would be really exciting to be back in the classroom and try some of these things ourselves.
Anthony Godfrey:
I know that this has been a ton of work for both of you. You provided how many trainings this summer?
Michelle Lovell:
I think at this point it's been 18 trainings?
Mandy Thurman:
I think we're at 21. We did 16 over the summer. 32 full days in the summer and I think we've done four additional rounds.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's been a huge push after a very difficult year and I commend you for your work. There's also a great support structure for teachers to be sure that we're helping them through the implementation process.
Michelle Lovell:
We have a structure set up to support teachers where every teacher, after each Acadience window, spends half day with a teacher specialist, and with their administrator, with an area superintendent. Going through student data, making sure students are grouped correctly, asking any questions that they may have, making sure that that they feel good about the lessons and that they're seeing that kind of growth. It's been really exciting to be in those meetings with the teachers as we're going through that process and providing that support that teachers really need and desire.
Anthony Godfrey:
I’ve heard such great things about the teacher specialists and the support that they've provided, and the coaches that are out there helping teachers. So it's really not just a team of teachers working together at a grade level, but it's all of the support around them. I really can't thank you enough for putting that in place and, and being such a great support to teachers after that initial training and implementation.
Mandy Thurman:
Well, thank you and we just want to thank you for all the support that's allowed us to get to this point. Without your support and your enthusiasm and passion behind early reading, I don't think we could have done what we’ve done.
Michelle Lovell:
I agree with that 100%, thank you. I agree we have some phenomenal teachers, coaches, teacher specialists, and AOSs, administrators, yourself. Thank you so much for what you are doing for kids.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's a really exciting effort and I can't wait to see where it takes us. Thank you both very much for the time and for all your great work.
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll head into a classroom at Heartland Elementary School, where the new approach to teaching literacy is leading to some exciting outcomes in reading.
Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
We’re here with Leslie Fiskell, 3rd grade teacher at Heartland Elementary. Thanks for spending time with me.
Leslie Fiskell:
Thank you for having me here.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit from a third grade teacher's perspective, what it's like to be a part of this literacy launch. I know you've been doing it since last year when Heartland started to pilot the program.
Leslie Fiskell:
Well, I find it exciting because we have three programs we're using. We're doing 95%, Really Great Reading and Heggerty. We're teaching a lot of phonics and the kids are learning a lot about reading.
Anthony Godfrey:
How does this feel different from reading instruction for you as a teacher in comparison to how it felt before these programs were put in place?
Leslie Fiskell:
Before these programs you were putting your own reading lessons together. I don't believe it was maybe as systematic and explicit. This program has a scripted lesson for you and the kids have their manipulatives and things they use. So from a teacher, as far as preparation, there really is very little. And for the students, they have things to help them engage in the learning.
Anthony Godfrey:
For the listeners, explain what a manipulative is.
Leslie Fiskell:
Okay, well, they have letter tiles. The letter tiles could be, you know, it's the letters, the vowels, and then, long vowels. So there are tiles they use to make words. It also comes with syllable words, little boards where they can write the syllables, and it's just a good, good program.
Anthony Godfrey:
So it allows them to physically engage with tiles and arrange syllables and sounds together. So that's a deeper level of engagement to be able to physically be part of the learning.
Leslie Fiskell:
It is. It's a lot better than just here's your whiteboard and marker, and you write a word. This breaks the word apart. It shows them how the word comes together. And then of course they can write it.
Anthony Godfrey:
It really reemphasizes that there are components to words that come together. Sounds and letters that come together to form words.
Leslie Fiskell:
Yeah. Phonemes, the sounds and how those sounds come together to make the words. I think perhaps we were lacking in that area before we weren't teaching phonemes. I'm not sure we knew about phonemes, you know, but now we do.
Anthony Godfrey:
Does it feel like you're able to address more specific student needs rather than just generally improving reading? Focusing in on a very specific skill that they need to become a better reader?
Leslie Fiskell:
I think the Really Great Reading program, is that the only one we're talking about or can we talk about the other ones? The Really Great Reading program really addresses the whole class. So you might be learning long vowels but maybe on your own level in your skills group, you might be doing 95% and that's where you're really targeting that child's need. But all of them together they're connecting, and when those kids can make that connection, you know, we're finger stretching. In 95% we're finger stretching and Really Great Reading and all of the programs are connecting.
Anthony Godfrey:
You’re finger stretching, tell me about finger stretching.
Leslie Fiskell:
Well, that's our sounds, our phonemes. We're counting our phonemes. How many phonemes in a word. So if it's like talk, it would be t, a, l, k, so you'd have four phonemes. So the students are learning that. And again, they're engaged because there's an action there.
Anthony Godfrey:
I tried the Heggerty instruction. I've been in kindergarten classrooms and gone through that with students. It's really interesting just how engaged they are and how focused they are when there's that physical component, where you move your hands along with the syllable and ask them to put that together in a word. It's just really quite something to see those young students latch onto it.
Leslie Fiskell:
They have their choppers. It's engaging to pull out your choppers, those are your hands.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, exactly. It's really exciting to see. What do you think it's like for students at this point compared with previous instruction they've received in literacy?
Leslie Fiskell:
Well, I think it's exciting for the students that are really catching on. I mean, everyone's catching on at some point, but to be able to answer those questions, we just all do it together. They're engaged, they have their manipulatives, their letter tiles I should say, that they're making their words. I think it's very beneficial for the students because they're learning the rules of our language and how to read.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about teaching reading?
Leslie Fiskell:
Well, that's a big question, right? Right now I've got to tell you I'm loving our programs. I absolutely love Really Great Reading. It's my favorite. The reason I like it is because I'm learning too. Who knew why was was spelled w a s? Now I know. I'm this old and I know. It's the schwa, it’s flexing. So I love Really Great Reading and I love it for them because I think if you can learn all that stuff at a young age, you're going to be a great reader.
Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely. Schwa flexing is something I haven't talked about enough, obviously, because flex, flex, flex to the schwa. It's going to stick with me. I really appreciate the time that you've taken and I love that you're focused on learning as a teacher. Those who are not in the classroom may not, let me back up a little bit. I know that the central part of being a great teacher is learning and I admire you for being so enthusiastic about learning something new, even though you've been teaching reading for a long time.
Leslie Fiskell:
Right. I will tell you, and I thought I was doing a good job teaching reading, but I am doing a much better job now with these programs.
Anthony Godfrey:
Outstanding. Thanks for all your hard work.
Leslie Fiskell:
Okay, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see out there

21 min
October 20, 2021 Episode 109: One Teacher’s Path from Professional Musician to Rocking It In the Classroom
He was a professional musician who once toured with some big-name bands like Dixie Chicks, Survivor and Lynyrd Skynyrd. On this episode of the Supercast, we hear about one man’s path from the professional music stage to teaching in the classroom. Find out how Brian Anderson’s career in rock ‘n roll, led him to the classroom.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Join us as we go to South Jordan Middle School to visit a teacher who traded in their recording studio for a classroom.
We're here at South Jordan Middle School with Brian Anderson. Just from the looks of what's sitting around him,iIt's going to be a really interesting interview. But first, Brian, thanks for taking the time.
Brian Anderson:
You're welcome, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about your teaching career before we get into all the other stuff.
Brian Anderson:
Well, I definitely have an interest in working with kids and when I came back from doing a little stunt at chiropractic school, I drove the school bus. When driving the school bus, I did some field trips, when doing the field trips I met some teachers. Well, when I met the teachers and I met the students, it just started filling my heart, that I wanted to kind of be a teacher and represent that somewhere. So I started subbing. I started subbing with the Jordan School District and after subbing for four years or so, I looked into getting into the program through, at that time it was ARL, it’s changed a couple of times. I found a charter school that allowed me to teach a few classes there at AISU. I taught audio production, songwriting, photography, film, and a few things like that. They went out of business, so I went back to driving some more bus and, I don't know, this is just a fluke, I went in to check on some insurance stuff at the district and my heart just said, go talk to somebody, see if there's any openings right now with teaching here. I asked if I could speak to someone who was over hiring and they said, yeah, go talk to this person. And the person that they sent me to was actually the wrong person, but that person knew Nicole and said, I think she's looking for someone who might fit your background, cause I have a digital media background.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the wrong person became the right person.
Brian Anderson:
That’s pretty much what happened. She called her on the phone and said, I've got this guy.” She said “Have him send an application, I'll interview him tomorrow.” She interviewed me. It worked out and here I am teaching here at SoJo Middle School.
Anthony Godfrey:
How long have you been at SoJo now?
Brian Anderson:
So this is my first year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow! Great. So this is a recent journey?
Brian Anderson:
I came right about October in the middle of that pandemic thing and took over for someone who had an opportunity to teach somewhere else. I picked it up from there and had a lot of great help with my coworkers. Shout out to them, they're amazing. Everybody here has just been really helpful and great.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the music because that's the focus of why we're here is to learn a little bit more about that aspect of your career as well.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah, well, I wrote songs and did little things in my bedroom, but I didn't realize what I was doing, it was just for fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
At what point in your life did you start doing this?
Brian Anderson:
I did that like at 10 years old, 12 years old. I'd play drums with ice cream buckets and we couldn't afford that stuff. I just did stuff that I don't know, MTV influenced me a lot. MTV then was a lot of the eighties acts. So if you remember the eighties much, they all sang high. So I thought, well, I need to sing high too.
Anthony Godfrey:
They did all sing high and then it would modulate and they'd go even higher at the end to give that an emotional punch. What was some of the eighties music that inspired you initially to pursue it? Who were you trying to imitate?
Brian Anderson:
Well, some of my influences, hands down, were Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Europe, and then some of those rock bands like Mötley Crüe and Whitesnake and even Survivor. Some of the guys that I ended up playing music with later on.
Anthony Godfrey:
Hmm. You played okay. Wow. You played okay. We have a lot of layers to go through here. That's very exciting. So those were some of the bands that inspired you and tell me where it went from there.
Brian Anderson:
So I really didn't know how to pursue this thing. I was clueless. No one did music in my family or my relatives didn't do it. So I just started playing in bars, that's where you could play. There wasn't really anybody that hired anybody. I tried to write more music and slowly started having a little repertoire of songs. Then I ran into this company that I heard about that said, come down and try to promote yourself and raise some money for your business. And I thought, well, ‘Hey, if Starbucks goes there and these other companies go there to raise money, I can be a business.’ So they wanted a lot of money to enter this thing. It wasn't a contest, it just cost a lot of money to go. My dad's never given me a dollar and I didn't have $10,000 and that’s what it costs.
I said, “Dad, I really want to go to this thing. I think I can maybe raise some money to help me get my music started. What do you think?” And he didn't say anything and I'm pretty sure it was dead at that point. And the next day came to me with a $10,000 check saying “Go knock it out, go try it.” That blew me away because my dad doesn't give anyone any money. You know, you make your own money. I was able to go there as an artist, as a musician, I played on stage, raised quarter million dollars and came home, was able to pay him back as $10,000 and moved to Nashville and started knocking doors.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So you raised that money with that performance? Talk about a high stakes interview.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah, didn't see that coming. You know, people came out of the woodwork. I met my music attorney there. My first manager I met there, they knew contacts and as most things happen in most situations in life where you meet someone and then it rolls into something else by contacts and their contacts, etc.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what age were you when this happened?
Brian Anderson:
I believe I was 22.
Anthony Godfrey:
And for your dad to just do that out of the blue, that's tremendous.
Brian Anderson:
I couldn't believe it. It was honestly one of those amazing, impossible things that I just don't understand. I don't know what went through his head when I asked. I could only imagine.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Zero to 60. That's like, you know, you're on your own, you gotta do your thing, and here's $10,000 to pursue your dream. That's very inspiring.
Brian Anderson:
He must've thought he wouldn't have gotten it back.
Anthony Godfrey:
Sure, he was saying goodbye to that $10,000, but, wow. That's really incredible.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah. He's a great guy, amazing. I’m just real blessed with good parents.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you, you raise the money, you get an attorney, you move to Nashville. What happens next?
Brian Anderson:
So I'm down in Nashville and I have a manager who's interested in me at that point. I'm ready to move at a hundred miles per hour and they want me to go 10 miles per hour. It was really difficult. Long story short, it didn't work out. I just wanted to move faster than they wanted me to. They wanted me to sit down and write songs for like three years. I'm like, I've got songs now, let's go. So I found some other managers that were a better move for me. They led me to a contact in Sony, the guy that signed the Dixie Chicks worked with them and a few other acts, got in contact with me and we decided to work together and see where that would go. Even though that didn't lead to some great famous career, nor was I even looking for fame, I just wanted to do my music. They helped me a lot and because I was pop country, I got shelved mostly, even though I got to do events and performances with different acts. I got my chops a little more fine tuned, it didn't lead to anything great and I eventually got out of that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Along the way you've got to work with a number of different bands. Let's find out some of the people you've worked with.
Brian Anderson:
Sure, yeah. I went out of that deal into a deal in LA. This guy was more pop rock, and he had contacts with a guy named Jim Peterik, and Jim Peterik is one of the founders of Survivor. I went to his house and we wrote a couple of songs and hit it off. I’ve got that song here, I can show you too. But that song led to a number of concerts and shows and events with some other acts. So I did some stuff with Night Ranger, did some stuff with 38 Special, with Don Barnes, did a show with them at CNN and with Lynyrd Skynyrd. I did an album with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Anthony Godfrey:
You did an album with Lynyrd Skynyrd? So when people say play some Skynyrd, you can just say, I've been there, done that.
