Jordan Supercast

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

Jordan Supercast episodes

January 30, 2020 Episode 22: Late Start and More Sleep for Some JSD High School Students
Some high school students in Jordan School District will be able to get some more sleep in this coming school year thanks to a first-of-its-kind Late Start Blended Learning Program that will be piloted in all high schools. The Late Start Program will be offered to high school juniors and seniors who will be able to take two on-line courses, which will allow them to start school later - at 9 a.m.
In this episode of the Supercast, we talk about how the new program will work and the benefits to students and teachers.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today, we're talking about an exciting new program which will allow some high school juniors and seniors to sleep in. If they choose, you can start school at 9:00 AM. We're talking about a first of its kind. Late start blended learning program, which is being piloted in all Jordan School District High Schools in the upcoming school year. Students will have to provide their own transportation for the late start. This is an option, not required, but we are excited about the possibilities. Here to talk about the program and how it will work is Instructional Design Specialist, Michelle Truman. So you've done blended learning for about 20 years. How would you define blended learning? Let's start with that.
Michelle:
The main thing that you have to think of the difference between blended learning and a technology rich classroom. In blended learning, students have some control over the pace of their learning, the place of their learning. So whether that's sitting on a beanbag in a classroom or on their bed at home or at the kitchen table. The path of their learning, there's some choice involved in that as well. So those three are the things that are going to distinguish blended learning from a traditional classroom that's too technology-infused.
Anthony Godfrey:
And that makes a lot of sense because if those three things are flexible for students and for teachers, there's a lot higher chance of engagement.
Michelle:
Absolutely. Who doesn't want choice? Right? Do you want the blue lollipop or the red lollipop? Well, I like red better. Okay. Well, here you go.
Anthony Godfrey:
Everybody wants choice. And this provides choice, not just about where you learn or how fast you learn, but even when you learn. We'll talk more later about what a blended learning model is. But basically it's an online course that still allows students the chance to interact in person with the teacher, as necessary. We're setting up classes like this at each of our high schools. We have a total of 36 teachers teaching 13 different courses that will allow students that level of flexibility that hasn't been available before. We know the health benefits for students, not just physical health but social and emotional wellness that can come from being able to sleep on a rhythm. That makes more sense as a teenager. Even when teenagers try to go to bed early or do go to bed early, they're on a different pattern and they're on a different rhythm. As anyone who's been watching the news knows it's been a hot topic lately, but it's something we've been working on for a while. And I'm really excited to have Michelle here to talk about what the program's going to look like. So Michelle, tell us a little bit about what this program is starting to shape up to be out in our high schools.
Michelle:
They are initially coming in for the late start at 9:00 AM, and that is exactly what's happening. Teachers volunteered at each of the high schools to participate in this. And when I say volunteer, they volunteered to be instrumental in changing education for kids in Jordan School District. What we're going to do is take the traditional curriculum where teachers typically lecture, give assignments, kids go home and practice via homework. What we're doing is creating fully online, interactive, engaging courses that kids can work on at home, at any time they choose, whether it's midnight or 6:00 AM. Then when they need extra assistance or they're going to work with their peers, come in and do a chemistry lab. They can come in to their traditional classroom teacher and work on that with him or her.
Anthony Godfrey:
So will the teacher have office hours where they're available outside of normal class time?
Michelle:
Absolutely. Teachers meet periods one through four on one day and periods five through eight on another day. So when kids come in late start would be first period and fifth period. And so if they need some extra help, they can come to school during that block of time and meet with their classroom teacher. But that's also changed. We have one of our schools. They've had two math teachers pair up so what's happening is the first math teacher's gonna come in the standard time for first period. And he will be in the classroom during that time. The second math teacher is going to come to school two hours late and stay two hours later after school. So if I'm a football player and I want to come in and get extra assistance, I would come during that first period of time. But if I'm another type of student who would rather come in after school, we will have a teacher there to support that as well. So these two teachers are going to share that. They're each going to be responsible for their own classes, but they will share that extra assistance giving on either side of the time schedule.
Anthony Godfrey:
So in other words, it creates greater flexibility for students and for teachers.
Michelle:
Absolutely.
Anthony Godfrey:
So from a student perspective, what this looks like is, rather than signing up for eight classes where I'm going to go to a classroom, I can sign up for two classes, first and fifth period as a blended learning course. And now I don't have anywhere I have to be before nine o'clock. And so I can get some extra rest and set a schedule that more matches my lifestyle as a teenager. Is that correct?
Michelle:
Absolutely. And not only that, it allows for flexibility. So as long as I have an internet connection, I can go to class anywhere.
Anthony Godfrey:
I can think of many reasons that students might want to do this. It might sound like laziness, not starting until nine, but really, there are great health benefits to allowing students to get more sleep in the morning. And there may be health issues that can be addressed by allowing for greater flexibility and in the school day.
Michelle:
Not only that, they will be required to come to school at points during the quarter because if I'm taking a chemistry class, it's great to do an online simulation. But now I've experienced that online simulation, I need to come in and get my hands dirty. I want to play with the beakers and I want to dump solutions and see things that happen. And we need to act like real scientists and that's what real scientists are gonna do. They're gonna study and figure out what they want to do, and what they need to do it.
Anthony Godfrey:
I have to tell you, if I could go back in time to the 1980s, I would have loved this as a high school student, just having this level of flexibility. I'm excited that our kids are going to have that chance coming up this next year. How are the teachers feeling about it?
Michelle:
It's funny. There's been a little bit of reaction across the board. The teachers are involved, they are go-getter teachers and a lot of them are young. And I say, young, in their thirties. So they have their teaching-chops underneath them. But they have a lot of energy and they've grown up and in this environment with technology. And so they don't see it as an adjunct. They don't see it as something in addition to. It's just part of their everyday. It's not anything unique to them and they're really excited about doing this. They look and say, Oh, wow, this is a lot of work. Essentially when you're putting your content online, you are creating not only a textbook, you're creating a digital online interactive book, and now I've got videos I'm creating, and now I'm creating Nearpod slide decks. And I'm creating all this really rich information that's going to go along. And not only that, I can also add an extra helps if I'm in a classroom and I'm teaching. That's the teaching. If kids didn't get it, then somehow we have to come up with something else to help them. Right? But online, what I can do is I can provide the lesson, and then at the end of the lesson, I can say, and if you need some other strategies to help you, here's a video, here's a text, here's some additional readings.
Anthony Godfrey:
How do we look at blended learning versus just online learning? What's that difference?
Michelle:
With online learning, there's typically not that component of face-to-face.
Anthony Godfrey:
What you've described is exactly what I like about blended learning. There is a human component to it and so it's just one more part of the continuum of learning. A traditional classroom on one end of the spectrum and a strictly online class on the other end of the spectrum. And in between you have blended learning that has positive elements of both. What are some of the myths that you encounter when you're working with people who are not used to blended learning or learning online?
Michelle:
It's that technology is going to replace the teacher. Look at all the research. Every piece of research will show that the biggest component of a child's education is the teacher in the classroom. Now, whether that's a virtual classroom, a blended classroom or a face-to-face classroom, it does not matter. It is the teacher that is the most important thing.
Anthony Godfrey:
So technology is still just another way of connecting to that teacher that is essential to effective education.
Michelle:
Absolutely. Kids need to have a connection with a person, whether it is virtual or live. Like I talked about, my adult students still need me to be able to communicate with them, to look at their papers, to give them feedback, to be there for support, same with the students in our classrooms. They can come to you as a face-to-face teacher and say, Hey, I need assistance with this. You can do that virtually online, but how rich is it to be able to take an online class with all the contents there that I can be up when I'm wide awake at midnight, take my class, understand the material. And if I don't the next day, I send an email to my teacher and say, Hey, I'm going to pop into your class at X time, or can you meet me in the lab and be able to arrange for either a one-on-one or a small group assistance.
Anthony Godfrey:
So it's no longer a command performance. It's 7:30 AM, Monday morning time for math. Now, you can match up. You can make that fit into your schedule and everything a lot better.
Michelle:
Say that I'm I'm a football player and we're doing two-a-days because we have this big game coming up. And so I really am not going to have time to do a bunch of work this week. I know that on Saturday, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to do a couple hours worth of coursework. Then I can go take a run, clear my brain, and then I'm going to come back in and do another couple hours. I've now front-loaded all that instruction that I would have had to sit in class and do and get that method of the traditional school model. Now I don't have to. Now I freed up my time because I've completed a week's worth of math on my Saturday when I had the time to do so. And now I can dedicate myself to something I'm passionate about, and that's my sports.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll head out to Riverton High School, where we talk to teachers about blended learning in Jordan School District.
Break:
The possibilities are endless for anyone looking to grow with a team of professionals, working together to provide the very best for students in education. If you're looking for a great job with great pay and benefits in a supportive environment, head to workatjordan.org and find your future career in Jordan School District. People come for the job and stay for the adventure. Explore the many options. apply today at workatjordan.org.
Anthony Godfrey:
You're at Riverton High School, talking with a couple of teachers who are working on the blended learning project to help allow high school students to have a later start. If they'd like to do, using blended learning is a way to accomplish that. Please introduce yourselves to the folks at home and tell them what you teach.
Teacher:
Hello. I'm Victoria Johnson. I teach biology here at Riverton with my best friend and coworker.
Teacher:
Hi, Bethany Allston. I also teach biology here at Riverton and I'm just happy to be here.
Anthony Godfrey:
What interested the two of you in being part of this, in converting some of your classes to blended learning?
Teacher:
Two years ago, we were looking at ways to assess students better. And Tori said, we got to get on Canvas a little. The following year the State purchased the licenses for all public educators to have Canvas. There's also some really cool features on Canvas for teachers to grade. So you can give some really descriptive feedback pretty quickly, which is a godsend for teachers so we can give students what they need faster.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you told me how you started out with putting classes online and using Canvas and kind of moving toward blended learning. You said that it was because you wanted to give better evaluation of student work. What are some of the other factors that made you want to be teaching in this way?
Teacher:
It's just nicer for kids. We have a lot of kids that don't get it the first time we teach it, especially where we have limited time in the classroom. It's just nice to have those resources there in a concentrated area. So students have the ability to go back through what they're learning. If they did miss something, they have resources available to help them relearn. It's also just nice for communication with feedback. What else?
Teacher:
It's great for differentiating education as well. Certain assignments can be assigned to students who maybe need more help. Those assignments don't have to be assigned to everybody. The students who get those assignments, nobody ever knows that they got the extra work. There's some really great futures for meeting kids where they're at and teaching them, moving forward without ever having anybody else know the better.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the learning is more personalized. It's more flexible. Parents can be more involved. And it sounds like it's easier for teachers, in some ways, once you get it up and running. It's probably a lot of work to get to that point though. Is that true?
Teacher:
A lot of share-ability. It does take some time to load everything in and get it in the order you want, but doing that work upfront makes our job as teachers a lot better. We transfer more into a role of mentoring and assisting students in learning rather than just lecturing all day.
Anthony Godfrey:
If there's a parent or student who isn't sure about whether they want to take a blended learning class next year, what would you you say to them to explain what the advantages might be for them individually?
Teacher:
As far as the advantages go, I would definitely say it's more contoured to what they need so we can meet their needs better at an individual level, personalize the learning. Especially with late start, if they need to do the work at home, but they need to do it later so they can get a little more rest that could benefit them. They benefit.
Teacher:
Yeah. It's helpful for students who have different work schedules. We know a lot of students actually work in the morning or if they work in the afternoon, it just helps them be able to do their learning in their own time. And then we are available still as resources to them. They can come in during a selected amount of time or they can email us or video chat or whatever else is needed. It just is a little bit more autonomous for them where they can kind of pick and choose when they get to do their work, with the exception of assessments and labs which they will have to be in class for. So they'll have their schedule, will have to work in order to be here for those mandatory days.
Some other suggestions that we've made, especially in the course descriptions that we've written, are that if the students plan to take a blended learning course, they need to be prepared to be pretty self monitoring, to make sure they get the work done. Of course, we'll check in with them. And we plan to, for lack of a better word, hover over what they've been able to accomplish to keep them on track. But it's going to require some effort on their part to make sure they're keeping up with the class.
Anthony Godfrey:
I like that you described how parents now aren't just relying on Skyward to look up grades. They can get right into the course. And it's probably the sort of format that allows parents to be more involved in their student's education than ever before.
Teacher:
Yes, which we're really excited about.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks to dedicated teachers at Riverton High School for sharing their thoughts on the blended learning. When we come back some final thoughts with Michelle Truman on how your student can get on board.
Break:
Do you want ideas for being happier and healthier? I'm McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness Specialist for Jordan School District. Please join us every week for Wellness Wednesday, a feature on the Jordan District website that offers free and simple tips for improving your health and wellness. We cover a variety of topics to help families with things like reducing stress, improving eating habits, finding more time to build relationships and increasing overall happiness. Check out Wellness Wednesday every week on the Jordan School District http://www.jordandistrict.org For additional health and wellness resources, visit https://studentservices.jordandistrict.org/mentalhealth/.
Anthony Godfrey:
Back with Michelle Truman, talking about the blended learning late start, that will be available at each of our high schools next year. Students who take at least two classes through a blended learning model, which is a combination of online courses and interaction with the teacher, will not be required to be at school before 9:00 AM, but will still be able to access all of the classes they would if they were registered like everyone else. We're excited about this option. How do students access this?
Michelle:
It's going to be different depending upon the high school. All high schools will have it on their website. Some high schools will be having informational meetings in which parents and students will be invited. All high schools will have some sort of communication come home. There'll be a Skylert, and we will also be sending things directly to parents via your children. So be on the lookout for both of those.
Anthony Godfrey:
So to sum it up, I'm really excited about this because students will have the flexibility to start their day at nine o'clock by taking a couple of blended learning courses. Those courses will include very visual and personalized learning that is connected to a teacher at the school they attend the rest of the day. So they have access to the human being behind all this instruction, and in fact, have regular intervals at which they meet with that teacher. And I think that combination can really kickstart a different type of learning for students and provide the type of flexibility that can help them be healthy and happier at school, and just in general. Absolutely lots of exciting things happening. We're going to take another break. When we come back with Michelle Truman, two truths and a lie.
Break:
If you're always looking for opportunities to learn something new, why not join us for the next Jordan Parent University? Jordan Parent University is an opportunity for parents to better understand issues that impact their own students and education. It's an evening class designed to help parents with things like planning for the road beyond high school, better understanding students' social and emotional health and wellness, knowing who to call when there are issues involving a school or a student. Jordan Parent University is free and open to the public. For a list of upcoming classes, times and locations go to http://jpu.jordandistrict.org. See you there.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're back with Michelle Truman. And now it's her time to lie to the Superintendent. It's only been a few months that she's worked in Jordan School District, so this is her chance to lie to the Superintendent on the Supercast.
Michelle:
Okay. I have two children. I was a speed skater when I was in middle school, and my favorite thing to do is go to the beach.
Anthony Godfrey:
A speed skater in middle school. I did not know there was such a thing as middle-school speed skaters, but there must be. I'm going to say you hate the beach.
Michelle:
No, I love the beach. You know what? I think I might've actually said three truths. Did I say three kids or two kids?
Superintendent:
Two kids.
Michelle:
Yeah. It was supposed to be three. I have two kids. All those were true. I set you up for failure.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Two truths and a lie, but Michelle cannot tell a lie. Michelle is the George Washington of Jordan School District. Please don't chop down any cherry trees, but we appreciate everything else you're doing here. It's awesome. You're doing great. And I'm excited about all of the energy teachers are bringing to this and more to come. We'll talk more as the program gets put into place next year, to talk about what's happening out there. Thanks again, Michelle, for being on the show and remember whether you're at home at school or anywhere else, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
24 min
January 23, 2020 Episode 21: More Naps in the New Year – Kids Share Realistic Resolutions
If you are someone already struggling to keep a New Year’s Resolution, you are not alone. On this episode of the Supercast, Health and Wellness Specialist McKinley Withers talks about realistic resolutions and how to make them last working together as a family.
But first, we visit with Riverton Elementary School students who share their ideas on the best New Year’s Resolutions and how not to break them.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. If you have already lost all hope of hanging on to a new year's resolution, you're not alone. It is something entire family struggle with this time of year on this episode of the super cast health and wellness specialist, McKinley Withers shares his thoughts on realistic resolutions and how to make them last working together as a family. But first we have some fun with Riverton elementary school students who have their own ideas about the best resolutions, like taking more naps in the new I'm Dr. Godfrey, what's your name? Kenneth. I want to ask you, do you know what a new year's resolution is? No. No. Do you have any guesses? Yeah. What do you think it might be?
McKinley Withers:
It might be where like, I, it, like, if you were like, promise yourself that, that like, to eat more healthier or to work out more.
Anthony Godfrey:
How did you know what my new year's resolutions were?
McKinley Withers:
Cause my mom does it, have you made any new year's resolutions? Yeah. What is your new year's to get, take, to give my dog more attention.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, did your dog ask you to do that as a new year's resolution? I've got an idea. Good luck with your new year's resolution. I'm Dr. Godfrey. What's your name? Hi Brock. Can you think of any new year's resolutions you would want to make
McKinley Withers:
At Marvin? I think I should nap more. Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you want more naps? Do you like naps? What do you like about naps?
McKinley Withers:
The pivot gives me more energy to play.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's very cool. So you decide, I invest in a nap and I can play with more energy. What do you like to play
McKinley Withers:
Tech tag?
Anthony Godfrey:
So you take a good nap and there's more tag left in you, right? Do you know what? When you're my age, you'll probably like naps even more. So you have a lot to look forward to tell me your name, Megan. Hi, Megan. What grade are you in? Do you know where the new year's resolution is?
McKinley Withers:
It's a goal that you make for the new year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Very good. Did you make any new year's resolutions? Oh, tell me your four resolutions. They're up here on the board where we're standing outside of Megan's classroom. And there's a, there's a card for a set of four cards, 2020, and each one has a number on it and each one has a resolution inside. So will you talk us through your resolution scan?
McKinley Withers:
So my first resolution was, I will serve people by looking for the, for those who need help, at least every Wednesday. And I can help them. And I drew a picture and it's like,
Anthony Godfrey:
You're saying, let me help. Who are you helping in the picture?
McKinley Withers:
Just some random person that can't tie their shoe.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Oh, they can't tie their shoe. I see the laces there. Okay. Let's see.
McKinley Withers:
The second one was, I will continue to learn my Spanish. Tell me something in Spanish. I don't know.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. That's a good resolution. I love that. Yeah.
McKinley Withers:
And then my third one is I will try to be kinder to everyone by being more patient with everyone. Always. My last one is I'll get better up here. Know by practicing at least 15 minutes every day, all day, wait, 15 minutes a day, every day. And then there's a picture of me doing PT.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really good drawing. And I like that. Your hands are up and your fingers are out and you're just ready to bam on the keyboard. All right. Thanks for talking to me, Megan. Good to meet you. I am Dr. Godfrey. Tell me your name. Naomi. Naomi, do you have any ideas for what you might do as a new year's resolution?
McKinley Withers:
Being nice to others?
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great one. So what are some things you could do to be nice to others?
McKinley Withers:
Help them get up and play with other people.
Anthony Godfrey:
A lot of people have trouble keeping their resolutions and your resolution is to be kind to other people. How long do you think you can keep that resolution
McKinley Withers:
For like 50 years?
