It is a story many years in the making, one that led a caring teacher to be reunited with a student she once taught and inspired.

On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Rosamond Elementary. That’s where you will find 4th grade teacher Janet Crane now working side by side at school with one of her former students. It’s a story that proves the love and encouragement of a kind teacher can lead students on the path to great success in life and future careers.

Anthony Godfrey:

What year did you have Mrs. Crane as your 4th grade teacher?

Tina Price:

1989 to 90.

Anthony Godfrey:

If anyone questions that teachers have a lasting impact, this is the answer.

Tina Price:

Yes, they do.

Anthony Godfrey:

The decision to be so intentional about making your classroom a happy place is paying off for another set of students, for all of these other teachers who came for your class.

Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a story many years in the making, one that led a caring teacher to be reunited with the students she had once taught and inspired.

On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Rosamond Elementary. That's where you will find 4th grade teacher Janet Crane, now working side by side at school with one of her former students. It's a story that proves the love and encouragement of a kind teacher can lead students on the path to great success in life and in future careers.

We're here with two teachers at Rosamond Elementary School and I'm going to let them tell you why we're here. Introduce yourself, who you are now, and who you were then.

Janet Crane:

My name is Janet Crane and I've been teaching at Rosamond Elementary for quite a few years with a stint at Riverton Elementary and Elk Meadows, but I came back to Rosamond. I have taught 4th grade for a long time and Mrs. Price was one of my favorite 4th graders many years ago. It was funny to come back to Rosamond and have her being a 1st grade teacher and her telling me that I made a big impact on her life.

Tina Price:

I'm Tina Price. Back then I was Tina Green and I've been at Rosamond for a long time too now. I started kindergarten at Rosamond. I think the first year opened and then in 4th grade, I had Mrs. Crane as my 4th grade teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:

What year did you have Mrs. Crane as your 4th grade teacher?

Tina Price:

1989 to 1990.

Anthony Godfrey:

Back in the 1900s.

Tina Price:

Back clear in the 1900s.

Janet Crane:

Woah!

Tina Price:

Oregon Trail and all of that.

Anthony Godfrey:

Wow, yeah Oregon Trail. That was awesome.

Janet Crane:

Oh, that was fun.

Tine Price:

Apple computers.

Anthony Godfrey:

So 1989, 1990 is when you had her class.

Tina Price:

Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:

If anyone questions that teachers have a lasting impact, this is the answer. Yes, they do.

Tina Price:

Yes, they do.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me about being in her class in 1989.

Tina Price:

I just felt loved and seen. She was happy to be there every day. I knew she was happy to be there every day because she just put that vibe out there. So when I think back about school and a happy place, it's 4th grade.

Anthony Godfrey:

Do you remember some of the activities that you did besides the Oregon Trail?

Tina Price:

Yes. We did a whole class reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we read the whole book. She would hide golden tickets in our chapter books. So when we would get a chapter book we'd never know if we'd open it up and find a golden ticket. At the end of the book she did a drawing and that was the first time I've ever, or the last time I've ever won anything and I won the giant-size chocolate bar.

Anthony Godfrey:

Wow.

Tina Price:

And so I've kind of stolen that idea and I took it to first grade with me for a little bit.

Anthony Godfrey:

So you spent those late nights cutting out those golden tickets. Well done. That made a big difference.

Janet Crane:

It did obviously.

Anthony Godfrey:

What do you remember about having her in your 4th grade class?

Janet Crane:

She was kind of quiet, but she was always so happy, smiley, happy. Kids really liked her. She was quiet and I tried to go to those kids that are a little bit quiet and try to draw them out a little bit. One of my important things is I've always tried to make my classroom a happy place so that the kids know that I love my job. I love being here. I love you. This is what I want to do for my career and I've just always tried to convey that with the kids. Besides Tina, I've had some other people that are working in the district right now who have told me that the reason that they're teachers is because I had a big influence on their lives and that's what they wanted to do.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, thank you for all the great recruits.

Tina Price:

Yes.

Janet Crane:

They are some great teachers, I'll tell you.

