They may not be learning about baseball legends like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, or Reggie Jackson, but some fourth-grade students at Jordan Ridge Elementary School had their own fun with collectable Utah history trading cards in the classroom.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside Jennifer Romriell’s classroom where students made their own trading cards based on someone or something in Utah history. It was a lesson that made learning about people and the past really come alive.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:

Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They may not be learning about baseball legends like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, or Reggie Jackson, but some fourth-grade students at Jordan Ridge Elementary School have their own fun with collectible Utah history trading cards in the classroom.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside Jennifer Romriell's classroom, where students make their own trading cards based on someone or something in Utah history. It was a lesson that made learning about people and the past really come alive.

[Music]

We're here with Jennifer Romriell talking with her about her fourth-grade class and their project on Utah history trading cards. I have loved being in your class. I've only been in there a few minutes, but it's really been fun. You have them very well organized and trained, by the way.

Jennifer Romriell:

Yeah. Thanks. 

Anthony Godfrey:

It was it was obvious that you create a space very intentionally for them to prepare to be successful in an assignment, ask their questions, share their ideas, and then you throw it out to the whole class. What do you think? Is that an idea that's going to match up? I really admire the way you have your classroom organized and your class procedures and you're obviously making the most of your time with the students. 

Jennifer Romriell:

Thank you. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah, yeah, it's and every student I talk to loves being in your class and that's no surprise. Tell us about this particular assignment and what you've been learning about Utah history. 

Jennifer Romriell:

So I'm not a native Utahan and so I actually am learning just as much as the kids are as I'm learning about Utah history and all the connections. 

Anthony Godfrey:

I'm not a Utah native either so I've always felt behind. 

Jennifer Romriell:

Yes, yes, and then I came to fourth grade. I was in the district for a while and then moved overseas and then came back and I was thrown into fourth grade being like I've never– I don't know Utah history. I have to teach it now. Then one way to throw yourself into it is I volunteered to be part of the state social studies curriculum that are writing the lessons. So that forced me to learn more about those historical events. 

I think history is an amazing fun part of learning and to make it more fun is to connect it first. To use primary sources and then to see if they can create something out of it. So essays are one thing we use for creating, but we've done comics, we've done poster boards, we've done movie trailers, we've done plays. We've created our own plays. So today, because we're summarizing all of the strands, I wanted to just kind of do a good summary before we move on to the now and do trading cards. I don't know about the rest of the state, but fourth grade they're kind of dabbling into Dungeon and Dragons is like this big thing. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah, right. 

Jennifer Romriell:

I'm trying to connect to the kids. I have some sporty kids that do hockey, baseball, and soccer and they have trading cards for sports. So one way to connect with them is to do a trading card for history. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Pokemon cards are a little bit of a trading card also. 

Jennifer Romriell:

Yes, that’s huge. That’s a good point. Yeah, same connection. 

Anthony Godfrey:

No, I love that. I love that. I think it's a really cool activity and what I like is that they got to choose some favorites. They got to choose a favorite figure so they're thinking through all of the things that they've learned. Some of them wanted to do more of an event like the atomic bomb or downwinders or something. 

Jennifer Romriell:

I didn’t even think about that. I might want to trade or change the trading cards to be like oh it could be even events. When I opened up the class I was like yeah, that's not a person that's a whole event and that's really cool that they are teaching me. So next year I'm going to change those cards.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, it was fun to see that creativity. What are some of the things that you've taught this year that have really stood out for them that really captured their imagination? 

Jennifer Romriell:

I think especially when students lead the instruction they're so curious about things. I love diving into the eight sovereign nations. They really loved researching and kind of following the path throughout the whole history strands. 

Anthony Godfrey:

The eight Native American sovereign nations within Utah.