Brian Anderson:
I don’t know about that. This album was a project that we did together called The Day America Cried. It happened after the towers fell and we wanted to put together this project that joined America. I was one of the artists on that project. I was able to go to the studio and work with some of these acts. That's where I've met a number of people, some members of Journey, and I did some shows along the way where we would promote this album called The Day America Cried all over the place. That led to small little venues and intimate venues to super large venues that we were able to perform together.
Anthony Godfrey:
What's the largest crowd that you've played for?
Brian Anderson:
I think 18,000.
Anthony Godfrey:
18,000. Wow.
Brian Anderson:
We also opened for Blessid Union of Souls a couple of times. That was fun because they weren't necessarily a rock band, a great group of guys.
Anthony Godfrey:
You're kind of blowing my mind here. You worked with Lynyrd Skynyrd, members of Journey. You wrote a song with Jim from Survivor.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah, Jim Peterik.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Tell me a little bit more about that. Is there a moment where you're sitting down with him thinking, okay don't talk about Rocky III. Don't talk about Rocky III.
Brian Anderson:
Of course, those posters are all over in his house. I have this guitar right here that he gave me for Christmas.
Anthony Godfrey:
He gave you a guitar for Christmas?
Brian Anderson:
Yeah, this is a guitar he toured with and did stuff with Van Halen and all this stuff. He gave me this as a gift.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Now I just need to clarify, I'm sitting right now with you beside a guitar that was used on stage with Van Halen.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah, when he would play and do all his hits and tours with many artists, right? Because he's the real rock star. This is the guitar he used. I was over at his house one day and we were working on another song and he said, “Hey, Merry Christmas. Here's one of my favorite guitars.” I said, “What? That's amazing. I’ve got to find a way to get this home.” Cause the plane, you know, I already had enough luggage and things, I had to figure out how to get it home, but that wasn't going to be a problem.
Anthony Godfrey:
All you do is throw away whatever you brought with you and this comes home on your lap the whole time. I’d buy a separate airline ticket for that guitar if I had to.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah. He's been a big influence in my life on a number of levels. For example, he wrote, with a number of other people, Songwriting for Dummies. He put one of the songs that I wrote on the front cover of it and he put me in the book as well. He featured me in a couple of things with a song I wrote called Empty. So I think that I really owe a lot to him for taking me under his wing and introducing me to a lot of people.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more stories from the studio and the road.
Break:
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Brian Anderson:
This is from a big concert we did. You might recognize this song.
Playing recording of Brian Anderson singing The Search is Over by Survivor.
Anthony Godfrey:
This is one of my favorites. I do love this one.
Brian Anderson:
So he had me perform it for him instead.
Anthony Godfrey:
Really? So this is you? ‘Who am I to blame you?’ I’ve listened to this song hundreds of times. I'm not exaggerating.
Brian Anderson:
I told him, do you know how many girls I've met dancing to your song? That was our first thing.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah. I have swayed to this song many, many times.
I do see some Grammy swag. I noticed your Grammy shirt as I walked in. Tell me a little bit about that.
Brian Anderson:
When I went to the Grammys, they gave me the Grammy bag and stuff like this.
Anthony Godfrey:
You got the swag bag at the Grammys. Wow.
Brian Anderson:
I went there with Jeff McClusky, who was a radio promoter for everyone, Creed, Lifehouse, everyone. We went there with Sheryl Crow and stayed in their booth.
Anthony Godfrey:
You went to the Grammy's with Sheryl Crow. Like one does, you know.
Brian Anderson:
You know. It was cool being an honorary member of the Grammy in the Schools. So I was a part of that foundation where the job was to create opportunities for high school students to work with professionals, to get real-world experience and advice about how to have a music career. That just wasn't really in schools. So they had me. My role was to talk about the opportunity at different music conventions to students, about their Grammy camps and to try to get the community to push for more music in the schools.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. That's a very worthy cause. Let's bust out this guitar shall we? Sorry. I just, I would love to get a look at that. I'm a big Survivor fan by the way. Yeah. High on You.
Brian Anderson:
Oh yeah. So this is it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. May I? This is pretty cool. It's a cream colored fender Stratocaster, isn't it?
Brian Anderson:
You see how it’s kinda faded a little bit. It’s a wide neck Stratocaster, that's what you'd call it.
Anthony Godfrey:
A wide neck. Okay.
Brian Anderson:
You’re touching a guitar there that’s been through quite a few shows.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That feels really good. That is so cool. I can't even believe that.
Brian Anderson:
It’s kind of like performing at the Whiskey a Go Go. They had me play up there.
Anthony Godfrey:
You've played the Whiskey a Go Go?
Brian Anderson:
I played the Whiskey a Go Go. If you know who's played the Whiskey a Go Go, I think I made a list here. The Doors, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, U2, Van Halen, Guns n’ Roses, Mötley Crüe.
Anthony Godfrey:
Basically my entire time machine fantasy concert list was played at the Whiskey a Go Go.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah. It was pretty cool to show up there and just be on that stage, you know.
Anthony Godfrey:
Was that you performing, were you performing with a group?
Brian Anderson:
We were the performers that night.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. That’s incredible to perform on that stage.
Brian Anderson:
It was a high, that’s for sure.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I feel like we could talk all day. That the stories would just keep unfolding. That is so cool. Well, I'd love to hear a song of yours.
Brian Anderson:
Okay. Well.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this one.
Brian Anderson:
So as you know, music's not always straight shot up and there's a lot of dynamics in it. One of the times where we weren't sure where things were going with my career, I was traveling to California to do another show with my band. In that car, I'm just thinking, how cool is this, that we're riding to California or driving here. We get to play these shows with some acts and we get to do music for a living. I was just reminiscing on that and I just decided to start writing this song called The Ride. So this is a real acoustic version and I can give you a CD of the more rock version of this.
Brian Anderson singing and playing guitar:
Watching you breathe next to me,
There’s no other place I want to be.
It takes me away to think of you.
I'm holding on, on to you.
Cause I wanna ride,
I wanna ride.
Can you feel it? Can you feel it pass you by?
I wanna ride.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. The crowd goes wild. That's fantastic. That's a hit in my book. That's good stuff. Wow. And just the way that you play, it's obvious that you're very, very skilled. I pick up a guitar and, anyway, it's just so smooth. Well done. That's awesome. So tell me, what advice would you give to parents if their child is maybe interested in music, shows an interest in songwriting, what would you suggest?
Brian Anderson:
I would suggest starting them right away. They may never pursue it, but what it can do for them can open their mind to so many avenues and unlock the doors that might stay shut. That introduced other things that would have never begun because they didn't pursue maybe that passion. It's kind of like math. It's like you might ask yourself, why am I doing this math problem? But it opens up other things inside the mind that might introduce you to be better at something else. I feel that music can connect on so many levels with other people and with yourself and you grow. To have them right away, start doing some kind of lesson on an instrument or even a vocal lesson. Try to get them into songwriting so they can express that talent as a package.
Anthony Godfrey:
There's a lot to be gained, like you said, even if it isn't going to be a career or something that you pursue long term, just from engaging with that and tapping into your creative side. There's a lot of advantage to having that in your life.
Brian Anderson:
Growth can come from that and you would never know it unless you tried to harness it. A lot of it is buried to be honest for me, my music was buried until I was 18. I didn't even know that I really was good at it and could do it until after high school.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's been a huge treat talking with you. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed stopping by and hearing your stories. You've been closely connected with a lot of music and artists that I've loved over the years. You've been part of that industry, which is just fascinating to me. So thank you so much for spending the time and for everything you're doing for the students here at South Jordan. We're sure lucky to have you here.
Brian Anderson:
Oh, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for letting me go down memory lane again.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
24 min
October 14, 2021 Episode 108: New Technology Helping to Keep Students Safe
It is designed to help keep students safe in and outside of school. On this episode of the Supercast, we talk about new technology called “Bark,” which helps to detect signs of things like cyberbullying, suicidal ideation and threats of school violence. Listen and find out how this new technology is already proving successful in saving lives in Jordan School District.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It's a program designed to help keep students safe in and outside of school. On this episode of the Supercast, we talk about new technology called BARK, which helps to detect signs of things like cyber bullying, suicidal ideation, and threats of school violence. Listen, and find out how this new technology is already proving successful in saving lives in Jordan School District. We're here today with Angie Rasmussen, our new specialist working with the BARK program here in Jordan School District. Angie, thanks for joining us.
Angie Rasmussen:
Thanks for having me.
Anthony Godfrey:
Most people don't know what the BARK program is. Let's just start off by having you talk just generally about what it's designed to do.
Angie Rasmussen:
Okay. So it is a software that we have monitoring Google accounts in Jordan School District. So parents can buy it themselves to monitor their students on their electronic devices, but we use it for our school purposes to help flag students who may need some extra support.
Anthony Godfrey:
Just as a clarification for our listeners. I want to make sure that everyone understands that this is only monitoring of school accounts. So chats, emails, documents that are submitted through Google docs, that sort of thing, right?
Angie Rasmussen:
Correct. Yes, so it has to be through their my.jordandistrict.org Google account.
Anthony Godfrey:
We have accounts for students in elementary, middle and high schools so really this reaches students of all ages.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, it does.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about how the BARK program works.
Angie Rasmussen:
So it has artificial intelligence that will screen or flag anything in these Google documents, chats, emails, that could be concerning. There's different categories like bullying or suicidal ideation, self-harm, violence, among others. It will categorize the alert and it will also say if it's severe or non-severe. Then there is an imminent category, but those are flagged as severe and then they become phone calls as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
So when you go through the program, tell us a little bit about what your interaction is with the alerts and how the process works.
Angie Rasmussen:
So they will take a snippet of what they flag as concerning, and sometimes it's highlighted with certain areas that they're trying to show me, this is what we flagged. Then I can look at it and see the context. I can see if it's two people talking to each other in an email or in a chat and get an idea of what maybe the conversation is. A lot of Google docs are used as journal entries or they will chat in real time with each other on a Google doc, the students will. It’s a way to communicate, so it will come in those formats. A lot of times if they're expressing something that could be concerning to adults, that we want to make those connections with kids and help them to prevent anything from becoming a further situation that either leads to violence or additional suicidal ideation.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me again, the categories were non-severe severe and imminent, correct?
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, that's correct.
Anthony Godfrey:
Can you tell us what the process is for dealing with issues in all three categories?
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. So non severe, I usually will look at with certain keywords like self-harm or depression, anxiety, because those ones can sometimes be flagged as non severe if they're not using the right words. And so I will still look at those as severe because I want to make sure that I see them. Others will be if there are like two kids who are maybe talking and are joking around and it doesn't have any risk factors to it. I will just document those so I can access them later, but I don't necessarily do anything with it. It's kind of documented. I don't push them to the school is basically what I'm saying.
If it's severe, I can also do that where I kind of look into it and say, oh, this isn't a problem. The example I used was they were playing a game in class and they were talking about this game and she got a high score. Then the kid responded back something about being high and they were talking about the score still, but the program flagged the word high as intoxicated, so that was not necessarily what the context was. So I did not pass that on because it was non-threatening, it was about a game and score.
When it is something that I feel that the school personnel should be aware of and help them to support the student, then I will take the information I have and let the relevant person know whether that's an administrator or a school counselor or a social worker. Then we have some dialogue on how to help the student or support the student, or if they have more questions about how it could be handled, then we can troubleshoot with that. If it's imminent, it is usually a phone call from BARK. So they won't just email me or flag it. They will text me and call me. And if I don't answer, then it's set up to call local authorities for a wellness check.
Anthony Godfrey:
So it can be really an alarm about something that could be happening right away. Have we had a few of those?
Angie Rasmussen:
We have. Since I've been working with the program, which was September 23rd, I've had two where they did call me. One was during school hours on a business day. And then another one was actually over the weekend on a Sunday.
Anthony Godfrey:
Did we get authorities out, parents involved? What happens from there after your call comes from BARK?
Angie Rasmussen:
So I'll take the call and let them know that I'm aware of it, that I'll handle it from there, so they don't dispatch police because then I can look at it. The one during business hours, I worked with the administrators at the school and we got a hold of parents that way. If it's not during business hours and it's an imminent threat, I will call parents directly. If I can't get a hold of them, then I will try to get a wellness check from the police, a non-emergency phone call to go out and visit with the student. But if I can get a hold of the parents and confirm that the student’s safe, then I don't call the police, unless it's something that was further along the line that I would have to do that.
Anthony Godfrey:
So of course, parents are always the first call, and then if we can't reach them, then we involve the police as necessary.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and then I also make sure administration knows, so they can follow up with the families and make sure supports are in place at school afterwards.
Anthony Godfrey:
Right. Because it's not just in the moment that we need to look at that. But when you look at the kind of support that we need to provide for the individual longer-term. Even before you came and we hadn't monitored to that degree, I know that we had some serious situations that we were alerted to by BARK.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and they did send authorities because we didn't have anyone set up to answer the phone call at the time. I'm familiar with that because I can see that from the past as well, because they had it active for a little bit to test it. It is very helpful in being proactive and preventing emergency situations.