Anthony Godfrey:
For 50 years. But in 50 years in your sixties, you're just going to say forget it. It's over. I'm not being nice anymore.
McKinley Withers:
Oh, well, my mom told me I have to be nice to my big sisters. I have three sisters.
Anthony Godfrey:
Can you think of any new year's resolutions? Your parents might've made?
McKinley Withers:
I don't really know if they made one.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Can you make a guess at what they might've made? What are some things they might do?
McKinley Withers:
Like keep, so they might make me clean my room every day.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, their resolution would be to maybe make you do something. Yeah. Oh, all right. It sounds like my type of resolution. Do you need to clean your room more often? Naomi. Okay. Do you? Yeah. What happened?
McKinley Withers:
I have a lot of stuff on my floor
Anthony Godfrey:
By Steph. Do you mean clothing? Ah, do you just stuffed things under the bed and into the drawer? Do you put them where they go?
McKinley Withers:
Sometimes I, you stuff it under my bed.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you, are you surprised that I knew that you put things under the bed?
McKinley Withers:
Yeah, but my sister got sick of me, like sleeping in the room. Cause I was snoring a lot, but I don't actually snore. I keep telling her
Anthony Godfrey:
Now you keep telling her that.
McKinley Withers:
Yeah. And that's why you have her own rooms now
Anthony Godfrey:
Because of your snoring that never really happened now. How do you know you're not snoring if you're asleep when it happens?
McKinley Withers:
Well, I don't know. I'm just breathing quietly. Any Lisa calls it snoring and she took a video of me sleep.
Anthony Godfrey:
She took a video of you sleeping. Wow. You guys were going to end up in separate bedrooms from the start and you can see this coming a mile away. So she filmed you snoring? Yes. And yet you still say despite video evidence that you were not snoring,
McKinley Withers:
But you at least deleted that video. Cause you didn't want me to see,
Anthony Godfrey:
She didn't want you to see, I saw it on mom's phone. Oh, so she deleted it, but your mom still had a copy?
McKinley Withers:
No, my mom like video in it too.
Anthony Godfrey:
Really? So there are two videos of you snoring and you still claim it didn't happen. Yeah, really? Wow. Okay. Well I'm, you know what, there's more to you than meets the eye. I'm pretty impressed. I'm Dr. Godfrey. What's your name? What grade are you in? Sam. Do you know where the new year's resolution is? What is it?
McKinley Withers:
It is a goal for a new year. That goes until the next year. Most of the time.
Anthony Godfrey:
Very good. Most of the time? Yes. Sometimes that's right. People don't always make it all here. Did your parents make any new year's resolution? No idea. Okay. Do you have any guesses what they might make if they're making a resolution?
McKinley Withers:
My dad would definitely do try to go to Buffalo, wild wings.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's a good resolution. Tell me your name. Ava. Eva. Do you know what a new year's resolution is? A new year's resolution is something that mostly adults make and their resolution is because the new year is starting. They think, well, in this new year, I'm going to do something different. If you were to make a new year's resolution, something you wanted to do differently in 2020, what would you do?
McKinley Withers:
I would want to go swimming, everything,
Anthony Godfrey:
Go swimming every day. That would be your new year's resolution. Any guess what? Your mom and dad might've made as a new year's resolution?
McKinley Withers:
I think they were like not working anymore,
Anthony Godfrey:
Not working anymore. That's a good new year's resolution, but it does come with consequences. Doesn't it? You might not get to swim as much if they didn't work, their new year's might interfere with your new year's resolution.
McKinley Withers:
That's awesome. Thanks to all the students at Riverton elementary school for sharing their thoughts on new year's resolutions that kids can keep. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back health and wellness specialist, McKinley weathers has some advice for parents and students on how to make our resolutions last be, you want to know what's going on in Jordan school district, maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story, check out our [email protected] or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Jordan district let's connect today.
Anthony Godfrey:
It says McKinley. Weather's third time here with us. He's our health and wellness specialist for Jordan school district. But he's also one of my favorite people to talk with just because he has such great ideas and such insight into how to improve life just on a day-to-day basis, by changing our perspective, changing some of our habits and just changing the way that we approach life and the many things that it throws at us. And I know we're in a mode with the new year either. You're trying to keep your new year's resolutions or you've already abandoned them because many of them don't last very long, but there are some things that we can do to take better care of ourselves and to better meet our goals and, and to really advance and, and, and the little decisions make a big impact. And, and Mr. Mr. Weathers has such great advice on this front that I thought it was timely to have him back and, and talk with us about how we can improve our lives with small decisions and small changes in perspective. So welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be back. You're the first, you're the first person with friend of the show status. So there may be others to come, but it's I'm grateful
Speaker 3:
For that. And it's definitely going in my gratitude
Anthony Godfrey:
Journal. Now that's perfect. That's a perfect segue into the gratitude journal and that's, that's one aspect of having a healthy, healthy life style and, and really good self-care is, is gratitude. That's one important component of self-care. So tell us a little bit about that. Mckinney
Speaker 3:
Is actually it's funny that we, that we started here, but there's actually some research that people are more committed to goals who are, who experienced gratitude more often. So you are more likely to stay committed to, you know, even something like a new year's resolution, if you're experiencing gratitude more often, because you're thinking a little bit more about your future. You're thinking a little bit more about what's gotten you to where you are. So having a practice of gratitude actually does habits. So,
Anthony Godfrey:
So gratitude is a way of reflecting on what has gone right in your life, or what has helped you, or what resources you have available to you. And then assessment of those aspects of your life can really be a good launch to making improvements and actually achieving the goals that we set,
Speaker 3:
Right? Yeah. It, it kind of, it can help instill a sense of hope that your goals are worthwhile and meaningful and that they are going to pay off. If you approach it, starting with you don't even have to be grateful for anything related to the goals, but experiencing gratitude often will help you be more
Anthony Godfrey:
Committed. How do you think parents can help their kids be more grateful and be focused on gratitude?
Speaker 3:
There are, there, there are a lot of ways to increase gratitude. And I think that it's important to find what works for you and your family, because if you force your child to write down three things they're grateful for before they can have their dinner, it may not be, you know, as effective as, you know, something that they choose or that they're a little bit more invested in having a little bit of choice is important, but gratitude journals are a big one, you know, just having, or even just the daily family practice of hunting, the good things that have happened, hunt the good stuff as a way of phrasing that. So, you know, just identifying three positive things that have happened rather than maybe the, the few negative things that have happened can instill kind of that appreciation for the things that do go, right? Because in any given day, there's at least a few things that have gone well.
Anthony Godfrey:
I've heard you talk about this a couple of different times in front of different groups, students, administrators, teachers. And the thing I find interesting is that as I listened to the advice, we've heard a lot about gratitude. We've heard a lot about being grateful, various ways that we can do that. It's deceptively simple. And I think some of the things we'll talk about today are deceptively simple. It seems like it would just be so easy to do that. We overlooked the power that pausing and really focusing on being grateful can have
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it, it really is a, it's a simple strategy, but knowing that gratitude matters is not enough. It's, it's all about making it a repeated practice that feels natural and easy to, to, to continue. So whatever that looks like, if it is a gratitude journal, if it's going to be a pain for you to get out your gratitude journal, and you're not going to want to do it, pick a different goal, right? Find another strategy that you're actually going to look forward to, or you're going to be invested in. Are there other, some other for students
Anthony Godfrey:
And parents that they can use besides a gratitude journal?
Speaker 3:
Well, one, one way to also foster good relationships is pausing to think people. So that's also an ex a gratitude practice. So if there was, you know, once a week, you wanted to call somebody or reach out to somebody and just thank them for something that had that, that had happened. A handwritten note or letter can mean a lot. I had a principal that was really good about that. And I, I think that the interesting thing about gratitude is the benefits of the gratitude giver may actually outweigh the benefits to the reader.
Anthony Godfrey:
[Inaudible] Writing a letter, reading an in person, even just having a daily practice, calling them out.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah. Thinking
Anthony Godfrey:
That that will really boost the giver as well as the recipient in terms of their overall health.
Speaker 3:
And a lot of people might might use prayer as a gratitude practice. There are a lot of ways to find gratitude.
Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome. Ideas about gratitude. The idea is to act, not just think about it. I'm grateful you're here. Yeah. Thanks for [inaudible]. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back more self-care tips and how to maybe take a better approach to thinking about those new year's resolutions. When we come back with McKinley weathers, stick around.
McKinley Withers:
Hey, you okay? Yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter, get the safe UT app, download it now available on the Apple app store, Google play or safe ut.org
Anthony Godfrey:
Back with McKinley weathers. Thanks for joining us. I just said, thanks for joining us. Someone experiencing gratitude, and I am very grateful for our listeners out there. Thank you for, for tuning in and making us a part of your lives. Mckinley's here to talk with us about self care and making those resolutions stick or meeting the goals that we've, that we hope to achieve. And gratitude is a big part of that. We talked about research that suggests that those who are grateful also are able to better meet their goals, but there are some other things that we need to do just in terms of self care, in order to even be in a place to make advancements and, and improve our situation. And you've talked in the past McKinley about the need for ongoing self care. Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.
McKinley:
Well, if you think about wellness in general, it's not something that can be saved up or stored. Everything that you do to improve your wellness will work, but it's not going to last. You can't have a really good year and then stop or you're just never going to have another struggle again. Right? So it's important that we are constantly maintaining it. It can't be saved. I like to call it the wellness waterfall, so it can dry up easily if there's not something feeding it. It's more like a waterfall, not a reservoir. You can't store wellness and then rely on that really good year when times are tough. You have to maintain the same rituals, habits or routines when times are tough and when things are going well.
Anthony Godfrey:
How do we do that? That seems overwhelming to try to keep constantly feeding that need for self care.
McKinley:
It can seem overwhelming, but that's why it's really important that we focus on small changes that are very easy to maintain. An example of that would be, some companies have created what they call an irresistible staircase to encourage people to use the stairs more. So it can be hard if you're faced with either an elevator or stairs and you're going to the sixth floor. You'll probably naturally default to the easiest option, which is the elevator. But if the elevator is difficult to find, and before you get to the elevator you face the most beautiful staircase you've ever seen, oak stairs with big windows and an amazing view. That's going to be more attractive than trying to find the elevator. Finding ways we can make our healthy habits a little bit more irresistible.
Anthony Godfrey:
Parents working with students. If your child has difficulty getting to homework, the irresistible staircase comes in where you create an environment where doing homework pleasant. A well lit spot, maybe with a snack that's quiet. That's a place where you want to be.
Having some way that it's not choosing between, I have all of my favorite video games right here on a comfortable couch and amazing snacks. And then there's that dingy table over there with a textbook on it and a pencil. Any kid is going to go for the video games. So how can we make it more specific?
Anthony Godfrey:
This was my dad's theory with television, because we had a black and white television all through the eighties. It was the nineties before we got a color television and you actually had to turn the TV off and on for the horizontal hold to take place. Otherwise, the picture would just kind of scroll. It was impossible to watch. I didn't realize that M.A.S.H. and Happy Days were actually filmed in color until the nineties, because his theory was kind of like the opposite of the irresistible staircase. If we have a terrible TV, maybe the kids won't watch it. I still got my pop culture fix, but I think to an extent, it's true. It was kind of a miserable experience compared to what it could have been. Yeah. And so, actually in a previous podcast where we talked about nutrition, the idea is to have healthy snacks easily available and readily available. And the problem for me personally is that there's a lot of convenience associated with foods that are terrible for me.
McKinley:
Yes. I think it's very convenient to pull out my phone and burn time as opposed to do the things that they should be doing.
Anthony Godfrey:
And that's probably very true for students too. If it's irresistible to you to pull out the phone and it seems very resistible to be working on homework, then where are you going to end up spending your time. With the things that are easy and attractive
McKinley:
Yeah. There's actually a way you could join those two together with it's called temptation bundling.
Anthony Godfrey:
Bundling temptation does sounds like something that Verizon offers, right?
McKinley:
They might bundle and save. So if you can find something that is tempting and enticing for you that you actually enjoy, you can bundle it with the thing that you should do, but you're not as inclined to do. I think it's important that you find ways to actually look forward to the thing you have to do. So if that means every time, if you like soda rather than just say, you've got another goal that you're working on, every time before you're about to sit down and do homework. If that's going to motivate you to do something that you need to do, have the Big Gulp by your side and enjoy it through the process so that you can have something to look forward to.
Anthony Godfrey:
At the break, Sandy, one of our producers was talking about cauliflower crust pizza. I have a lot of other goals to meet before I start eating cauliflower crust pizza, let's just put it that way. I have a lot of other things to work on in terms of how food, before cauliflower gets involved, a last resort for you. I don't use those two words in the same sentence. Generally. I admire all of you out there who do. I just have a lot more steps to get there. And speaking of food, I love food analogies. Tell us about the hamburgers of happiness and how that relates to self-care and meeting our goals and expectations for them.
McKinley:
Okay. So before we talk hamburgers, I'm going to just clarify. When we're talking about self care, it can be easy to think of, for some reason, the image of MaCauley Culkin in Home Alone when he is in the hotel room with all the ice cream and he's watching whatever he wants and just enjoying the moment. That can sound like self care. And to some degree, maybe it is. Every once in a while, it's good to have that indulgence, but treat yourself right. But on the opposite end, sometimes we think self care is only eating cauliflower pizza. If you spend your free time at the gym, you haven't really you've stopped enjoying life because you're taking such good care of yourself.
Anthony Godfrey:
Exactly. So where is the middle between those two?
McKinley:
That's what the hamburgers of happiness is. This is from a psychologist from Harvard named Tal Ben Shahar. There are a lot of different kinds of hamburgers in the world. Some are better than others and you want to find the hamburger that tastes good now, but is also healthy enough that it's good for you later. So it might make it easier to understand if we think about the contrast. There are some hamburgers out there that taste really good now, but are probably bad for us later. There are junk food burgers out there. There are some that are delicious, but they have absolutely no nutritional value, no health benefits. So they're bad for us later. That would be kind of one end of the scale where our self-care would be ice cream, TV shows, just indulging in the present and we're enjoying the present. But it's to our future detriment that's not good.
Anthony Godfrey:
Just so you know, my punch card is almost full at the hamburger restaurant that offers that exact thing.
McKinley:
Okay. Okay. Okay. So you're, well-versed in the junk food burger I'm familiar with. Yes. All of us are. And I think that's important not to beat ourselves up if we're not hitting these exact really high goals. But just doing the best that we can to make small adjustments makes a difference. So, another type of hamburger is called the rat race burger. So that's where we give up the here and now. That's where we're only eating cauliflower pizza. We've sworn off all sweets, all desserts. We spend all of our free time at the gym. That would be like a hamburger that's so healthy that it tastes bad now, but it's really good for us later. That's not what we want. We want the balance of what tastes good now and it's good for us later.
Anthony Godfrey:
So for students, what the burger analogy can teach us is don't sacrifice all of your present for a future, that may or may not be what you expect it to be.
McKinley:
Right. there are a lot of ways we can try and enjoy the good behaviors a little bit more. There are a lot of ways we can make them easier. A lot of ways we can make them more enjoyable,
Anthony Godfrey:
Any parting advice on how to improve our self care, and as a result, get closer to the goals we've set?
McKinley:
I'll give two parting tips. One is just to remember that willpower is never enough. You're just relying on trying harder, or just your willpower. If you've set a goal to eat less candy, but you still have candy in your pantry and you still buy it when you go to the grocery store, your willpower is not going to resist that.
Anthony Godfrey:
I feel like that's a very personal message, by the way, but go on.
McKinley:
And then the other is gratitude. I think that gratitude facilitates staying committed to goals. Sleep, our willpower is also very heavily reliant on whether or not we're getting enough rest. So if we're setting new goals or we're trying new hobbies or routines, we've got to prioritize getting enough sleep. Your willpower needs rest to in order to function. So I would just say sleep is very, very important.
Anthony Godfrey:
We know for students that's a big problem. That's a big issue. And so focusing on kids getting enough sleep, so they're bringing their best selves to the challenges they face throughout the day.
All right. Well, thank you for joining us again, McKinley. I'm grateful for what you do for our District. And I'm grateful to the listeners out there. Thanks for joining us. And remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you.
30 min
January 16, 2020 Episode 20: D.A.R.E. to Be Different
You may have heard about the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, better known as D.A.R.E., but do you know what the program really does for kids in our schools these days?
In this episode of the Supercast, we talk to West Jordan Police about bringing D.A.R.E. back, how it is impacting young lives and proving to students that police are more than emergency first-responders. They are our friends as well.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we look inside the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, better known to most parents and students as DARE. It is a program that has evolved over the years, empowering students to respect themselves and others, to make healthy choices in life and to rely on something called "their helping it work". First let's head over to Terra Linda Elementary school, where West Jordan police just finished a DARE graduation ceremony, and we had the opportunity to speak with some graduates. So tell me your name.
Student:
My name's Nancy Ali.
Superintendent:
What grade are you in?
Student:
Fifth.
Superintendent:
And you just completed the DARE program here at Terra Linda Elementary. What did you think of it?
Student:
I thought it was really fun. And especially since I won the DARE essay.
Superintendent:
Yeah, we got to hear your essay. That was really awesome. Tell us some of what you read to the audience.
Student
I wrote to them about bullying and about how we shouldn't do drugs and what drugs can do to you. I told them we should all be just be friends and be kind to each other. And I told them about how happy I was with this DARE program and that Officer Kim was there to support us and let us have this big opportunity today.
Superintendent:
Tell us about Officer Kim. What she liked?
Student:
Officer Kim is a really happy lady. She's never quiet or scared to do anything or say anything. She's always positive and she helps us out a lot. She makes us happy and she gives us stickers, high fives and hugs.
Superintendent:
That's a really good combination. Is she someone that you look up to?
Student:
Officer Kim's one of my heroes.
Superintendent:
That's really cool. Tell me about the help network. I saw drawings at the back of the room and the big banner. What does that mean?
Student:
So the help network is someone that matters to you and who's always there for you. Someone who just cares about you and they can get help with. I picked my two best friends. Their names are Millie and Bryn. Bryn is just a girl that's really positive is not scared. She's tough and she stands up for herself. Millie's just a funny dork and she likes to exercise a lot and get her energy out. And then I'm just the one that gets scared a lot.
Superintendent:
So it's nice to have friends and Officer Kim who help teach you to kind of stand up for yourself and be yourself.
Student:
Officer Kim is a good officer. And also, I also wanted to thank my teacher, Mr. Pascoe, and our other teachers, Ms. Snowball, Mr. Barber and Mr. Grinch and everyone that's in my class and almost everyone that's in my grade and everyone who was here today.
Superintendent:
I've seen some of your teachers in action. I know some of them over the years and they really are great teachers in this grade.
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
Okay. Thanks very much for talking with us. Have a great day.
Another DARE graduation was held at Mountain Shadows Elementary school. That's where we caught up with Sergeant Jay.
Officer:
Yeah. We are excited. We've revitalized the DARE program here within West Jordan. We have 17 elementary schools in West Jordan city, which is a huge number of elementary schools. The DARE programs focus on the fifth graders of each school and we talk to them. It's a program about prevention and boundaries and healthy lifestyles and choices. Anti-bullying, there's many benefits. Those are just the core areas that we have been teaching. DARE also has several other core areas that involve mentoring and being a good friend, even down to suicide prevention and things like that. So we're just excited to have this program back. We were able to secure some grant money, which enabled us to have three DARE positions this year as a pilot program to start.
