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Beyond the Walls: Building Bridges Between School and Community
0 Playsin 14 hours
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Scott Judy, a veteran social studies teacher, coach, and advocate from Utah. Scott shares his journey to National Board Certification, emphasizing the importance of community building, student advocacy, and the power of reflection in teaching. Discover how Scott's involvement in the Utah Teacher Fellows program and his passion for civic engagement have shaped his career and his commitment to creating a better future for his students and his community.
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Transcript
Introduction of the Host and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
ah Hello everyone and welcome back to Candidate Conversations. i am so looking forward to today's conversation with an educator from Utah who's currently a candidate, Mr. Scott Judy.
00:00:13
Speaker
go ahead and either turn it up, put in your headphones, but get ready to hear this incredible story around advocacy, representation, and so much more. Enjoy!
Scott's Transition from Coaching to Teaching
00:00:27
Speaker
Well, Scott, thank you so much for being on our candidate podcast today. um I'm so excited to get to know more about you, your journey, what brought you to board certification.
00:00:39
Speaker
So let's just get started with like introductions. Tell us who you are, where you're coming from, and whatever you feel is pertinent to the conversation. All right. Well, thank you, Danielle. And thank you to the National Board Podcast for having me on. My name is Scott Judy. I am a social studies teacher in Utah.
00:00:55
Speaker
I teach at Viewmont High School in Bountifuls, just little bit north of Salt Lake. And this is my 18th year. I also teach adjunct at Weber State University and have also spent most of my time as a teacher, also as a coach, although About two years ago, when my wife told me, hey, we're pregnant with number four, I said, I think I'm done. But, you know, I i was really blessed to be in coach in a great community here. And I love this school and I love what I do.
Coaching Experiences and Educational Engagement
00:01:31
Speaker
That's so exciting. So what sport did you coach again? So I coached multiple sports. I i started out with track. And then I coached our girls tennis team for 15 years.
00:01:42
Speaker
And that was so much fun. Love the girls. I also got to coach girls golf and baseball. That is amazing. So obviously, just by like your brief introduction and your resume of sorts, like we know that you are someone who engages in the profession at all levels, right from.
00:02:01
Speaker
coach, to working in higher ed, to your classroom job. And I'm so curious, like of all those things, how has that supported you in bringing you to the national board
Pursuit of National Board Certification
00:02:10
Speaker
process? What considerations did you have to make?
00:02:13
Speaker
Did you have reservations? Because sometimes we'll see it, right? Where people are like, I've heard about this process, but I don't know. So I'm so curious, like what was your process and journey to national boards? Right, so I'm part of the Utah Teacher Fellows. I was a ah was a member for from 2019 to 2021, and then I got the opportunity to stick on as part of the leadership team in a role that I still currently serve in as the professional learning facilitator.
00:02:40
Speaker
and there i got to meet some people who were really really heavily involved in national boards john arthur who works with the national board team on the national level and then in my cohort with the utah teacher fellows i had tony zaney and carrie johnson who have been advocating for some more support with national board certification here in utah and even created the Utah National Board certification cohort.
00:03:06
Speaker
And I was at a conference last year. I got to be one of the keynote speakers and a presenter. And I ran into Tony and Kerry and they had this table and it was all about national board. And so I stopped and had about a 10, 15 minute conversation with both of them. And somebody was catching up, you know, but part of it was also, hey, I've heard about this and I've wanted to know, I've been interested.
00:03:32
Speaker
Like, let's get me there. Tell me, like, sell me
Inspiration from Colleagues for Certification
00:03:34
Speaker
on the process. And both Tony and Carrie looked at me dead in eye and said, it's the single best thing you can ever do as a teacher.
00:03:42
Speaker
And that really resonated with me because I trust Tony and Carrie. But thinking about my experiences that I had as a coach, and there were a a lot of positive things that I was able to transfer from coaching into my classroom.
Reflective Teaching Practices
00:03:58
Speaker
But Hearing it from them, from two people that I know and I respect and I and I look up to as educators and they said, this is better than any single thing you can do.