Anthony Godfrey:
You talked about supporting the school and calling them and contacting them about what to do next. That's because you're not just monitoring this, you have a background that helps you really address the problems as well.
Angie Rasmussen:
Correct. So I have been a school counselor since 2008, but also a school administrator. So I can see kind of that mental health side of it, but also the side where administrators are in the building trying to balance and juggle things, but also there to respond if there's crisis situations.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're very fortunate to have you in the position to help filter through the alerts that come in, but also provide support to the parents, administrators, and other authorities that you work with.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and I envision it as a way to best support families in our communities. So although it comes from a place of education, I think it will help also make those connections in the buildings. If we don't know, students maybe are really seeking those connections in our schools. It's a way to kind of, oh, this person might need an extra check-in or something. They're not on our radar. I don't know them, but I really would like to get to know them and see, you know, who they are.
Anthony Godfrey:
Connecting students to resources as part of taking good care of them.
Stay with us. When we come back more on the technology that is keeping students safe in and outside of school.
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Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what would you say parents need to be aware of as they're thinking about monitoring and being aware of their students' communications?
Angie Rasmussen:
As far as we go here at Jordan School District, I think it's coming from a place of care and concern. I think that as a parent myself, whenever another adult from my kid's school reaches out to me, I would feel grateful that there is that other set of eyes, or there is somebody looking out for my kid. I want everyone to know that it's not a gotcha type thing. We're not looking for somebody to get in trouble or looking at their conversations to, you know, do anything that's going to punish them. We're not being punitive, I guess what I'm trying to say. We're trying to have their best interest in mind, and we won't won't share information with other people, only the relevant parties, the adults in the building that are directly associated with those kids. So like, you know, the administrators, or their school counselor. When talking with parents, it's like, these are the people that will know because this is how they can help you. So they know it's not something that everyone knows. I think privacy is a big factor of the whole process. Privacy and not being punitive.
Anthony Godfrey:
No, that's really the combination. It's a support because not every student that needs help will seek it. It's a chance for us to be sure that they have the help and assistance that they need.
Angie Rasmussen:
Luckily students, a lot of times will feel comfortable telling friends in these ways. I mean, they're not talking in person, they're telling each other over these chats or emails. So I think that's still a great thing as long as they can get adult help when it's needed.
Anthony Godfrey:
Right. It's those student interactions with each other that probably produce a lot of the alerts where they're talking to each other, not just writing on their own. I have to admit, I've never thought of the idea of writing someone right within a Google document. That's pretty immediate communication because you don't even have the chance to decide, ‘ok, I've crafted what I'm going to say. Send’ they're just watching you and you type it. So that's real time.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, and I think they think, because we're old, we don't know about it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I just admitted that I’m old enough not to know about it so thank you for the education. Now this isn't a replacement for other things that we do to connect with students, see if they need help, be sure that we're aware of how they're feeling and how they're doing as educators and as parents.
Angie Rasmussen:
Right. It's actually just an additional safety net. So other things that are already in place, even, you know, at home, that doesn't have anything to do with us. We don't regulate at home activities. If they are at home, but using their account for Jordan school, that is still something we would see, and, again, only get involved if it's something we can help with. It's just an additional support that is added as a safety measure. It's a safety net to try and help students out when they might be struggling to connect with someone about something that they need help with.
Anthony Godfrey:
Does the program sometimes over identify issues?
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. Not sometimes, it always does. So it's nice to have that, to have myself, a human looking at it, to see what the actual conversation could be considered and if it is something that's helpful for a student or not. So, you know, technology is great, but humans are still better. And, families making connections with their families at home is still better than anything else.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good reminder as well. This isn't someone sitting at BARK central going through all of these emails, this is an automated process. You receive the alerts and then you, as the experienced, well-educated human goes through the results and determines whether there is in fact a problem.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. And then it gives me the opportunity to collaborate with the professionals in their building, who know the kids potentially, and know the community and know their buildings the best. We can kind of bounce ideas off each other. Like this is the way it looked to me, you know them, do you think this is something that you would find useful to help that student?
Anthony Godfrey:
I'm actually very glad to hear that problems are over-identified and that we have a lot of false positives if you will, because it's much better than missing something.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. I agree with you a hundred percent. Something may look like an issue and if it's not, that's the best case scenario.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, with nearly 58,000 students, there's a lot to sort through and there's a lot to be aware of. What's interesting to me is that not only are you able to help individual students, but I can imagine that over time, we're going to be able to start to see a pattern and say, ‘Hey, these are some things that students are dealing with. We're starting to see more concerns about this issue or that issue.’ As we look at the alerts that come up from such a large group of students.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes, it does gather the data. I can look at types of alerts per area too. So I can see if a feeder network has similar issues. You know, if a high school, junior high and elementary system together shares similar issues, we can look at data that shows you that there could be something that administration would want to work on in their school and say, ‘oh, this keeps coming up as a pattern’ and it's showing it's something that you might want to take a look at. What can we do to get something going in your school that might produce positive engagement with students?
Anthony Godfrey:
I really liked that aspect of it. How does it feel to be working with a program like this, having been a counselor and administrator for as long as you have, maybe not using a method like this previously.
Angie Rasmussen:
It's different because again, it's through technology. I find that a lot of the things students talk about are things that I could see them going to their counselor and saying the exact words. I try to put myself in that situation if I were to meet with the student and they told me this, that whatever they're saying, you know, what would I do? Or if it was my own child, what would I do? Then I take that perspective and collaborate with the adults at their school on how to help the student. It's different in that, in that I can reflect before I talk, you know, it's like, it's not happening in real time for me necessarily. So I can see an issue and review my resources and collaborate. When you're in a school, a lot of times things are happening right then in your face, and you don't have as much time to gather composure and think through your different ideas or different ways to help.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And I think it's exciting to have another way to help students. In the end, really what we're doing is we're trying to improve their lives and sometimes save them.
Angie Rasmussen:
Yes. That is going to be something I think that down the line, we will notice that these interventions will be life saving.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much. We're so happy to have you in Jordan District doing this work. I really appreciate your efforts to help support our students in our schools and our families.
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
20 min
October 07, 2021 Episode 107: A Rare Gem of a Class at Herriman High School
You could say it is a rare gem at Herriman High School and it’s giving students a brand-new experience in education. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside the first ever jewelry making class where creativity is coming alive with the creation of one-of-a-kind accessories.
Join us as we head into the classroom with teacher Sommer Baisch and her students.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. You could say it is a rare gem in Herriman High School, and it's giving students a brand new experience in education. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside the first ever jewelry-making class at Herriman High, where creativity is coming alive with the creation of one of a kind accessories.
We're here with Sommer Baisch at Herriman High School. She teaches the jewelry making class, the only one in the District. And even as I was walking in, I talked with a couple of people who told me that kids from other schools wish they could take this class. Tell me about this class.
Sommer Baisch:
So it's a Jewelry I class, so it’s kind of an introduction into basic tools. The jeweler's saw, setting stones with cold connections, so without heat, kind of making all the basic wire components. Just an entry into more advanced techniques, which we go over in Jewelry Making II such as soldering, stone setting. So it's kind of just an introduction class.
Anthony Godfrey:
So a big part of the difference between one and two, whether it's hot or cold and the work that you’re doing?
Sommer Baisch:
Yeah. And also just like to have a smaller class size, in Jewelry II, to be able to manage more kids with fire.
Anthony Godfrey:
So if you introduce fire into the classroom, you definitely need smaller class numbers, for sure. So tell me how long have you been teaching this and what got you into jewelry making?
Sommer Baisch:
So I've been teaching it, this is my fourth year at Herriman. I actually applied at Herriman because there was a printmaking position but it came attached to jewelry making. To be honest, I did not know a ton about jewelry making other than like some intro stuff I went over in college. So it took a lot of like taking workshops, professional development to kind of prepare for teaching this class, but I actually love it. It's so different from any art class that most schools traditionally offer.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like in particular about teaching this jewelry making class?
Sommer Baisch:
I like that it attracts like the most diverse group of kids ever. Like a lot of kids take Drawing because they're into drawing and they have a style, a lot of kids take Print Making because they want to print on a shirt, but I feel like jewelry is more diverse. I have the football kids next to the kids that also love art. It's a huge range of students that maybe don't necessarily think they're good at art or good at drawing. They think drawing when they think art. Right? So jewelry gives them an opportunity to make something, and be proud of it that maybe they wouldn't feel the same confidence in the drawing or painting class.
Anthony Godfrey:
I find that very interesting because I'm always worried about students who may be interested in something, but are worried they're not good enough to take a class in it, when really the point is to learn how to do something that interests them. So you can come into a jewelry making class with no experience, no skills, and you're able to take them from zero to necklace and in just a few classes.
Sommer Baisch:
Yeah, and that is an interesting thing. We asked that when they start using the jewelry saw, how many of you have used a jewelry saw? No one. So it kind of levels the playing field and it kind of takes the pressure off of students to feel like they have to be like the best. I was in that drawing class where you're always looking over your shoulder, like, ‘oh man, that kid can draw.’ And there's not that vibe in this class. Everybody's willing to just try their best. They're also more willing to take risks because they've never done it before. So who knows if it's gonna work out or not? And I really like that.
Anthony Godfrey:
And what you've just described is the environment where the most genuine learning takes place.
Sommer Baisch:
For sure. It's total problem solving from start to finish, and hands-on, and it really just taps every area of the brain with learning a new skill, I think.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, absolutely. Tell me about some of the projects, both from this Jewelry Making class or Jewelry Making II, that students will be involved in.
Sommer Baisch:
So in Jewelry I, we start with some shrinky dink earrings. They make wire findings, like ear hooks, jump rings, so they learn really basic skills. They just did a project where they had to saw out around the design in a quarter and cut out some negative space. So they learn how to saw sheet metal. They just learned how to find a ring size, how to go from raw materials, such as copper, nickel, brass, and to make it into a specific design that they came up with. We're about to start enameling, which is melting glass on the surface of metal. That's the only thing that requires heat in Jewelry I.
Anthony Godfrey:
So there will be some enameling?
Sommer Baisch:
Yep, and then we finish with a stone set ring. They learn how to rivet, how to cut out tabs to hold a stone in place. In Jewelry II we do lots of stone settings. So soldering metal together to use a bezel setting for like a natural stone, a natural gemstone.
Anthony Godfrey:
And do you find that a number of students maybe try to make this a little bit more than a hobby, maybe go on Etsy, try to sell some things?
Sommer Baisch:
Yes. I've been told we have some Tik Tok spoon ring famous kids from Herriman that have made spoon rings and have thousands of followers on Tik Tok.
Anthony Godfrey:
I'm not close with the spoon ring / Tik Tok community, but where those two worlds overlap, it's exciting that there are some Herriman students that are featured there. That's really cool. I noticed that you've made some terrifying skull earrings yourself.
Sommer Baisch:
Yep. So these are enamel earrings. This is their next project. I try to preview their projects with what I wear. I don’t know if they pick up on it.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a good way to preview, is for them to maybe notice what you're wearing and say, well, guess what you're going to get to make that. Thank you very much for spending the time and for offering this unique opportunity for students. It's obvious that they're all super engaged and really excited about that project. So it's really fun to see. Yeah. Thanks for coming.
Tell me your name and tell me about some of the projects that you've worked on in this class.
Student #1:
This is my ring. I tried to make it as close as I can to bamboo.
Anthony Godfrey:
This is made out of copper? And so did you lay it out and cut it and then shape it?
Student #1:
Yeah,I did. Yeah, I textured it first. I used a striper hammer.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the striper hammer has an edge with grooves in it on one side of the head and the other has kind of pins poking out of it. So why do you use this side of the hammer for that particular job?
Student #1:
I just thought it would look better with my ring because you know, it's bamboo.
Anthony Godfrey:
So does it give it some structure?
Student #1:
Yeah, it just feels better. It just looks better with it. Yeah. That was the first one I did. And then I also did patina, which is the black stuff in between.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. The patina kind of brings out the design of it. Where did you come up with the idea for the design?
Student #1:
The project she gave us was I think, like nature. It was about nature. So that was the first thing that came to mind for some reason. I don't know why, and I just went with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the other projects?
Student #1:
We did make ear wires, and then we made little shrinky dinks to go along with it. Mine are in the case outside. I made a Robin from, you know Teen Titans Go? Yeah. I made Robin from that and I maybe shrunk them down and then we connected them to the ear wire. So they look pretty cool.
Anthony Godfrey:
Let’s go out and take a look in the case right here.
So what would you say to people who were thinking about taking this class?
Student #1:
I enjoy it a lot. It's really fun. I was actually supposed to switch out of it, but I stayed for two weeks because I wanted to make sure. I wanted to search out because I need an art credit, but it was after the ear wires. I was like, yeah, I'm staying.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what is it that you like about the class?
Student #1:
It’s just, it's really fun to make things. She gives us a lot of freedom. These are a lot of them. Mine was, I believe it was, it was somewhere around here. I can’t remember. Oh yeah, it's right there. I wish I colored it in a little bit more though.
Anthony Godfrey:
It looks really good. It looks really good. So you shrink it down?
Student #1:
Yeah. They started off, like, they start off like three times that size. And then when you, when you warm them up in the oven, they shrink down to that size.
Anthony Godfrey:
And were you a bit surprised at what you were able to create?