I'm currently the supervisor over that program. And it's my interest to hopefully see this program grow and bring some public awareness to it, on how much of a benefit it is to our elementary school children. And hopefully, we can increase and allocate more resources to put into this for the District, for the kids.
Superintendent:
I have to say, we're here at Mountain Shadows Elementary for a DARE graduation. And I've attended a lot of these over the years and the enthusiasm of the kids is really fun to see, and it does empower them. It gives them some tools that you referenced, to give them a higher level of social and emotional wellness. We've been focused on that a lot lately as a District and as a society.
Officer:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we talk a lot today in the back of this graduation. I know that this is an audio interview, but one of the things that you can see, these kids have drawn their circles of support network, their health network that they have. And it's fun to go through and read those that the kids have put. Some of those are their friends. Some of those are police and fire. Some of those are their pets at home. But just helping the kids recognize that they have a help network, they have a support network and that we as police officers and school officials are part of that help network, or that we should be, so that those kids can rely on us to answer questions they have. We spend a large amount of time with these kids every day at schools and they need to be able to know that they can utilize some of those professionals in their lives for part of that help network. And I just think that it's a really cool gesture. It's a small gesture, frankly, of what the program offers, just a glimpse into it. So great things happening.
Superintendent:
I love the concept of the circles and the help network and being deliberate about thinking about who can help you, in advance of when there are problems.
Officer:
Yeah, for sure. Oftentimes, we don't know. We deal with children sometimes that don't know that they can utilize certain aspects of that help network, such as police. And that is one thing that the DARE program is great for. It teaches kids that we're a resource for them, not something to be feared, not something to be afraid of, but something that should be familiar to them. Hopefully where they see us, they don't see us and equate that with "Oh, there's trouble" or something like that. We're here as a support system for them
Superintendent:
Right. Kids viewing police officers as a support and as a help and as a positive is a great benefit of the program. And I have to say, as I walked into the school, three different people said how excited they are to have the DARE program back and to have you guys here in schools,
Officer:
For sure. We've received very positive feedback. We're appreciative of that. I am appreciative of the officers that I supervise that are administering this program. They're very busy. certainly, I would say that our staffing is at a minimal level right now in this pilot portion of the program, but we hope to expand and grow and allocate more resources. Of course, that comes challenges as there are many different aspects of policing we're working on right now, to spread resources out.
Superintendent:
I think that we all can relate with that, but we're very excited to be back in the schools with this program.
Officer:
Well, we're grateful for this new focus, for the support you give us in so many ways. Just with a wide variety of issues that come your way and come our way. And it's a great relationship and thanks for everything you're doing. I appreciate it.
Superintendent:
Thank you. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll hear more from students in the DARE program and from Officer Kim Welty who teaches there and is devoted to empowering kids to do the right thing.
McKinley Withers:
Do you want ideas for being happier and healthier? I'm McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness Specialist for Jordan School District. Please join us every week for Wellness Wednesday. It's a feature on the Jordan school District website that offers free and simple tips for improving your health and wellness. We cover a variety of topics to help families like reducing stress, improving eating habits, finding more time to build relationships, and increasing overall happiness. Check out Wellness Wednesday every week on the Jordan School District website jordandistrict.org. For additional health and wellness resources, visit studentservices.jordandistrict.org/mentalhealth/.
Superintendent:
Welcome back. We're talking about the DARE program and what students walk away with when they graduate. And we're about to meet the very popular Officer Kim who teaches DARE. Tell me your name.
Student:
Isaac.
Superintendent:
You've just graduated from DARE, right?
Superintendent:
Yes. You're a fifth grader here at Terra Linda Elementary. Tell us about what you learned in the DARE program.
Student:
We learned a few things about drug facts and health effects and a few things about bullying.
Superintendent:
What are some of the things you learned about responsibility?
Student:
How to respect others and also treat others how you want to be treated.
Superintendent:
What about drug facts and smoking and other things you learned about not particularly in that order?
Student:
One of the things is we try to stay off of that stuff is because it can also lead to death.
Superintendent:
It's very dangerous. How about bullying? What did you learn about bullying and treating other people?
Student:
The different types of bullying, like cyber bullying and physical bullying, and just how to stop that stuff.
Superintendent:
What are some of the other things that you liked about the DARE program?
Student:
Officer Kim was really nice.
Superintendent:
Tell me more about Officer Kim. I've heard a lot about her.
Student:
She is really kind and she listened to what we had questions about and stuff like that.
Superintendent:
Did going through the DARE program, give you a different perspective or thought about police officers?
Student:
Yeah. Uh, normally I thought police officers just helped out with traffic and stuff like that. But now I heard that they do like all sorts of different things.
Superintendent:
Are they friendly?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
What do you think of Officer Kim?
Student:
She's a good teacher.
Superintendent:
I can tell. What do you think of officer Kim?
Student:
She's the best.
Superintendent:
Well, that's good. That's good. What's that? You don't want the other officers to feel bad.
Student:
She's the nicest.
Superintendent:
So DARE is back in West Jordan and Officer Kim is here with me. She is the teacher at the two schools whose graduation I've just attended. I heard a lot of really nice things about you from kids today. What do you think of this program and what is it like working with these kids?
Officer:
I love this program. The kids have, I don't even know how to explain it. Like overwhelming. You start off thinking it's going to be one way and it just spirals out of control with goodness. It's beautiful. The kids are amazing. They're so warm and welcoming. They want so much to be part of our lives and for officers to get to know them and they want to share. They want to tell us how much they know and they're smart and they're beautiful. It's just amazing. It's wonderful.
Superintendent:
I've been really impressed with how articulate all of the kids are about the program, about the things that you've taught. It's really interesting because you don't always see that happen in the classroom, despite our best efforts. But boy, they are all conversant in the aspects of the DARE program. Why do you think that is?
Officer:
Well, I have to give a lot of it too, back to the kids cause they really are smarter, bigger and better than we can imagine. They really are. They are the best of all of us, and then some. And then I'll give myself a little bit of credit, by just repeating things. I repeat things and repeat things and repeat things to them that I find super important and that I know are important to them, by how quiet they get in class, how they'll get a look on their face when something means something to them. And that will tell me, this is a topic that's important to these guys. So we'll spend a little more time on those aspects of it. I like to just watch the kids and see what's important to them.
Superintendent:
I love that. The look on their faces. I miss that look on their faces. I'm not in the classroom anymore, but it's really fun when you see that connection. And obviously you are making that connection a lot. Participating in the DARE program is probably the most interaction they've had with an officer at this point. What is the value of being able to create that positive relationship?
Officer:
Well, as part of the DARE program, our final lesson was the health network and it is talking about those additional people in our lives that are there for us. And I really wanted to showcase police officers and their relationships to us or the ones they can have with us. I want them to know that we're here and we're not off limits. And I feel like that they take the time to see that, and the more that we take the time to reach out to one of them or talk to one of them, then they're going to realize that we're not off limits. We're not the bad guys. We really do care so much and we want to be there for him. I think it'll just help their relationships. I think there'll be less afraid when they see one. They don't know.
Superintendent:
I agree. I've loved looking at the pictures of the help networks on the back wall. It kind of makes me want to be sure that I'm someone that would be included in a lot of help networks because it's very touching to read the descriptions.
Officer:
It is. And I, when I presented to them, "Hey, let's find one person in your life that's part of that help network," it blew me away how beautiful and creative they were. Some of them even put their pets on there because we talked about how much or how important our pets are to us as part of our help network, right down to their best friend who is always there for them. Every single person has somebody different. That's important to them. And it's important for them to remember and to think about, "Oh yeah, I do have somebody. I'm not alone."
Superintendent:
Exactly.
Officer:
I can really imagine people thinking the kids realizing, "Hey, wait, I really do have some people in my corner, so many people I can pick" and that's right. I have a lot to pick from, more than I thought. And it's really more of a help network, even because when we're connected with others, that's how we can be healthy. That's how we can feel safe and secure.
Superintendent:
Yeah, very much. Okay. Thank you very much. Officer Kim, it's a pleasure meeting you. Thanks to everyone who works so hard to support students in our schools. We appreciate the partnership with West Jordan, South Jordan, Riverton and Herriman Police Departments, all offering DARE in Jordan District Schools. It's a program that builds a healthy relationship with police and empowers kids to make healthy choices.
Thanks as always to all of you for listening. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.
18 min
January 09, 2020 Episode 19: The Fire Within – Students Learning to Save Lives
On this episode of the Supercast, we travel to the JATC South in Riverton where Superintendent Godfrey joins high school students who are finding out, first-hand, what it takes to be a Firefighter and EMT.
Unified Firefighter and Fire Science/EMT Coordinator, Taylor Sandstrom puts student skills to the test and we find out if Superintendent Godfrey can make the cut.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today I'm taking you to the Jordan Academy for Technology and Careers, the JATC South Campus in Riverton, where students are finding out first-hand what it really takes to be a Firefighter EMT. Trust me, it's even harder than it looks. I know, compared with you guys, I looked very soft and undisciplined and not ready for this, but are you guys ready to put me through my paces?
Students:
Let's do this.
Superintendent:
So, your instructor can maybe help me with this. Tell me your name.
My name is Taylor Sandstrom.
Superintendent:
And your title?
Instructor:
I'm a Firefighter Paramedic with Unified Fire Authority and currently the JATC Fire Science and EMT instructor.
Superintendent:
That's a mouthful. That's a lot of responsibility,
Instructor:
A lot of stuff on your email closing. We emphasize in any EMT program, besides the skills, what do you need to be an EMT. One of the things you need to do is be active in your community, in educating people about what to do in case of emergencies and how to perform before we arrive. We've found across the country that if we can educate people about hands only CPR, when somebody has a cardiac event and collapses, then our survival rates go way, way up in that five minutes to seven minutes it takes the EMS providers to arrive. If somebody else has already begun doing chest compressions, survival can double. So, we teach in the community, hands only CPR so that people aren't intimidated to just start doing compressions and do them correctly. So they would like to teach you how to do hands only CPR.
Superintendent:
I have to admit that hands only CPR sounds a whole lot better than just regular old CPR.
Instructor:
It is. And we have found that people are hesitant. They take a CPR class every couple of years, maybe, but they don't practice in between. And it can be very complicated. We've simplified it down to push hard and fast and in the center of the chest at 120 beats per minute.
Superintendent:
Now, let me ask you this. I'm a music fan is the "Staying Alive" thing true, that you do it to the beat of standards?
Instructor:
That is pretty good.
Superintendent:
"You Should Be Dancing" or "How Deep Is Your Love"?
Instructor:
Both of those, I believe are a hundred beats per minute. Also, "staying alive" seems to be the right mindset.
Superintendent:
Because really every BG song sounds about the same. You know exactly. Okay. Alright. I'm going to do "Staying Alive". It makes sense. But you know, you could mix it up if you had to is what you're telling me. Okay. So we've got three torsos with heads that seem to be screaming out in internal pain. Is that right? Do I have that right? Okay. Is that the expression part? They're like, no, I'm in pain. Okay. All right, here we go. So should I try this one?
Instructor:
All right. First, you'd arrive on the scene. The person that you're looking at is going to be unresponsive. But you want to check to see if there's a response in the first place. So you want to say, "Hey, are you okay?" Maybe he gives him a few claps to make sure that sound doesn't wake him up and he's not just sleeping on the ground.
Superintendent:
Right. Okay. Hey, are you okay?
Instructor:
If he doesn't respond, you need to give him a painful stimuli, something that'll wake him up. We call them painful stimulus. There's two though they teach us. You can do a trap pinch, which is just pinched the trap muscle on the end, what they call a sternum rub and you use the second knuckle on your fist and you just rub across the sternum.
Superintendent:
So I rub across the sternum to try to give them a little bit of pain, to wake them up. Okay.
Instructor:
If that doesn't wake them up, probably nothing will. So you probably should start CPR at that point. Something that you want to do before you even start compressions is you want to get people going on the scene. You want to delegate and say, "Will you call 911" and get another person to get an AED? Those are the two things that you need to do.
Superintendent:
Would you call 911 and you go get an AED?
Instructor:
Perfect. Okay. And then as soon as you delegate to the people that have jobs, you want to start CPR. You want to take your dominant hand. That is what I like to use. You want to take your dominant hand, you want to place the butt of your palm in the center of the chest, right in the center. And then with the other hand, you want to stick on top of that and lock your fingers across them. When you push down, you want to push straight down from your back.
Superintendent:
Okay. Now, can I ask you this?
Instructor:
Yes, of course.
Superintendent:
How can I mess this up? Because that's what I'm always worried about is I did something wrong. I hurt the person. And I think a lot of people are worried about that. So how would I avoid doing something wrong and hurting someone?
Instructor:
So there is a depth. It's two inches or a third chest depth. Right? So that's about this deep, as long as you're pushing down, you're helping if I'm in trouble.
Superintendent:
Yeah. Okay. So I go like this,
Instructor:
So there's some resistance, right? So you want to push down hard and fast. You want to push from your hips and your back, not necessarily bending from your elbows or from your shoulders.
Superintendent:
From my hips and my back.
Instructor:
Yes. So you just want to push down nice and solid. Just push it down.
Superintendent:
Oh, wow. So I'm pushing down and it's giving way. Really. It kind of feels like a chest would give away. That's kind of strange. That's a strange feeling.
Instructor:
Okay, great. As you keep going, you want to make sure that when you push down and you let go, you want to allow the chest to fully recoil, allow it to fully, come back up
Superintendent:
Go back down again. So \that's another thing I don't want to do wrong. I want to let it come all the way up.
Instructor:
We're gonna keep it down here. You want to allow, alright
Superintendent:
Down and all the way up. Yep.
Instructor:
And then as you go, just make sure you're doing 120. Okay.
Superintendent:
Huh Huh Huh Huh, Staying Alive. Am I doing it? The right speed?
Instructor:
Yeah. That's about right.
Superintendent:
Too fast?
Instructor:
Oh, a little faster. Yeah. A little bit faster.
Superintendent:
You can tell by the way my singing, I probably don't know the lyrics after that, but that's a little faster. Okay. Yeah.
Instructor:
And so, if you need a person to switch out, you can get another person to help you and just coordinate and say, "Hey, come switch me out" and just instruct them on how they would do it the same way. And then have them just keep going along with CPR. If you get tired and you switch out.
Superintendent:
Okay. So how do I switch out?
Instructor:
Just count down just three, three, two, two, one. The reason you should stop is if there is an AED present or if EMS arrived on scene.
Superintendent:
I'm honestly feeling like this might be the safest room in the District right now with you guys here. This is awesome. That was so good. I feel like I can do it. I mean, I need to be a little faster. Any other, any other pointers?
Instructor:
Just the sooner you start compressions, as soon as you see a problem, the sooner you act, the better chances the person's going to have it survival.
Superintendent:
Your instructor keeps nodding his head behind you. So you guys have done a great job. Congratulations. That's great. We've saved a life. That feels good. Tell me your name.
Student:
My name is Dax.
Superintendent:
So Dax. What are some of the life skills that you're learning?
Student:
Um, by the end of the semester, we can test for our EMT license and we can become practicing EMTs at that point. And so it allows for really good job opportunities and we really have a straightforward career path.
Superintendent:
Is this something that you want to do as a career?
Student:
Very much so.
Superintendent:
And how about you? What's your name and why are you here?
Student:
Robbie. Um, I really like emergency services. I like trauma and all that stuff. And so this is just a pathway into what I want to.
Superintendent:
Do you like dealing with the tough stuff?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
So, are you like cool and calm and collected in most circumstances?
Student:
Yeah. When it's like crazy is when I'm coolest. I take a deep breath and just do everything the best I can.
Superintendent:
I'm glad people like you want to do this. Okay. What was the biggest change for you? Obviously you didn't use to be this disciplined. What are some things that you're more disciplined about now that you're in this program? Focusing on homework and home studies?
Student:
Definitely.
Superintendent:
I get the impression that there is no excuse for not being caught up in your classes.
Student:
Just lazy work. If you're not getting your work done, it's because you're lazy.
Superintendent:
Okay. I like that attitude is exactly what we want education to look like, hands-on and the type of thing that doesn't just teach you facts or skills, but the teaches you to be a better person. And that's obviously what you're getting here. So congratulations to your instructor and to each of you for the effort you're putting in. So should we get into the equipment a little bit is going to be a Fire Science class?
Instructor:
In here, we're prepping, we're prepping students to go to a Fire Academy and become firefighters. Now, here is one of the things to show you.
We're going to do it with you, if you don't mind. People often ask why we set up our equipment the way we do and why we put our boots inside our pants and things like that when we're at the station or even out and around the town, in the in the rigs. When we get a fire call, we need to be able to respond as quickly as possible. And the first part of that is getting dressed appropriately to go to the fire. So we keep our boots inside our pants so that it's faster to get our boots and pants on. We have a fire hood that's made a Nomex that we wear over head and ears, and our coat. We typically call this our bunker set. So we have special pants, special coat, and then a helmet and gloves. Who's demo-ing?
He's gonna get ready, and we have some gear for you.
Superintendent:
Oh, great. Wow.
Instructor:
He's going to slowly go through with it and show you how to put it all on. And then, oh sorry, this is a Cade. We call him Nickel Cade. And then over here we have Sophie. Sophie is going to then show you what it looks like after you've practiced in your full speed.
Superintendent:
Okay. Okay. Now I have to admit ,without taking away from what you're doing here, this looks a lot like my ten-year-olds bedroom floor.
Instructor:
Yes it does. And in our rigs and in our stations, it's not laid out quite this extravagantly. We keep it nice and neat. As you can see, everybody's lockers looks the same when you're here, it's put away. A lot of what we do is team oriented. I'd say firefighting is the ultimate team sport. You don't do very well by yourself. You need your team and your team needs you. So in our class, we emphasize that teamwork and that working together, the ultimate team sport.
Superintendent:
I like that very much. So, is Sophie the fastest?
Instructor:
Sofia is one of the fastest. She is. It's kind of a race all the time. The state standard for firefighters is one minute to put on your turnout gear. Our standard in our class is 45 seconds and some of these guys are in the thirties.
Superintendent:
Holy mackerel. I can tie a tie pretty fast, but I don't think that'll help. Alright, here we go.
Instructor:
All right. Follow along with Cade.
Superintendent:
Alright, so he's going to demonstrate. I don't see myself doing this in 30 seconds anytime soon. You guys can laugh. It's okay.
Student:
Suspender's right here, hanging on the sides. The suspenders, you grab those and throw them up.
Superintendent:
Maybe I shouldn't take the sport coat off, but I'm in now, baby. I'm in now.
Student:
And then you got a button it.
Superintendent:
Wow. I can't wait to see Sophie do this. I really can't.
Student:
And velcro.
Superintendent:
Oh wow. That's very eighties.
Student:
And then click on top of that. Just leave it buckled.
Student:
And I set out my coat is in a way that I can stick my arm in.
Superintendent:
This feels heavy. It already feels heavy.
Student:
And then you to get your zipper and then velcro strap. And then the next up right here comes across, and then you bring your hood and wrap it around the collar and then we clap and then you're done. That's her heel.
Superintendent:
I'm not even very good with your gloves.
Student:
I've been doing that for awhile.
