Michael Nguyen on Teacher Appreciation Week & Supporting Educators (Hour 1)

From Washington to Hollywood and right back to Wisconsin, it's Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Connecting the dots on the stories shaping our world with smart takes, sharp humor, and plenty of personality.

You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.

It's news and culture without the noise.

Yeah, I'm on!

Here's Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Dude!

Welcome to Nightlight everybody.

Good evening.

Happy Thursday.

Great to have you.

The week is almost over.

I personally love Thursday nights and I love them separate of the show on their own but it's even more fun because tonight we have so much fun stuff planned.

We got a great guest and we've got Nightlight Movie Club and Greg Bach, my partner in crime here who is coming to you live from Racine, I of course am in

Marinette, Wisconsin, Christmas City, USA.

Greg, we've got a movie club tonight, buddy.

Oh, have we got a

movie

club, buddy?

And it's

a

great one.

It's a classic.

Maybe

one of the

best comedies of the past, well, now like 40, 50 years.

I know.

It's so crazy.

I admit that I, you know, I think of Bill Murray's career and I'm like, yeah, Coast Busters is good.

I haven't watched it in so long.

It's a

Damn good comedy like it's it's great.

I kind of it like I don't know just downplayed it the last few years It was awesome to rewatch that

it's one of those things you you you know is great And you kind of like walk away going yeah, it's fine And then you come back and you rewatch you say oh no, this is a really Really good movie and what's funny is that like you almost have to take two full Dom's to get to the amount of time it's been since Ghostbusters came out 1984

and Dom is 22, but it's almost two full Dom's old.

I thought you were making a joke about Dom's

height because he was talking about the other day, but you meant age, so there's a lot of different.

Look, you can make fun of all three of us for a lot of things, but Dom, those are your two things.

Yeah, and you know, I'll take it.

And you kind of invited it.

I'm not.

I did.

I

did.

I did.

I welcomed it.

If

you weren't if you

weren't if you well first of all your age I mean your parents welcomed it by having you when they had you but that's not your problem But you're the one who lied about your age on the air last night.

I'm just saying, you know, I didn't realize I'm working with a full-blown liar, but these are lies.

These are lies You lied about his age last night.

No, I'm sorry.

It's height.

It's height.

I'm sorry

I'm so I'm

usually here every night.

Okay.

He's actually he's actually 38 years old.

He just looks

really good Jimmy Caesar

Jimmy Caesar has an amazing skincare routine

Oh lovely.

Ah that is Greg Bach and we are talking to our outstanding producer coming to you live from Madison who was producing the show tonight, Dom Lee.

Did you guys have a good day?

Go ahead Dom.

I

did.

You're

ready

to talk.

You're ready to talk.

I

think you did the thing of like I'll let the other hosts talk, which I'm not giving myself the title, whatever.

I don't care about that stuff, but you were

like.

Go ahead buddy.

I had chips today and I had Doritos and this time no breakage in the Doritos, so everything worked out well.

I'm having a great day.

Did you put them on a

sandwich?

I did not.

I did not.

I should.

I need to.

I need to.

I have some follow-up questions on the whole chip excursion here because if you weren't listening yesterday, we spent a fair amount of the first segment of the show talking not just about chips, but durability of chips, their deliciousness on sandwiches and Dom's

total lack of, um, what do I want to say, uh, uh, courage in trying new things.

Cause he's never had chips on a sandwich before.

So

here's, okay.

So here's the question.

You had Doritos.

What flavor, original cool ranch, cool ranch, cool ranch.

Uh, small snack bag or big bag

snack bag.

Okay.

What was the percentage of Dorito to.

to bag, like was there, how much air was in there?

Was it like a 30%?

It was

like halfway filled, pretty much.

Halfway filled, okay.

All right, cool.

Not fully, but yeah.

And science here on that.

And just be

clear, not a single one of them placed upon a sandwich or something that would resemble a sandwich.

None placed upon a sandwich or anything that resembles a sandwich, unfortunately.

Final question, do you believe a hot dog is a sandwich?

I do, yes.

Okay, thanks, that's all I needed to know.

Got it, got it, okay.