Jennifer Romriell:

Yeah, because normally like we would learn about it before colonists or Spain came or whatever and then you kind of are done. But we've been tracking how it's been influential and infecting the Native tribes throughout the whole strands and that's been really cool for them to reconnect over and over again. Having that foundation of oh, the Paiutes in the southern or the Skoll Valley tribe or this and that and that makes sense why they moved here and all that reservation treaty and it was really cool that they're making those connections that I've seen stronger this year than previous years I've taught.

I'm a big advocate for International Women's Month. You probably saw them, they're like can we do these women?

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, I saw the Helen Keller essays. They were so good. I love that you pointed those out to me. They're posted there on the wall. I learned some things about Helen Keller that I did not know. 

Jennifer Romriell:

Right? They did really well with those essays. We call it our word graffiti and they have to post it up there. I think they were the highest-scoring and the longest they've done. So there are five-paragraph essays. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Some of them were two pages. 

Yeah.:

I know. 

Anthony Godfrey:

That was really cool. 

Jennifer Romriell:

And we used Utah Compose so I didn't have to grade at all. I was able just to enjoy it. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Yes. I'm glad I noticed. I noticed that it was pointing things out. I was wishing for that back in the 1900s when I was teaching writing. You know that's a nice touch. 

Jennifer Romriell:

Yeah. So I love learning about I think women's suffrage in Utah is huge. We were pioneering literally and figuratively at that point and so that was a huge thing we did. The whole month was attributed just to that. Better Days 2020 is a website that has happened with Utah. I went in to talk about all those women and so they really have this huge connection with that.

We do a lot of hands-on with the fur trappers and the mountaineer men because they carved out Utah, named it with the rendezvous. And then also modern day. We did one lesson on the downwinders and it was just interesting how connected they were because some of their grandparents were around. 

I always do messages to parents so that they can connect and know that we're learning about this topic so this is the time to talk to your kids about it. There's a connection. I was surprised how connected my class was to that part. So that was something I didn't think was going to have a huge connection but because grandparents lived in southern Utah there were a lot of connections with that. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah. I have a connection as well. It's interesting. I read an article once about the difference between history and memory. It turns into history when no one's alive who was around for it. 

Jennifer Romriell:

I like that. 

Anthony Godfrey:

But it's still memory. So you're still covering some things that fall in that category and that they have a connection with. Like you said you're really helping them make connections with the even older history of Utah where it's all kind of piecing together for them. 

It was fun to see their enthusiasm for this project as a culminating project. I saw a little silent hand clapping at the desk and some fist pumps when you said “Yes, what you want to make your trading card about, that qualifies.” The double fist pump that their favorite subject in Utah history. 

Jennifer Romriell:

That’s the goal, right?

Anthony Godfrey:

That's so great. It's so great. As you were working on the statewide curriculum, and I admire that you dove in. “I don't know as much about this as I want to so I'm going to help at the state level.” I think that's fantastic. What are some of the things that stood out to you as a non-native Utahan as elements of Utah history that are particularly important to have in the curriculum?

Jennifer Romriell:

I think Utah, because it was a state so late in our nation, it does have a really cool history of pre-statehood. I find that fascinating because there was so much going on in Utah even before it became a state. Which is very unique to a lot of the states we have in America because normally, it's like we colonize, we're here and then we're a state. But we had a delay on that and it was really cool to teach that connection and to dive deep into the sources. 

I think Utah is also unique, having grown up in Michigan and Oregon those are my other states I've lived in, where there is this love of history. So when I dive deep into the state curriculum I'm able to find primary sources really easily and I think that ignites student curiosity. When you show them, for example, we did a lesson on the railroad and we showed them Ogden before the railroad and then we showed them Ogden post railroad. They're able to look at city plans and be like “Whoa, look at the growth. Look at the difference. Look what the railroad did to Ogden”. And then Corinne was a railroad city and then the railroad went away from that city. And they're able to compare before and afters and say “Oh, the railroad when it left that city, what a huge difference”. Because Utah is so unique in how it loves history, it's amazing how many primary sources that you can have and give to the kids. 

