It is a full circle moment for two former students and their teachers at Rose Creek Elementary School.
On this episode of the Supercast, listen as the former students are reunited with the teachers they grew to love in elementary school. They are reunited as co-workers, now teaching side by side in classrooms at Rose Creek. It is a story that speaks to the life-long impact a good teacher can have on his or her students, leading to lasting friendship and future success.


Audio Transcription
Rebecca Chandler:
I was so lucky to have this amazing little girl in my class named Sariah, and wouldn't you know it, she interviewed for our school kindergarten position last year.
Sariah Schmelter:
She really was a great teacher and set the mood right off the bat for me and I just grew up knowing I was gonna be a teacher.
[Music]
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a full-circle moment for two former students and their teachers at Rose Creek Elementary School. On this episode of the Supercast, listen as former students are reunited with the teachers they grew to love in elementary school. They are reunited as co-workers, now teaching side-by-side in classrooms at Rose Creek. It is a story that speaks to the lifelong impact a good teacher can have on his or her students, leading to lasting friendship and future success.
[Music]
Anthony Godfrey:
Talking now with two kindergarten teachers at Rose Creek Elementary. Introduce yourselves and how you know each other.
Rebecca Chandler:
Well, my name is Rebecca Chandler and I have been a teacher for 14 years in Jordan School District; took a little bit time off in the middle for about six years before returning back to teaching. I know this teacher when I started teaching at Hayden Peak Elementary in kindergarten and it was my second year teaching and I was so lucky to have this amazing little girl in my class named Sariah. And, wouldn't you know it, she interviewed for our school kindergarten position last year. Wow.
Sariah Schmelter:
I'm Sariah Schmelter. This is my first year teaching here at Rose Creek and I'm teaching kindergarten, and like Becca mentioned, I had Becca as a kindergarten teacher which was amazing. One of the reasons I actually wanted to come to Rose Creek was because I remembered how amazing she was as my teacher and I knew that she would be a good leader and mentor to me.
Anthony Godfrey:
You just called your kindergarten teacher ‘Becca’ twice. So how long did it take for you to get used to that or are you used to it yet?
Sariah Schmelter:
It was really weird, especially around my family, because my younger sister actually had her the year after. She to this day is still my mom's favorite teacher and so we always talk about Miss Chandler, Miss Chandler, Miss Chandler. So when I started calling her Becca, my mom's like “wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! This doesn't make sense.” Yeah, it's taken a while.
Anthony Godfrey:
I remember that as I have maintained contact with some students that I taught as well, they called me Godfrey for a while like they would drop the beginning. They finally called me by my first name a few times but I think it's still uncomfortable for them. Thirty years later, they still do, you know. It's ingrained, it's ingrained. Now you taught or you sought out the opportunity to teach with your kindergarten teacher. Tell me about that.
Sariah Schmelter:
Yeah, so I was just looking for jobs last year and I would do like a little bit of snooping, I guess, through the websites for each school, and just kind of seeing who's teaching there because I had a couple friends that taught at different schools.
Anthony Godfrey:
And it makes a difference who you're teaching with.
Sariah Schmelter:
It does, it really does.