We can move on now.

I didn't know that was a thing.

You've never heard that question Maybe now that you mention it, maybe I have but I've never I've never pondered it.

I'll say that I don't really care But you know that's what

you is it a sandwich to you Greg?

I really just say it's a sandwich just to be like

I don't really care either, but like when people ask the question, I know what they expect the answer to be.

So I just say,

yes,

I think it's a sandwich.

Cause I use the basic idea of it's between, it's between bread.

And some will say, well, it's not two pieces of bread.

It's what I'm like, well, yeah, but one side it's like, I argue the point for no reason other than just to be that guy.

I also will say out loud, I think grease two is far better than the first grease just to be that guy.

That was a jump.

Although I really love the movie grease two a lot.

But

yeah.

But a Ruben is a sandwich.

It's all you got one piece of bread.

What?

Ruben is a Ruben sandwich.

Don't

you

ever had a Ruben with... No, a Ruben's two pieces of bread.

It's a sandwich.

It's usually rye.

What do you okay?

What do you okay?

We're no no no no no.

Let's get into this I want to know where you've had this because I love Ruben So if there's a Ruben that I haven't had that's delicious.

Tell me

about it Somewhere in Chicago just when I was in college or growing up a little bit.

Yeah That's the only way because you're right now that I think about it I've probably had it both ways, but I like the open-faced.

Oh

I Hate that terminology though.

It's gross open face.

Just sounds really gross Arby's got the best Rubens.

Oh

No, they don't.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

First of all, let me just say this.

Two things.

One, Pete, I'm sorry.

Not the best.

You're right, Pete.

Absolutely not the best, but a, but an Arby's Rubin plays like don't sleep on an Arby's Rubin when you're, when you want a Rubin, but here's the thing.

I'm starting to think Pete and.

correct me if I'm wrong, is Dom like a sleeper agent for the fast food industry?

Because I feel like, like we're,

we talk about Jimmy John's and McDonald's and Burger King and, and, and not just, not just fast food, but like the whole junk food empire, like.

I'm

really kind

of worried about Dom,

really.

It's

getting bad.

It's getting bad.

He's pretty out there.

He's pretty overt on Dom's part.

He isn't making no bones.

If he's undercover, it ain't working.

Like a NASCAR driver, just have all the restaurants who sponsor him on his shirt.

I like that idea, actually.

You can sell it as swag.

Compliments of Dom.

I had a weird day because I made a phone call to customer service and I get, do you guys get this?

Okay.

Your call is very important to us.

No,

it's not.

Every time I call, I wait forever and they always say, we are experiencing higher than usual call times or volumes.

No, you're not because every time this is usual, you don't care.

And it drives me bananas.

Just put me on hold.

Don't try to lie to me.

Yeah, I

don't

disagree with that either.

Yeah, just don't say anything.

Just say, hey, please hold.

Thank you.

I'll say this.

Thank

you

for holding.

We appreciate your time and patience.

Exactly.

That's all you need.

And then play some decent hold music, like seriously.

And you don't have to give me a hit, just give me something that's good.

But

who

were you calling, Pete?

I was calling my phone company,

which will remain nameless for tonight.

Does it rhyme

with Mectrum?

It rhymes with Micot.

Oh.

Listen, dude.

I've been with them for the phone company.

I won't name for this many for nine.

I'm trying to think.

No, this is not enough.

I'm just I'm being a demonstrative.

I think about nine years now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've had four lines, a hundred bucks a month.

Yeah.

Flat, no fees,

no

contracts, no nothing unlimited everything.

Yeah.

When

I was just, I've been with them all, Sprint, Verizon, whatever.

I bet I've saved

thousands of dollars.

I feel the same way.

I'm with Google Fi and I've been I've same thing.

Yeah.

Interesting.

What are you paying over there at Google,

buddy?

I've never paid more than $28.

For one line?

For one line.

OK.

Very manageable.

I like

it.

Tom,

who are

you with?

Spectrum.

I am with Spectrum.

Per phone?

No, AT&T for phone.

But yeah, I use Spectrum.

I thought he was going to say Dairy Queen just to keep the shit up.