Student #1:
I didn't think it would look like that. I thought it'd be a little more pale. I didn't color it in as much as I should have.
Anthony Godfrey:
But it turned out better than you thought.
Student #1:
Yeah. A lot better.
Anthony Godfrey:
Which kind of made you want to do more?
Student #1:
Yeah. I was planning on making another, but we, uh, we moved on to rings.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, you're lucky to be able to be in this class. I hear that there are kids from other schools trying to get in, that don't even go to Herriman. So, I think that's a great project and it sounds like you've got a lot of exciting things ahead in this class. Is there a satisfaction that comes from doing something physical and making something where you get to see the result?
Student #1:
Yeah. I enjoy the end, you know, it's just that little satisfaction of something you created and like, you just feel proud of yourself.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you should. It looks great. So what plans do you have for those earrings?
Student #1:
I really plan on keeping them since they're my very first project and, you know, I just, I really like them.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. I think it looks great. All right. Well, thanks for talking with us and enjoy the class.
Sommer Baisch:
So Shiloh wanted to make a spinner ring. It doesn't quite spin, we're still trying to work out the mechanics, but she actually layered metal, which wasn't a requirement. But it turned out really amazing.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. So is this nickel and copper? I'm cheating because other students told me what materials they were working with. So ultimately, what will this do? Describe that for me, ultimately, what will that do?
Student #2:
It was supposed to spin. This nickel part was supposed to spin around the copper, but it didn't fit quite right, and so it doesn't spin.
Anthony Godfrey:
Is the purpose for that, that you're able to kind of spin it while you're wearing it and kind of fiddle with it?
Student #2:
Yeah, like a fidget something.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's really cool. Tell me about the pattern. Is that just leaves?
Student #2:
So there's a leaf right here and then on the front, there's a tiger's head.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow. I didn't notice that. Yeah. Leave me alone. I'm a tiger. Well, it looks really good. Are you going to wear it?
Student #2:
I'm not quite sure what went wrong, but it doesn't fit any of my fingers. So I'm probably just going to give it to my mom.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. I'm sure she'll love it. Alright. Well, thanks for talking with me.
Stay with us. When we come back more from the Jewelry Making class at Herriman High School.
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Anthony Godfrey:
We're here in the Jewelry Making class at Herriman High School. Students, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves?
Student #3:
I'm Alison.
Student #4:
I'm Ricki.
Anthony Godfrey:
What made you want to sign up for this class Ricki?
Student #4:
I just love wearing jewelry, so I wanted to make some.
Anthony Godfrey:
And how about for you?
Student #3:
I needed another fine arts credit.
Anthony Godfrey:
And was it more than just a credit once you started in the class?
Student #3:
Definitely.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about that.
Student #3:
I don't know. I just kind of showed up and I was like, it's really sick, like making stuff.
Anthony Godfrey:
For listeners at home, sick is good. That's a positive thing. Totally rad in the 1900s would have been the equivalent. This is a sick class. Tell me what’s sick about it?
Student #3:
I have a really great group of friends. And like when you do stuff, that's fun with your friends, everything is fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
Speaking of friends, now that you're working on jewelry, do you have a friend in the diamond business?
Student #3:
Only at Shane Company.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Very good. Well done. So how did you make Harry Styles shrinky dink earrings?
Student #3:
You take a picture and you draw it on a piece of paper and then you take a piece of rice paper, put it over the picture, and then you get a piece of the shrink dink film and then you trace it again and then you scratch it up and color it and put it in a toaster oven. And you're done.
Anthony Godfrey:
So after that process then do you wear these earrings?
Student #3:
Not today, but they're in my room right now.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Very nice. What are some of the things that you've made?
Student #4:
We just finished making rings.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this ring.
Student #4:
It’s made of nickel and we saw it in the shape we wanted, then we filed it and then bent it.
Anthony Godfrey:
What shape did you put it in here?
Student #4
I did a mountain.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah. I do see that. Okay. Try it on. Let's see how it looks. It looks great. So that's a forefinger ring. Very good. So tell me about the process for shaping it that way.
Student #4:
You just had to draw on a paper what shape you wanted, then you put it on the nickel and use a saw to cut it out.
Anthony Godfrey:
Did you make earrings as well? And what earrings did you make?
Student #4:
Hannah Montana.
Anthony Godfrey:
Hannah Montana. You know, you could trade and you could each be wearing one Harry Styles and one of Hannah Montana, that would be iconic. Once you made these things, did you feel like maybe, this sounds like an Etsy project, like something you could sell online? Have you thought about making something to sell?
Student #3:
She does.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, she does.
Student #3:
Ricki has an online boutique on Etsy.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, tell me about your boutique?
Student #4:
I just do like earrings and spoon rings
Anthony Godfrey:
Earrings and spoon rings, okay. So where do you get the spoons? I'm going to pull it up right now, by the way, let's take a look.
Student #4
Anywhere, like little vintage shops.
Anthony Godfrey:
Is it a particular kind of spoon that you look for?
Student #4
No, any pretty ones.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what's the name of your store? Oh, there it is. Okay. All right. May I? Let’s take a look? Oh, very nice. So did you have this before you were in this class?
Student #4:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you had an interest in making jewelry before you took this class. And how has this class helped with your jewelry making?
Student #4:
Now I know more techniques on how to do different things.
Anthony Godfrey:
Has your range of product offerings increased since being in this class? I like the flower earrings right there with the different colors. All right. Thank you guys.
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
17 min
October 01, 2021 Episode 106: Getting to Know Goats, Farming and Having Fun During 7th Grade Agriculture Day
It was a hands-on educational experience that brought aspects of agriculture and having fun on the farm to students in the city.
On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to the annual 7th Grade Agriculture Day at JATC South where members of FFA helped teach middle school students about different professions in the ag industry as well as how food makes its way from farms to the dinner table. Two award winning goats also joined the ag day action, making a special guest appearance on the Supercast.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was a hands-on educational experience that brought aspects of agriculture and having fun on the farm to students in the city. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to the Annual 7th Grade Agriculture Day at JATC South, where members of FFA helped teach middle school students about different professions in the agriculture industry, as well as how food makes its way from farms to the dinner table. Two award-winning goats also joined the ag day action, making a special guest appearance on the Supercast. Miranda from Riverton High School introduces us to Leonard and Penny.
Miranda:
My name is Miranda, and these are my goats. This one's name is Leonard, and then that's Penny and they're boer goats and they're also show goats. So I use them in like 4H and FFA competitions in livestock shows. I actually just showed a goat like this, his name was Sheldon, at the State Fair this past weekend. Something about these guys is that to use them in the show industry, you have to train them. So I use this rope halter to teach them how to walk, like you walk your dogs, I walk my goats. Then I also have a show halter that's a little fancier than this one, to use in the show ring with them. You also train them to set up or square up, which is where you put all four of their legs just directly underneath them. It just helps them to look their best. Then you do something called bracing, which helps them to flex their muscles because it is a market show. So you're looking for the best animal there or the best meat animal there.
Anthony Godfrey:
Which goat is the greatest of all time?
Miranda:
Probably this one right here.
Anthony Godfrey:
That goat is the goat.
Miranda:
Yes, she is the goat.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see that the tail is shaved and cut in a particular way. Is that part of the grooming for competition?
Miranda:
Yes it is, and also their legs. We trim it just like at their hawk so then it's level to the ground. That's like the trend in the stock show industry. Then we actually fluff up their legs. We use a little blow dryer, like how we blow dry our hair, we blow their hair and we make it puffy and build it up.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do any of you have goats at home? You have a golden retriever, but not a goat. Okay. They'd probably get along though. Did they eat crazy stuff like you think they would?
Miranda:
Maybe. These ones are on a special diet.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh they're on a special diet, a special goat diet. Is it an oat goat diet or what do they eat?
Miranda:
It's called Show Rite. It's a little gray pellet that you feed them. You can just get it from IFA.
Anthony Godfrey:
It’s good for the coat. What is your biggest goat award?
Miranda:
Probably this belt buckle I have on right now. Her sister actually won it for me.
Anthony Godfrey:
Grand Champion Goat. Is that from 2021?
Miranda:
Yes, it is.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well done. So you are the champion, my friend. Do they know their names?
Miranda:
They might not. Sometimes when you call to them they'll respond, but not really.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are they evil or do they just look that way?
Miranda:
No, they're actually really nice. I like goats more than sheep. Goats are much nicer.
Anthony Godfrey:
So sheep are more on the evil end.
Miranda:
Yes. Do you guys know what goats are used for and why we breed them?
Students answering:
Goat milk.
They cook them.
Whoa.
Aren’t goats a delicacy?
Have you had goat meat? It's pretty good.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Sonja Burton, the principal of the Jordan Academy for Technology and Careers South campus. Thank you for joining us.
Sonja Burton:
Thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
We want to talk about 7th Grade Agriculture Days. Tell me a little bit about that.
Sonja Burton:
Well, it came about by CTE. Current Technical Education has advisory boards and we were gathered in an advisory board meeting. The industry professionals at the time, in that meeting, asked us what we needed and they wanted to tie some sort of event to a curriculum. So the perfect class was College and Career Awareness or CCA that our 7th graders take where they learn about different careers in all of our CTE areas. This one happens to be agriculture. This one's a little bit more difficult to get work based, learning experiences or speakers to come in. So we're bringing the students to the industry professionals.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the other areas you cover in that class?
Sonja Burton:
Family and Consumer Science, Business and Marketing, Information Technology, Health Sciences, Skilled and Technical Sciences, and Tech and Engineering.
Anthony Godfrey:
So 7th grade really is the perfect time to do that because they have so many class choices ahead of them in middle school and in high school and a lot of opportunities. Many students aren't aware of the broad range of options that are available to them. Agriculture days in particular is focused on an area that many kids don't have a lot of experience with,
Sonja Burton:
Right. And that's why we wanted to bring it to them because mostly students would think, ‘oh, agriculture is just farming’ and agriculture isn't just farming. It encompasses natural resources, food and farming, with food and fiber, fiber in particular, but also mining, landscape and horticulture, veterinary science, floriculture, so when you send flowers to someone. All of that is encompassed in agriculture.
Anthony Godfrey:
Many students don't understand where their food or clothing comes from. And agriculture days seems to be a great way to raise awareness, not just of careers, but really how the world works and how their needs are met.
Sonja Burton:
Yes, a lot of students, when you ask them, they say that their food, milk for example, comes from the store. They don't actually know. There was a dairy farmer outside speaking to them about all of their high tech machinery that they use to milk those cows. And they're milking them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even on Christmas.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. The cows don't take a break. So really it connects students to the broader world around them. Even if they don't go into agriculture as a career, a better understanding of that is very valuable because just the way that we live and the way we rely on agriculture every day,
Sonja Burton:
It creates an awareness of your everyday life, which is exactly what CTE in all of our program areas do. It is real life experiences that you can use with your family and your friends, not just in school or in a career.
Anthony Godfrey:
There are even jobs within Jordan District that would be considered agriculture jobs.
Sonja Burton:
Of course! You have agricultural educators, who are also FFA advisers, but as you walk into a school, it's not only our teachers, but it is everything that takes place at each of our schools, especially our grounds and maintenance crews. They have to have a knowledge of landscape and horticulture in order to be able to do their jobs. We have the pleasure of having our Jordan District facilities and our grounds crews here to present to our 7th grade students.
Anthony Godfrey:
We can always use more help. That's great to be recruiting in 7th grade. What are some of the programs available in Jordan School District for a student who is interested in agriculture?
Sonja Burton:
At our comprehensive high schools, there are programs such as Animal Science. So we have the Animal Science pathway. We have Horticulture or the Plant Sciences pathway. Then as you move to the tech center, we have Veterinary Science at JATC North, and Landscape and Horticulture at JATC South.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's exciting that we have such a wide range of options available for students. If a parent wanted to find out more about what's available, how would they do that?
Sonja Burton:
They are welcome to contact their CTE coordinator at each of the comprehensive high schools, or they're welcome to contact JATC North and South.
Anthony Godfrey:
We had the chance to interview your daughter and her goats. Well, we interviewed the goats. They didn't really respond very well, but they were attentive. Tell me about what that's like as a family. You've done this for a long time.
Sonja Burton:
We have. My parents actually decided that was a good way to learn responsibility at a young age. So my dad did help us get into raising market lambs and goats. We still do it now. They raised market lambs and goats in Juab county and my children and my nieces participated in that family event.
Anthony Godfrey:
So market lambs and goats, as opposed to black market lambs and goats?
Sonja Burton:
These animals are show animals. So they will go to your livestock shows and fairs or exhibits around the state and around the country.
Anthony Godfrey:
Is it hard to say goodbye to those goats when it's time to send them to market?
Sonja Burton:
There have been many tears shed. Many, ‘Ok, just one more minute’ at the pen before we have to leave. Because not only do you name them, each of these animals have such a personality and you've spent hours with them, training them, so they are perfect when they get into that show ring.
Anthony Godfrey:
When it is time for them to go, is it harder to say goodbye to some than to others?
Sonja Burton:
It is. Some you just wave and say, ‘see you later’, and others there are tears shed.
Anthony Godfrey:
Sonya, do all goats go to heaven?
Sonja Burton:
No, I don't think so.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, fair enough. You've heard it here folks, all goats do not go to heaven. So be a good goat out there. All right. Well, thank you very much for everything you're doing to improve students' awareness of the careers in agriculture, and also just how the world works around them.
