I don't know which way, one way or the other, you know, plus the pencil.
It's fully related, education talk, educated educators talking, education, the numbers
855, 7524842, just had a great team from Edgewood College Madison Metropolitan School District.
Again, coming after the teacher shortage, Johnny, this grow your own concept of finding people
who are in the districts and creating the opportunity to give them access to the education they need
and the support that they need to get this license.
This, to me, is just one of these hopeful stories where we keep hearing of going like,
man, you put together a team of great people who want to do great things and man, they surely can do it.
Well, yeah, Tim, it just has to, I mean, it's 2024, right? And we've talked about this
on a number of things. You just have to be open to change. And in fact, some of the things that we call
a shortage are there because we've done things the same way over and over again and we realize
that they don't work, right? But that means we have to change, we have to be creative, we have to be
innovative with that. And with that also means we have to be accessible. And nothing against the
kinds of programs like I get to work with amazing young teachers. Many of them came to college,
you know, traditionally after high school and they're at a program and a pathway towards a career
that works for that group of young people who are going out to teach, right? But what we know is
that there are many people in our communities. In fact, we teach young people all the time.
You're probably going to change careers in your life. You're going to learn more about what you're
great at and what you love to do and how to share those skills in your community. And so I would like
to say by and large, historically becoming a teacher after doing something else has been really
difficult, if not completely inaccessible, right? So many great educators. And so these grow your
own programs show us that you can sit down with, you know, different stakeholders and figure out
we're going to do this differently. In fact, we're going to make it possible for people who would
like to be teachers to get really good at it, have support and have licensure to be teachers wherever
they're at in their careers. Maybe I'm a plumber and I really love the aspect of having an apprentice
in teaching, you know, all the ins and outs of codes and the aspects of like, how do you will be,
you don't always sweat pipes anymore. But back when I was learning to plum, you had to, you know,
use a torch and sweat pipes. And I had some of the best teachers of my life in the trades.
And I remember thinking, man, if only they could be classroom teachers. And you know, they would say,
like, nah, I'd go to school or I'm not going back to school, y'all have to go like every day,
five days a week. I can't leave, you know, a good high-paying job. I got a mortgage, a
college, things. You can't just drop everything you're doing and be a college student. Well,
that is reality for so many amazing people in our community communities, whether they're coaches,
whether they're classroom aids, paraproes, parents, like, like endless. I can go on and on.
We're finally figuring out ways to be creative and supportive and inclusive and make it accessible
for people to become great teachers. And this is exciting to him. So I love him. We have growing
your own folks on. I especially love when we have people, Tim, that we know in the Wisconsin
community are doing work because I know our listeners are probably less than one degree of separation
away from our guests tonight. So that's always a really fun and exciting thing.
Yeah, you think about that, right? Because we have focused on Tennessee. We focused on Michigan.
And, you know, because we want to make sure that we're bringing those stories wherever they're
happening. But we know the home base here, civic media in Wisconsin and making sure we know so
many people out there. And I'm like, I know there's got to be some people out there doing this work.
And I, you know, and so yeah, they are. There they are.
Well, and for the listener, good job. For the listener out there, man, like if you want to loop
back, go to the civic media webpage. June 27th show had guests Samantha Todd from Western Michigan,
to grow your own program. April 2nd, you go into the civic media, you know,
busted pencils page, you can scroll through, go to April 2nd, Julia of Julian Vasquez.
He, League and Laura Dinehart, right, came on from Western Michigan talking about that program.
And then we referenced it tonight, right? Mill, our Madison's own superintendents, right?
Joe is a Dr. Joe Gothard, right? Yeah, great interview with him. So lots of good stuff, lots of ways
to get at it. And it's only Tuesday. I know it's only Tuesday. I got to say, and I'm already
getting some thank yous and emails back from the team that just got off the show right now.
They're sending me some great team, man. What a great team. And Mike, Mike, and I've got all the
connection information. So anybody listening, going, man, I missed it. I don't know how to get in
touch with anybody there. Don't worry. Just check it out. Podcast goes up here later.
Tonight's tomorrow morning, we will have all the information for anybody who's interested.
Because you got to say too, and if you're saying, but I'm not in the Madison area, I'm listening to
busted pencils way up in Hayward, Wisconsin right now. That's okay. What Mike was saying is that
with this being a fully online program, Edgewood College is also entertaining. There could be partners
all across the state that want to get into this, grow your own program. So what we were doing
tonight was just highlighting the partnership with Madison Metropolitan School District and
Edgewood College. But if you're out there listening, yeah, you're up in Bayfield, Wisconsin right now
listening to the show. You're in Green Bay listening and saying, boy, this sounds like a great idea.
Hey, get in touch. Download the show tonight later on when it's up. Check out all the information,
Mike, Mike, and you'll be able to send him for information about how to develop one of these
grow your own pipelines, talent, talent pipelines, Johnny, they're growing right there when they put
that together like that. Well, you know what Tim, I'm excited because it's just talking with great
educators. It's educated educators, talking education listener tomorrow, educators amplified.
We love teacher Halley teacher Joanna, chopping it up with Tim and I to join us for that Thursday,
the Wisconsin Public Educators Network. Right. So we've got a lot, a week of just amazing educators
on here chopping it up with us listener. We appreciate you. Thanks for joining us. This is Bus
Depensals, fully let it education talk. Yeah, man, schools out for summer. Huh, no schools back in.
See you all tomorrow.