He's got a peanut buster parfait under the the board it gets great signal to like hello This phone

is delicious.

Yeah, you're right.

You're great.

You're right.

This is getting sad.

This is what I'm known for right?

This is gonna be this is a bad this might be a bad bit Dom

here's what you got to do though.

I'm just gonna go to cricket They're on the AT&T network.

You will spend half the cost

really

now.

We all know Pete has for his phone Nick it

I mean sorry

I'm with Tugel Mai.

I don't know.

Hey, we have a great show tonight, folks.

We've got Michael Nguyen will be here.

He is the executive director of Teach for America Milwaukee.

I assume that's a chapter, Greg.

We're going to discuss Teacher Appreciation Week.

So

that'll be a fun talk with Michael.

We'll celebrate teachers here tonight.

And then an hour number two, as we mentioned, it is Night Light Movie Club.

So if you've seen the film,

Ghostbusters, or if you want to watch as much of it as you can during the first hour.

No, don't do that, because then you're not listening.

But join the fun.

I know you've seen Ghostbusters.

We'll talk about our favorite line scenes, characters, and just overall have an overall discussion about this really great movie that it was so fun to rewatch.

That's an hour number two starting at 6.20.

It's going to be an actual gas.

An actual gas, yeah.

Yeah, an actual gas.

But I think without further ado, we should get to our question of the night.

No more answers.

Let's talk

about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

This directly pertains to our Nightlight Movie Club night choice tonight.

Ghostbusters, what is your favorite Bill Murray role or character?

That is tonight's question, and there's so...

There are so few actors you can really do this with who have a body of work where even the casual people know multiple movies or characters from Saturday Night Live or whatever.

But let us know your favorite Bill Murray role or character 855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.

Phone lines are always open here.

Folks, you can comment on anything we're talking about as you know.

You can also text us on the app or if you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook or the app Greg still calls Twitter.

as we all do.

Drop us a stream comment and be part of the show.

And while they're doing that, Pete, I just want to talk about something really quick I saw in the news today that kind of blew my mind.

So you know how like vaccines are very reliable, reliable, researched, great.

Wonderful, life-saving, helpful, all those things.

But there's a certain group of people who think they're terrible, life-threatening, will cause you to become an alien, magnetic, or I don't know, whatever.

And some of those people work in the White House.

Well, our HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

and his group basically blocked a study.

from the Food and Drug Administration, the publication of a study that tracked the safety of the COVID-19 and shingles vaccination.

They blocked this study from being published.

Ask me why.

And I was just gonna do that anyway.

And why?

Because the

results of the study are in line with what everyone already knew.

It's well researched.

It's safe.

Side effects are few and far between and same with the shingles shot as well But because they don't align with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

And his ilk they stopped it from being published

It's so crazy and they're stopping you know when the good information is out there reliable scientific information People like influencers can't make money off that they can't get people outraged and upset

so they

have to attack the vaccines Robert Kennedy has already been very publicly

disgraced with his Tylenol nonsense

and

causing autism.

Those were BS.

That's been debunked.

But the nerve to come back out and do this again.

And it's like, I just don't get it, Greg.

Look, I don't wanna put anything in my body.

Tylenol even, but I'm gonna take it.

I know it's safe.

I just don't want added stuff.

And same thing with vaccines.

I've had a shingles vaccine, COVID flu.

It's all effective.

But not according to our Robert Kennedy.

They can have all the opinions they want, but they're not based in science.

They're not true.

But unfortunately, these people are in charge of these agencies, these departments, and this wing of the cabinet.

And now, I mean, it's like when we try to talk about guns, and it's just absolutely unacceptable.

Like, ugh, don't like it.

They're the kind of people

that say, trust me.

Okay.

Hey, we're coming back very quickly to talk about looks maxing folks.

It's nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Welcome

back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

I am Pete Schwabba coming to you live from Northeast Wisconsin, Christmas City, USA.

Greg is coming to you live from

Racine in radio park historic radio park and Dom Lee the kid Dom Lee That's left over from last week's movie like good fellas as the kid Henry Hill Jimmy

Caesar there

Jimmy Caesar is in lover of all things fast food is working the board and producing the show from Madison It is great to have you with us tonight folks.