Superitendent:
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back more with Unified Firefighter, Taylor Sandstrom and his students from the JATC.
Sandra Reisgraf:
If you're always looking for opportunities to learn something new, why not join us for the next Jordan Parent University? Jordan Parent University is an opportunity for parents to better understand issues that impact their own students and education. It's an evening class designed to help parents with things like planning for the road beyond high school, better understanding students' social and emotional health and wellness. And knowing who to call when there are issues involving a school or a student. Jordan Parent University is free and open to the public. For a list of upcoming classes, times and locations go to jpu.jordan.district.org. See you there.
Superintendent:
Welcome back. Suiting up in heavy fire gear or bunkers as they call it is really hard. But one student, Sophie, does it better than almost anyone, beating the clock. Every time she even comes in much faster than what is required for actual firefighters. So let's listen in, as she tries to completely equip herself as a firefighter in record time 45 seconds, right? No pressure.
Mark set go. Sophie is killing me. I took longer on the buckle than she's taking on the entire thing right now. She's got her mask on seriously. She looks like she's ready to run into a burning building, like right now. This is not messing around. Wow. 38 seconds. That was awesome. That was awesome. Wow. That is incredible. I have to say, I'm glad I tried it before I watched you. I have tremendous respect for what you just did. It's around 60 pounds of gear. I'll run upstairs into a burning building, dragging a hose out. That is something else.
Instructor:
Our standard, just for all calls, we want to be out of the station and on the road in about 90 seconds. So some of the stuff, like air pack buckles, we'll be doing that on our way to the call. But we want to arrive again, our standard is five to seven minutes from the time we get the call, we want to be at the incident.
Superintendent:
So, it sounds like they're meeting the standards and exceeding the standard as high school students.
Instructor:
That's my goal. My goal is when they leave here and go to a Fire Academy to get their State Certifications that they can walk in and the skills and knowledge is already in place.
Superintendent:
So tell me, if you're talking to parents or students who might be considering either program, uh, what would you tell them to expect first of all? And then we'll talk about the benefits.
Instructor:
Lots of hard work. These courses aren't about grades, in my opinion, they're not about anything other than showing me your best effort. Working hard, studying hard, having the discipline to be to class on time every day. Just like when you and I go to work, we need to be right on time, every day, ready to go. There really aren't excuses. There might be reasons, but there are no excuse, other than lack of preparation or lack of effort or lack of time in the program.
Superintendent:
I heard students say exactly what you were just saying. That it's lack of effort, lack of preparation. If you're not ready, you're lazy. There's a real work ethic that goes with this. I can't imagine a class that teaches a better work ethic.
Instructor:
I can't speak to other classes. All I can say is that I take my job seriously and people depend on us, right? We are teaching them that. And I tell them on the first day, when someone calls 9-1-1, they're not having their best day ever. They're having their worst. And they have an expectation that whoever shows up will know how to make it better. And that's a very serious responsibility. And I try to instill that in these students, if nothing else, when they leave my class, I hope they know whether this is what they want to do or not.
Superintendent:
What are of the other benefits of being in there?
Instructor:
This class is a college credit, cheap, $5 per credit. If you take both of these classes, you can get nine for EMT and seven for Fire sScience. You're going to be well prepared to go out into the workplace. And frankly, myself and all of the instructors in this course are full time Firefighter, Paramedics, and EMTs. And this becomes a job interview. It's a semester of interviewing for a job because when you apply, they will call me, if you put me down as a reference, and I will tell them exactly what I think about you,
Superintendent:
Because lives are at stake and you can't risk having someone respond to a call, that's not ready.
Instructor:
Yes.
Superintendent:
It sounds to me, like you said, sometimes students learn if this is what they want to do by being in the class. Sometimes they learned that this is not what they want to do by being in the class. I imagine everyone takes away lifelong lessons, that they're changed the way they view themselves and the world around them.
Instructor:
Absolutely. You are as some of your experiences. And this is an experience I think, powerful enough that it will make a difference if you don't want to be an EMT and work on an Ambulance or work for a Fire Department. If you've taken this class, we have taught you some things that are going to be helpful someday in some situation.
Superintendent:
It strikes me that just with the discipline and the skills and the mindset they have, whether they take the job or not, it seems to me like they're going to be in a position to save a life.
Instructor:
I hope so. This summer, I was able to go back to the field and work with some of my students who have been in this class and now work for my department. And it's awesome. It's a super great feeling for me, to see them thrive and do what they train so hard here to do is an awesome experience.
Superintendent:
So tell us, why did you decide to be a paramedic?
Instructor:
That's a long story. My dad and brother were both firefighters. My dad was an EMT. My brother was a paramedic. That was a strong influence in my life anyway, but I also had the misfortune, or fortune, to be one of their patients at one time, they saved my life.
Superintendent:
So you thought, I need to pay that forward. I really admire what you're doing here. Thank you for choosing to be a teacher. In addition to everything else you're already doing, it was my mom's fault. Any last advice for parents of kids thinking about the program?
Instructor:
It takes a lot of time. This program, both of them are half of their day. It's four credits or four classes and appropriately, I send home four classes worth of homework and expectations. So this class will take a lot of their time. But have you guys ever been in a class you liked more?
Superintendent:
I'm going to ask them about that. So you work harder in this class I'll bet, than you do in any other, is that true? You agreed, 100% hardest class, toughest class you're in and it is the toughest class, but it is worth it? For all of you, it's your favorite as well. So how was your hardest class also your favorite?
Student:
I don't know. We have fun working hard and it's not just a class where we just sit down and bookwork all the time. We get to apply the stuff. I think why I think it's fun.
Superintendent:
How about for you?
Student:
I think when it's something you want to do, and it's something you want to learn about, it's still hard work, but it pays off and you like it at the end of the day.
Superintendent:
What would you have to say about liking a class that's so difficult?
Student:
I liked that he shows us real world experiences and we're making a difference by doing this class.
Superintendent:
I can agree with you there. How about you? You said it's very difficult, but it's worth it.
Student:
It just really helped me grow as a person and in my work ethic as well. I really increased my work ethic and, obviously, my discipline as well. And I think that this class has really shaped me as a person.
Superintendent:
Well, if you ever want to work for a children's school district, you all have a job. I'm going to shake your hand. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for that experience and your good teachers too. You guys got me up to speed. Well, not up to speed in terms of how fast I could put on my fire outfit. What do you call it? Turn-out gear. Fire outfit is probably not the proper term. You guys are amazing. That's great. And I want to thank you guys.
Thanks so much to Unified Fire and their unique partnership with Jordan School District, which is helping high school students pursue a career in Fire Science. This is just one of many hands-on programs offered at the Jordan Academy. It's a program for students who have a passion to help others and save lives.
And thanks to all of you for joining us on the Supercast. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you.
24 min
January 02, 2020 Episode 18: Kids Take on Cottage Cheese – Nutrition in the New Year
If all the sweets and tempting treats over the holidays have you thinking about better nutrition in the New Year, you're not alone. On today's episode of the Supercast, Jordan School District Dietitian, Katie Bastian shares some simple tips for getting kids excited about eating healthy again - snacks that are fun and easy to prepare for parents on the go.
We also visit with elementary school students who spill the beans on their favorite snacks and cottage cheese doesn't make the cut.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we're talking nutrition, starting with students at Hayden Peak Elementary School, where they spill the beans on their favorite snacks, and we find out if cottage cheese makes the cut. We're cooking up some fun with kids. Then Jordan School District Dietician, Katie Bastian joins us in studio to talk about getting back on track with better nutrition in the new year for students and families. First, let's check in with our friends at Hayden Peak. Tell me your name.
Student:
My name is Shannon.
Superintendent:
Shannon. What is your favorite food?
Student:
I would have to say it's kind of weird, but I love carrots. I love their baby carrots with ranch dressing.
Superintendent:
Baby carrots with ranch dressing is not weird. What's your name?
Student:
Sierra.
Superintendent:
Sierra. Tell me some of your favorite foods.
Student:
Mac and Cheese.
Superintendent:
Okay. What type of Mac and Cheese? Do you like it with the fluorescent orange powder whipped into a cream sauce?
Student:
Normally, my family just buys a Velveeta Brand Mac and Cheese.
Superintendent:
Velveeta Mac and Cheese is definitely next level. I love Velveeta Mac and Cheese. It's kind of like gold being poured over your pasta?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
What do you not like? What foods do you definitely not like?
Student:
I hate green beans.
Superintendent:
You hate green beans. Did they do something bad to you?
Student:
No, I just don't like them.
Superintendent:
You just don't like them. Okay. You don't like them. Hate is kind of a strong word if they haven't ever hurt you. Is it because they're kind of fuzzy?
Student:
No, it tastes bad to me.
Superintendent:
What's your name?
Student:
My name's Kylie.
Superintendent:
What do you like for snacks? I like to eat talkies.
(02:10):
Hockey's those are hot. Not for me. Not for you. We bought this big multipack of chips and I was the one that was in charge of eating the talkies because no one else could stand them.
(02:22):
Yeah. I love them. I had snack.
(02:25):
Okay. I admire you. Tell me your name. Ellie. Ellie. What food do you like? Chicken legs. You like chicken legs on or off the chicken? Either way. Either way, whatever happens. Okay. Um, I like it. So you like chicken? What do you not like melted cheese? You don't like melted cheese. What is it about the melted cheese that you don't like?
(02:53):
It has a weird after taste and it's like greasy.
(02:57):
That's exactly why I like it. Tell me your name. Miles. Miles. What snacks do you eat? Yeah.
(03:04):
Hot Cheetos. Normal Cheetos, hot Funyuns, normal Funyuns,
(03:11):
Hot Funyuns. Now wait a second. I was unaware that there was such a thing as hot Funyuns. I've been known to devour an entire family sized bag of Funyuns in one sitting. And I don't even know that there are hot Funyuns. How hot are they?
(03:26):
Well, some people say they're hot, but I don't think they're all.
(03:30):
Okay. I can see that you and I are a snack friends here. Um, what, what foods do you not like?
(03:38):
I kinda don't really like fish. I just think it has weird taste, but I like catching fish, but I just don't like eating it. What's your name? My name is
(03:47):
What's next. Do you like?
(03:52):
Uh, I like cereal. I don't know.
(03:56):
Ooh. I love to have cereal as a snack. What are your favorite types of cereal?
(04:00):
Um, cocoa puffs, cinnamon toast crunch and cookie crunch. Cookie.
(04:06):
I was about your age when cinnamon toast crunch came out and it was a wondrous thing. It was absolutely beautiful. I like every single one of those. And I love how the cocoa puffs turned. The milk chocolate. It tastes good. What foods do you not like? I don't make any beans. Any beans? Garbanzo, Lima, Navy. You're against them all? Yes. I'm against the wall. Okay. Fair enough. At least you're an equal opportunity being hater. All right. Thank you. What's your name?
(04:37):
My name's Connor. And my favorite food is rainbow jello.
(04:44):
Is there whipped cream involved? Yes. That sounds absolutely delicious. What foods do you not like? I absolutely hate butter. Well, you're not just supposed to eat a stick of butter.
(04:56):
Even if anything has like butter on it, just plain butter on it. I will absolutely not eat.
(05:03):
So even if the rainbow jello had butter, you would not eat it? Nope. Do you eat things plain? Like toast?
(05:09):
I usually cook up some Friday eggs and then dip in the year.
(05:14):
Do you, do you cook the eggs yourself? Yes. And you know just how to cook it. So the yolk is just right? Yes. My mom taught me. I admire that. Good job. Tell me your name. Jenna. What? Uh, snacks do you like? I like apples and her. Ooh, that's very good. What foods do you not like cottage. Cheese. How does cheese? Thank you so many people like cottage cheese, and I've never understood it. It's like milk. That started to turn into cheese, but didn't quite get there. I'm with you, Jenna. I agree. 100%. Tell me your name, the last defender. The last defender. That's correct. I like that. You're going by this moniker. Well done, sir. What foods do you like? Hot wings. Hot wings. Do you like it? Bone in bone out both. So do I, I like the bone out because it's not as messy, but I like the bone in when I just want to get crazy with it.
(06:12):
Yeah. So where do you like to have hot wings? Buffalo. Wild wings. Me too. Tuesday nights, bone in Thursday nights, bone out, half price, right? Yeah. This guy knows what is up. He's not just the last defender. He knows what's going on. When it comes to food. What sauce do you get? Ranch or blue cheese? Ranch. Oh, this guy is hitting every note. He's hitting every note. If you and I were at the Buffalo wild wings on the same night at the same time, we'd be ordering the same stuff. Yeah. What's your name? Ashley. What food do you like? Um, I, uh, I, Oh,
(06:51):
It's Italian pasta. It's very shiny because it does have, it has lemon juice. It has, it's a little green cause there's a little bit of, um, I can't remember. There's a lot of garlic and crushed red pepper plate.
(07:08):
Where do you have this dish?
(07:10):
My dad makes it so at home a lot. Most of the time,
(07:13):
I think that's pretty awesome. Your dad can make that my signature dish is hotdogs on the grill. Yeah, I know. It's not very fancy. Well, it works. It does. It works on a Sunday afternoon. They taste pretty good. Now I'm really hungry. So I'm going to go eat lunch. All this talk of treats is making me hungry. So let's head to a break. And when we come back, we're in studio with district dietician, Katie bastion, who shares some tips to get kids excited about healthy eating. And she has me do a little taste, testing myself, stay with us.
(07:52):
How many times do you hear your child ask what's for breakfast or what's for lunch? Find out what's on the menu at your child's Jordan school district school every day by simply downloading the Nutri slice app to your smartphone or desktop. The neutral slice app gives you quick and easy access to daily menus, pictures of meal choices and nutrition information. Along with allergens present in the food. The app also allows students and parents to give feedback on food. Download the neutral slice app today and enjoy school breakfast and lunch in your school. Cafeteria we're back in studio with district registered dietician, Katie bastion. Katie, how are you? Welcome to the show. Thanks. Thank you for having me. So tell me what does a dietician do? I, I suspect people don't even realize we have a district dietician.
(08:59):
Yup, yup. We do. So, um, I do several things, uh, in the district. Um, I work with the, the other ladies in our office and we put together menus that have to meet the federal guidelines. So we, we have nutrition criteria that we have to meet. And we also, when we build a menu, we put together food components. So we have to have fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, and dairy. So we have to make sure every meal has all those components to serve to the kids.
(09:28):
So our food components, what we used to call food groups in the seventies, is there still a pyramid? There's not a pyramid anymore. There's a more pyramid. My plate, my plate. So tell me about the place.
(09:40):
So my plate is just a visual representation that USDA has put out.
(09:45):
My plate is usually a visual representation of menu item number two in the drive through, but don't tell me what my plate is supposed to be
(09:53):
Sure you've seen it, but it's just a plate broken up into, it shows like half of your plate should be fruits and vegetables. And then the other half of it, you know, in smaller portions, you've got your meat and your grains and then dairies are, you know, off to the side for our program. Um, our dairy has to be our fluid milk. So that covers the foods. And then of course, fats and oils don't really have a section anymore, but they're, they're in there sparingly. So,
(10:20):
Okay. So we know that fats and oils are part of the equation. They don't get their own section. That seems right. Yeah. So tell me, what are some of the requirements in terms of the menu you have to set up that parents might not be aware of where people may not have realized?
(10:38):
Yeah, so we, like I said, we have to make sure we have all the food components for each meal, so the kid can choose to have all of them. Um, and then when we're looking at the nutrition criteria, we have to make sure it meets a certain calorie range, average over the course of a week. And we're also watching sodium levels and saturated fat levels.
(10:58):
Those are three things I do not watch. So I'm glad that you're watching it for the children of Jordan school district. Are there foods that we used to offer that we can't offer any more that we wish we could offer? What are some of those rules, uh, changing what we used to order years ago,
(11:17):
The way things like some of the favorites we've just adapted them. So, you know, we've always made our bread from scratch here in Jordan school district. And so, you know, those lovely white rolls that you used to see, well, we make them from scratch. So now everything needs to be whole grain rich. So now we add the whole wheat flour and so they're a whole grain rich version and they're still lovely, lovely rolls, but they are now a whole grain weight.
(11:44):
I can smell it now. Yes.
(11:46):
When you, if you go out to the schools, you can bring rich. Yes.
(11:50):
Okay. And are there other things that been, uh, adapted as you said recently?
(11:56):
Yeah, definitely. A lot of our, we make, um, like our ranch condiments from scratch. So we're using lighter options of Mayo and that type of thing for condiments, um, with the sodium sodium levels, being watched a lot of the things that we purchase and make ourselves the levels have decreased over the years from what they were. So we try and use other spices and stuff, you know, to flavor things. I mean, we still have have salt, but those levels are lower than what they were. Yeah. And then the fat is always something, but fat is always been something that I think those national school lunch program there's always been limits on that and the calories, but sure. Yeah. So of course we got to have food. The kids like to,
(12:45):
Right. What are some of the most popular items?
(12:48):
Oh, you know what the kids, as far as things we make, the kids love the Mac and cheese. Like, I don't know the kids like the school's Mac and cheese better than my Mac and cheese, but it's um, they also, of course, some of the kids' favorite things are going to be pizza and chicken nuggets, like elementary school kids. I'm sure you will. You'll hear that. So we just try and have healthier alternatives of, you know, we don't have any fryers nothing's the fries or the chicken nuggets or anything like that. Isn't fried it's, it's all baked and steamed and stuff. So it's healthier alternatives, whole grain breading, lower fat cheese. So yeah.
(13:27):
So the pizza's popular, the chicken nuggets are property.
(13:30):
Yeah. Yup, yup. But yeah, Mac and cheese. Let's see. What are some other ones? Oh yes. Mandarin orange. Yeah. The Asian foods right now are really big. Teriyaki chicken and rice. Mandarin, orange chicken Kung Pao chicken. Yeah. Those are really big right now, too.
(13:47):
If you're not getting hungry, listening to this podcast, I'm shocked. Think about that. Kids are missing out if they're not getting that multigrain rich. Is that what you said? Multigrain rich rolls made from scratch made from scratch ranch sounds fantastic. Yeah, it's delicious. So are there some things we've experimented with food wise that have not worked out or some, what are some of the failed experiments in school lunch?
(14:16):
Um, a lot of times. So we do have a menu committee that we meet with, um, some elementary managers who meet with us on a monthly basis and then a secondary menu committee of secondary managers, like five or six of them. And we meet with them and we go over, what's not working and try new recipes. So they'll be our pilot schools that will go out and sample new recipes. So a lot of times what we're going for with those many committees is things that people are seeing popular in the, um, you know, like when they're going out to restaurants. Um, and then we're always trying to keep our culture here in Jordan is we try and make as much as we can from scratch. So we're always trying scratch recipes or, or, you know, something that's a little bit more homemade than your typical, I don't know, processed items that kids love.
(15:05):
But, um, I guess I could tell you about the, um, Shepherd's pie. Oh, it was great. And you know, the teachers and we got a lot of great feedback that the teachers loved it and staff loved it. It was not a big hit with the kids, but so actual shepherds. I, yeah, I don't know. She and I, I don't know, but yeah, it didn't, it didn't go over big. So, you know, we'll try it on a menu cycle. We'll give it a few times. Cause once, twice, you know, that doesn't give you a good indication, but after several times through the menu cycle, if they're still not like, you know, they were like, Oh man, we gotta let this one go.