00:04:09
Speaker
I go, all right, well, you got to tell me why. You know, if you're going to make a statement like that, like you got to tell me why. And it goes back to the first national board standard. It said this program will help you know your students better than anything else out there.
00:04:23
Speaker
And I got to be honest, I think that's true. As I go through the certification process and I'm looking at the standards and I'm trying to figure out the different components and it it can feel very overwhelming at times because i had a friend describe national boards me as getting a master's degree you know kind of work and i think i had a little bit of ptsd from my own masters that i got
00:04:47
Speaker
because ah a lot of my masters, well, it's in history. And so a lot of my masters work was like, hey, read this like 700 900 page book in a week and write the paper. And like, I don't know if I want that again, you know, but going through this and and looking at different examples, putting in the work, and it all goes back to that first standard of how well do you know your students? And I thought I knew my students do really well, but really getting into something more on a deeper level You know, what is it that I can do in my community with my students that's going to help them
Encouraging Political Engagement in Students
00:05:23
Speaker
progress? Because every school in every school community is so unique and it's been able to help me better identify where are my students at and where do I want them to go? And what role do I play in getting my students there? And so I normally keep about 70 80 percent.
00:05:40
Speaker
of my content and I I'm constantly trying to tinker and rearrange but this year has been cool because doing this process I've actually started to focus more on the reflection piece and that is something that I've got from looking at the national board stuff and working with Tony and Carrie and that group is, hey, how can I get you to reflect on this practice? Because the national board certification makes me reflect on my own so much.
00:06:07
Speaker
And what I'm starting to notice is in my social studies classes, it's not just, hey, do you like this reading guide? Answer these questions. It's answer these questions and then tell me why this was important. Like, what is this one component?
00:06:19
Speaker
You know, so in my government class right now, we're talking about how public opinion can affect politicians, the government, everything.
00:06:30
Speaker
And I talk about ah and an idea called political efficacy. you know This idea that if we engage, we can make a difference. And I'm challenging my students, like, do you think that's true?
00:06:41
Speaker
But also, what are other ways that we can engage besides voting?
Advocacy During the Pandemic
00:06:45
Speaker
Because that that's the whole point, right? We want to create engaged citizens. And I think a lot of students walk out and say, hey, if I'll go ahead vote. Like, you sold me on that.
00:06:55
Speaker
definite you know but what about the other parts how can i get you to engage on the other parts and i think you know that's also kind of where i'm at is i'm learning how to engage in my practice i'm in year 18. how can i engage with my students in other ways i so deeply appreciate how in your response you really brought it back to the students every single time right like your motivation after being told like it's the single best thing you can do for your practice, you're like, but tell me more, right? And send it back to the students as you're thinking discussing about even how you tinker and refine and reflect on your content in order to better support students.
00:07:34
Speaker
um I think sometimes people might miss that that is what this process is about, right? You're refining your practice, you're becoming more reflective. all at the end of the day in service of students.
00:07:45
Speaker
And so you shared a bit about how candidacy, just being in the process that you're in currently, has supported you as a professional. I'm so curious too, i heard that piece around advocacy that you spoke about a little bit.
00:07:58
Speaker
I wonder how candidacy fits into this role of advocacy, whether it's like for students, for the profession within your community, if you can speak a bit about that, like candidacy and advocacy, how do those two show up?
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah, so when when you look at the standards, right, the second standard, developing social understanding, engagement and civic identity, I think that we, you know, teachers naturally, we think about, hey, how can I get my my students to do this? And I think we forget a lot of times, I need to do this as well.
00:08:31
Speaker
I need to engage. I need to. And as a quick story about that, When COVID happened, I know that there were debates around everywhere, right?
00:08:43
Speaker
Do we have students stay at home? You know, do we bring everybody back? Like here in my district, we did a hybrid model for a little bit.
00:08:53
Speaker
And at the center of that was nobody ever asked the students. but You know, nobody ever asked him, hey, what would you be comfortable with? We always just kind of assumed, you know, it's going to be the parents. They're going to know and and make their feelings known on behalf of students.
00:09:11
Speaker
But I remember having multiple conversations with the superintendent at that point. And I said, look, when I've asked students, when it's come up and they've asked me, hey, Mr. Judy, what can we expect when we, you know, is there gonna be a school year next year? What's it gonna look like?