Anthony Godfrey:

They should put that on their resume that they had you for 4th grade.

Tina Price:

Right at the top of the list.

Anthony Godfrey:

Have you taught 4th grade the whole time?

Janet Crane:

No, I've taught second grade. I started teaching second grade at Riverton Elementary and taught second, a third-4th split. And then when this school opened, when Rosamond opened, I started teaching 4th grade.

Anthony Godfrey:

So you can do it all basically. When you started talking about her, it felt a little bit like a parent-teacher conference where you still remember very well just what she was like in class. Does that sound right to you?

Tina Price:

Yes. I still have my parent-teacher conference folder from 4th grade. Just my work and, yeah. I don't have it from any others, just my 4th grade.

Anthony Godfrey:

So 4th grade was, you can't overstate what an impact she had on you in 4th grade.

Tina Price:

No, I cannot.

Stay with us. When we come back more with these two teachers with a unique bond at Rosamond Elementary.

Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:

In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists, counselors, and school psychology interns. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:

You already spoke once about the golden ticket idea that you are now using from when you were a 4th grader. You'll hear speakers sometimes who talk about teacher professional development, and they say your initial professional development is the 13 years that you spend in public school because you've seen people teach. You've been watching people teach all day for most of the year, every year, the entire time that you're growing up. So you pick up some ideas and some ways of doing things. Can you remember some other ideas that you are still using and things that impact you from that 4th grade class?

Tina Price:

We sang a lot of songs, the Desperado. I remember that still. During our free time she would let us trade things in our pencil boxes. And I don't know if that matched anything in the curriculum or not, but I just remember she built a community in our classroom, and we just all felt like we were supposed to be there with her. And just always happy. If she was having a bad day, we would never know, because she just was happy that we were there. She was our person that we could just, “oh, she wants me here.” And so I've tried to remember that with my own students, that I'm here to make them happy. It doesn't matter what happened to me before school. I'm here to be happy for them.

Anthony Godfrey:

The decision to be so intentional about making your classroom a happy place is paying off for another set of students, for all of these other teachers who came through your class every year. So obviously for many, many years you've understood the power that you have as a teacher to really set the climate, set the tone for that classroom.

Janet Crane:

For some kids this is probably some of the only places that they get warm fuzzies. And a smile. The kids have just really changed over the years. And some years the kids are really needy, and some years they're not as needy. But I've just always wanted them to feel like they can come to me and know that they're going to find a warm, happy face.

Anthony Godfrey:

Could you tell what an impact you were having on her at the time?

Janet Crane:

I couldn't.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, that's the answer I was guessing you were going to say, because you don't always get to experience that in the moment. She's quiet, you're trying to draw her out, you're giving your best for every student. But they don't stand in front of you one day and say, "You know what, I think I'll be a teacher one day, and these are the things that I'll take away from your class."

Janet Crane:

I don't think I even learned that until I came back here. I didn't know that I'd had such an impact on her. Until I came back to Rosamond.

Tina Price:

For subbing. It was amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:

She was subbing? Tell me about that.

Tina Price:

So I think it was my first or second year, and it was just everything kind of put into place to get hired at Rosamond. When I graduated from college, there was a hiring freeze in the district, and so I wasn't getting any phone calls. And then in July, I got a phone call to interview at Rosamond, and I was like, "Oh, that would be neat. It's my school." So I came and I interviewed, and I got the job. Janet wasn't here at the time, but I was in the faculty room one day at lunch, and she walked through, and I just got tears in my eyes and just was speechless for a minute. I jumped up and she probably had no idea who I was as an adult. I said, "You are why I'm here. This is amazing. I get to see you." I was so excited, and I told her who I was, and that she had been my 4th-grade teacher, and all of my papers, my passwords, which I’ll change now. But why do you want to be a teacher, and who was your favorite teacher? And it was about Mrs. Crane, because she was both of my answers. Then she came to work at the school, and I got to work with my idol every day since then. It's amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:

That's fantastic.

Tina Price:

Yeah.

