WEST JORDAN, Utah — Our Cool School of the Week always aims for something higher which is why Ascent is in their name. Our Cool School of the Week this week is Ascent Academy West Jordan.
"Besides our fabulous faculty and our students, one of the things that makes us amazing is our clusters," said Principal Kathy Butkovich. Clusters are class periods that last about an hour and a half. Students learn a new skill over eight weeks. Some clusters include becoming a superhero, dog daze, science, go noodles, and cooking!
"During our cluster, we were deciding how we could help the shelter animals the best, and we decided to raise a donation drive to collect food, and treats, and bring it to the West Jordan Animal Shelter," said the teacher behind the dog daze cluster. This week's Cool School nomination also came from the mom of one of the students in the dog daze cluster!
In the Ascent Academy West Jordan gym, students are preparing for their upcoming musical! All of the green on the student's clothes could represent one of the school's colors or seaweed! "We're getting ready to perform the Little Mermaid Jr. Play: Under the Sea," said one student.
Another thing that makes Ascent Academy West Jordan our Cool School of the Week is the creative approach they take to learning. "I teach career and technical education, and some of the projects that they learn in the classroom are prototype marketing, the psychology of products, and the psychology of how to create a product," said Mrs. Zamora.
"We learn different things, like not just writing, we learn communication skills like emails and stuff, and we also learn how to work with our teams," one student said.
At the end of the morning, the community chef cluster was coming together to deliver tasty surprises throughout the school. "I have a group of wonderful third and fourth graders," said the community chef cluster teacher. "Today, they decided to give back to the teachers and staff at this school by making these delicious treats."
As you probably have realized by now, clusters are a big part of what makes this school special, so Granite Credit Union brought a donation to give to the teachers who make the clusters happen. "We're so excited to be here on behalf of Granite Credit Union, and partnering with Fox 13, and we want to recognize your efforts, for the awesome work you're doing," said Spencer Carver, Marketing Director for Granite Credit Union.
"Teachers dip into their own pockets quite often so this will help with surprise and resources needed to do those cluster classes," said one cluster teacher.
If you know a Cool School, you can email nominations to GoodDayUtah@Fox13Now.com or fill out the nomination form on our website.