There's a site, I Love Utah, that the kids who need extension work, my talent and gifted kids– whenever I do a topic I can send them safely to that site and be like these are what we're learning about. Here's what we're doing. Create a slide or an essay or something and you're going to present it to the class. So they're able to do a passion project on that as I'm scaffolding with the rest of the class. 

Anthony Godfrey:

I did talk with a student who talked about making a slideshow and doing it with a team member and she loved working with another student and putting together those slides. That's really fun. Jennifer Romriell:

And they can think critically that way and ask those questions, right? Something we say in my class is ‘there's no shame or blame when we learn history. When you know better you do better.’ So it's been really cool to train them to learn about our history and be like “Okay I know I wouldn't make those choices, but I can't shame or blame what they did because that's their time period”. It's been cool to have them be like you know when we talk about Native Americans in boarding schools for example or we learned about the Japanese internment camps in Topaz. You can see this conflict they have, but then we always say “okay no shame or blame this is what history tells us. You can have opinions on it, but we need to analyze it like historians. What are some things you're seeing?” They're 10 and 11 but they're able to do it. It's really cool. Hopefully it trains them for the future to have good civil dialogue and debate.

Anthony Godfrey:

Certainly. Now you also told them that you want everything to be creative, careful and colorful.

Jennifer Romriell:

Careful, colorful and creative.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, careful, colorful and creative. I got it in the wrong order.

Jennifer Romriell:

When I taught kindergarten that's the thing I kept with me.

Anthony Godfrey:

Hey, kindergarten has a lot of lessons that apply throughout life. 

Jennifer Romriell:

It does. It does.

Anthony Godfrey:

Careful, colorful and creative. Starting with careful. I love it. That’s great.

Jennifer Romriell:

Yes and they know it.  I check it I'm like “oh, try again”.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, students being in your class every minute is time well spent. 

Jennifer Romriell:

It needs to be, right?

Anthony Godfrey:

You are making the most of it and it's really fun to see your energy and the enthusiasm the students have for learning in your class. 

Jennifer Romriell:

The kids were super excited to show off what they learned and what they know. To brag about it.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, it's my pleasure.

Stay with us. When we come back we'll talk with some of Jennifer Romriell’s students and talk about their trading cards.

Break:

Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:

Introduce yourself and tell us what you're doing on your trading card.

Evelyn:

So I'm Evelyn and on my first one I did Peter Skene Ogden. He was a fur trader or fur trapper and mountain man. I did him because Ogden is his last name and he has a town name after him and so I think that was really cool. So I did that for him. Then for my second trading card I'm kind of doing the event of women's suffrage in Utah because we learned all about it in March so we know a lot about it. So I'm gonna draw like them speaking about how they should be able to vote and stuff like that.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me a little bit about women getting the vote in Utah. What did you learn about that last month?

Evelyn:

So we learned about Susan B. Anthony and her connection to Utah and how she helped us become one of the voting states. And we learned about Emmeline B. Wells and how she was Utah's leading suffragist. And Eurithe K. LaBarthe the first woman to vote, Martha Hughes Cannon the first—

Anthony Godfrey:

She was the doctor, is that right?

Evelyn:

I think that was the first legislator of Utah. The first woman one. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Great. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you're learning a lot. Is history your favorite subject?

Evelyn:

Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:

What other things have you learned about Utah here in your class with Mrs. Romriell?

Evelyn:

We did Native Americans at the beginning of the year. Then for traders and mountain men and then we kind of worked on like the pioneers and pre-expansion. Then we did women's month and now we're kind of— and then we did statehood and yeah. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Very good. Impressive. What do you like most about being in Mrs. Romriell’s class?

Evelyn:

I think it's because it's fun. I love her history lessons because they're so fun and I think it's so I've learned the most in her class.