Janet Crane:

It's a great job.

Anthony Godfrey:

What do you think is the secret to creating a happy classroom?

Janet Crane:

Letting the outside world, whatever's happened to you or whatever, flat tire, weird things happen on the way to school, just going into my room and just being warm and happy and making them feel like I know that they're there. I try to make at a point to connect with every one of my students during the day. Whether it's a question or just a tap on the shoulder to say, "Hi, I'm glad you're here today," I let them know that I am truly glad that they're here. This is a great job, and I'm truly lucky that I found what I feel is my calling.

Anthony Godfrey:

That you set the world aside, your own stresses aside, to create a happy classroom. And I think what that does is it allows the students to do the same thing.

Janet Crane:

I think so too.

Tina Price:

I've made it a point that she's had my daughters, and next year she'll have my son. So she was my daughter's 4th-grade teacher, and she had my daughter, my oldest daughter, Aspen during COVID.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, you've got a picture here. Let's take a look. Wow.

Tina Price:

So this was 2019, and then when we went into lockdown, Mrs. Crane was a presence in our home every day on Zoom, and we all got to crowd around the computer. Aspen felt cheated but loved the entire time because she didn't get – she had to leave Mrs. Crane in March and didn't get all the end-of-year experiences, but Mrs. Crane made sure that they found ways to still celebrate 4th grade, and she showed up every day on Zoom.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, that picture with Mrs. Crane, she's smiling. That's a wide, happy smile, and that is not just for the camera. That's because she's by you.

Tina Price:

And then my younger daughter had her in 4th grade as well.

Anthony Godfrey:

What's your younger daughter's name?

Tina Price:

Addie.

Anthony Godfrey:

So there's Addie with Mrs. Crane.

Tina Price:

Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:

That’s awesome.

Tina Price:

It was a great year for her too, and Addie is a quiet girl in class, but she -- and I asked the girls, I said, "What is your favorite thing about Mrs. Crane?" And they said the same thing. She loved us. She was happy to be there.

Anthony Godfrey:

It makes such a big difference. Wow. I love that. Let’s see these.

Tina Price:

And then these are back in 1989.

Anthony Godfrey:

Wow. How about that.

Tina Price:

And again, the only pictures I have of me in school --

Anthony Godfrey:

Let me just say, in 1989, the fact that you have a picture of you with your teacher that's candid, taken by a camera, meant that you were really intentional, like, "I need a picture with Mrs. Crane." Wow. Look at that. That is so cool. Oh, and the blackboard. Look at the blackboard and chalk.

Janet Crane:

Yeah, and they just barely took that orange carpet down.

Tina Price:

We just -- in the kindergarten room I had a tiny little piece left that I might have kept, a little scrap of --

Anthony Godfrey:

Hey, the orange wall carpet, it's important that you have that.

Janet Crane:

Yeah, the chalkboard is like that's so long gone.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, that is a fantastic picture. I absolutely love that. And I love that you have it. And also that you still have all your 4th-grade work and parent-teacher conference information.

Tina Price:

All the Utah counties.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah. Yeah, wow. Well, thank you for being such an impactful and positive educator for so long. And thank you for choosing to follow in that same path and to be that same positive light for the students in your class.

Tina Price:

Thank you. It's amazing. And it's just fate that I got to work with the person who inspired me to be here and still does every day.

Janet Crane:

One of the nice things is I have my friends that say, so when are you going to really stop teaching? And I'm like, I don't know. I really feel like still there's somebody out there I still need to reach. If it's just one child or a classroom of children, if there's one child whose life I need to touch. And you can always tell if you have. That's why I'm here. And I know when -- in the next couple of years, maybe.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, you just let me know what I can do to put that date farther into the distance.

Janet Crane:

So this is the place I need to be. And I need to be there for somebody. I need to be somebody's 4th-grade teacher and have them have a good year.

Anthony Godfrey:

Thank you both for everything you do and for taking time today.

Tina Price:

Thank you very much.

Janet Crane:

Thank you for talking to us.

Anthony Godfrey:

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