Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Any day is a good day when you hear vocal or instrumental music coming from the many talented students in any number of our schools in Jordan School District. March is “Music in our Schools Month” and on this episode of the Supercast, we celebrate with a passionate music educator. Jennifer Clark believes quality music programs elevate many aspects of education and benefit students long after graduation.

Let's start on a high note with some music.

Jennifer Clark:
A little bit flat. Good, good Charlotte, little flat. Good.

We're gonna play a piece called Jupiter for you guys. This is by Gustav Holst and we are starting at the pickup to measure eight.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here in Jen Clark's classroom. And there's a little plucking and messing around going on in the background because when you've got an instrument in your hand, students just can't keep from playing.

Jennifer Clark:
And fun music in front of them. Yeah, irresistible.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right. It is irresistible. So tell me, how long have you been an orchestra teacher?

Jennifer Clark:
This is my sixth year of teaching.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you teach at two different schools. We're at Copper Mountain now.

Jennifer Clark:
Yes, I do. So I used to teach fully at Copper Mountain, but then when we split in half, then now I teach my afternoons at Mountain Creek.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I'm sure that the Mountain Creek students were very grateful that they got to keep you, even though they had to switch schools.

Jennifer Clark:
I didn't know about that, but I was excited to get to keep them. I hope they were excited too.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is “Music in our Schools Month”. Tell me about the positive impact that a student experiences by being in a music class.

Jennifer Clark:
There are so many, so having music available to students in a public school or in their school is often the first place they get to experience music because outside of that, it would be parents paying for private lessons or paying for outside influences. So it's the first chance they get to be a musician. And there is so much value from being a musician, from learning how to play in a group. You learn team skills. You learn to work hard at something. This has not come easy at all, I know. So they are learning to persevere, to work on something that's challenging and to learn how to be better at that. It teaches a lot of connection with yourself. Music is one of the most fundamental forms of expression for humans. So it allows them to express themselves in that regard. To learn to play music that they both have heard before and music that they haven't heard before, we get to access different cultures. So there's just, there's so much value from being a musician.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me more about the connection to yourself as a musician.

Jennifer Clark:
Yeah. So learning how to play an instrument can teach you a lot about yourself and how you handle challenges, and how you learn new music or new things. And then you get to find it kind of, it gives these kids their voice because they start to realize as they practice more and as they work at it, they'r