Sonja Burton:
Thank you so much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. More fun on the farm and Ag Day when we come back.
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Anthony Godfrey:
Now let's listen in as Jordan School District maintenance employees talk about some of the equipment they use.
Maintenance worker #1:
Anybody have any ideas, what that is? How many of your parents fertilize the grass at your house with a little spreader thing? This is the same thing, but on steroids right here. With this we can haul about 8,000 pounds of fertilizer. What does fertilizer do for us?
Student #1:
It kills the weeds in the grass.
Maintenance worker #1:
It can, it can, if it has that component with it.
Student #2:
It grows the grass, it fertilizes the grass.
Maintenance worker #1:
Yes, Exactly. Can fertilizer be used on anything other than just grass? Yes. What?
Students:
Flower beds.
Maintenance worker #1:
Yeah, flower beds, trees. Just about anything that comes up out of the ground, fertilizer will help it.
Maintenance worker #2:
So this is the aerator, and what it does is it digs up these little holes that you see in the grass, you know, every so often. It digs those holes, puts them in the ground, and it allows the grass and the soil to breathe kind of. And then it works hand in hand with the fertilizer, because when you do this, it allows the fertilizer to kind of get a little deeper in the soil and bring a little more nutrients to the grass and that makes it a little healthier.
Anthony Godfrey:
Introduce yourself to everyone.
Alisha Neil:
My name is Alisha Neil, and I'm the agriculture teacher at Mountain Ridge High School.
Anthony Godfrey:
And what does being the agriculture teacher at Mountain Ridge High School entail?
Alisha Neil:
So I am both the FFA advisor and then I teach the agriculture classes. So for me, that's Animal Science, Floriculture, Biology, Agriculture, and Equine Science.
Anthony Godfrey:
Floriculture.
Alisha Neil:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
And do students learn how to raise and arrange flowers?
Alisha Neil:
So the floriculture is different than the floriculture in greenhouse class, which I've taught before. In floriculture we're focusing mostly on floral design, so we've done a couple of weddings in my class so far this year, and we have a couple more to do. So we get a lot of the hands-on experience in designing and arranging flowers.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. What are some of the other classes?
Alisha Neil:
Animal Science is all about animals and animal science. We focus mostly on livestock animals in Animal Science 1 and then we get into small and companion animals in Animal Science 2. We cover anatomy and physiology, as well as what it takes to raise those animals, and what it would take for example, to get beef from the farm to the plate. So we follow those animals all the way through.
Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of kids and lots of people generally, have lost an understanding of how that happens and what all is involved. What value do you see in bringing students along and helping them understand that process?
Alisha Neil:
So I tell my kid this. We do a consumer products unit, and being a good consumer of animal products in general, and having a better understanding of what it takes to get those products to you, is really important for kids as they make informed decisions as voters. As they go out and learn to be consumers of their own products and make those choices, every time a kid or a person buys a product from the grocery store, they're essentially voting for how they want that product raised and handled with their dollar. And so that's an important thing for our students to understand and to be able to apply. So whether they grow up to be in the agriculture profession or not, understanding how to be a good consumer is important.
Anthony Godfrey:
Anybody who eats can be more intentional and informed about the choices they make.
Alisha Neil:
A hundred percent. Yeah, that's exactly it. Like I said, understanding labels, understanding the different ways our products are raised is really important. Even though we're in a suburban to urban setting, like you said, every person that eats can make better informed choices, if they understand the background of where those products come from.
Anthony Godfrey:
You mentioned, companion animals, would I normally call that a pet?
Alisha Neil:
Yes, that would be a pet.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about companion animal versus pet.
Alisha Neil:
So a companion animal as registered is what we would consider a pet. In the animal industry, we call them companion animals, but that could be everything now from a Chinchilla to a dog or cat, even horses. I have kids that have many horses that go do therapy with them. So there's a broad spectrum of what we consider companion animals now. But we also talk about exotics and zoology stuff in there as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
So Ag courses can help students go into agriculture and be prepared for that, but also just better understand animals in their lives.
Alisha Neil:
Correct. So agriculture really affects all of us. Every time you put on a piece of clothing that has cotton in it, to wearing leather shoes, to eating three times a day, all of that is influenced by agriculture. I do have a lot of kids that are in the vet science line of things, but I also have kids that are just there because they're interested in animals and want to learn a little bit more. And it really does, it affects all of us. There's things that you don't think about. Everything from your hair gel and mascara down to the air filters in our car have animal products in them. So things we need to learn about.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about FFA.
Alisha Neil:
So FFA is a passion of mine and always has been. I had a really excellent ag teacher who's now the principal here at JATC South. FFA is really a life changing student leadership organization. We have a fairly decent chapter at Mountain Ridge and we're growing. Last year with the pandemic things kind of got a little off track, but we're back on now. We have competitions for students to be in, but really first and foremost, it's a student leadership organization where kids learn hands-on leadership skills. My student officers make all the decisions for our chapter, our school. So they decide what socials we have, what competitions we're in, what things run that way. They run the whole program, and my job is just to be there for the advisor role.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me the thinking behind having students teaching students at this event.
Alisha Neil:
One of my favorite things about this particular 7th Grade Ag Day, we've been doing it for quite a number of years, but it gives my kids the first hand opportunity to expand their knowledge. Kids always learn better when they're teaching. The person doing the talking is usually the one doing the most learning. So they get that added benefit of being able to tell what they know. They also kind of experience what it's like to be a teacher, and they're usually nicer to me after this day. They're a little bit grateful. They're like, ‘this is exhausting. How do you do this all the time?’ By teaching, they kind of round out their knowledge and they can see where they have gaps. It's also really valuable to my students because as they apply for FFA awards, my kids have to have a hundred service hours, and so this goes to count towards those service hours and can help them. The degree application they have to do is approved by the state of Utah and they they really like this on their applications. This shows up really nice for them.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you don't have to be a future farmer of America to be in FFA?
Alisha Neil:
No. So Future Farmers of America, the name actually changed in 1988 and they dropped the future farmers part of it, but kept FFA because of all the tradition and history we have associated with it. But future farmer really should be future biologist, future engineer, future wildlife biologist, future soil tech.
Anthony Godfrey:
Future informed consumer.
Alisha Neil:
Exactly, exactly. Everyone is affected by agriculture, whether directly or indirectly and agriculture is still our nation's largest employer. So whether it's in the field, which there's not a ton of actual farmers anymore as we've condensed, but agriculture still employs more people than any other industry.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much. It's great talking with you and thank you for all the efforts that you put into making an event like this possible. I'm sure it's the type of exposure that many students haven't experienced.
Alisha Neil:
It's really fun. And the best part is the kids that do it here in 7th grade, a lot of the times, by the time they get to high school, they remember it and they come and seek our programs out. So it works really well all the way around.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's great. Thanks again.
Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see out there.
21 min
September 24, 2021 Episode 105: Rhyan White Shares Her Story of Olympic Success Swimming Her Way to a Silver Medal
Rhyan White is a Herriman native who is now among the best of the best in competitive swimming in the United States. That’s because Rhyan won a silver medal in the women’s 4x100-meter medley relay at the recent 2020 Summer Olympics. She also placed fourth in both the 100-meter backstroke and the 200-meter backstroke.
On this episode of the Supercast, Rhyan White takes time out of her busy schedule at the University of Alabama to talk about what it takes to become an Olympic athlete. Rhyan shares her experience at the summer games in Tokyo and talks about coming home to a hero’s welcome in Herriman.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we talk with Rhyan White. She's a Herriman native who is now among the best of the best in competitive swimming in the United States. That's because Rhyan won a silver medal in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the recent 2020 Summer Olympics. She also placed fourth in both the 100-meter backstroke and the 200-meter backstroke. On this episode of the Supercast, Rhyan takes time out of her busy schedule at the University of Alabama to talk about what it takes to become an Olympic athlete. She shares her experience at the recent summer games in Tokyo and talks about coming home to a hero's welcome in Herriman.
All right. We are here with Rhyan White, silver medalist from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and we're really excited to have her on the Supercast. Rhyan, I know you're busy with school. Thank you very much for joining us.
Rhyan White:
Yeah, of course. I'm super happy to talk to you guys and just let you know my story and I really appreciate you guys reaching out to me.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now you swam for Herriman High School for a year, is that right?
Rhyan White:
Yup. That's right.
Anthony Godfrey:
And now you are an Olympic medalist. How does that feel?
Rhyan White:
It's pretty crazy. Some days I wake up and I can definitely feel the excitement and some days I just remember I’m another swimmer. It's definitely exciting and I'm super grateful.
Anthony Godfrey:
As I was Googling your various accomplishments, you have a lot of medals in your life. You've held up medals of various colors over the years. Tell me a little bit about some of your other accomplishments.
Rhyan White:
I've been an SEC champ, I think it’s been two years in a row for backstroke. In high school I was swimmer of the year a couple of times. I've just grown up swimming and I really love it.
Anthony Godfrey:
What drew you to swimming initially?
Rhyan White:
My older brothers. I have three older brothers and an older sister and my parents kind of just had us all doing some summer league. Me and my sister kind of fell in love with it together, and so we continued on to do more competitive swimming. I just kind of stuck with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
At what point did you realize, ‘Hey, I might be better than some of the people around me.’
Rhyan White:
I think I first kind of talked about maybe being an Olympian, and that my goals were to do that and my dreams were, I think I was maybe 11 or 12. I had like a state record or something in the 50 fly. Then I think it really hit me that I could maybe even swim in college and really do this thing probably when I was 12 or 13. I swam at some meet in Salt Lake City, I swam a 100 back and my underwater had just developed so much that year and my coaches were super excited. I think I was always in love with the sport, but I think at that time I realized that I could really go somewhere with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
And you're 21 now.
Rhyan White:
Yep
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your training schedule. How many hours at the peak, how much time have you been training a day?
Rhyan White:
The NCAA rules are that we can’t be required more than 20, I'm pretty sure. Like we have voluntary practices that ended up going over that and they're kind of voluntary, but I mean, they expect us to be there. If you want to get better, you show up. So let's see we practice, I do doubles Monday, Wednesday, Friday for swimming.
Anthony Godfrey:
I do doubles, but they're double cheeseburgers. It's a different thing. It's not a regimen at all. Tell me again, start that sentence over.
Rhyan White:
So we do doubles Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Our swim practices are typically two hours long and then Tuesday and Thursday, Saturday, those are like the single days. Then I lift three times a week and I usually do dry land twice a week. Dry land is just more like cardio. We do a lot of stuff on the assault bike. We have a Versaclimber here and rowing machines, things like that.
Anthony Godfrey:
The assault bike. Sounds like a high level of energy expended on the assault bike.
Rhyan White:
I mean, that's what we call it. It's just a stationary bike. That's actually one of my favorite things that we do at dry land.
Anthony Godfrey:
The dry land workout, so weights, the assault bike. What else is included in the dry land workout?
Rhyan White:
We have a rowing machine, like an Arc, I think that's what it's called. A Versaclimber, which is like, it's kind of like a tall pole and there's some things sticking out the side of it. You just move your arms up and down and your legs up and down. It's like climbing a wall kind of, I guess.
Anthony Godfrey:
No, I know the equipment, I've never used it, but I am familiar with it. With all of that, that is just a ton of time spent. Is your favorite being in the water?
Rhyan White:
I actually really love lifting, it's kind of fun. We get to lift in the same weight room as the football players and some of the other sports teams. So it's really cool to see other players and our coaches, like one of the football coaches. My little brother plays football and my dad was his football coach, so I think that aspect of it kind of reminds me of home a little bit. So I like lifting, I would say I probably like swimming more, but I'm really fond of the weight room.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are you mostly focused on backstroke?
Rhyan White:
Yeah, I mean, I swim the 100 fly at SECs and NCAAs also, but my training is a little bit more diverse. I'm actually in an IM group, so we do a little bit of every stroke. I would say racing wise it’s mostly backstroke.
Anthony Godfrey:
On the backstroke you're underwater for more than you are on other strokes. Is that right?
Rhyan White:
Yeah. I mean, every race you can go to the 15-meter mark, just a lot of backstrokers tend to stay there, because you can breathe the whole time. But yeah, I would say my specialty is trying to get to that 15-meter mark in each of my races.
Anthony Godfrey:
The 15-meter mark is the farthest that you can go underwater. Do you have to surface by that point?
Rhyan White:
Yeah. Yeah. You get disqualified if you don't.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us for more from Olympic silver medalist, Rhyan White.
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Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about your Olympic experience from the moment you knew I'm going to the Olympics.
Rhyan White:
So going to trials, it was super crazy to be back because I did go in 2016. It was a much different feeling, I would say, like walking around on deck and just seeing the people that I was seeing. I think I had a little bit better of an understanding of how I was thinking I could perform. Just looking up and seeing that I'd made the team, that I was 2nd in the 100 back and 1st in the 200 back, it was just super overwhelming. So many good emotions. I got to get out and give my coaches a hug and my teammates. I was really lucky that my family was able to be there. They were sitting right on the front row and that was just such a cool thing to just sit there.