It is a nightlight movie club night So we would love it if you all participated like you did last week talk to

us

about Ghostbusters.

That's this week's movie

It was such a fun rewatch.

And tonight's question goes hand in hand with it.

One of the stars of Ghostbusters is Bill Murray.

So tonight's question is what is your favorite Bill Murray role or character?

You can go back to Saturday Night Live or anyone of Bill's roles.

He's an absolute legend.

So have fun with that.

Or get in touch with us.

Phone lines are always open.

855-752-4842.

855-75 Civic.

I just realized I said that phone number.

the way I said that phone number like I'm hoping people don't remember it.

And that's not good.

Okay.

I think you're doing great.

Listen, I'm just I'm an honest guy.

I like to take stock in my performance as I go and report.

Oh, trust me, we're taking notes.

I'm writing stuff.

Yeah, I'm writing everything down.

Here's what I'm here's what I'm not doing.

I'm not buying Kevin O'Leary's nonsense.

This is from the Hill.

What's he talking about now?

I mean, this guy is so annoying.

Like my wife was really into Shark Tank.

I didn't hate the show.

Fine.

You know, and people would go in, but I can't watch every week.

I could sit for 10 minutes and go, that's kind of a cool invention.

And sometimes these people have all excelled in business.

Kevin O'Leary is one of them, but he pitched a data center in Utah.

People showed up constituents.

It was proven of the people that were there.

And they were against it and the city or county or whoever people, the local municipalities approved it anyway.

Something stinks here.

They're grease and palms, whatever.

But Kevin O'Leary is the brains behind the data center.

It's his baby.

He's going to build it.

He's going to make a ton of money and people's electric bills are going to go up and it's going to deplete supposedly further the Great Salt Lake because these things take a ton of water.

And he pushed back.

He said the Shark Tank Star, according to The Hill,

took to social media to comment about the situation, claiming most of the protesters were from out of state.

How does he know that?

We heard this about the Kings Marches too, or the No Kings Marches.

Oh, they're all George Sor— All eight million people, really?

They all were sent a check by George Sor— It makes no sense whatsoever.

It's such a tear— It's a tired narrative that you can fly in protesters, and maybe some of them did fly in because they feel strongly in general.

I don't know, but it's nonsense.

Address the problem, and that's the data center.

Well, and that's like, I just want to know when did we start relying upon the shark tank guy for political, social advice or any sort of opinion.

I know this is nothing new.

We ask all sorts of weird people about these things, but he is so aggressive and he just sounds so dumb.

I'm like, go

in your little

studio, sit in your chair and pass up a deal like you did the scrub daddy and just like live your life.

Like I don't need you telling me how to vote, what to think.

I just do not like this guy at all.

Every time I hear his name,

Like when he's on CNN on a panel, I'm like, you couldn't find anyone better.

Was Scott Jennings off that night?

You had to find

someone worse.

I just, I can't listen to this man.

And he said something in an article that said, like, I'm the only one who graduated with a degree in environmental studies.

Yeah.

Your bachelor's degree in 1977.

No offense to those who have that too.

But things change over the course of nearly 50 years.

Technology's changed.

Research changes.

I'm sorry your your your four-year bachelor degree is not anything that makes you go.

Well, Kevin O'Leary has a

bachelor's

degree everybody.

I

mean,

that's basically a doctor.

It's basically a doctor, right?

I mean, I'm up.

I have a political science degree.

That makes me a scientist, right?

Sure.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

These data centers, I don't know if they're all this size.

This one is 40,000 acres

and

someone a social media influencer who was commenting on this.

I saw us

That's three times the size of Manhattan in Utah.

40,000.

I just want to know, maybe they're necessary, Greg.

I don't know enough about them, but I would like them researched more.

And I would like to know that the costs aren't going to go on to the taxpayer.

I will say, I don't think they're necessary because we lived a long time without them.

Well, that's what my instincts tell me too.

Yeah.

So by the way, here's another weird one.

You'll love it.

Okay.

Have you ever, have you ever heard of clavicular?