00:09:29
Speaker
And I just asked them, hey, what would you prefer? You know, I have a voice, I know who to talk to. What would you prefer? And so I gathered the info on my students' wishes, and then I directly sent those to the superintendent. and i directly sent those to school board members and others saying, hey, this these this is coming right from the students. You need to listen to them.
00:09:54
Speaker
And even though, you know, things didn't go exactly the way that the students wanted or I wanted whatever, right? The fact that my students saw me advocating on their behalf and they know that I was passing those things along, I do think men meant a lot to them.
00:10:12
Speaker
And, you know, correct like schools are supposed to be a reflection of the community, right? They're supposed to be a synergy between the schools and the community. And we can say, hey, you know, I have my community council. Sure, that works. But I think that there's other ways for teachers and students to act.
00:10:28
Speaker
to get together and and create some synergy there so that we can reflect what's going on in those communities and we can form that partnership instead of it being an uneven balance in one way
Strategy for National Board Submission
00:10:43
Speaker
or another. And I think that that's part of this program too is also trying to get teachers not just to look in their classroom but also beyond.
00:10:50
Speaker
Now i I get to cheat on that a little bit right being part of the Utah teacher fellows and and advocating like i was up at the legislature just a couple weeks ago sitting on the floor with my representative and talking to other legislators and policy makers, you know, like I get to cheat a little bit at that just by nature of some of the stuff that I do.
00:11:11
Speaker
But it is cool that like when I can come back and I can show a picture to my students and I can say, hey, I wrote this email, you know, and if you want to see the email, like there's parts I'm probably going have redact, you know, because like I can't show like my personal politics, but I can show you like I have i have the receipts, you know.
00:11:33
Speaker
i think that's so awesome because i think you're as a former elementary teacher i think you're in such a position working with older students um to deeply model like what does that look like right like what does that engagement look like even from the systemics you know lens of like within school like what is it that you want and or need and How do you voice that? do you collaborate to share that message outside of just this classroom or or the school up to the superintendent? So I think that is so phenomenal. And it is rooted in, as you stated, the standards for your cert area.
00:12:12
Speaker
And so I want to back up just a bit because you shared your cert area, but I'm so curious about As far as your planning for submission and kind of where you are in the process, how many components are you doing? What does submission look like for you umm coming up in May, which feels so long, but like February is practically over at
Balancing Personal and Professional Life
00:12:30
Speaker
this point.
00:12:31
Speaker
So yeah, like what was your planning process? How did you decide and what components are you doing? Okay. So I had no idea, you know, and I, and I just assumed, Hey, let's go in order one, two, three, four. Cause that's, that's normal. Right. Yep. You're not the only one.
00:12:49
Speaker
I started studying with an outside service for component one and it had been so long. I looked at anything ed psych related and, you know, I've been teaching u history for so many years that i've forgotten a lot of the world civ content that I used to teach.
00:13:06
Speaker
And so i was trying to do some practice tests and whatnot. And I was getting my book. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do this, you know, but in one of the meetings with the Utah National Board cohort.
00:13:21
Speaker
The suggestion was made, hey, look at trying to do components two and three first. and then maybe four, and then one is kind of the very last one. You know like you you don't have to do it in order.
00:13:35
Speaker
And as I was looking at them, I go, oh man, that makes me so happy because it helps because I can kind of play to my strengths now. no And then hopefully get, you know, maybe two and three submitted this year.
00:13:50
Speaker
And then that way I have a little bit clearer roadmap of what i I need to do to prep to get the other components in later. But like you said, like February is almost out and I don't know where everybody else is, but <unk>ve I've got a really busy month coming up and it has nothing to do with spring break. It has to do with some other events here in Utah that I get to be a part of.
00:14:12
Speaker
And it's awesome, but it's like now I got to prep for a sub. and And now I got to prep for my presentation at that event. And then I got to do, you know, more and I got to play catch up. And it's like, OK, well, I also need to make sure I schedule time to get this done because this is important.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah. So i want to follow up with that question because that is a conversation i have often with candidates recently, certified board certified teachers. Like what does the alignment look like for you or how do you plan for, you know what, I know March is going to be so busy.