(15:42):
Menu cycle for me is how many times I've ordered in a day and I'm not going to give you a number. So, uh, that's very interesting. So the Shepherd's pie feedback, I guess, has a different connotation when you're talking about food in the cafeteria. But yeah. So the feedback that you've had on Shepherd's pie was positive from the adults, but the kids not so much.
(16:04):
Right? Yeah. I don't know if it's, you know, like kind of food that's touching each other and it makes together or just maybe adults are much more familiar with it. They just grew up with it. And everyone has their mom's own version of Shepherd's pie that they made. But I don't, maybe I don't think kids are seeing it as much now. Yeah.
(16:22):
Right. Foods touching each other is an issue for kids. And that is one of the charms of the cafeteria lunch tray that it has a separate compartment for everything so that you can keep it in. Yeah.
(16:32):
Yep. It doesn't run together.
(16:34):
You brought a couple along here and I have to tell you, it's bringing back memories.
(16:40):
That's old school,
(16:41):
Plastic trays. It is old school. Yes, indeed. Yup. Are you saying I am old school, correct? Yes. But these trays do bring back some memories. We're going to be back with Katie and just a few moments to talk about how your kids can maintain a healthy diet at home. Stay with us.
(17:02):
Do you want to know what's going on in Jordan school district? Maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story. Check out our [email protected] or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at Jordan district. Let's connect today.
(17:25):
And we're back with Katie bastion, the registered dietician for Jordan school district. Katie, before we go into some tips for parents, let's just talk about the scope of what you do. We've talked about menu items, school launch, how that's changed, trying new items in the menu. Remarkably. I didn't realize the extent to which we make things from scratch. Yeah. That's incredible. It is.
(17:50):
Yeah. We, we are. We're proud of what we do. It's it is like you say remarkable.
(17:54):
It's better for kids when it's made from scratch. Yeah.
(17:56):
Yeah. We have more control over the ingredients and,
(17:59):
And it tastes better. Yeah. I've tried making Doritos from scratch because they might be healthier for me that failed. And I just went back to the cool ranch bag and it's just, it's just easier that way. So I don't know. Maybe I'll try some other time, but in the meantime, just to give parents an idea of what you're up to every day. Yeah. Your choices, you and the committee, the menu choices. How many kids are served at the lunches every day in Jordan school district?
(18:29):
So in Jordan school district, we serve about 33,000 lunches every single day through all of our schools,
(18:35):
33,000 lunches a day.
(18:38):
Yep. And that's not even counting. Breakfast is a lot of the schools do breakfast meals too.
(18:44):
Wow. That's 10, 10,000 times the number of meals. Uh, the average family is preparing everything. Yeah.
(18:50):
Yeah. It's it's, it's a lot, it's a large scope.
(18:53):
Yeah. Yeah. That's a big deal. So parents of kids who are picky eaters, I'm sure there are one or two out there. Oh yeah. So I have a niece who I think she has lived on two foods, her entire life, chicken fingers and grapes. And I think that's it. And my son is not much better. He eats five or six things, but it's really hard to get him to try something new. Right. So do you have some advice for parents on how they can help their kids eat a wider variety of foods?
(19:27):
Yeah, definitely. So I think if they start, when the kids are younger, just keep introducing them to new foods, new foods. And if they don't want to eat it, don't force them to eat it. But you know, encourage them to take a bite. And if that's all they want that's okay. Cause maybe after trying carrots and curates are popular, kids like carrots, but you know, whatever the food is maybe after trying it, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine times. Maybe after a couple of years, it'll be like, Oh, you know, I like this. I tell my kids, we have to keep trying things because our tastes chains, you know, I didn't like tomatoes when I'm little when I was little, but I like tomatoes now. So we have to keep trying things. So we, we know if we like them or not, our tastes do change. That's true. I think
(20:12):
When you said that, that kind of resonated because there are things you used to like that you don't like anymore. Yeah. The idea is that people get to keep is that you continue to give your kids a chance to try different foods.
(20:24):
Right? Right. Yeah. You, your, uh, job as a parent is to give your kids the opportunity to try all these different foods and you know, just keep introducing them, whatever you're having for dinner that night, make sure everyone has some of it on their plate. Even if they don't like it.
(20:41):
We've all been in the situation where we've been told to clean your plate. And I know you told us not to force kids to eat a certain food that they don't like continue to give them the opportunity, but don't force them. Right. How about just quantity where we're frustrated. We know they're going to be hungry in another 30 minutes. If they don't finish what's in front of them, how do you handle that?
(21:04):
Um, so just we encourage, you know, set up set meal times, you know, like if your family can eat together, that's great. There are so many benefits of eating meals together as a family. And so if your kids, kids are all about routine, if they know that when they eat, you know, they sit down and they're going to have their certain meals of the day. And if they sit down and they're going to have, you know, there are certain set snacks and they're just not snacking all day. They'll know, you know, I need to eat while I'm here. And then that encourages them. You know, like if they're hungry later, okay, we're going to eat. And just a little bit, you know, like kids need snacks too, you know, if they can't make it in between meals sets, you know, they're they're little. And so yeah, definitely just encourage them to, Hey, you know, we're, this is where we're eating and you know, you talk, you eat you. But yeah, we, I, um, it's hard because kids tell you they're hungry all the time, but if you let them snack all the time, are they ever going to get really full or they're just always going to be hungry and snacking. So
(22:04):
They're just going to be grazing all the time. So you set meal times partially, so you can be together, but partially, so it's predictable. And then you try to set snack times as well. Yeah,
(22:14):
Yeah. Yep. So they know, you know, when we're sitting down here together at the table where we're eating and, and they know to expect, I will be eating again, you know, like they're not scared that they're not going to be fed or, or whatnot, but yeah. And then like, as far as clearing their plates go, kids are incredible. Like kids have the best sense of, um, knowing when they are full, like as adults that gets, you know, a little skew because we have so many other things going on, we're so busy. You know, you have these, uh, behavioral choices that you make. You know, when we're getting, when we get together, we have cookies and milk or, you know, these, these set rhythms, but kids are really good at knowing when they're hungry and when to stop eating, you know, babies are the very best at it when they're done, they're done. Right. But, um, so kids have a really good sense of that. And you know what, really, if they don't eat everything on their plate, we always say our house, you know what? You can save it for later.
(23:12):
Let's talk about allergies and how you handle that in schools, because it seems like more and more there are allergies or sensitivities to certain foods. What are some of those sensitivities that we deal with and how do we help students in that situation? Because I'm sure there are some listeners, uh, whose kids are dealing with that circumstance.
(23:34):
Definitely. Yeah. So that's another big part of my job is kids who have allergies or intolerances to the major allergens, you know, we and eggs and dairy fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, those major things. If they are allergic to them or have intolerances to them, um, you know, they can go through the paperwork and get a doctor's note. And from there, my job is helping. How can we make accommodations to our mills? So if they want to eat occasionally and have, you know, do something different, other than lunch from home, we can make that possible for them. So how can we make this, this smell dairy free or, you know, gluten-free, or that type of thing. We make a lot of accommodations for kids here in the district. So if they want to eat, you know, with the rest of the student population, we'll, we'll, we'll do what we can to, to make those accommodations for them to use.
(24:25):
That's cool. Which really is remarkable, especially considering, as you mentioned earlier, tens of thousands of meals served every day that you're able to specialize and individualized to that extent.
(24:36):
Yeah. And I talk with every, you know, every paperwork that comes in, I talk to every parent individually, and I have to give a lot of credit to the kitchens too, because they're the ones on the front lines when they're making, you know, 1400 meals, that's a lot of meals, you know, like at some of our middle schools and high schools. And then to make sure that when they're making these special diets, it takes time. You know, they're making sure that they don't cross contaminate and you know, they're being careful about it. So I have to give the credit, you know, to the frontline, cause they're the ones actually making those meals, you know, I help set them up, but they, they get it done. So the kitchen, the kitchens and the staff there should really be commended as well. Cause it's, that's pretty good.
(25:17):
I should mention too, that we've had, uh, we've talked with inspectors who inspect kitchens and restaurants throughout the state. Yes. The health inspectors. And what I've heard is they have said our cafeteria kitchens are the envy of the industry and any restaurant would love to have our scores and have the kitchens as clean and well maintained as ours. Yeah.
(25:43):
Yes. We do have really clean kitchens. Even if the school is older, we try and make sure that their equipment is up to date and the kitchens are clean. They're organized. Like you say, stuff is working. We do really have well-maintained kids.
(25:59):
It's a particular aspect of our operations as a district that just blows me away. It's just, um, I have difficulty following the instructions on instant oatmeal and to make 30,000 meals a day from scratch. And it's just, it's really astounding. And I love that. We're so deliberate through your work and the work of the committees in what those meals are made up of. And that it's a complete nutritional package for, for kids because it's so important, not just to their health and wellness, but to their learning that they have, that they are well fed.
(26:34):
If a kid, I mean you and I know that if you're at work and are doing anything, if you're hungry, your mind is wandering. What's the next I'm going to eat, or you're grazing, you're finding something to you. So if kids are fed, it's one less thing that they have to think about or worry about. And the behavioral problems, you know, is a whole different thing. But you know, if kids are fed, they're just going to do better all around.
(26:58):
I'm not sure if the Mike has been picking it up. Okay. I am definitely, uh, my stomach is growling with all of this food talk and you have brought some samples along. So let's talk about what you have here. It's very colorful.
(27:12):
So we, um, brought just some healthy snack ideas, you know, as a parent, if you can go to the grocery store and buy these these items and make it and have it in the fridge, show it, your kids can just grab it. Cause your kids are not going to get a cucumber out of the fridge, wash it and peel it and slice it. Not ever going to happen, but if you can buy, so here we have cups that have yogurt in them, peanut butter, and then ranch, right?
(27:40):
Not all on the same cup. These are different
(27:42):
Separate cut. Yes. Yes. So with the ranch, we have, um, different vegetables. We have carrot, celery, peppers, cucumbers, little tomatoes. Um, let's see, what else do we have with the ranch? I think that's all we have with the ranch, just a little ranch in the bottom. And then the yogurt has, you know, berries in it. Um, Apple slices, uh, let's see. And then the peanut butter is another good one. You can put carrots and celery sticks in that apples crackers. Um, another good ones, cottage cheese. So if you can have snacks in it, and these are cute cups because you know, they look cute. They're easy to make a bunch of them, cover them, put them in their fridge and your kid can grab it out. And it's their afterschool snack. That's great. But anything, if you even just, you know, get a bag of carrots, cut them all up so that it's ready. If you can just have something that's ready for your kid to take it, take it out and eat it. They're going to be much more likely to grab that. You know, that's, you know, when you, they get a bag of chips out of the pantry, it's because, you know, it's, it's there and it's easy.
(28:46):
So convenience is a big component of helping kids.
(28:49):
Yeah. So if you're a parent yeah. Make it a convenient choice for them.
(28:54):
Okay. Yeah. Well, it's very convenient now. So I'm going to grab, let's see. Okay. Let's go with the savory to start with. Yeah. And, uh, I'm going to have a carrot stick and maybe some celery.
(29:07):
Oh, that's great. Yeah.
(29:11):
That's the sound of nature's bounty. Hmm.
(29:15):
Yeah. Yep. Yep. They make the ranch from scratch.
(29:18):
Oh, this is the, from, from scratch ranch. Okay. I just had some very colorful vegetables in some homemade ranch or cafeteria made ranch. That was amazing now. And it was convenient. It's right in front of me. Right. Um,
(29:35):
That goes for adults too. If you can pre, you know, make your food. So it's easy to grab. Your carrots are much likely to go bad in your fridge if you just grab them out and wash them and cut them up.
(29:46):
Unfortunately, the vending machine is also very convenient. So there's competition. Now, these colorful foods, remind me of the adage. I've heard that you're supposed to eat the rainbow every day. Do the colors of your foods matter? Are you supposed to eat a wide range of colorful fruits and vegetables? Yeah.
(30:05):
Yeah. The, the colors do matter. Um, I think it's just also the adage, you know, just eat a variety of foods.
(30:13):
I like pres the presentation on this. So convenience and probably presentation helps with
(30:19):
Definitely. Oh yeah. Kids are, you know, they are not different from adults in a lot of ways. If it, you know, we eat with our eyes. So if it looks good. Yeah. And kids are no different than we are when it comes to that. That's for sure.
(30:34):
Okay. I'm going to try a pair paired with yogurt. Let's see. Okay.
(30:43):
Yeah,
(30:44):
No, that's a tasty treat. Yep. That's good. Nicely done. What liquids should kids be having? Okay. So would there be an emphasis on water milk? Is juice a bad thing?
(30:56):
Yeah, definitely not. So, um, kids as well as adults, you know, uh, fluids are very important for us and water should be a big part of, you know, what we all drink every day. Um, milk is great because it's got the dairy calcium nine essential nutrients that can't be found in any other Bedford. So milk is great. Water's great juices, you know, great in, I'd say smaller amounts maybe, but juice isn't necessarily a bad thing, but just smaller amounts. Cause you'd want to be getting, you know, the nutrients that you get from like a hundred percent orange juice, you might just want to eat the orange instead, but in small amounts, that's okay too. Cause kids like is sweet and they like it. Um, as far as, you know, sodas and uh, all that, the other flavored beverages, you know, sparingly is, is probably best. Um, they've got a lot of added sugar in a lot of them. Um, so you know, if you try and focus mainly on, you know, water, milk,
(31:57):
Katie, we end every super cast with two truths and a lie. Okay. And you've told us a lot of truth about foods. What's good for us, what we need to be focused on. Now let's talk about you. Give me two truths in the line. Let's see if I can pick out the lie.
(32:12):
Okay. Um, one I've lived in Alaska. Uh, two, I was originally a blond and three I've climbed the tallest mountain in Utah. There you go. Wow.
(32:31):
I'm going to say you have not climbed the tallest mountain in Utah. Oh Nope. You have. Yeah. Were you blonde when you did it? Oh no, but maybe I would have had more fun if I was blonde. Now this is my worst two truths and a lie yet. So you have not lived in Alaska? No, I have. Yep. You have? Yep. Yeah. Alaska just for a summer, which is the lie. Um, I, yeah, I wasn't a blonde. Oh, you were not, you were never a blonde was never a blonde. Okay. Yep. Alright. Well, neither was I until my hair faded to blonde. Thank you very much for joining us today. It's been great having you. And I'm going to finish my meal here even though no one's going to force me because that would be bad. That would be done. Thanks for listening to the super cast. We hope you'll join us next time. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
35 min
December 25, 2019 Episode 17: Holiday Greetings from Supercast Santa
Happy Holiday greetings from the Supercast! On this episode we bring you sounds of the season from some very talented Jordan School District students. We also hear from students who believe that giving back is the best holiday gift of all.
Audio Transcription
(00:25):
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. As we send warm holiday, greetings your way. Some very talented students will share the gift of music with sounds of the season. We'll also hear from students who believe that giving back is the best gift of all as our high schools or middle schools celebrate successful charitable holiday giving. Let's start with some holiday music from the West Jordan high school madrigals [inaudible] we're meeting today with student body presidents. The board of education meets with student body presidents from all of our high schools. And so I thought I'd pull each of them aside and ask them a little bit about their charitable fundraiser. Tell me your name, Sydney Leaster. And you were the student body president at Mountain Ridge High School. Do you feel the weight of responsibility starting new traditions?
(02:43):
Of course. Yeah, for sure.
(02:45):
Well, it sounds like you started a great one with your charitable fundraiser. Tell us a little bit more about it.
(02:50):
So at mountain Ridge this year, we're supporting the Tyler Robinson foundation. Um, so they were started by the Robinson family and they give grants to families with children, with cancer to help for like their medical bills, their electric bills get groceries. Um, so we've been doing odd jobs is our biggest fundraiser. Every night we go out, um, we knock on doors in the community and we ask if there's any odd jobs we can do for a donation. Um, we've also been selling crushes so people can settle or can like send a can of crushed to their crush and
(03:19):
Can of crushed to their crush. Is that effective in bringing people closer together?
(03:24):
Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of love going around.
(03:27):
All right. And why is it important to involve students in this type of service do you think?
(03:33):
I think, um, when you involve the students, they're more excited because they can see the impact, especially when it's a local charity and they're more willing to donate and bringing the community to donate
(03:43):
Anything you've observed happened with students that was particularly moving for you this year.
(03:49):
Um, yeah, so at our opening assembly, we had one of the kids from the Tyler Robinson foundation. His name is Tate. He came, um, and it was just really cool to see our students like rally around him and really show him a lot of respect and just get excited to donate.
(04:03):
Fantastic. Hi, tell us your name, Isaac Nazi, VI and Isaac. Tell us a little bit about what you've been doing as student body president at Bingham in terms of overseeing the charitable fundraiser effort. Yeah. So for our charities, we've been doing a lot of newer activities this year. Um, we started doing crush like you, like mountain Ridge has done, and other schools in the district have done. It's actually been really successful. We do Christmas grams during one. Should we sell a lot of apparel? Um, tonight actually we have a male beauty pageant that we're doing that I'm actually participating in. And that should be a lot of fun that should raise a lot of money. Is this your first beauty pageant? This is my first beauty pageant. Yes. Best of luck, Isaac. Thank you. What other activities you guys up to? Um, we had a talent show.
(04:50):
Um, we had a lot of awesome, talented kids show up to that. Um, we have a Zoombathon later this week, our dance go and ballroom team have put together and that that's a lot of fun. And our improv team always does a really successful December improv show called the pay-to-play where the more you pay the longer the show goes. And that's a lot of fun as well. It sounds like you guys have been really creative and trying to involve students. What is the impact that you hope to have on the students at Bingham? Um, as far as like student environment, I just hope that we have this season of giving and then keep the mentality going for the rest of the year. Um, I think it's been successful so far and I think that the students at Bingham have, um, a really, really giving mentality and mindset and always stick with each other.
(05:32):
And if we could just keep that going, that would be awesome. So there's a lot of benefit beyond raising money for charity, which is very important in and of itself. Yeah, most definitely. I would say just the change in the students themselves as easily, as important as the amount of money that we raise. So what charity did you choose to, uh, benefit this year? So we actually have three, we have the Make-A-Wish foundation. We have a wish kid. Her name is Julia she's wishing to go to Disney. Um, and then we're helping the Jordan education foundation and the principal's pantry in order to provide food for students who might not have the same opportunities and, uh, food on the weekends and, um, during lunch and at school. And then we also are helping the Starlight foundation, which helps foster kids did looking for the right charity, help students realize just how much need there is out there.
(06:22):
Do you think? I think so. I think that looking for the charity and informing people about the charities that we serve definitely changes, um, the environment during charity season. And I also think it changes the environment, um, that the students have for the rest of their lives and the awareness that are brought up about these issues. Okay. Thanks, Isaac. Tell me your name, Cooper, Lando. And you're the student body president of the copper Hills high school. Yup. So what are you guys up to in terms of, uh, your fundraiser for this month? Um, so we started our fundraiser about a week ago and it's been going really well. We've mainly been getting donations from our local community and the students. And, um, we were really surprised when two days into it, we restart $10,000 Mark, which is sooner than any previous year before. So we're really excited about that.