Is that a disease?

Like, I have a bad

case of

clavicular.

I broke my clavicular.

Ouch, I was playing some flag football and my clavicular just snapped.

This is an influencer.

He's a model who's a looks maxer.

Is that his Christian name?

Clavicular?

No, it's actually something like Braden at Erick Jones.

That wasn't pretentious enough.

He had to go with clavicular and name himself after a collarbone.

But he...

shot an alligator in Florida and he got

arrested for it.

Yeah, the alligator was already dead, but you still can't shoot dead animals,

I guess, in the

Everglades or wherever it was.

And he and his buddies shot this up, but it's the bone smashing to change your face and the look of your face to give yourself more of a pouty or sexy look.

Dom looks maxing.

You've educated us about this

word.

Yes, he gives people percentages too.

He lines people up and says, all right, you're this percentage you have.

this percentage of bone mashing in your cheeks.

I don't even know how it works,

but... Is he a doctor?

Like, is this... Is he

Dr. Clavicular?

Nope.

Is he a graduate of Clavicular Science?

Dr. Clav.

No.

Paging Dr. Clavicular, we need a bone smashed in your... These people that do this don't even go to the doctor.

They do

it

on their own.

I don't know

what's

crazier.

The fact that he exists or the fact that...

he shot a dead alligator in Florida.

That actually

seems like

a very Florida story, actually.

This is rational,

but it's strange.

And he, he coaches and he convinces other people to do this.

And my thing is, you know what?

You can change your face all you want.

You could do this stuff.

So you talk to girls or guys, whatever the case may be, you still have to learn how to communicate with people.

This is not going to make you hot.

This is not going to make you desirable.

After the first look to other people, you have to be a human being and talk.

I guess not.

I could be as clavicular and be like, I just want to smash

my

face.

From now on, I want to go as the uvula tar.

This is Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

We are coming to you live and we're coming right back with Michael Nguyen.

It's going to be great teacher appreciation talk.

This is Nightlight.

That's another one of my favorite Jim Croci songs right there.

Come on, Eileen.

Hey, welcome back to nightlight folks.

I'm Pete Schwabba joined as always by Greg Bach and Dom Lee is in Madison spin in the tunes and producing the show.

It's great to have you with us.

This is Thursday, folks.

We are almost there.

The weather's getting better.

It's going to be a great weekend, but let's kick it off tonight.

It's nightlight movie club in the second hour.

The film is Ghostbusters.

We're going to have a great chat.

We hope you join us.

And our question of the night is, in honor of Ghostbusters and one of its biggest stars, Bill Murray, what is your favorite Bill Murray role or character?

So answer the question.

Join us for movie night.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

But right now, it is my pleasure to welcome Michael Nguyen.

He is the executive director at Teach for America, Milwaukee.

He joins us now over the stream to talk about Teacher Appreciation Week here in Wisconsin, as well as a few other things.

Michael, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Oh, it's our pleasure and happy Teacher Appreciation Week.

It's a really nice week to acknowledge what our folks are doing.

People are getting their lunches, their breakfasts, their gifts from families.

It's been an outstanding week for our folks.

That's excellent.

I will say right up front, my wife is a teacher.

She's taught in Chicago parochial schools, Los Angeles, unified, and now up here in Marinette, Wisconsin, a smaller town.

She's kind of run the gamut on all the places you could teach.

She always laughs.

that during Teacher Appreciation Week, somehow there are donuts and junk food in the teacher's lounge.

And she's like, are they appreciating us or trying to kill us?

What do you think it is, Michael?

My wife is an educator.

Where my kids go to school.

And she hasn't had to make breakfast or lunch this week.

The families have been very gracious.

The school leadership has been very generous.

But it's helping our grocery bills this week.

That's always, always helpful, Michael.

We got you here.

It's teacher appreciation week.

And you are the executive director of Teach for America, Milwaukee.

Let's start right there.

Tell us, tell the audience, Teach for America and what it does and what specifically you do in Milwaukee with the program.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Great.

So our vision and our belief is that every kid deserves an excellent education in the way that we.

pursue that mission as we recruit and train and develop high quality folks because kids in Milwaukee deserve great adults in front of them.