00:14:49
Speaker
So instead of like setting myself up for failure, like how do you plan around life? Because I'm a big believer in life personal life, work alignment, not so much balance, because that's a little bit harder to attain, but alignment, right? Like if I know March is stock full for me, how are you making sure that you still attend to what's important to you without losing the other things that are important to you as well?
00:15:12
Speaker
Well, when i figure it out, I'll let you know. I was hoping you'd have the answer, Scott. I think a lot of it you know, just trying to just trying to make sure that I stay in alignment with myself and the things that I like to do. Like I have four beautiful little girls at home and an amazing wife and I want to give my time to them.
00:15:34
Speaker
But, you know, there is that dad guilt that kind of comes in sometimes where it's like, Hey, I mean, you know, if the words come out of my mouth, hey, I can't play with you right now because I need to go around my national board conclusion.
00:15:49
Speaker
You know, like my oldest just turned seven. She's not going to understand that. She's just going to know. Oh, she heard it was like, hey, yeah and so i think a lot of it is just trying to make sure that like i schedule time with with my wife with like hey you know maybe saturday mornings instead of me sleeping in a little bit or something you know i'm gonna get up around my normal school time and I'm going and I'm going to work on this because that's going to be the best time. And then if I can work on this a little bit, I can give you and the girls more time later.
00:16:24
Speaker
And that's going to be ultimately the hope on how to maintain balance of the things that I need to do for me just to keep myself healthy.
Time Management for Teachers
00:16:32
Speaker
But I also make sure that I'm spending time with my family, make sure that I'm taking care of the stuff in my classroom that I need to and other parts and I mean, it's probably going involve lot of caffeine, but that's okay.
00:16:48
Speaker
It's wonderful little substance. So for everyone who's listening, I just want to make sure that you hear in this conversation that like one, the time that you put into this process is your own. and two, in a way that's not bound like, you know, a higher ed course or,
00:17:06
Speaker
um even an undergrad, like no one's gonna tell you, Danielle, you need to sit down on a Saturday afternoon and write for three hours and in the same breath. you as candidate have to like navigate that for yourself and be honest. So like sometimes we'll have candidates who say, yeah, I'm just gonna buckle down and write all spring break.
00:17:26
Speaker
And then like trips come up and then people wanna hang out cause they know you're off. Like that's allowable. just you know and for plan for your life as you do the process because- You know, that reminds me, i was sitting in a workshop with the DBQ people And they brought out an extra guest speaker.
00:17:45
Speaker
She said, after lunch, I'm going to teach you the secret of how to grade this stuff, how to grade it quick. And the whole lunch I was and I was a young teacher at the time. It was like my third or fourth year, you know, and I was so excited. was please tell me the secret to creating.
00:17:59
Speaker
And then when lunch gets up, she goes, OK, here's the secret. put on a good pot of coffee. And I'm like, are you kidding me? You know? you like that because you're speaking your what And she, she said, listen, and I mean, for me as a young teacher, I was still pretty impressionable at that point. And she just said, look, you, sometimes it's just a mental hurdle that you've got to get through with grading. Cause grading can take up so much, you know, but I think as teachers, we're very routine and schedule oriented just by nature.
00:18:31
Speaker
And you know I see stuff online, teachers joking about once the school year starts, you're going to prep for the school year, you know they start to kind of like ah align in their bathroom time again or something.
00:18:44
Speaker
And it's kind of like, i don't really I don't know if other people realize just how like maniacal we can be about our own profession sometimes, you know, but sometimes it's like, Hey, if that means that I've got to put on my calendar because I am a calendar or I'm a task oriented person, if that means, Hey, for this, for the next few weeks, I'm going to sacrifice my Saturday mornings.
00:19:06
Speaker
You know, I'm going to be up by six and I'm going to write till about eight, maybe eight 30 when my girls get up and at the point where they're starting to be like, Hey, I'm getting hungry.