(07:12):
The, uh, there are a few things that you're doing differently this year. Tell us about that. Um, so in the past we've done this thing, odd jobs where we go around to different communities and collect donations and we've done it like a few times in the entire time, but this time we're trying to do it every single day and involve our students more to, um, have them have more of a part in getting and raising money, even if it's not through them donating, but through them coming with us to odd jobs. And it's just been really cool so far for us. So that sounds like more of an emphasis on taking the time to give service rather than necessarily how much money you raised. Yeah, exactly. That's what, we're a lot of times more focusing on like a lot of people for odd jobs have, um, like said, can you come back?
(07:58):
And then we schedule like an hour, like two hour long, a period of time with them where we will just like do household chores for them, or like rake leaves. And they really appreciate it. Even if they can't donate a lot of money, it's still just a really good feeling afterwards. Does that connect students and bring them together in a different way when you're working together like that? I really think it does because especially when you're doing it and you know that none of the proceeds are going to you, but they're all going to a really good cause, which is in our community and knowing that it could be going to anyone around you and you just never know, it's just a really cool thing for us. And I think that's how, um, our student body is so United during this time. Tell us about what charities you chose to, uh, benefit this year. So, um, unlike other schools, we don't donate to just a specific charity or multiple charities, but instead we, um, focus all of our time and attention towards people in our communities and the sub for Santa kind of way, where we help them provide for their Christmas
(08:56):
And it's, they can't refer themselves. They have to get referred by someone else. It's really cool because we get to do all the shopping for the kids. We get to deliver them their Christmas. And it's just a really cool thing for us. Sounds fantastic. Thanks for all you're doing. Tell me your name.
(09:13):
My name is Emily Labonte
(09:15):
And you're the student body president at West Jordan high school. Yes, I am. Tell us about the fundraising you've been doing this month.
(09:22):
So our fundraiser for the month of December, it's called mad Jags and that's an acronym and it stands for making a difference. The charity that we chose this year is the haze tuff foundation. They raised money for, um, childhood cancer and some of the unseen costs that come along with that. So we just finished our first week. We had a couple of really successful events. Um, we had a movie night in our commons. We've been doing odd jobs every day. We had a super smash bros tournament that was really fun. And we did a character day for the community, um, that we invited lots of little kids to, to come and meet their favorite characters in color and do things like that. So, yeah, it was a really, really good first week.
(10:00):
Sounds like a lot of creative activity. What is the impact that you hope this will have on students at West Jordan? I,
(10:08):
I just really hope through the whole month that people will be able to step outside themselves and really, um, yeah, just really feel good about the fact that they're making a change in other people's lives. Um, but I also really hope that it will help bring the student body together. I think when you're having a lot of different events that have really wide variety of people can be interested in then, uh, that just really increases school spirit a lot. So I'm hoping for that too.
(10:33):
Sounds great. Lots of good things going on. Thanks very much. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back more music this time from the Keller sisters who were featured on an earlier episode of the super cast, stay with us. [inaudible] Hey, you okay? Uh, yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter, get the safe UT app, download it now available on the Apple app store, Google play or safe ut.org. My name is shy and I'm 17 years old. The Keller sisters. We actually get to skip out of school. So that's your gift to us. We're going to start out with a song by Justin [inaudible]. Alright, so this song's actually a Christmas [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]
(14:57):
Thank you for tuning in and from all of us at the super cast, happy holidays. And remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see,
(15:46):
[inaudible] say [inaudible] [inaudible]
(16:36):
[inaudible].
17 min
December 19, 2019 Episode 16: Copper Hills High School’s Mama Grizzly
She looks out for students who may not know where their next meal is coming from, who may need a warm winter coat, shoes, boots or students who simply need some support outside the classroom. In this episode of the Supercast we head to Copper Hills High School to meet someone affectionately known as “Mama Grizzly.” Milonie Taylor is the school’s homeless liaison and is constantly looking out for the basic needs of students facing unique challenges in life.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She is affectionately known as Mama Grizzly and has a passion for looking out for students facing unique challenges in life. Challenges like worrying about where their next meal might come from today. We head out to Copper Hills High School to visit Milonie Taylor, the school's homeless liaison. Milonie gives us a look inside the Principal's Pantry, where students are finding the support. They need to stay in school to find success. But first, we talked to two students who say they are not only surviving, but thriving because of the support from Mama Grizzly and Copper Hills. So I'm here with two students at Copper Hills High School talking about the Principal Pantry. I'm surrounded by shelves of clothing and backpacks and school supplies and food and other household items lining the shelves in this little room. It's kind of odd shaped, the room I didn't really even know existed, although I've walked by this door many times. Tell us a little bit about how the store has benefited you, how the Principal's Pantry or store has benefited you.
Student:
Um, the Principal's Pantry is super amazing. When I first came in here, I was completely overwhelmed because I didn't know what to do. And then I got food and I got la winter coat and some winter clothes, which was super awesome. And she gave me a blanket, which is not really something that you think you need, but now it's amazing. There's lots of things in here that you don't really realize that you need, until you come in here and you think, "Oh yeah, I need some toiletries that I didn't even think that I needed or even hats and gloves. It's super awesome just to be able to have all of this available to you.
Superintendent:
So you're almost in a frame of mind of trying just to think about how little you can get by with, and you come in here and you realize some other things that could help.
Student:
Yeah, absolutely.
Superintendent:
How about you? What has your experience been?
Student:
At first when she pulled me aside and told me that I could be getting these benefits, I was really hesitant to accept them because I felt, even though my situation wasn't good, there was always somebody out there who had it worse who could benefit more. But after her coming and telling us that it really is for us and we are really the people who are meant to be receiving these items, it made me feel more comfortable accepting help. It helped, it helps a lot with food and clothing that I don't have and just getting food for the house.
Superintendent:
It's really great that you're able to come down here and get that help. Who are you referencing that's been helping you here?
Student:
Milonie Taylor. She's the one who comes down and helps all the time, but really just the community, as a whole. Especially during Christmas time, we get a bunch of donations and they really help out the whole community just by saying, "Oh you're one of those who needs help. So we're going to help you", which is super awesome.
Superintendent:
Is it hard when you know that you're in need and that you need help? Is it hard to ask or to feel comfortable getting that help?
Student:
It can be a little bit, because you have a lot of pride in yourself. I can make it on my own. I can, I do it. But then there just comes a point where you realize that you need help. And the community here is super awesome. So I wasn't scared. I knew everything would be confidential. And even my friends here that know what I'm going through, they're super helpful to me. I even have teachers that will give me food. Sometimes they're always checking up on me. I've had teachers that will contact me and say, "Hey, you weren't at school. Are you doing okay?" So yeah, it's really been amazing. At first you feel kind of alone. I don't have anyone with me. But then you realize that you're surrounded by people who are always there.
Superintendent:
It makes all the difference to be part of a community like this, where other students and teachers and Milonie, in particular, are looking out for you. No, of course. Tell me, not only has Milonie helped with providing you what you need, but she's also made you feel comfortable taking advantage of what's available.
Student:
Um, yeah, she is seriously like the second mom to all of us, the amount of effort and care that she puts forward. And how far she reaches, her heart goes beyond a lot of things.
Superintendent:
Where would you be without the help?
Student:
Honestly, I probably wouldn't come to school nearly as much. School gives me a gas card. I live 30 minutes away and so the gas card helps me so much to be able to come to school. Without this, I probably wouldn't really have a good community around me. I'd probably just try to stay away and try to figure things out on my own. I wouldn't be able to be as successful as I am now.
Superintendent:
Thank you. How do you, where do you feel you'd be without it the help?
Student:
I feel like I would be going down a road that is not very ideal for most teenagers. The Grizzly Mama would kind of take us out and take us under her wing in a way. It really helps a lot to know that somebody is looking out for you. And I could see myself very easily going in an opposite direction without it.
Superintendent:
And these are such important years, having the help right now in high school so that you can get a great foundation for other choices in your life going forward. I think the positive impact of this whole community is going to be long lasting and not just this community, but your efforts making the most of the opportunities given to you, which you're obviously doing. And I really applaud you for being willing to accept the help and making the most of the opportunities that you're given. Thank you. You both get to participate in Christmas for Kids. Are you looking forward to that? And what are your plans?
Student:
I'm super stoked when she told me about it. I don't know what to say. I'm so excited I don't even know what. I'm so happy. 'm going to go and I'm probably gonna go Christmas shopping, not only for me, but for my siblings as well. It'll be a lot of fun.
Superintendent:
How about you? Probably very similar to what she is doing, like trying to use the extra resources to help my siblings.
Superintendent:
And that's what I heard you say earlier is that you're not just taking care of yourself, but you're helping take care of your family as well, which makes it possible for you to be able to focus on your studies.
Student:
She does a really good job at making people feel comfortable with getting yourself what you need.
Superintendent:
Sounds like a lot of people could use a Milonie in their lives. You're fortunate to know her.
Student:
Absolutely over care. We call her our Grizzly Mama, because she really is. She calls us down every week. She makes sure we're all taken care of. And she really just connects with us all the time and it's super amazing.
Superintendent:
Nobody takes better care of people than the Grizzly Mama. I can tell you that. So, okay. Thanks, both of you for talking with me. Stay with us. When we come back, we hear from Milonie Taylor, better known as Mama Grizzly at Copper Hills.
Advertisement:
Hello. My name is Steven Hall. I'm Director of the Jordan Education Foundation. Have you ever experienced what it's like to surprise a teacher in the classroom with school supplies, books or a classroom grant? Have you seen students all smiles because you cared enough to give them a backpack, a winter coat, weekend food packs or a free holiday shopping spree. It's something we see all the time because it is exactly what Jordan Education Foundation does. The Foundation exists due to the generosity of people who care about kids. If you would like to be a part of supporting students and teachers in the classroom, contact Jordan Education Foundation and start making a difference today. You can find us at jordaneducationfoundation.org.
Superintendent:
Welcome back. Now it's time to talk to Mama Grizzly herself, Milonie Taylor. What does it mean to you to get to work with these students?
Milonie:
I love that I can help. I have two boys of my own and I can't imagine if they were in this situation and didn't have help. This school is so amazing. Our community's amazing. Our administration, our counselors, the teachers, it's just a huge grizzly family and we take care of our Cubs. Whatever we have to do, that's what we're going to do within our limits. And the programs that we have available are fantastic. The gas card so they have transportation, the food, the clothing, we have shoes, we have backpacks, we have school supplies. What we have is pretty much unlimited, and they can get whatever they need without question. And I want them to feel comfortable. I don't want anyone ever to fill feel bad or feel like they're taking from someone else or they're not deserving because we're all deserving at something or another in our life. I've had times in my life where I've had to live on Top Ramen. You know, young starving college students, so I know. And even if they have to eat ramen, they're getting something. And so I love that.
Superintendent:
This is a true investment in the future.
Milonie:
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. These kids can even just pay it forward. We've helped you, take this and then go pay it for it. And I have had students that I've helped in the past years that have brought stuff in. They brought their dresses, they brought their clothing. They've brought their slightly used clothes and shoes and coats to help another student that might be in need. Our custodians got all of these school supplies, so no one has to be without school supplies.
Superintendent:
There's a multiplier effect. Once you start helping, then everyone pitches in and it strengthens the community and the momentum is really something that just doesn't stop.
Milonie:
No, it doesn't stop. This is why we have piles of clothing here that I need to get put away because the community knows. Now the teachers all know, the community knows. My neighbors across the street will bring me clothing. I had a lady come in yesterday that brought me three beautiful prom dresses that she wanted to donate. They're sitting in my closet. Someone can use these. We have a huge community here, of caring people and everybody's involved. And like I said, these are my Cubs and I gotta take care of them. And I have great backup. It's not just me. I mean, it takes a village and we have an amazing village at Copper Hills.
Superintendent:
Taking care of other people is a really important part of education and the Copper Hills community.
Milonie:
Very, very, very important. I mean, I think that's, you know, it's a joy for me to be able to come to work every day because I know there's somebody that I get to help and there's somebody's life that I get to impact. Even if it's a notebook or pencils, I mean, I've had kids in here that are crying because we have a bottle of shampoo for them. They can't wash their hair, or have a comb or a brush. It's amazing. The impact just something that we take for granted every day, that we don't think anything of, that if you don't have it and you don't realize it, it's amazing how much it helps.
Superintendent:
Understanding the need the way you do helps. You do such a great job of making kids feel comfortable, accepting the help.
Milonie:
Yes. And I think it stems back to my best friend, our senior year got kicked out of her house and was living in her car for a while. This was quite a few years ago and I just remember what she went through. I worked at Godfather's pizza and she worked at Smith's Food King, and I would get toilet paper from Godfather's so she would have toilet paper. And I don't think people realize that. And so, I was directly impacted at that age where these kids are, and I know the struggles that she went through, and the help that she needed. And there wasn't any programs like this. So the fact that we can help them and we can help them stay positive, we can help them stay on track, help them stay in school. That's my most important thing because your school will start to suffer because that's the first thing that starts to go. You got to work extra hours, you go buy extra things. You have to work till midnight. You can't get up and be to school at 7:00 AM.
Superintendent:
Right? Well, the world needs a lot more Milonies.
Milonie:
Thank you.
Superintendent:
When do we need a lot more villages like Copper Hills? Describe the inventory here for us.
Milonie:
We have an amazing inventory. We have two separate rooms. We have clothing and school supplies, coats, shoes, backpacks, sleeping bags, which we unfortunately have had to have kids use, little two man tents and, gloves, hats in this basic area here, everything stacked and labeled by size so they can get to it. All of these supplies you see right here is everything that's been donated within the last month or so. We are now getting a stack washer and dryer in here. The electricians have been in here working so it's been hard for me to get in here and get it put away. So it's a good mess because it means that we have lots of staff.
So in this room, in here in this area, we have lotion, shampoo, deodorants. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, we have feminine products. Our canned food area. We don't have perishable items, for obvious reasons. Cereals, mouthwash, dental floss, canned food items. We also have cleaning supplies. Also have just clothing. I've had a young lady that came in that just started to go to church and she needed some church clothes. So she came in and got some church clothes.
My cute mom is retired. So she helps me come organize. She needs something to do. She went to Kohl's and got hangers donated so that everything's on a hanger, everything size. So I want the kids to feel like they're truly shopping.
Superintendent:
It's pretty clear in talking with Milonie Taylor that supporting students in their everyday needs and getting them to graduation is her passion. If you're not convinced, all you have to do is see her in action with students.
My most important thing is to make sure we get you graduated and that you're happy and that you're a contributing members of society and that we can help you get through. And we've had a hundred percent graduation rate with our McKinney Vento students for the last four years and you get to contribute to that this year. And so I'm really proud of both of you. Where we would be without it. I definitely don't think I would be graduating or on the path that I am now to make plans for my future. As I've mentioned with you before.
Milonie:
Girlfriend. Yeah. I can't have you ruin my numbers.
Superintendent:
Thanks for your time. And thanks for everything you're doing. We deeply appreciate the work. Milonie Taylor and others like her do, putting their hearts and souls into helping students facing unique challenges in life.
Thank you for tuning into the Supercast. We invite you to subscribe using Apple, Google, or your favorite podcasting app. There's a new episode of the Supercast available every Thursday. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there. [inaudible].
18 min
December 12, 2019 Episode 15: The Life of a Lunch Lady
They are some of the most beloved employees in any school, typically waking up before dawn to serve up smiles along with fabulous food for breakfast and lunch. We’re talking about our amazing school lunch ladies and cafeteria workers.
On this episode of the Supercast, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey heads to Fox Hollow Elementary School where he experiences first-hand what it’s like to be a lunch lady and which meal students love most for lunch.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today, we head to one of the happiest places anywhere. The school cafeteria. I decided it was time to try my hand in the kitchen to find out how cafeteria workers managed to serve up massive amounts of food, along with smiles in school cafeterias every single day. Find out if I made the grade with Lunch Manager, Kathy George at Fox hollow Elementary School.
I'm here with Kathy, the Lunch manager at Fox Hollow Elementary. Thanks for letting me come today, Kathy. I'm going to get my apron on so I'm legit. I thought about just turning my sport coat around the other way as an apron, but that might backfire. So the kids are looking at me with a little bit of suspicious, like who's this new lunch worker, but, I'll do my best. I'm fortunate enough to be here on pretzel and pizza day, which would be a magical day for me if I were in elementary school. So let's see what Kathy has me do.
Kathy:
Oh, first you got to wash your hands. That's the rules.
Superintendent:
All right. I'm all scrubbed in. Oh my hat. Oh, perfect. I'll put this hat on. As far as it'll go on my enormous head.
Kathy:
Gotta wear gloves to serve pizza or pretzels.
Superintendent:
Well, I'd like to serve pretzels because I get to ask them if they want cheese.
Kathy:
You guys get to be relieved. He's gonna serve pretzels.
Superintendent:
What's the size of your staff? Who else do you have involved?
Kathy:
There are eight of us.
Superintendent:
There's eight ladies. How long have you been in launch manager?
Kathy:
This is my third year, but I've worked a long time for the school district. This is my 21st year.
Superintendent:
All right. I'm trying to keep track of things here. I tried the cheese with the right hand. I forgot to ask her if she wanted cheese. I think she wants cheese. Would you like cheese? No cheese. Alright. I like your shirt, by the way. Stranger Things. You keep feeling the sense of accomplishment when you get through one group of kids and then there's always another group of kids.
Kathy:
Always, always. Sometimes it's out the door.
Superintendent:
I'm doing the cheese left-handed now. I'm going to be ready. Okay. No, that's okay. It's an extra challenge. Would you like some cheese? Alright. I am spilling this cheese all over the place. I'm really trying, but I'm kind of feeling the pressure. Do you have any tips for how I can do a better job?
Kathy:
I usually have them put the pull tray in a little closer and then you can put it on.
Superintendent:
Tricks of the trade. I'm already getting better now. Thank you. Hold on. You're tryin sweetheart. There you go.
Oh, just empty the tray. I did my first tray of pretzels. That feels like an accomplishment. I don't always feel the sense of accomplishment in the day, but I cleared a tray of pretzels. The kids waiting in line are not impressed. They're just wanting their pretzel as fast as possible. Would you like some cheese?
Student:
Yes, please.
Superintendent:
All right, here comes the cheese. She's smiling. She's giving me a chance.
Kathy:
Remind him that there's beans over here too.
Superintendent:
Oh, we got chili over here. We got red hot chili over here.
Kathy:
So they're beans baked beans.
Superintendent:
Here we go. It's brown. Alright. You know what? I forgot the tip. You just gave me the move. That tray in go. Would you like some cheese? All right, there you go. These are very polite cheese-eaters. Would you like some cheese? Let's put that on so it doesn't fall off.
See, I didn't even, I didn't even put that pretzel on the tray. I'm sorry.
Student:
Thank you.
Superintendent:
Thanks for your patience. He was very nice, even though I kind of untied his pretzel and it ended up halfway off. Wow. It's fast paced action. Would you like some cheese, cheese on the bottom of my, on the, of there? I'm afraid a lot of kids got cheese on the bottom of their tray because of my splash zone here. But, I'm uh, let's see if I can remedy that a little bit. All right. Fresh start. New tray, new line of kids. Yep. Thanks for the thanks for the help. Alright. Would you like cheese? Pull your tray forward, please. Let's pull it right to the edge. There. There you go. I have reduced the splash zone significantly. The cheese is flowing like butter. I'm telling you, it feels like this should be an easy serve day, but it's not for me. This is a lot to think about all at the same time. I am. I am proud that I am no longer stringing cheese all the way across the counter. Do you see it?