I looked up at the scoreboard and I see my face on the big jumbo-tron and I can see my family there. So that was just super exciting. Then I went home and packed for a couple of days. I went to the training camp, which was in Hawaii. It was just super cool to be there with all of these swimmers that, I mean, everyone knows the big names. I'm not a super huge swim fan. I don't usually keep up with a lot of meets that are going on. Some of my friends do and they'll say, ‘did you hear this person with this time?’ And I'm usually just in my own space, in my own bubble, just trying to focus on myself. So actually being there with the people that are kind of too famous to ignore I guess, it was just really cool.
I got to know a lot of them super well, and it's just crazy to think that they're this big, famous person almost. You just go and everyone gets tired, everyone's eating the same thing. I mean, I get to go and practice with them, which is just so cool. And with the best coaches in the nation, so that was really cool. Then just going into Tokyo. The first few days we were there, maybe like a week I think, we were training at their high-performance center, which is basically like the Olympic training center in Colorado. It was so cool. And the whole team USA had kind of, I think they like rented it out or something. There were team USA signs everywhere and that was really, really cool to see how they train their national team and stuff like that.
Then just getting into the village was crazy. I mean, the process of getting in was very tedious, I would say. They had a lot of check marks and things like that, that we had to cross off just to keep us all safe with COVID and everything. It was so crazy. I mean, you're surrounded by all these people from around the world that are at the very highest level of their sport. We had our own building, but we all ate in the same dining hall. Two of my best friends from Bama were there and I have another really good friend. They were swimming for other countries, but it was so cool because my small friend group, I mean, there were three of us, we were friends with everyone on our team, but we're definitely a little bit closer knit. I got to go across the world to see them and compete where they're competing and watch them race again. It was really cool. I'm really happy that they were able to be there. I think they gave me a sense of comfort and just like familiarity being there. I guess the scariest part was definitely racing.
Anthony Godfrey:
What was Japan like?
Rhyan White:
It was really cool. I kinda got to see it from the bus window, so not a lot of exploring, but it was cool. I would love to go back and see the city. There's just, the city goes so far. Like I looked out my window in the hotel we were staying at and they're just buildings everywhere. I mean, it's bigger than any city I've ever been in.
Anthony Godfrey:
What a great experience and then an odd year to be doing it I know. You said the scary part was the racing. So tell me about the actual competition part of it.
Rhyan White:
So I've only been to one other meet internationally. I went to the youth Olympics in 2018 and it was kind of weird meet for me. It was my first international experience and I think I was a little more naive to being nervous and I didn't really realize those people were like the highest, I guess, 18 and unders that there were at the time. Just seeing the best competition in the world. We're swimming in the same race and seeing them in the ready room and in warm up, it was definitely intimidating. I hope that I could have intimidated them as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
I have no doubt that you did, I have no doubt that you did. What is the ready room exactly?
Rhyan White:
I think it's 20, or maybe 25 minutes before the actual race goes off, you go with your heat of eight girls into this room and they have a bunch of chairs, and each heat kind of sits in a row. It's just so that they know everyone's there. So if they don't show up, it doesn't cause delays. I think that's why they do it. You see the video of us marching out from like this area behind a wall. That's basically the ready room. We're all standing there and they announce our name and the person cues us to walk. You just go back to the ready room with the people in your heat, which in prelims, it's not so bad. As you progress on and on to finals, it's a little bit more nerve wracking I would say. I mean, it gets a little more intense each time.
Anthony Godfrey:
I can imagine I would be a wreck sitting in the ready room for 25 minutes in a chair, lined up, waiting to walk out from behind the wall. It's gotta be quite an experience.
Rhyan White:
Yeah. It is really incredible. It's really nice that the US brings two people from each race. I got to be in there with Regan Smith and Phoebe Bacon and they definitely made it a little easier to sit in that room for so long.
Anthony Godfrey:
What's your self-talk before you race?
Rhyan White:
I like to listen to music.
Anthony Godfrey:
I was going to ask you that. I'm a huge music fan. So what do you listen to, what’s your walk up music?
Rhyan White:
I just listen to pop music. I love to just drive around in my car and sing with my friends. I mean, we're not good at singing, but it's super fun. So that's something that comforts me.
Anthony Godfrey:
You can sing the whole song without taking a breath because you've got swimmer’s lungs. What are some of the specific songs and artists that you like to listen to?
Rhyan White:
I really like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber of course, Dua Lipa. Those are probably my top three artists that I like.
Anthony Godfrey:
You can wear headphones going in there, right? As you're kind of swinging your arms back and forth, getting loosened up, music's flowing. You're getting ready to go.
Rhyan White:
Yeah. You can bring a phone or headphones or your coat, whatever you want.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. And then tell us, so after the race is over, do you look up at the board or do you just know because you have a sense of where everybody is placed.
Rhyan White:
Sometimes you have a sense, but typically it's kind of a close race, especially at that meet. The backstroke is just stacked. There's so many fast backstrokers in the world. So I would say, yeah, I definitely looked up at the board after I raced.
Anthony Godfrey:
What is it that sets you apart from other swimmers? I know that your, is it your underwater kick in particular? That's really good.
Rhyan White:
Yeah, I would say my underwaters. I like the 200 back a little bit more. I think I can hold on a little bit, like maybe better than some other swimmers, just like with finishing the race. I think in saying that it actually helps my 100 back too, because I have a little bit more endurance. I would say maybe like endurance and my underwaters, I have pretty strong legs.
Anthony Godfrey:
And your endurance. Tell me, what do people misunderstand about the Olympic experience or what might surprise them?
Rhyan White:
Oh, that's a good question. I think, I mean, to be honest, there's a lot more pressure I think that goes into it that a lot of people don't realize. I think especially without having spectators there, I wasn't receiving any sort of like, I guess, hateful comments or anything like that, but I know that I had friends that were struggling with that a lot. It's so easy to press send, especially when you're saying something that you wouldn't say in person. So I think that pressure and like pressure of, I mean, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, but I think a lot of people don't realize how much pressure we get from outside too. So I would definitely say that.
Anthony Godfrey:
So it's the pressure from social media and that sort of thing?
Rhyan White:
Yeah. I typically delete my Instagram during meets and stuff. Just because I don't even like, I mean, on Instagram, you end up like looking at some random person and maybe comparing or wishing you were doing what they were doing, that kind of thing. So that's just, I don't think that's the best mindset, especially during a big competition. So I'm usually deleting my Instagram and sometimes like Snapchat or Twitter or anything like that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well the social emotional wellness of athletes has been a big topic lately with a few top athletes choosing not to compete in the Olympics and in other high level sports. So that's part of what you do to stay healthy is to separate yourself from those accounts.
Rhyan White:
Yeah. I love getting the support, but I had to wait until after the Olympics to read about articles that I was talking to people, like KSL and Deseret News, those types of things. I love them and actually they bring me to tears when I read them now, but I had to wait to read them.
Anthony Godfrey:
Smart. What was it like competing in an empty venue? Do you normally draw energy from the crowd? Did you have to put yourself in a different frame of mind? How did that work?
Rhyan White:
I think it definitely was different. I wish people could have been there to see all of us race and just make noise. We were lucky that we got to have some spectators at trials. This past season with college swimming has been very similar to the Olympics so we didn't have crowds, but we still had like our whole team there cheering and everybody else has a whole team there where at the Olympics, some countries have two people from their country swimming. So you can't really bank on everyone having this big group of people to cheer for you. We were trying our best to make noise. I'm sure you guys could hear it. I've heard so many people asking me what the horn is and they're saying, ‘when did they blow this horn?’ I was so confused until I realized that it was the other swimmers watching, blowing a horn, trying to make noise.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's great. It's great that they tried to fill the arena for you. Must've been very hard for your parents not to be there.
Rhyan White:
Yeah. I think it was really hard. They had a couple of watch parties each time that I swam. I really just wished they could have been there. I wish everyone's parents could have been there. That would have been so cool.
Anthony Godfrey:
They did a great job of making sure you felt welcomed and celebrated when you came back. Tell me about that.
Rhyan White:
I was so surprised by the welcome home. I was sitting in the backseat of the truck, just talking to my little brother and sister. My parents were asking me what gas station I wanted to stop by, and I was just thinking, ‘let's just go home. Why do we need to stop at the gas station?’ They pulled over and there's this huge truck. They just told me I was going to parade home and I was so excited. I did not know what to do with myself. It was so cool to see all these people coming out of their houses, waving to me and welcoming me home. It was really cool.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's well-deserved. A lot of people got a big boost out of watching you compete and cheering you on, and I was one of those. So that's exciting.
Rhyan White:
Yeah. It was definitely something I'll never forget.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now there's a lot of great experiences around this. Do you feel like you're a better swimmer having been in the Olympics?
Rhyan White:
I think I definitely learned a lot about myself and I think I can grow as a swimmer from the experience. So yeah, I think I will get better from this.
Anthony Godfrey:
And are you planning on Paris in 2024?
Rhyan White:
I’m not exactly one to plan, but it's definitely my next goal.
Anthony Godfrey:
I guess, hoping for and setting a goal for Paris in 2024 is a better way to put it. What would you say to girls who are swimmers and who are inspired by seeing you compete and are thinking that they might want to do that for themselves?
Rhyan White:
I would just say to definitely follow your dreams and believe in yourself because you don't need anybody else to believe in you. It all comes from within.
Anthony Godfrey:
Great advice. Rhyan, thank you so much for taking the time. Good luck with your ongoing swimming career and with school. Thanks a ton for taking the time. It's been a real pleasure to get to talk with you.
Rhyan White:
Thank you. I agree. It was so much fun getting to know you and I really appreciate you guys reaching out.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.
24 min
September 16, 2021 Episode 104: We Take to the Field with Talented Mountain Ridge High Football Players and their First Female Coach
They are amazing athletes off to an incredibly successful season on the playing field. On this episode of the Supercast, we catch up with the Mountain Ridge High School football team for an action-packed practice. And, we find out what it’s like to be the first female coach and defensive coordinator for the Sentinels.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. The football players at Mountain Ridge High School are amazing athletes off to an incredibly successful season on the playing field. On this episode of the Supercast, we catch up with the team for an action packed practice, and we find out what it's like to be the first female coach and defensive coordinator for the Sentinels.
Coach Davis:
Down here guys, let’s go, let’s go!
Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Mountain Ridge High School to talk with Coach Davis and a few players. We’re right here on the football field. Guys, introduce yourselves.
Football Players:
Introduce themselves
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about Coach Davis.
Player #1:
She's really nice to know. We love having her on the field. She's very positive to the whole team. She knows what she's doing football wise and she's just great to have around. Always positive.
Player #2:
She likes to kick our butts man, back in the summer conditioning. She knows how to work us, but she stays positive. Motivates us, helps us along the way. It's nice.
Player # 3:
For big guys like me, she's a, made me faster, taught me better technique with running. And I really appreciate that.
Player #4:
Likewise, she knows how to work us during the summer, during the conditioning. And I think that's helped all of us and she's always so enthusiastic. I think that really helps out our team.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's obvious that you have a lot of respect for her. Have any of you had a female Coach before in football?
Football Players:
No, sir.
Anthony Godfrey:
And so when you first came on what did you think?
Player #1:
You know, at first I was kind of confused, because football is mainly a male sport and so usually you don't see many females around. So first when I joined the team, I kinda was confused. But then once I got to know her, I knew that she knew what she was doing and that she was going to help us be the best that we can be.

Player #4:
I wasn't exactly sure what to think at first. When I saw her, I was like, oh wait, we got the girl coach. I didn't know what to think. And then I got to know her, came to practice and it doesn't matter that she's a girl. Girl, guy, it doesn't matter. She's a great coach.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that she's worked you hard. It sounds like she's taught you a lot too. Tell me something that she's taught you that you didn't know before.
Player #2:
Oh, definitely mentality like between reps, like telling yourself you can do it and like just not getting tired. She showed us in a workout. One workout, we had a bad mentality. We did the same workout and had a better one that felt so much easier.
Player #3:
I think she's definitely helped. Like I said earlier with speed and technique with our running it's helped a lot.
Player #4:
She's taught me a lot about being loud and how much just being loud and vocal at practice and our games, it just makes such a big difference.
Player #1:
She teaches us the mental part of the game. So being able to stay focused and stay positive and be able to have self-confidence really helps us elevate all of our game.
Anthony Godfrey:
You guys are 5 and 0 at the varsity level, that's really impressive. And it's impressive for a relatively new school. I mean, nobody builds a program this fast. Why do you think things are going so well?
Player #3:
I say good players and good coaches. We've had players that stuck it out since day one, going from 0 and 11 to last year having barely 4 and 5, I think. And then this year being able to have a good start. It's just all the coaches and all the players, just being able to keep going and have that grit.
Player #2:
Yeah, just the development. We've had a lot of players that started varsity, sophomore, freshmen, and juniors. So they've just had a lot of varsity reps. A lot of the schools you don't play when you're a sophomore, unless you're like really good. So just all that experience and all the good coaching just helps us, I guess.
Player #1:
I think when you start from the bottom, you can only go one way and that's up. And I think we're on the incline and we're looking really good this year. We're excited.
Player #4:
Kind of going off of why it said we've got a lot of experience on the team and stuff. And I think a big part of it is just work. I mean, we're out here putting in work every day. I think putting in that extra work has really made a difference this season.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I really admire you guys because I know it does take a lot of work and it takes a lot of grit and it takes a lot of time and dedication. I'm really excited for you guys that it's paying off. #1 so far and it's going to be a fun season to watch. So thanks for spending time. I'll let you get out there and do some of that work you just described. Coach Davis, that's pretty awesome to hear that from your players.