Supportive Community for Certification
00:19:15
Speaker
You know, if I can schedule that two to two hours for myself,
00:19:18
Speaker
That's gotta be something that I'm gonna do for a little bit. Yeah, I love that because again, those two hours start to add up, right? And I think the more that you engage in something strategic as is that, like what you get out of those two hours becomes more and more than like maybe that first pass when like, oh, I really could be sleeping in.
00:19:38
Speaker
i really could be catching up on like the latest show I've been watching. So no, I still agree with that. And so, Scott, as we close our conversation today, I'm curious, like, if you were to give past Scott some advice and a current candidate, we're in February, you know, we've come back from breaks, or for many people, they're heading back into another break for um spring break.
00:20:02
Speaker
um What's a, like, you know, a point of advice that you would have wanted to hear at this time frame in your career, or even for someone who's like, I'm going to make the commitment to do board certification.
00:20:14
Speaker
And I don't like, what's my next best step? What might be some advice? Yeah, I think I would tell younger self, future candidates, whoever, I would say you need a village.
00:20:27
Speaker
And i was talking with my sister-in-law about this last night. She's in her first year of teaching. And it's like, how are you doing? She's like, I'm good. And I said, if you ever need to, if you ever need vet, you ever need scream, you're welcome to call me. Like, I know.
00:20:45
Speaker
yeah i know you teach elementary and I teach high school. I know. I know what comes with the job. It's a lot. But I say that because, I remember talking with a former admin And told him, hey, there's an elementary school in Salt Lake, and they have this banner, right, draped over the front the school.
00:21:05
Speaker
We are home to a national board-certified teacher. And I said, when I what i do mine, I'm going to buy that banner, and you're going to hang in front of the school, you know, and make you do that. and And, by the way, that's significant because in Utah, we have less than 200 national board-certified teachers. We're, like, the lowest in the entire United States. So it is a big deal when one of us gets it.
00:21:25
Speaker
For sure. so that's why i say a village because it said admin looked at me and said well why would you do that you know why would you go for this and i was like you're not my village you know kind thing like you need somebody that can can listen to you when you're having those rough patches you need somebody who can support you you need and people that are just going to check in every now and then hey um Do you have questions? And that's why like I really appreciate what Tony and Gary are doing with that Utah cohort here. you know We meet once a month on a Zoom and we get in and they have specialists in some of the different areas and they do come out.
00:22:01
Speaker
Hey, what questions do you have? And I think we could just do like a two hour Zoom on the questions. you know Hey, I don't know, I don't know. You know, that's that's kind of the village. And it's like, ah I know I have Tony's number. I have John Arthur's number. Like I have people that I can reach out to and ask, what can I do? Who can you put me in touch with?
00:22:20
Speaker
And I think that's really, really awesome. And that's something that I hope not just in Utah, but, you know, across the United States that we start to build up a little bit is having those villages for the teachers so that whatever type of support I need.
00:22:35
Speaker
I can get whether it's, hey, I don't understand this component. Hey, can somebody take a look at this before I push submit? Because I'm a little scared.
Conclusion and Future Encouragement
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah. That because teaching is better when we work together.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you so much, Scott. One for that advice. I mean, I think it's going to resonate with many people. And two, if you're listening to this and you hear Scott saying, you know, find your village, engage in your village you're like, but I don't see myself having one here.
00:23:03
Speaker
I encourage you to connect outside of your school building, maybe outside of your school system. I would say some of my most close professional relationships and ones that like I continue to lean on when I'm like, hey, working on this project, do you have thoughts or need to connect with a teacher in this state, can you support and people who I've never even taught with in my life, right? But we've connected either through work that we've done together our friends of our friend. And so your villages out there, they just may not be, you know, in your hall and that's okay. they're
00:23:34
Speaker
They're there and they'll find you and you'll find So Scott, I am so grateful that you took part of your morning with us. I know we're so grateful and I'm so excited to continue to see what you do in the work in Utah and across the nation. And I can't wait until you have MDCT behind your head.
00:23:53
Speaker
Well, thank you so much. I appreciate the time and opportunity to speak with you. This was a blast. This was fun. Isn't it great? It's just like a conversation amongst friends on a Wednesday morning.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, thank you for everything. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Scott. We'll be in touch.