So when we recruit, we are looking for folks who have led during college or in their careers at outcomes, worked with folks in communities across lines of difference because when you get into a Milwaukee classroom, those students are coming with a lot of different needs, a lot of difference.

relationships that you need to build so that you are the trusted adult in their life and teach for America what we do is we provide a lot of coaching, training, a community so that our teachers see a group of folks that coach and support them so that they can be great for kids every day and our teachers become career teachers, some of them become school leaders, some of them pursue

law or medicine or become civic leaders.

But because we all worked with children in communities, we have a shared belief of what could be true for them if we center children.

Boy, that's a great that was great.

I I'll say I worked in a school when my daughter went to middle school.

I guess I missed her a lot.

I started volunteering and that turned into a part time position where I got to work with kids in an intervention room.

And a lot of them came in hot, you know, they had just been in a fight or gotten trouble.

And I really got to know a lot of the kids and about their home life.

That gave me even more insight into what teachers are dealing with.

Teachers have to manage these kids and also make the learning environment good for kids who don't have behavioral issues.

It is a juggling act, yet they take a lot of the blame.

for the kids that have no guidance, no real guidance at home.

Can you talk, and maybe your wife has talked about this a little bit, what is the challenge for those kind of teachers, and how can your outfit help that?

Yeah, so first of all, I'll say I was a teacher too.

So I started my career as a teacher in 2009 through Teach for America.

I was a core member.

I taught in Milwaukee Public Schools.

I taught at St.

Anthony.

I was principal at St.

Anthony.

Like your wife, Pete, I've seen my fair share of what goes on in the classroom.

And the biggest thing I've learned and still today is we don't always know what our families are going through.

We don't always know the responsibilities that the families have at home to put food on the table, the long hours at work.

I'm fortunate in my household with my three kids, we're checking their homework, we're reading with them every night, and sometimes the hours get long, and for some families, the hours are very thin.

So as teachers and educators, we gotta be aware of the different supports that our kids need, and to be quite frank, Pete, what that also means is teachers wear a lot of different hats.

Some of our core members are just the teachers in front of the classroom, they're the counselor, they're checking in on the kid each morning.

How are you entering the classroom today?

they're distributing breakfast.

The kids have to eat.

They have to be nourished and supported.

And so a lot of our teachers, and this is why Teacher Appreciation Week is so important, is not only are they the educator, they're the main adult in many of these kids' lives throughout their year.

And what we have to do as educators is recognize our local control.

And for folks that aren't in the classroom,

understanding that teachers wear so many hats and figure out how do we lean in to help the school systems so that teachers aren't wearing all those hats for kids every single day.

Great point.

Yeah, I mean with all those challenges and you know we talked about this last night because we were discussing Pete's wife's work and we really looked at it at the point of view of as

as a calling people who who become teachers who stay in teaching do it for decades go up against so many odds it's really a calling for what they feel like how they contribute to society when you are talking to young folks who are thinking about joining teach for america what are those conversations sound like do you have like you know is it folks who just come in say i want to do this or is it like them

You know, like a guidance counselor, if you will, where you just talk it out and give them the idea of what would be happening.

But what are those conversations, especially in 2026, look like for young people who want to go into teaching?

Well, Greg, what's interesting for Teach for America is we often recruit folks who aren't traditionally trained in schools of education.

So for instance, I'm a psych and social major back in 2009, right?

I graduated from Illinois with a psych and social background and I

I joined Teach for America and I earned my certification.

I earned my master's degree.

TFA provided the coaching and support for me to be as successful as one can be in the first and second year of teaching.

As we talk about current recruits, you know, they're from similar backgrounds as me.

I looked at the degrees that our people are coming in with.

Some of them are education, some of them are ed policy, but a lot of them are physics, math, econ, business, anthro, English.

These are folks that are joining because they want to make a mark in the system, in education, working with communities.

So I'll give you an example.

I got one guy coming in.

He's graduating from Madison with policy-side background.

He knows he wants to be a part of Ed Policy one day, but he also understands that if he is going to have an accurate and valid understanding.

of how to support communities in the forms of education.