Coach Davis:
Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for spending time with us. I know it's a busy, busy time and a great season so far. Tell us about your background in athletics and what drew you to Mountain Ridge?
Coach Davis:
In high school I was a track athlete and that earned me a scholarship to run at Utah Valley. So I did run on the team there. And then after that I got into Coaching. I coached track at my old high school, West Jordan High School. And from there I got a little bit more experience and I was asked to coach swimming and then I was asked to coach cross country. So those are the three sports that I've coached before football. How I got into football is Coach Meifu. I coached him in track. I was a young coach and his coach told him, “You’ve got to get tougher. You need to be faster.” So he came out to the track team and he and I had a great relationship. He was the hardest worker I ever had and remembered him throughout the years.
He came back, and got a head coaching job at West Jordan. One of the Coaches said, why doesn't she come coach with us? And I just thought it was kind of crazy. You know, I've got all these other sports that I coach, but they talked me into it and I have never regretted that decision. It's changed my life. I feel like my personality is meant for football and my grit and determination and my competitiveness. I feel like I fit in right with the coaches. So I feel like I found a home.
So when Coach Meifu got the job here at Mountain Ridge, he asked me to come and I thought that was a great honor because he definitely had a chance to get rid of me and he didn't. So he kept me with him. And so I'm here and it's been an honor to build this program from scratch.
Anthony Godfrey:
It is a great honor for him to choose you when he's got to build a program, like you said, from scratch, from the ground up. And it's tough to do at a new high school. Obviously you're doing a great job as a coaching staff and as an individual, you're having a real impact on these athletes. Do you think football is where you’ll stay?
Coach Davis:
Well, I never want to quit it, that's for sure. We'll see what the years say to me. But I definitely feel at home here. And you know, a lot of these boys, I give them the best of me every day, but they are my family. And these boys are, this is my family and I let them know every day.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. Stay with us. When we come back more on the field with the Mountain Ridge High School football team and hear what the Coach is saying about the teamwork that's making the dream work so far this year.
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Coach Davis:
Get your hands on it guys. Get your hands on it. Stay on your feet guys.
Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me how a coaching staff is structured here and what's your role?
Coach Davis:
So my role is the sophomore defensive coordinator and I also work specifically with the defensive backs. So each coach here at Mountain Ridge, we have our position, we coach our position. We focus on that and we work together as a unit to make our whole program work. So we do have sophomore coaches and we, you know, we focus on our sophomore team and our new freshmen team that we brought in this year. So we've got 80 kids that we are in charge of just on the sophomore and freshman end.
Anthony Godfrey:
Just sophomore and freshman, that's a ton. And that's a great group of kids to build a program with. Do some of those kids see JV time as well?
Coach Davis:
Some of them do, our sophomores. You know, of course in football, you have injuries and throughout the season there's wear and tear on the body. So we'll send our sophomores up, you know, as things happen, the depth chart changes a little bit. So people come up and then they may come back. Our program is a progressive program, so we move up or, you know, you can stay in your spot and keep working at it. So we just problem solve along the way.
Anthony Godfrey:
What type of preparation has gone into every time you switched sports, when you switch from track to coaching swimming and to coaching football, what kind of preparation do you do?
Coach Davis:
Okay. So I do coach swim here at Mountain Ridge, and so those seasons slightly overlap and I just have to put things in their place. I learn to be a football coach when I’m at football and I learn to be a swim coach when I‘m at swim. So I really focus on those things and keep them separate. And I keep, you know, each program separate and the disciplines. So I just focus. It's the same techniques that we teach our kids. So you put in the work when you're there, and then if you’ve got to change gears and do something else, then you change gears and do something else. So these are all skills that we teach our athletes and I apply them to myself. It's a very busy life though.
Anthony Godfrey:
No question about that. What are some of the reactions that you get generally? It is out of the ordinary to have a female football coach at the high school level. What are some of the reactions that you hear?
Coach Davis:
So in the beginning, when I was first coaching, a lot of people just thought I was a trainer on the field. And like from referees, they told me to back up and get out of the coaches box.
Anthony Godfrey:
You’ve had refs move you out of the coaches box?
Coach Davis:
I have had refs move me out, yes. So then, you know, I’m just getting in their face and saying “I'm a coach. I belong here”. So I think through the years, I think the community has gotten used to me being there. But I still do get some people surprised, “Hey, is like, is that a mom out there all juiced up?” “No, that's my coach.” So anyway, their misconceptions are there, but I think they slowly go away, but I don't focus on that. I just focus on our team and if I can get our boys to do what they're doing on the field, that's my focus when we're out there.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what would you say to parents of a student who's considering playing football?
Coach Davis:
I would tell them to highly consider it. For me personally, I had a football coach that changed my life and it didn't happen on the football field. It happened when I did track in high school and that football coach was our late Rick BoJack, and I love him dearly. It was the first adult I had in my life that believed in me. I needed that desperately and he changed my life. So when I'm out here, coaching football, I am thinking about him and what he did for me. I try to offer that for anybody that comes and plays football. This is a great sport. It teaches you to problem solve. You're not gonna win every single rep. You're going to get beat and you’ve got to get back on your feet. You’ve got to try again and you’ve got to fight and dig deep. So these are all lessons that we carry you through life. Football may not always be played in their life, but the problem-solving skills that you learn here are going to be the ones that you will take through your family, your jobs, any type of adversity that you'll face in the future.
Anthony Godfrey:
He's someone who had an impact on people. There's no doubt about that. What would you say to a women who are considering coaching in high school?
Coach Davis:
I have been asked that a few times by women and my advice is my own experience. So my own experience coming into football was I focused on my strengths. I knew what I could offer. I, you know, I'm a whiz with speed. I look at shin angles. I know what generates power. And as I came into football, I didn't understand a whole lot about the scheme of it, I had to learn along the way. But I did know what created speed, and I did know what created power and I did know change of direction. So I was able to take my strengths and put that into the game. And then I grew from there. So if there's someone out there that wants to coach the sport, female, male, whoever has a desire, look at your strengths, come in with an offering and give all you've got.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's obvious that these players really respect you. But I've also heard that they don't want to let you down and you really stretch them. Tell me about that and how you do that.
Coach Davis:
I coach from my own personal experiences. They may not know everything about my life, but I do know that working through problems and facing adversity can change everything. If there are players that don't want to let a coach down that's a good thing. They're out there doing their best and they want that praise. And I'm definitely able to give them that praise when things go right. If things go wrong, I'm going to be their best support. I'm going to let them know they can do hard things and they can get through anything and get back up on their feet.
Anthony Godfrey:
Having an adult in their lives that expects a lot of them, and when they fall a little short, knows how to get them there is very, very valuable. And that's why they spend the time and energy they do to be coached by you.
Coach Davis:
Well, I'm the lucky one. So like I said, these boys get me through a lot in my life. So I would say that goes both ways.
Anthony Godfrey:
When they look back on their football experience at Mountain Ridge, what do you want them to take with them?
Coach Davis:
I want them to know that they're loved number one. That all of us coaches love them as if they're our own kids. So they need to feel love number one, and always know that they can come back to us. They need to know that this home is their home and they can go on to colleges and, you know, create families. They are always welcome back. The biggest thing that I want them to take with them is confidence in problem solving and to keep fighting through things and to celebrate life.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Thank you for all the time that you dedicate. I know it's just a ton of time, but it's obvious it's rewarding for them and rewarding for you and the results are there too. So congratulations on a great season so far, and I know great things are ahead as well.
Coach Davis:
Thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks again. Coach Meihu first of all, congratulations on a great season so far here at Mountain Ridge.
Coach Meifu:
Thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
And that's a quick build of a program.
Coach Meifu:
Oh, it's a work in progress.
Anthony Godfrey:
It always is, I know. I understand you were coached by Coach Davis. Tell me a little bit about that.
Coach Meifu:
Yeah, Coach Davis. She was my track coach. You know, I kinda got put in a situation in high school where I was told I either need to get faster or I needed to switch positions. And so I decided to join track and she helped shape me into a good player, and definitely fixed that problem.
Anthony Godfrey:
And you obviously did not forget her because then you hired her at West Jordan. Is that right?
Coach Meifu:
That's correct. When you have somebody that improves your career so much, you know, you don't forget those people.
Anthony Godfrey:
Zo you wanted that benefit to be available to your players here at Mountain Ridge as well, and you brought her over here. Like she said, you had your choice, you have your pick when you're starting a program and you chose her. That's a nice compliment.
Coach Meifu:
Yeah, absolutely. One of our core values here in our program is all about trust and I bring on people that I trust and bring great value to our program. She was definitely a no brainer for me.
Anthony Godfrey:
I had the chance to talk with some players, and it's obvious that she's built trust with those players quickly.
Coach Meifu:
Yes, absolutely. I mean, again, that's what our program is built around is trusting one another. And yeah, she does a great job and they see the benefit too. I mean the year round stuff and the speed and agility, like they see it and you know, when they're getting value out of it, it's really easy to build that trust.
Anthony Godfrey:
She brings out the best in everybody.
Coach Meifu:
Absolutely, yeah. And she'll challenge them. You know, and I think they know that she cares too.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great combination. She cares. And as a result, she gets a lot of work out of them.
Coach Meifu:
Yeah, absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey;
Thank you, Coach. Congratulations on the season so far and we're excited to see what happens next.
Coach Meifu:
Appreciate it, and thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks again. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
18 min
September 09, 2021 Episode 103: Strike Up the Band – Behind the Scenes with the Herriman High School Marching Band
It is marching band season and that means a summer of hard work and dedication to music and marching comes to life on the football field and beyond.
On this episode of the Supercast, we take you behind the scenes to show what goes into creating precision and visual performance along with amazing music for students in the Herriman High School marching band.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I’m your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is marching band season, and that means a season of hard work and dedication to music and marching will come to life on the football field and beyond. On this episode of the Supercast, join us as we go behind the scenes with the Herriman High School marching band. Simply put, this will be music to your ears.
We're here at Herriman High School with the director of bands. I'll let him introduce himself and then we'll talk with some of his students and maybe even experience a little marching band for ourselves.
Brandon Larsen:
My name is Brandon Larsen. I've been at Herriman for, this is now my sixth year here. It's clearly my dream job or else I wouldn't still be here. I really love it here because I get to be with these nerds all the time. We get to make music together, and compete, and I get to see them grow and become better musicians and better people.
Anthony Godfrey:
In a band program, nerd is a term of endearment.
Brandon Larsen:
Yes, I think we were saying dork is better. I don't know, but either way.
Anthony Godfrey:
My son is a budding band nerd/dork as evidenced by the marimba that I purchased on KSL and put in my basement. What do you love most about being director of bands here at Herriman High?
Brandon Larsen:
The kids. Hands down, the kids. Watching them grow. Some of the kids that are here, like, I've known Kaden since he was in fifth grade. I taught his older brother and watched him grow. Each and every one of them from barely being able to make sounds on their instrument when I'm visiting them at the middle school to now we have all-state musicians here. They're very, very high class and hard working musicians. It's fun to watch them grow and see the things that they accomplish. That's a hands down, easy, easy answer.
Anthony Godfrey:
And when you're working with students, the progress is obvious when they're becoming musicians. Because like you said, you can see what they could do before and what they can do now. That must be very rewarding because you don't always get that outward result as a teacher.
Brandon Larsen:
Right, and it's not always obvious to them. So it's fun to be the person who says, "you're doing great. Hang in there. I'm seeing progress every single day. I'm proud of you." It's fun. It's fun to see you grow. That's the fun part because at this level it's so incremental that sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees, but I'm the third party that can come in and say, no, absolutely, "think of the music you were playing even last year and what we're doing this year" and help them reflect.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's true. We don't give ourselves enough credit for the progress we make. We stay focused on what we still don't know, and yet when we look back, we've made more progress than we realize.
Brandon Larsen:
That’s the fun thing about music too, is that we're never done. We're never done improving. We're never done getting better. We have, like it says on the wall, we have a motto and a credo of ‘nothing worth having comes easy.’ So, we really pushed through those kinds of things. So not only are they getting musical skills, but they're also getting skills that they can take into their lives as contributing members of society, and to their jobs and to school. That kind of resilience that comes with continuing to improve every single time that they come to our rehearsal.
Another unique thing about Herriman is that we have a study hall. So we will start on Monday where they'll get an hour and a half of time that's booked out in the library, just for them, right after school. Before rehearsal, they will go in there and I will check their grades. I go through every single one of their grades, all 130 of them, and make sure that all of them are staying caught up. And if they're not, we're making plans on how to keep going. So we continue that support because we don't just want them to be good musicians. We want them to use music to become better people, and musicians, and students, and citizens.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that, and there's no deadline like a performance. Anything live you have to be prepared and you have to get a mindset for being prepared or else it's just not gonna work out. You're not going to become a musician.