Kathy:
You have improved tremendously.
Superintendent:
Alright, awesome.
Kathy:
And you got rid of all our beans. We never get rid of all our beans.
Superintendent:
Good. I've been pushing the beans.
Kathy:
Okay. So we're 365 pizza today.
Superintendent:
365 pizza. So I'm kind of the underdog serving pretzels. Pretzels, probably fare better against pizza than some other. Uh, what's the most popular dish besides pizza?
Kathy:
Um, orange chicken.
Superintendent:
Oh, the orange chicken. Sounds really good. Yeah. How frequently do you do orange chicken?
Kathy:
About once a month.
Superintendent:
Okay. Well, that's a rare treat.
Kathy:
So you do about 500.
Superintendent:
Wow. 500 hundred orange chicken. And what else? What are you putting in competition with orange chicken?
Kathy:
Sometimes Sloppy Joes, but that's not a big hit.
Superintendent:
I like Sloppy Joe's eighties always serve. The more we talk about this the more, I think I need to stop by for lunch. Oh, I've got kids waiting. Grab some beans. Those are limited edition beans. Don't pass them up. Feeling the sense of accomplishment when you get through one group of kids. And then there's always another group of kids waiting.
Kathy:
Always, sometimes it's out the door.
Superintendent:
Okay. So honestly, that felt really fast moving to me. Some school districts prepare food at a common site and then deliver that. But that's not true for Jordan District. We make everything right here, and a lot of it's from scratch.
Kathy:
We make homemade muffins, chocolate muffins, banana muffins. We make homemade cinnamon rolls. We make scrambled eggs, homemade scrambled eggs.
Superintendent:
Wow. That sounds fantastic.
Kathy:
We have a toaster. We make toast.
Superintendent:
And what about for lunch? What are the lunch options that you make from scratch?
Kathy:
Lasagna homemade, homemade spaghetti, homemade, sloppy. Joe's homemade tacos. We make our own bread, cakes, cookies.
Superintendent:
It's a huge operation. What is the most difficult part of your job?
Kathy:
That guessing, projecting how much food I'm going to need because we have to do our orders a week in advance before we actually serve it. So I have to just guess how much pizza we're going to do, how many pretzels we're going to do. And sometimes I don't guess right.
We have the class send down the count at the beginning of the day, but that doesn't help when you have to order a week in advance. So I have to just guess. For instance, the other day we did chicken teriyaki and I only projected 250 and it was actually 300.
Superintendent:
Oh wow. Find a third choice.
After the fast paced food service, it was time to clean up. I was assigned dishwashing duty. It's kind of like a carwash. Whoa, I'm going to drag me in.
Kathy:
So it doesn't put up like that and the dishwasher and the sink and just spray her off.
Superintendent:
All right. Oh, here we go. Blend between a carwash and feeding your luggage into the x-ray machine at the airport.
Kathy:
I want one of these at my house. Makes doing dishes a lot easier. I'm going to hire him.
Superintendent:
I think I'm going home today. I think I can go home. I think they're in good hands here. How many kids do you serve a day?
Kathy:
Probably about 3000 kids lunches a week, 400 for breakfast each day. It's hard for me to go home now and just make dinner for three of us because I'm thinking we need 40 pounds of hamburger.
Superintendent:
While I finished making a bit of a mess in the kitchen at Fox Hollow. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll have some fun talking with students about school lunch.
Advertisement:
If you're always looking for opportunities to learn something new, why not join us for the next Jordan Parent University? Jordan Parent University is an opportunity for parents to better understand issues that impact their own students and education. It's an evening class designed to help parents with things like planning for the road beyond high school, better understanding students' social and emotional health and wellness. And knowing who to call when there are issues involving a school or a student Jordan, the Parent University is free and open to the public for a list of upcoming classes, times and locations go to jpu.jordandistrict.org. See you there.
Superintendent:
Tell me your name again. And what grade are you in? And do you like school lunch? What do you like about school?
Student:
Uh, I like how it tastes.
Superintendent:
Hey guys. How's it going? You guys all have school lunch here. I see. What's your favorite?
Students:
Orange chicken.
Superintendent:
I heard the orange chicken is good. What else do you guys like?
Student:
The hamburger or the curly fries.
Superintendent:
The curly fries. Do they come with the hamburger?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
How are you? What's your name?
Student:
Mikayla. And I'm good.
Superintendent:
Mikayla, what grade are you in?
Student:
Sixth grade.
Superintendent:
What do you like about the lunch in the cafeteria?
Student:
It has carrots.
Superintendent:
Yeah. Okay. Very good. That's good for you. What's your favorite dish?
Student:
Um, barbecue pulled pork sandwich.
Superintendent:
Oh, okay. I didn't know they did that barbecue. That sounds good. All right. What's your name?
Student:
Sabrina.
Superintendent:
What grade are you in? Sabrina. And do you like the school lunch?
Student:
Uh, yeah.
Superintendent:
What's your favorite day?
Student:
Traveling tacos.
Superintendent:
What's the traveling tacos?.
Student:
So it usually has like Doritos on that. It has beans and chili and cheese.
Superintendent:
I've seen people walking around with those. I did not know what they were called. Those sound fantastic. I've seen them made with Fritos too.
Student:
Yeah, they used to do Fritos. Now they do Doritos.
Superintendent:
That's awesome. Uh, what's your favorite dish?
Student:
The traveling taco.
Superintendent:
Thanks for talking. Tell me your name.
Student:
Kira.
Superintendent:
What grade are you in?
Student:
I'm in six.
Superintendent:
And do you like lunch?
Student:
I feel like the school should give more choices.
Superintendent:
Like the choices that are here sometimes? What's your favorite?
Student:
Orange chicken.
Superintendent:
I'm hearing a lot of orange chicken.
Student:
It's because of the sauce. It kind of gives like a tang on your tongue. It's really cool.
Superintendent:
That does sound beautiful. Hi, Sean, what do you like about school lunch?
Student:
I like a lot of the food, especially the mashed potatoes and the chicken dinner.
Superintendent:
The mashed potatoes and chicken dinner. That sounds fantastic. How often do they happen?
Student:
It happens a lot on Fridays, but next eight days we're actually going to do the big Thanksgiving dinner.
Superintendent:
Oh, where the only choice that they have is the chicken dinner.
Student:
Oh. So when they do the chicken dinner, that's big enough so that's all they do.
Superintendent:
It's like a full Thanksgiving dinner. That sounds like something to look forward to.
Student:
Yeah, it's chicken mashed potatoes. You have like a roll and usually have a slice of pumpkin pie.
Superintendent:
Wow. Pumpkin pie at the end. I never had pumpkin pie with my school lunch. That's awesome. Well, great. Thanks for talking with me, Sean. Thank you for tuning into the Supercast. We invite you to subscribe using Apple, Google, or your favorite podcasting app. There's a new episode of the Supercast available every Thursday. I'm Anthony Godfrey. We appreciate your tuning in. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
14 min
December 05, 2019 Episode 14: Keeping Up with The Custodians
What is it like to keep schools with more than 56,000 students operating smoothly every single day? In this episode of the Supercast, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey finds out what it is like to be a school custodian by taking on some of the enormous cleaning and operating tasks himself. We also talk to student sweepers about their duties as part of the custodial team and learn how students can apply for the part-time jobs.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we find out what it's like to keep up with the custodians. We're talking about school custodians who take care of buildings that are housing more than 56,000 students. Today, I dive in and do some of the work myself with the help of Kevin Sprague, who is the head custodian at our brand new Mountain Ridge High School in Herriman. Then we follow some sweepers around and find out how they land the jobs that in many cases seem to be a perfect fit for students. Let's start with a 7:00 AM visit to Mountain Ridge High School and Custodian Kevin Sprague. How are you Kevin?
Kevin:
I'm good. How are you, Dr. Godfrey?
Superintendent:
I'm doing all right. Uh, we're here at seven and I suspect Kevin has already been here for a while this morning.
Kevin:
Yes, I have. So I've been here actually, most of the weekend. I was here yesterday for about 10 hours, working with our contractors, finishing up our auditorium and then come in early this morning to touch up, clean up for Sadie's Dance. Do some little odds and ends. So yes, early.
Superintendent:
I have a theory that anyone who works in a high school could stand in the commons at any time, day or night, and someone would walk up and have a question or have a need. Do you feel like that's true?
Kevin:
Yes. And I'm glad that the District pays for our cell phones for all of our text, communication, emails, because it comes in all the time.
Superintendent:
I have no doubt. This is the second school you've opened. Right? You opened the middle school as well.
Kevin:
Yes. I opened up Copper Mountain Middle School six years ago and then thought I'd put in for the high school and here I am.
Superintendent:
Kevin, you and I have known each other for a long time. And your family has been very involved in Jordan School District. Tell us a little bit about that.
Kevin:
Yeah, my dad retired from the Jordan School District as a head custodian. I have a younger brother that's a head custodian over at Sunset Ridge Middle. His wife is a Nutrition Service Manager over at West Jordan Middle and then myself. I've been in the District for 28 years. Made a career out of it, probably will still continue to work here. And it's been a great place.
Superintendent:
We're very glad to have so many Sprague's in Jordan School District, doing the hard work that's required to keep everything up and running and I'm going to try some of that hard work today. Don't let me break anything.
(02:37):
We'll see how you go. We're going to give you a little demonstration on our riding floor scrubbers, and we'll see how you do.
Superintendent:
Now, the riding floor scrubber, it looks kind of like a Zamboni. It's like a Zamboni-lawnmower combination.
Kevin:
These machines are great when it comes to cleaning the buildings, and such large buildings to be able to clean every day and help keep the floors up. Okay, there we go.
Superintendent:
So here's the key switch. I still turn it on. Wait, do I need to put the brake on? I don't even need to do anything yet over here.
Kevin:
Alright, so we've got the water already set, the pad pressure already set. Now we're going to start the speed really slow. You can go kind of faster, but we're going to get going. We're going to push the green button.
Superintendent:
Is it going to start moving as soon as he pushes them?
Kevin:
That's this, this right here. That'll get you going forward. This is reverse. So forward arrow.
Superintendent:
Is there water coming out of the bottom?
Kevin:
Once you start going to water?
Superintendent:
Oh, so the water comes in once I start moving. Okay.
Kevin:
Make sure you steer.
Superintendent:
I'll make sure I steer, it sounds like a hovercraft. It sounds like I'm floating on air a little bit.
Kevin:
Ok, the squeegee down. And once we start going, they'll start walking.
Superintendent:
Alright. Alright. Do I control the speed with the gas pedal?
Kevin:
You don't even need to do anything here where we've got you on the lowest speed. So as fast as you want to go on the gas pedal, you can go and then turn.
Superintendent:
Okay. Now I'm avoiding lockers here. I'm avoiding the wall, but I think it would be kind of hard to be able to see where I'd been and make sure I lined up just right.
Kevin:
You have this nice little feature too.
Superintendent:
Oh, wait. Horn. Okay. Here we go. All right. Can you customize the horn?
Kevin:
Uh, I don't know. We'd have to check in with that.
Superintendent:
I think that's worth looking into all right. I'm going to try you here. I'm going to try a U-turn. Am I actually cleaning the floor? Am I just driving?
Kevin:
You're actually cleaning the floor right now. So the water's down. Everything's doing like, we do a normal cleaning. Like I say, this would just go a little faster. You can kind of tell once you get going, but it's all right.
Superintendent:
Let's put the pedal to the metal. Let's see how, let's blow this thing wide open. Do I have to set it differently here? Oh, it's slower. Fast. It's all or nothing. Huh? I just turned it on slow. We're going to now once you get going, let's see if we can get it back to fast.
Kevin:
Okay. Now go turn everything off.
Superintendent:
Oh, wow. All right. I'm feeling a little, uh, I'm feeling a little breeze now. Oh. But I did a terrible job. Does water just keep going?
Kevin:
Now that squeegee will come back down and you'll go right back over there.
Superintendent:
Okay. Why did I leave all that water behind? I went too fast.
Kevin:
No, we turned it on just so you can see how fast it goes without the water down. And then, we're still putting water down struggling, but now you're sucking it all back up with this squeegee.
Superintendent:
Okay. That's good. I didn't want to make things worse than when I came.
Kevin:
Yeah, you're good.
Superintendent:
Well, this is not an uncomfortable way to do this work. How was it done before you had a riding one? Was it the one where you kind of had to hold it?
Kevin:
Um, well before machines, we had to do everything with a mop, a hand mop. So over my career, we've been able to change the machines. It eventually worked to a walk behind machine, and now we went to the rider machines.
Superintendent:
So then you just turn everything off here. And then once you get off at all, raise it all up.
Kevin:
So it will raise up once you get off.
Superintendent:
Everything just kicked on, now everything's off. And then you would just turn the key back. It's a complex job. And if you don't have a great person like you at the helm in your school, then it's a very difficult time. But luckily we have great custodians in our District. And we've just got more and more, like you said, that you're responsible for in these buildings, because with the advanced in technology, the buildings are more complex and the maintenance is more complex.
Kevin:
We have to adapt as custodians. People think that, I think the thing is, you know, it's always been the janitor type deal. Well, that's gone a long time ago because we adapt, you know, to computer stuff. Now we're running this $80 million building and heating and air conditioning and light controls. And so we've had to adapt. It's not just the cleaning aspect of it anymore. It's more of our district with customer service and dealing with sport activities or, things that come into our building. So we've changed. It's not just the cleaning part of anymore. We're pretty important to maintain and take ownership of the buildings. You know, custodians are on call on the weekends. If something happens, custodians are who they call. It is important to be able to keep our custodians trained. And that goes along with ourCustodial Director to keep us trained. We have our trainings too. It's not just go in, clean and mop and empty some trash cans. There's a lot more to it.
Superintendent:
Every building has its own needs and you have to get to know that particular building and the things that have been installed over the years. And we really rely on our custodians just to keep things up and running, because if the things you're doing don't work, then nobody can do anything in the building.
Kevin:
Correct. Yeah. You know, even my principal, Mr. Kochevar was telling me the other day, "You know, there's important people in the building, and everyone is important, but when it comes down to it, your custodian and your head secretary, they keep things going every day and keep it managed." And even in the summertime, when schools are closed down, you know the custodians are in here cleaning, getting it ready for the school year to start during those three months when it's downtime. And it takes that time to keep it running and keep things looking good and maintained for the year.
Superintendent:
You know, I know you get called out in the middle of the night or during the day on the weekend. What are some of the crazy calls that you've received over the years?
Kevin:
Well, you know, you hate to say it, but some of this stuff is mostly vandalism and it's a shame that we get those calls where someone's either spray painted or didn't like the school and a rival school comes in. We had two funny things here. It was over fall recess, which is kind of funny and you really don't hear these as custodians. So you think, oh, as we go back just to cleaning. We had a falcon get into our band room when they were changing some doors out and we had to call Animal Control and help them get nets in there. It took two days to finally catch the Falcon and take it out of the band room.
Superintendent:
So there were plenty of places for a falcon to hide here.
Kevin:
Yes. And he hung out there in the band room for two days before we were actually able to catch him. So, you know, you hear those little things. The other day, I helped the administrators going out to catch a chicken in the parking lot and you know, that sort of stuff. So there's a lot of other things.
Superintendent:
Was that a little bit like Rocky II, out there with Mike chasing the chicken?
Kevin:
Yeah. It was pretty interesting. There were six of us that finally caught it.
Superintendent:
Who caught it? I want to know who caught it.
Kevin:
Bartholomew, our vice principal was able to put his foot on it finally and catch it. And then we brought it in and put it in a box.
Superintendent:
That doesn't surprise me. He does have the eye of the tiger. You can tell when you walk by. Stay with us, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we go sweeping or something like that, with students sweepers at Mountain Ridge High School.
Advertisement:
Do you want to know what's going on in Jordan School District? Maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story? Check out our website at jordandistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at Jordan District. Let's connect today.
Superintendent:
We're back talking to sweepers, students who are a part of the custodial team here at Mountain Ridge High School. Hi, what's your name?
Student:
I'm Kaitlin.
Superintendent:
You're a sweeper here at Mountain Ridge.
Student:
Yeah. I'm cleaning the windows on the doors and then I'm going to wipe them off
Superintendent:
Face print there in the window. Nose, mouth, cheek. Can you tell if it's male or female?
Student:
I can't, but it's probably a guy. That's usually who it is. It's usually a guy trying to get his friend's attention.
Superintendent:
Oh, look at that. He needs to exfoliate.
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
It's kind of definitely tell it's really a face print. It's like a fingerprint. It's got all kinds of wrinkles in it. What percentage of classroom windows would you say have face prints from day to day?
Student:
Probably like 25%.
Superintendent:
Like one other free form as face. Oh, well it is high school. Okay.
Student:
That might be a nose or something.
Superintendent:
Yeah. That looks like a nose. All right. Wow. I do not see the attraction of doing that. It's kind of weird.
Student:
I don't get it either.
Superintendent:
I guess I've lost touch with the simple pleasures of being in high school.
Student:
Oh. Almost like someone put a sticker like right there and then peel it up.
Superintendent:
So that's probably so really there's a story behind every smudge.
Student:
Yes. That's what it is. Try to figure out the story. Sometimes I make my own up.
Superintendent:
See, now that's a girl who knows how to pass the time. Well done, Kaitlyn. And what is your specific responsibility?
Student:
Um, I clean the main level ScienceRoom, so I do garbages and the floors and gum scraping and everything.
Superintendent:
How do you get gum off?
Student:
A lot of elbow grease. You just keep going until it's gone. It's everywhere though.
Superintendent:
Have you ever seen the movie elf?
Student:
Yes. It's like that.
Superintendent:
Yeah. It is like that sometimes. Yeah. Have you ever chewed it before?
Student:
No, that's disgusting.
Superintendent:
Okay. So it's not like that to that degree. Can you tell which teacher's room is dirtier than another teacher's room? Is it consistent?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
Okay. I'm not going to ask for names, but you can definitely tell a difference, huh?
Student:
Oh yeah, definitely.
Superintendent:
Okay. Alright. Fair enough. So generally, do you feel like kids are taking good care of the building?
Student:
Uh, I think they try. I think it's things happen though, right?
Superintendent:
Yeah. So how did you get the job as a sweeper?
Student:
Uh, I came in and talked to Kevin. I worked at Herriman before, so I already had everything on, certified and ready. And he had me started the next day.
Superintendent:
Yeah. Herriman to me feels like a brand new school, but it's been around for 10 years. Is there a difference working here versus working at Herriman?
Student:
Uh, yeah, a little bit. It's definitely nicer and newer and I don't know. I like it better.
Superintendent:
Thank you very much. Thanks for your workout.
Student:
Yeah, sure.
Superintendent:
Tell me, what's your name?
Student:
Mackay Mortenson.
Superintendent:
And you're a sweeper here at Mountain Ridge High School?
Student:
Yes, sir.
Superintendent:
And what do you like about being a sweeper?
Student:
Um, the hours are excellent and I know my schedule clear out to the end of the school year.
Superintendent:
That's true. I remember working a part time job and always having to check and see what the assistant manager assigned me. It's kind of nice to have some predictability.
Student:
Exactly. That's exactly what it is. And it's not that many hours, just two hours right after school. And so it fits in great with extracurricular activities and all kinds of stuff.