Anthony Godfrey:

Awesome. Well, thank you very much. Good luck. This looks great. Have you ever been to Ogden by the way? 

Evelyn:

Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:

Have you? Okay, so you’ve been to his town?

Evelyn:

I think.

Anthony Godfrey:

Perfect. All right thanks very much.

Evelyn:

Thank you!

Anthony Godfrey:

Good job. Okay, introduce yourself and tell me what you're working on here. You have two trading cards you've already filled out.

Natalie:

So my name is Natalie. For my first one I'm doing a little bit about the downwinders. I said that the downwinders was atomic bomb testing. So my modern influence is that my teacher told us that she had cancer that made me sad. My second one was about the camps for Japan and stuff. Because the camps held anyone who had Asian ancestry or looked Asian or is Asian because they thought that they could be a threat because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Or like a spy.

Anthony Godfrey:

So you chose kind of some difficult things that happened in Utah's history. I really like your drawing here of a an American flag, a Japanese flag and then you have a school here. Tell me about that.

Natalie:

So they asked if they could at least teach their children, and then they said yes. So that's why they have like a school. But it's not as big as ours.

Anthony Godfrey:

Right. Okay, so it's a smaller school that they asked for to be able to have at that encampment. So you drew an atomic bomb here and then there's an explosion here. Tell me about the testing and and what you learned about downwinders.

Natalie:

Well, I learned that it hits southern Utah and around Cedar City.

Anthony Godfrey:

What have you liked most learning about Utah history? I saw you were really excited about this assignment. What have you liked most about Utah history?

Natalie:

I like Utah history because I can learn and maybe help the future.

Anthony Godfrey:

Fantastic. What's it like being in Mrs. Romriell's class?

Natalie:

I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:

What do you love most about it?

Natalie:

I met a lot of other friends and Mrs. Romriell is a really good teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:

What makes her such a good teacher?

Natalie:

She listens and helps everybody.

Anthony Godfrey:

Thank you very much. This looks great.

Natalie:

Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:

Introduce yourself and tell me what you've decided to put on your trading card.

Ezra:

My name is Ezra and what I've decided to put on my trading card is James Beckwourth.

Anthony Godfrey:

What do you know about James Beckwourth? What did he do to influence Utah history?

Ezra:

He was a mountain man, he was a miner, a army scout, rancher, a businessman and also an explorer. He discovered a path in the high Sierra Nevada.

Anthony Godfrey:

So I see you've already kind of drawn him here. I like that. That looks good that's a pretty good likeness of him. He's got his goatee going on there. Is he the most interesting person to you in Utah studies?

Ezra:

One of the most interesting, yes. 

Anthony Godfrey:

What are some of the other figures in Utah history that you found interesting?

Ezra:

Susan B. Anthony.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me about the Susan B. Anthony connection to Utah.

Ezra:

So Susan B. Anthony helped women have the right to vote in Utah.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me what it's like being in Mrs. Romriell's class.

Ezra:

It's very nice. You get to do many lessons that most of us like. And Mrs. Romriell is really nice. 

Anthony Godfrey:

Okay, thank you very much. Introduce yourself and tell me about your trading card.

Tessa:

So my name is Tessa and I can't really draw but this is Susan B. Anthony.

Anthony Godfrey:

Why did you choose Susan B. Anthony?

Tessa:

I don't know, I just think she represents Utah the best.

Anthony Godfrey:

What do you like about me being in Mrs. Romriell's class?

Tessa:

She's a really fun teacher and I love her social studies class the most probably.

Anthony Godfrey:

Is that your favorite subject?

Tessa:

Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:

What's your favorite thing that you've learned in social studies?

Tessa:

All about the world wars. So we did these slides and we did like Japanese camps and stuff and like African Americans. That was probably my most favorite act to do, making the slides with partners.

Anthony Godfrey:

Awesome. It's fun working with partners isn't it?

Tessa:

Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:

Thank you very much. Good luck on your project.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see out there.