We're gonna milk this for all it's worth.
It's Dairyland Diaries.
And look at local stories around Wisconsin.
Dairyland Diaries on Daybreak, where we wrap up the week with some uplifting stories from all over the state.
So let's not waste any more time setting it up.
Let's get right to it.
Three, three, three teachers from Wisconsin have been awarded with special education awards.
The first one is Liazong.
She didn't know any English when she moved to the United States in seventh grade.
She eventually learned and mastered it, though, and now is in English as a second language teacher at Jursted-Argam K-8 school.
She has been an ESL educator for two decades.
She aims to help students who had similar experiences.
She was recently...
named one of three Racine Unified School District teachers named Educators of the Year by the Wisconsin Association for Bilingual Education.
Congratulations to her.
Teachers needed to be nominated by an administrator for the award.
According to her nominator,
Expertise, leadership, and unwavering commitment to student growth have been key factors in helping our school better serve our students through improved instructional practices, rigorous goal setting, and high expectations.
She was thankful to receive the award and said the recognition felt extra special.
Now Betsy Wolfe, an ESL teacher at Julian Thomas Elementary and Stacy Caprolane, also an ESL teacher.
She is at Starbucks International Baccalaureate K-8 school.
They were also recognized.
For those of you who may not be clear, English as a second language teachers are also referred to as teachers of multilingual learners.
Fancy.
Their goal is to have students become fully proficient in English and graduate from ESL programs by passing state tests.
Teachers have said the tests are not easy to pass
Truly, it is an accomplishment according to Betsy Wolf.
It is really something to celebrate.
ESL educators aim to help students learn English so they have equal access to classroom instruction materials.
So congratulations to those three ladies in the Racine School District and congratulations to the Racine School District for having these programs and teachers that do so well at them.
So not too shabby.
Okay, this is now, this is very unique.
Milwaukee's Paul North.
doesn't remember a time when he wasn't drawing and reading cartoons.
Since the beginning, his own work has had a common thread.
Average characters, absurd situations, and over the course of his career, North has published over 400 cartoons in The New Yorker.
He was the 2025 winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and Cartoon Art.
His first published collection of cartoons come out this fall.
And then right there, you'd say, wow, Brian, that's a really cool story about a local artist.
That's not all.
No.
Just this week, the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend is honoring him as its cartoonist laureate for Wisconsin.
Parker, I bet you didn't even know Wisconsin had a cartoonist laureate.
No, I didn't.
My aspirations in life, if they change now.
Wow, the sarcasm drips off you thickly.
No, I like cartoons.
I love cartoons.
Political cartoons are hilarious.
Or any kind of cartoon.
I grew up reading the comics all the time.
So he is, Paul North is now the
Cartoonist Laureate for Wisconsin.
He's the very first to take on this role.
He'll act as an ambassador for the art form around the state and highlight Wisconsin's important role in the history of American comics.
He told WPR that he always loved cartoons.
He said, growing up in Milwaukee, there was a great comic section in the Milwaukee Journal.
It was called The Green Sheet.
It was literally printed on green paper.
That was my favorite part of the newspaper and my favorite part of the day.
My father worked there.
He was the movie critic and the feature editor in the Milwaukee Journal.
So he would bring home cartoon books that came across the feature desk for me too.
Noth said he never thought he would be drawing cartoons for a living.
He said he didn't think print journalism was ever going to be a thing for him, but that's just how it happened to work out.
So what does a cartoonist Laureate do?
He'll be teaching cartooning workshop for kids this summer.
And what advice would he give to young cartoonists like Parker North said?
I do this project with them that I call the Bad Idea Notebook Project.
That's based on the way I work.
I have a notebook that just says Bad Ideas on the front and that frees you up.
You're not trying to be good.
You're just trying to write down and draw as many bad ideas as you can, which is literally the actual way I work.
I just keep my pen or pencil going and write down thoughts and doodle pictures.
So congratulations to him, the very first cartoonist laureate in Wisconsin.
And how could we not wrap up
Dairyland Diaries and another week of broadcast without a lovely story about an animal.
This one happens to be about a bear, not a Chicago bear who will play the Packers on Christmas Day, but a bear cub, rescued by authorities May 7th, who is now doing well at a Rhinelander Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
Early in the morning of May 7th, the Wasaw Police Department contacted the Marathon County Sheriff's about a bear cub found alive and alone near State 29 West of Wasaw.
A vehicle had hit the cub's mother and the mother had bears suffered fatal injuries, unfortunately.
Deputies with the help from Wasaw Police were able to take the cub into their possession and deputies then contacted Wild Instincts, a non-profit wildlife rehabilitation organization in Rhinelander.
Wild Instincts arrived and
took the bear with hopes that the organization could nurse the cubs and eventually release it.
Well, Wild Instincts has reported to the sheriff's office that the cub was doing well and already was able to spend time in an outdoor enclosure according to the news release.
Now, the sheriffs remind residents that they should not handle or approach any young wildlife even if they think there is no parent around.
Yeah, if you see a bear cub, stay away.
Wow, that is good.
The Bear Cub is doing well.
We end on an upbeat story.
I get to mention the Bears again in a non-threatening way to Parker because he knows we are talking about wild beasts and not the blue and orange.