Superintendent:
And you only work on school days, is that right?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
How long have you done this?
Student:
Um, I'm coming up on two years now.
Superintendent::
Where were you before?
Student:
Fort Herriman Middle School.
Superintendent:
And how is the middle school different from the high school?
Student:
Um, in high schools, the sweeper just don't have to clean bathrooms, which is much better.
Superintendent:
Oh, I didn't know that now my son was a middle school sweeper and he was assigned the bathrooms when he was brand new. And, um, I guess the new guy always gets the bathrooms. He liked doing the bathrooms so much that he just held onto that job and he did it for four straight years. But you did not like that part of it now.
Student:
It's not my favorite. It requires a lot of detail orientation, just like every other aspect of everything. But people notice if there's something up with the bathrooms.
Superintendent:
That's true. They do notice quickly. So what responsibilities do you have here at Mountain Ridge?
Student:
Um, I cleaned the library, um, and I just help out and do what I need to do to clean, make sure everything's disinfected and vacuumed every single day.
Superintendent:
So the library is your main responsibility?
Student:
The library, and a few other classrooms.
Superintendent:
The library, and a couple of other classrooms. Okay. And then just whatever's needed along the way?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
And is this something that you might continue with or well first, let me ask you this. Are you in high school?
Student:
Yes. Here at Mountain Ridge.
Superintendent:
And so when you graduate, is this something you might consider continuing with?
Student:
You know, I think it definitely might be a good option to help get me through college and get me through schooling. The district does a really good job of taking care of their employees and I feel like it would be an excellent way for me to make a little bit of money.
Superintendent:
So how did you go about getting a job as a sweeper?
Student:
You just got to speak with the head custodian at the school you'd like to work with and he'll send you to sweeper training, that two hour class where you learn everything you need to know, and then you come in and you work.
Superintendent:
Okay, great. Thanks for talking with me. Thanks for doing a great job out there.
All right. Thank you very much. What's your name?
Student:
I'm Jonathan.
Superintendent:
And you're a sweeper here at Mountain Ridge?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
How did you get that job?
Student:
Uh, I found out about it online and then my dad told me to, I'm going to have to work with him. And I said, no. So I decided to take initiative and come get this job.
Superintendent:
What does your dad do?
Student:
He owns a concrete business.
Superintendent:
So you decided concrete was not for you now.
Student:
I've done it with him before and I don't like it.
Superintendent:
What do you like about being a sweeper?
Student:
It was a pretty flexible and it's just something to help get away from home and stuff.
Superintendent:
What makes Mr. Sprague the best boss in the world?
Student:
Uh, I guess he's not like that harsh or anything. He's a cool cat. I know you were running out of here when I stopped you to interview you. Do you try to crank through as fast as you can?
Student:
Uh, not always. I usually try to do my best and get what I can done.
Superintendent:
What are your responsibilities?
Student:
I take out the trash. I clean up the classroom. I usually wipe tables off from marks and stuff. Clean windows, not too bad.
Superintendent:
People treating the building with respect, do you think overall, or have you had some problems that way?
Student:
My biggest problem is there's a bunch of messes on the floor in some classrooms, people eating and then like dumping stuff on the floor and paper everywhere and not cleaning up.
Superintendent:
Well, thanks for doing this work. I think it's a great job.
We're going to take a quick break and then have one more look inside the life of a school custodian. Come on back.
Advertisement:
Hey, you okay? Uh, yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter. Get the safeUT app. Download it now available on the Apple App store, Google Play or safeUT.org.
Superintendent:
Okay. We're upstairs now. What do you call this room?
Kevin:
So this is our mechanical room. This has about nine air handler units in here that do the heating and air conditioning for the biggest part of our building, the gymnasium area, the fitness rooms, the dance rooms. So each one of these units does a certain part of the building for the heating and air conditioning.
Superintendent:
So how frequently do you change the filters up here?
Kevin:
About three to four times a year, we change the filters throughout the building. Sometimes it depends out in these areas with the construction that gets a little bit dustier. You may have to do them a little more frequent, but generally three to four times a year.
Superintendent:
We're going to go in.
Kevin:
This is one of our air handler units.
Superintendent:
It looks like I'm going to walk into a cryogenic tank here.
Kevin:
Yeah. We've got a hole there, six big fans and motors that run. And then on the backside, over here, we have a filter. You can kind of see the different stages that it goes from the outside and then goes into the building. So right in here.
Superintendent:
Oh yeah. I can feel the air flow.
Kevin:
Yep. So we've got a whole panel of filters. You step right into this machine.
Superintendent:
It's a room that you can almost stand all the way up. I can, you can stand up in. It's like a huge walk-in closet, like wow. Okay. Yeah.
Kevin:
Yeah. So we have this whole bank of filters and what we do is we take these out and you can kind of see how the dust is in here. There's little feathers come in and then you change these out.
Superintendent:
So these are throw away. We just put in a big order. Does it start out as white?
Kevin:
Yes, they're pretty clear. They're pleated just like kind of a filter at home, but there are like 16 of them along the wall here.
Superintendent:
Oh yeah, you do see feathers and stuff. That is what it pulls in, but this is all starting to look gray. How long have these been in?
Kevin:
This has probably been in since about July so these are on their cycle to be changed. But like I say, you can see the air and the fans coming in so that it blocks all the dust and stuff, going back into the building before. So we don't get all the dust particles on a dirty air day.
Superintendent:
Do you feel like we're in good shape inside?
Kevin:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
Our filtration system. The thing is, like we were saying, you saw the different thicknesses of filters. Our HVAC Department in our Energy Department did a lot of research on specific filters to get the best air quality in the building. They went to the thicker, it was a Merv Eight, so you get the thicker filter and it lasts for that time-frame. And then, depending like you say, on the construction or air outside, you may have to change a little more frequently for dust, but our air quality in our facilities are awesome. Our guys do a great job at doing that research and our Energy Department to keep that outside air flow mixture.
Kevin:
Yeah, it does a great job.
Superintendent:
Is summer one of the busier times for you in a way?
Kevin:
Yes, summer, you know, people think, "Oh, you know, what do you do during the summers custodian?" The kids are gone. Building's empty, you know, "Hey, do you get a break too?" Well, no, we don't. We're here 12 months. We go back through. It gives us time to shampoo carpets, clean and scrub, re-wax the floors. We're still maintaining the grounds out there and doing something to make sure those sprinklers are working. The grass stays green. Oh, here's another little thing, we have what, 2,600 lockers here. Well, that combo has to be changed somehow. It just doesn't stay on that way forever. Right? So we actually have to go around, put a key in and rotate that combo to the next one so it's all ready to go so people, kids, students can't come in next year and say, "Oh, I can go try the combo." It's a different combo.
Superintendent:
What are some of the things that people may misunderstand about the work you do as a custodian that some misunderstanding?
Kevin:
Well, I think we're here also to make the education better for our students and all that come in. I think the stat, like you say, the big stereotype is, "Oh, the mean Janitor." You know, we're awesome people too. We love working with the kids. One thing that I did at my middle school is at Christmastime, I dressed up into my Santa Claus costume and gave candy canes out to the students. So we want to be a part of the kids. We don't want to be just off to the side. We're here for kids and this is their building. And we want to make the best day that they can have as they come in. So, I think that's the thing. They just think we're not part of the education of kids, but we are, and we can play an important role in making day to day activities and work a success.
Superintendent:
Well, in my experience, custodians have always been an important part of what goes on at the school in every way. And every adult has a chance to connect to kids in a unique way, and everyone connects with someone and we need everybody's help. And I think custodians do a particularly good job of connecting to kids because you're out in the building, you're out and around and they see you every day.
Kevin:
Yeah, that's true. And you know what? It was just like a last Saturday night I came and we had our Sadie Hawkins dance and to see some of the students, they come up and high-five. You know they know who you are. They know you're part of the building. And to be able to have that is great. One time I went into a Checker Auto Parts and I was checking out and the guy that was helping me said, "Hey, Mr. Sprague" and he'd remembered me from elementary school from the impact I had. You know, that's what it is. It's what you want. You want them to remember you for the positive things. We all know there's not always the best of times with students but you know what, you're here and there. It's almost like a family. You get to know the kids as they come in and then they respect you. So we appreciate that.
Superintendent:
Thanks for everything that you do here and that you've done in every school where you've worked and for the positive impact you've had, wherever you go on students on employees, just making it feel good to be at the school where you're working.
Kevin:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I've done it for a long time and it's been a great place to work. And my family has found it a great place to work. And I actually have a senior that wants to go into Special Education. So it's great to be a part of the district.
Superintendent:
So if you're thinking about working for Jordan School District, come to Mountain Ridge. Talk to Kevin Sprague, and he'll give you the low down.
Well, thank you very much for being with us. Thanks a ton to Kevin Sprague for taking time out of a very busy schedule. You can hear in the background, they're hard at work here at Mountain Ridge every second of the day, keeping things up and running.
Just remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see out there.
25 min
November 27, 2019 Episode 13: Second Grade Secrets to Making the Perfect Turkey
It is time for Thanksgiving, good food and giving thanks. On this episode of the Supercast, elementary school students share their thoughts on the holiday and tell us how to cook the perfect turkey with all the trimmings.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Supercast!
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we are talking turkey and giving. Thanks on this Thanksgiving Day episode. Fourth and fifth grade students at Hayden Peak Elementary school talk about what they're thankful for, from family and friends to teachers and talk. But first we head out to Fox Hollow Elementary where second grade students share their thoughts on preparing the perfect Thanksgiving meal, including cooking what could be the biggest turkey of all time. Tell me your name. What's your favorite Thanksgiving food?
Student:
Turkey.
Superintendent:
Turkey. How long does it take to cook a turkey? What do you think?
Student:
Maybe 10 minutes, 30 seconds.
Superintendent:
What if you only cook at 10 minutes and not the 30 seconds? What do you think with him?
Student:
It would maybe be raw.
Superintendent:
Yeah. I'm not a chef. I don't cook things. I eat a lot more than I cook, so I'm not really sure how to cook all this stuff. What other foods does your family have at Thanksgiving?
Student:
Mashed Potatoes.
Superintendent:
Mashed potatoes. I hope they have gravy. Sorry. Put the pressure on. Your whole class is watching to see what type of gravy you like.
Teacher:
I like the Brown. You like the white?
Superintendent:
Okay. All right. Let's talk gravy folks. That's a very comfortable topic for me. You like the Brown? Tell me your name and what's your favorite food of Thanksgiving? Is it the turkey?
Student:
I like the turkey.
Superintendent:
Do you like the white meat or the dark meat?
Student:
Dark, dark meat. Brown gravy. What else do you like?
Student:
The mashed potatoes and the pumpkin.
Superintendent:
Potatoes. You feel like you eat more on Thanksgiving day than on other days? I do too. How long do you think it takes to cook a turkey?
Student:
30 seconds.
Superintendent:
30 seconds. Do you cook it in the microwave or the oven?
Student:
The oven.
Superintendent:
So 30 seconds in the oven. How hot do you think the oven needs to be?
Student:
Super hot.
Superintendent:
Super hot. Is that a setting on the oven or do you think you just turn it up pretty high?
Student:
Just think you turn it up super high. If it's glowing red inside and it's hard to get close to it, then it's hot enough.
Superintendent:
Yeah. Okay. Thanks. We're getting a lot of good advice here. I think listeners, you ought to try this advice because until you've tried it, how do you know? How do you know whether it works or not? Alright, let's talk with you over here at this table. Do you like Thanksgiving?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
What do you like about Thanksgiving?
Student:
Probably spending time with my family.
Superintendent:
Do you watch sports at all?
Student:
Mm, my brother tell me that I have to.
Superintendent:
Oh, they tell you that you have to watch sports.
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
You don't necessarily want to. You don't like to watch sports either.
Student:
Nope. Not on Thanksgiving? Nope.
Superintendent:
Did they watch Thanksgiving sports at your house?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
What sport did they want?
Student:
Um, I forgot, but they do watch sports.
Superintendent:
And you don't like to, so what do you do instead?
Student:
Go downstairs and play.
Superintendent:
How many pounds do you think that turkey is?
Student:
2 million
Superintendent:
2 million pounds. Does that include stuffing or is that without the stuffing?
Student:
Without the stuffing?
Superintendent:
Whoa, that's just another reason not to cook this stuffing in the turkey. Over 2 million pounds may be too much for the oven. Um, how long do you cook a turkey?
Student:
Three hours.
Superintendent:
Three hours for 2 million pounds. Okay. And what temperature?
Student:
900 degrees.
Superintendent:
900 degrees. 2 million pounds. Three hours. Okay. Are listening at home? I'm hope you're taking notes because Chalice knows what's up. How many people would that feed, the whole earth? The generosity that Chalise showing right now, she wants to feed the whole earth with a 2 million pound turkey. It's truly inspiring. It's inspiring. What does Thanksgiving look like for you?
Student:
Um, it's really fun.
Superintendent:
What makes it fun? Besides 2 million pounds of turkey meat.
Student:
Watching Aggies football.
Superintendent:
Watching Aggies football on Thanksgiving. Do you cheer for the Aggies all the time?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
Are you required to, or do you just come by this naturally?
Student:
They were a favorite team.
Superintendent:
Okay. I respect that. Braden. What do you like about Thanksgiving? Turkey?
Student:
Turkey. What else?
Superintendent:
Turkey. So you like Turkey and Turkey. And what else? It's a good thing because the challenge is over. There is 2 million pounds of turkey meat he is trying to get rid of. Wow. Anybody like cranberries? Okay. You do not like cranberries. What do you dislike about cranberries? What did they do to you?
Student:
I hate them now.
Superintendent:
See, not liking cranberries is different from hating them. Did you have a bad experience in your childhood? You just have decided you hate them?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
Have you ever tried them?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
You did try them. And what do they taste like?
Student:
Uh, I don't know. Really too much.
Superintendent:
They just taste like unhappiness. Where do cranberries come from?
Student:
I don't know.
Superintendent:
You just wish they'd go back.
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
Alright. Fair enough. Who eats the most in your family at Thanksgiving?
Student:
My grandpa.
Superintendent:
Your grandpa does. Okay. Do you think your grandpa realizes he's the one who eats the most?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
Is he proud of it? Does he kind of tell everyone he's going to eat more than everyone else?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
Okay. Here's the big question. After he eats more than everyone else, does he then fall asleep on the couch?
Student:
Yes.
Superintendent:
Okay. Do you know what? He sounds like a lot of grandpas out there. When you're not playing and having fun, how do you help at Thanksgiving?
Student:
I clean up.
Superintendent:
You clean up? Wow. That's impressive. What do you do to help?
Student:
Clean up.
Superintendent:
Okay.
Student:
I take out the trash.
Superintendent:
Is that only at Thanksgiving or do you do that all the time?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
I see, all the time. Wow. That's really cool. Uh, that is going to be necessary after we serve 2 million pounds of turkey. There's going to be a lot of cleanup and garbage. So you guys make a good team. Some of you know how to cook. Some of you are ready to clean up. And that's awesome. What do you think is in stuffing?
Student::
Um, I don't know.
Superintendent:
I don't know either.
Student:
These little things that feel like mashed potatoes.
Superintendent:
What else? Who else has an idea? Brayden? What do you think is in stuffing? Well, some of the stuffing I've had has not been very tasty. And where do you think is in stuffing?
Student:
Bread?
Superintendent:
Yes, it is. There is bread in stuffing. There's a lot of other stuff I don't know about, but well done. Oh and celery. Wow. And what else?
Student:
Bread and celery and carrots and carrots and love.
Superintendent:
Donny what's in stuffing, a million hearts, 2 million pounds of turkey. It's a beautiful thing.
Student:
Um, like, so bread, celery, carrots, broccoli.
Superintendent:
Wow. It sounds very good for you. Maybe we should all eat some more stuffing. Okay. Thank you very much for letting me come in and talk with you guys. We'll take a quick break and we'll be back to speak with students from Hayden Peak Elementary about Thanksgiving.
Advertisement:
How many times do you hear your child ask what's for breakfast or what's for lunch? Find out what's on the menu at your child's Jordan School District School every day by simply downloading the Nutri-slice app to your smartphone or desktop. The Nutri-slice app gives you quick and easy access to daily menus, pictures of meals, choices, and nutrition information, along with allergens present in the foods. The app also allows students and parents to give feedback on food. Download the Nutri-slice app today and enjoy school breakfast and lunch in your school cafeteria.
Superintendent:
Welcome back. We're here with students at Hayden Peak Elementary talking about what they're thankful for. What's your name?
Student:
My name's Shannon.
Superintendent:
And what are you thankful for around Thanksgiving time?
Student:
I'm really thankful for my family and my friends and a lot of people.
Superintendent:
A lot of people. That's a good thing to be thankful for. Who else are you thankful for?
Student:
I'm also thankful for my teachers and policemen and firefighters and people who serve our country.
Student:
My name is Cody and I am thankful for the U S military and how they served us and some have given their lives. And I'm thankful for my family and what they've provided for me, my family and the things they do for me.
Student:
I'm Kona. And I'm thankful for school.
Superintendent:
What do you like about school?
Student::
Um, I can learn. I'm thankful for the food that I have, the activities I get to do.
Superintendent:
What are some of your favorite activity?
Student:
Um, piano. Ventriloquism. Soccer?
Superintendent:
Yeah. No ventriloquism and soccer. That's a lot of things to do all at once.
Student:
Not all at once. All.
Superintendent:
Okay. Not all at once. You're learning ventriloquism, huh?
Student:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
And do you have a ventriloquism dummy?
Student:
Not dummy.
Superintendent:
What are they called? I'm sorry. Is that not the proper terms?
Student:
Call it the puppet.
Superintendent:
I'm sorry. Miles, what are you thankful for?
Student:
My family, my friends and the policemen, firefighters and the army.
Superintendent:
All right. Tell me your name.
Student:
My name's Louie.
Superintendent:
Louie. What are you thankful for?
Student:
For my parents and how I can be here and do this podcast.
Superintendent:
I'm grateful that you're here doing the podcast as well. Uh, tell me a little bit about your parents. What do they do for you?
Student:
Um, they let me go to school and learn and play sports. I like to do the sports. I like to play football and basketball.
Superintendent:
What position do you like to play in football?
Student:
Safety.
Superintendent:
Safety. And what is the safety?
Student:
Good. He's the last defender. And he asked them to take all the tackles and watch all the packs.
Superintendent:
I'm gonna call you the last defender. I kind of liked that phrase, the last defendant. Okay. Well, good luck. I'm glad your parents are so supportive of that. That's awesome. Ellie, what are some things you're thankful for Thanksgiving?
Student:
I'm thankful for my family and for my clothes.
Superintendent:
Okay, awesome. What are you grateful for?
Student:
My family and everybody that I can trust, my family, my friends, um, my teachers, Mrs. Fisher. The food that my parents provide and the home, the house over my head. And I'm thankful for my food.
Superintendent:
Good work. We had a lot of fun with students at Fox Hollow and Hayden Peak Elementary Schools who shared their thoughts on Thanksgiving and secrets to a successful turkey dinner. Don't try this at home in Jordan School District. We're thankful every day for the opportunity to educate students and help them find success in life. From all of us at the Supercast, Happy Thanksgiving. And remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. Happy Thanksgiving.
16 min