Brandon Larsen:
Right, it takes so much repetition and that's where the resilience comes in, right? Because we repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat, and then I reward them with one more repeat, right? Like, ‘we're going to do this. You did it great, now do it one more time. Do it great again.’ I can already hear their eyes rolling behind me right now, but that's how they improve. So that resilience comes in when they're willing to do it one more time, and make that incremental progress.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for all your hard work on this. I know there's really no season. It doesn't end. It's all the time. I just really appreciate the opportunity that you're giving these students. I wish I'd taken that opportunity. It's a little intimidating when you don't know the instrument. I'm glad that you obviously get involved when students are younger. When you've known students since they were in fifth grade, you involve yourself early on. Tell me a little bit about that.
Brandon Larsen:
Well, I see every interaction that I have with a kid as either an educational or recruitment opportunity. So I will go with the middle school directors to the elementary schools, just so that they know my face. I'm at the middle schools every other day. When I have my prep hours, I'm over at the middle schools team teaching and helping out, because I want them to feel like once you join the music program, you're a part of it all the way through. When these guys have siblings and when I see them, I always look at them and go, ‘ you look like a new tuba player. You want to come play the tuba.’ It's not a question, that's what they're going to do. So just making those connections with their siblings. Kaden was unique in that he wanted to march way back when his brother was in the marching band. He wanted to do it and he couldn't wait. Didn't you get to march one year with Davin?
Kaden:
It just barely didn't work out.
Brandon Larsen:
So his older brother, is I think, four years older than you? So it just barely missed.He was at every competition with his family, just wanting to be there. So all we did was elbow and say, ‘come on, man, join us.’
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us your name.
Kaden:
I'm Kaden.
Anthony Godfrey:
And you watched your brother march?
Kaden:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you remember what that felt like when you hadn't done it yet and you were watching him do it?
Kaden:
From like the third grade, I knew about marching band, but like fifth grade was really when I got into the program and stuff, doing like parade band and stuff. Parade band is just like a little window into what the real marching band stuff would be. So when I was out there on the stands, watching all of them perform and do like crazy things that I'd never seen before, I was like, oh, I wish I was on there.
Anthony Godfrey:
And now you've been able to do that. What year in school are you?
Kaden:
It's my junior year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Junior year, so you've got another good year ahead of you as well. What instrument do you play?
Kaden:
I play the alto saxophone most of the time.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now, Ashton, you're the grand poobah. Remind me what's the exact term?
Ashton:
I am one of the drum majors.
Anthony Godfrey:
The drum major. Okay, now there are military terms throughout the group here, I understand. So I'm going to talk to some platoon leaders and some others. So as the drum major, what is your specific responsibility?
Ashton:
I am the one in the front of the band conducting and keeping time.
Anthony Godfrey:
Let's just say that during a game or a rehearsal, you did something just completely unexpected. Would they do what you asked them to do? How would you stop them? Could you stop them somehow? Could you give them a signal to stop or to go really fast or to go really slow? And would they do it?
Ashton:
It's hard to say, because right now their main focus is kind of their drill and like finding their dots and like finding where to go. So their eyes aren't up looking at us yet, but we, we want them to be so.
Anthony Godfrey:
So ultimately yes.
Ashton:
If they’re doing it right and we cut off and like told them to stop, they should stop. Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Now, when they're practicing, they're on their dots. So how does that start out? What's your name?
Huck:
Huck.
Anthony Godfrey:
Huck, Tell me, how does that start out when you're in the dot phase of things?
Huck:
Basically what happens is we just get this little sheet of paper and it's got all these like crazy numbers written on it. You just have to look at it. It just says, your first dot is at this spot on the field and you just go there. Then we just rep that a couple of times. Then we do the next dot. We do that and then we just keep going and then we'll start putting dots together and doing like chunks. And then eventually we just had the whole thing on the field and then we'll add music to it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you connect the dots into chunks and then you add music. I think I summarized that too succinctly.
Huck:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So does the dot have a particular number to it? Like, is there a number assigned to the dot and you go, oh, I've got dot number 27. Here I go.
Huck:
Yeah. So each member of the marching band has a letter that signifies their instrument and then a number for what number of the instrument they are.
Anthony Godfrey:
What is your role? Are you your drum minor or what are you?
Huck:
So I'm the percussion platoon leader.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. What does the percussion platoon leader do?
Huck:
So I'm over all of the percussion. So that's the drum line and then the front ensemble, who's just in the front.
Anthony Godfrey:
What does the front ensemble play?
Huck:
The front ensemble. It's like the marimbas, the vibraphone, xylophone, all the auxiliary percussion. They do a lot of the sound effects and stuff. So there's like synthesizers where there's like pianos and they'll do like effects and stuff that go with our show.
Anthony Godfrey:
It is a pretty amazing production, all of the instruments that end up on the field so quickly and then back off. Tell us your name and your role.
Skyler:
I'm Skyler and I'm the field commander.
Anthony Godfrey:
And what does the field commander do?
Skyler:
Basically I’m the head drum major. So there's three other ones, Ashton, Cooper and Laura, and then me. I am motivating the band, leading the band, I conduct on those big high platforms.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, okay. What do you think of being on the high platform?
Skyler:
It's fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, okay. You're not clipped in or anything. It's just you up there.
Skyler:
Yup. there’s a staircase behind me.
Cooper:
There's a cage.
Anthony Godfrey:
There's a cage. Oh, is there a cage?
Cooper:
He's got a cage. I don't.
Anthony Godfrey:
And you're part of the percussion ensemble as well?
Cooper:
No, I'm the other senior drum major. Ashton's one senior drum major and I’m the other one. Am I on the backfield permanently? Okay. So I'm on the backfield permanently.
Anthony Godfrey:
You just found out you're on the backfield permanently. Is that bad news or is that okay?
Cooper:
It's news. That's fine.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Fair enough. What was your name? So I'm Cooper.
Cooper:
So being on the backfield is entertaining because my sound perception is different than anybody else because they're all facing the front field. Most of the rehearsal, I just run the met and deal with how off everything sounds and try to stare down Skyler and stay on tempo.
Anthony Godfrey:
So are you watching each other on the field also? So some of you were watching the tower commanders or the drum majors and the, sorry, I will get the terminology wrong every time. So you're watching at the top of the towers, but maybe some people are watching you, because they aren't, as they're moving around, they're not able to watch the drum majors. Is that correct?
Cooper:
Yeah, so being on the backfield, so I'm on the backside of the field. That was self-explanatory. There's a couple of sets in the show, mostly like the last half of second movement and the first half of third movement where the entire band is turned around looking at me while Huck and all the drum line is over there jamming out, having a great time. So basically that's my entire job just to be there for when that happens.
Anthony Godfrey:
I knew you were involved with drums, and then I asked if you're involved with percussion and I expected that to be the same thing. What's the difference between percussion and drums? Is percussion anything you hit that isn't a drum?
Cooper:
Drums are part of percussion, yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So drums is a subset of percussion. Okay. This is very complicated, but very organized. I'm starting to understand. Okay. Tell us your name.
Laura:
I'm Laura.
Anthony Godfrey:
And what do you play Laura?
Laura:
Well, I'm the junior drum major of the band. So I'm also conducting.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so are you also on top of a tower?
Laura:
Yep. I am on a tower thing.
Anthony Godfrey:
Teach me a term that would make it seem like I am one of you because I'm wanting to be. So just teach me some lingo that I could throw out there when I'm walking through the parking lot at Corps Encore next time, that will make me seem like I really know marching band, like nobody else.
Laura:
Okay. So whenever we run any part of our show, we have to call the band to set. Which is when they have to stand at attention, basically with their arms up with their instruments depending on what they play or do. They’re definitely at attention and they have to be focused on us and not moving.
Anthony Godfrey:
So that's calling the band to set. So how would you do that?
Laura:
We just yell, “set.”
Anthony Godfrey:
You just yell “set”.
Laura:
We just yell “set”. Sometimes we count down to give them more time to prepare themselves.
Anthony Godfrey:
So this is good. When I'm walking, I would never do this to you guys now that we're all friends, but if I'm walking by a marching band at a random other school, I could say “3, 2, 1, set” and then they'd maybe do it?
Laura:
Maybe.
Cooper:
We could say that in the lunchroom and there are kids who would do it.
Anthony Godfrey:
There were kids who would jump up and do it? So this is a way that you could tell who's in the marching band, just walking into any classroom.
Cooper:
But you just need to listen to the music in the halls and see who's on step in the hallway.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Yeah. So let me ask you about that. Is it hard to resist walking in time?
Laura:
It’s very hard to resist.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Okay. So this just becomes a part of who you are wherever you are.
Laura:
Yep, very much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your name and rank.
Bronson:
My name is Bronson and I'm the brass platoon leader and I am U2.
Anthony Godfrey:
You're the brass platoon leader? So with all these military terms, when they say you're the brass, that has a different meaning now.
Bronson:
Yeah. So I'm in charge of all the brass instruments, the trumpets, the mellophones, the baritones and the tubas. I'm part of the tuba section, but I'm over all of the brass.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. What's the brass like? How would you describe the brass group compared with others?
Bronson:
The brass are very interesting.
Anthony Godfrey:
You're one of them, so you can be honest.
Bronson:
Yeah, sometimes we act like complete fools. But when we have “platoonals'' where I get all the brass together and we play the music, they sound beautiful. Like this is one of the best brass sections we've had.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you sound great together and have a great time together it sounds like.
Bronson:
That is very accurate.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Tell me about the workload and the time that you put into being part of the marching band here at Herriman High School.
Bronson:
It is almost a full week commitment. We have rehearsals Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Sometimes throughout the season, we'll do pep band for football games and those are on Fridays. And then once we get into the season, we have competitions almost every Saturday. So really our only free days are Tuesdays and Sundays.
Anthony Godfrey:
And you have a lot of practices over the summer as well from what I understand.
Bronson:
Yeah, later in the summer, normally a couple of weeks before school starts, we have our first week of band camp, which is 12 hours a day, five days a week. So 60 hours in a week where we work together. That's when we start learning our music and start setting our drill.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. You spend as much time with marching band in the summer as I do with email, and that's a lot of time. Let's talk a little bit about color guard. Tell me your name.
Carina:
I'm Carina and I'm the color guard platoon leader.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the color guard platoon leader.
Carina:
It's definitely interesting because the guard has very different personalities all throughout. It's definitely different since we have three pieces of equipment. So everyone's doing different things at different times.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are the three different pieces of equipment that you use?
Carina:
So we spin flag, saber and rifle in the show.
Anthony Godfrey:
Flag, saber and rifle. And which is your favorite?
Carina:
My favorite to spin, I think would be flag.
Anthony Godfrey:
Flag looks like it's really, really hard though, because of the 'flagginess' of it. It would be really hard to spin that huge flag. Wouldn’t it?
Carina:
So flag is actually our beginner equipment and we always give it to anyone who’s new and trying different things out.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the flag is beginner?
Carina:
Yes, it is.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Because you're not flipping it up in the air or why is that?
Carina:
It's one of the larger pieces of equipment so it's a lot easier to handle. With saber and rifle they spin really quickly, so it's just more advanced.
Anthony Godfrey:
And the saber is, for those listeners, it's not an actual saber, right?
Carina:
No, it is not.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do people maybe misunderstand about being in color guard? What would be a misperception about being in color guard?
Carina:
I think a lot of people just kind of confuse us with dance and drill. We're pretty similar because we have to be in the same unity and spin at the same time and be clean just like they are. But I think a lot of the time they confuse our skillset with theirs and how we spin with equipment and dance with it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we head out to the football field as they strike up the marching band. You don't want to miss it.
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Anthony Godfrey:
We're out on the field here with the band. You have a large crew, Mr. Larsen. How many students are out here?
Brandon Larsen:
Yeah. Right now, 130. When I started at Herriman we had 40.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Brandon Larsen:
It's come a long way.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Well, it builds momentum when it's a great program and kids are enjoying themselves, the word spreads.
Brandon Larsen:
Yes, I certainly hope so.
Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, how is this divided up? Percussion, brass? How many in each group would you say?
Brandon Larsen:
We probably have 24 or so in percussion. Woodwinds are about 25, 26. Brass are the large majority at around 30, 35 and then color guard is another 20, 21 on top of that.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love how many students get to be involved in this. It's awesome.
Brandon Larsen:
This is the Superintendent of our school district right here, Dr. Godfrey. We're going to make some music for him. Yeah? Get in your music arcs really quickly so we can do that. Let's go move it, move it. Yell set. You wanted to do that. Give them 3, 2, 1.
Anthony Godfrey:
I don't have a band director's voice. I'll try to. 3, 2, 1 set! Wow, that's really good.
Brandon Larsen
Concert B flat scale. Tick, tick, tadas on the way up and then long notes on the way down, say yes.
Drum Major:
5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to a student who is thinking about trying marching band or joining one of the bands here at Herriman High School or anywhere else? What advice would you give them?
Cooper:
Just go for it. Like genuinely, I don't think there's a better organization in the school. I'm in choir and I have done theater too, and I think this is the most organized and just some of the most connected organizations in this school. Don't think that you're not good enough. We have classes if you're just starting and we're going to work you up. And once you're in, you're kind of stuck with us.
Anthony Godfrey:
So is this really like a second family after all the time that you spend together?
Cooper:
Easily. Sometimes it feels more like a first family.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you for all the time that you're putting into this and the way that you support each other. Thank you for taking the time and sharing this with me. I'm going to be yelling “set'' at classrooms and cafeterias and fields around the district to test what I've learned today. But what I've really learned is just how dedicated you are as students, to what you do in band, to academics and to each other. Thank you for that.
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
24 min