He benefits from being in the classroom with children, making impact on their lives, understanding how schools work, understanding how school structures and systems work, because the folks that are going to best impact that policy are going to be the folks who understand what's going on on the ground.

And to be more particular about your question, Greg, I am

You know, every generation, I'm a millennial.

Millennials got our fair share of grief as we were younger, and Gen Z is facing similar stuff, right?

Like, what do they care about?

What we've learned in recruiting these folks.

is there's a lot of altruism about them.

They want to do the right thing.

They've lived through COVID.

They've lived through the most formative years of COVID.

Some of them didn't go to get to walk the stage as high school kids.

And then some of them didn't get to walk the stage in college, right?

Because of a variety of things that happened at that time too.

So they are deeply invested in being a part of a society and system that serves others well.

And that's who's joining, teaching, and that's who's joining TFA.

It's amazing.

That's awesome.

I love that.

Our guest is Michael Nguyen.

He is joining us to talk Teacher Appreciation Week here in Wisconsin.

He's the executive director at Teach for America Milwaukee.

And we're talking teachers.

Part of my frustration, Michael, and I don't know if you've experienced this as a teacher or being married to a teacher, but I feel like to Greg's point, teachers are caring people.

They just want to teach.

you know, and I feel like it's the same way.

I used to be a stand-up comic.

It's the same way with comedians.

I remember leading a boycott in the mid-90s because clubs had lowered their prices.

And most of the people we met with were like, they don't even have to pay us.

I'm like, well, there's the problem.

And teachers, I feel like I get outraged when I would go to these meetings and they'd say, hey, this coming school year, we're giving you an extra gene day a month.

And they'd clap.

And I'm like, that's not...

That doesn't be the lower deductible.

Like, let's be sensible here.

How do you rally teachers if this is something that concerns you to get what they deserve?

Because as much as people who are in physics or other things, eventually they're going to want to make more money.

Well, I think I think the rally teachers part is I'm not avoiding your question.

I think it's a right question of like, how do you keep people excited about the profession?

Because, you know, we're seeing.

We have to invest folks to be teachers, and that's not true of every industry.

What I would actually say is, how do you rally non-teachers?

How do you rally parents?

How do you rally civic leaders?

How do you rally

business

leaders?

So let's just take a look at Milwaukee.

Milwaukee's aspirations is to grow to a million people in our population.

That's what Mayor Johnson has said.

And I'm for it, right?

A thriving economy requires more people, but a thriving economy, a growing population requires a strong school system.

And one way, yes, is to absolutely pay teachers more, provide better insurance and benefits.

But we just got done with a conversation about the multiple hats that people wear.

Listen, if schools were fully stocked with nurses, if schools were fully stocked,

with mental health professionals.

If we had the city and state systems where children are fed well, if we had daycare, there are many conditions that happen outside of the school that impact the ability for a teacher to, I think Pete, you might have said it a minute ago, focus on teaching, right?

That's why that's what a lot of our people love is like they love two things, one.

They love teaching, they act, and too, they love their children, right?

So if they're wearing multiple hats, if we can take things off as non-educators that impact the system, then teachers can focus on what they love the most.

Well said.

Yeah, absolutely.

And we only have about a minute or so before we have to go to our first break real quick.

What is Teach for America Milwaukee doing?

for teacher appreciation week.

And if it's something you, you can start now, we can come back to it after the commercial, but like for Teach for America, Milwaukee, what is happening this week with your organization?

Yeah.

So after we get done chatting, I'm going to head to a dinner with all of our core members

at

Zocalo, a food truck.

Oh, I love that place.

Yeah.

It's a great

place.

So I'm excited about that.

dropped off some gifts to our core members this week.

We actually have a celebration for our core members for finishing their two-year commitment in a couple of weeks.

I can't say too much now, but we have a few surprises for them and their families, so really eager for this month in general and not just this week for our teachers.

Excellent, excellent.

That's great.

We will have a few more minutes with our new pal, Michael Nguyen.

He is here joining us.

He works for, he's the executive director.

Am I getting that right, Michael?

I lost my notes here.

The executive director at Teach for America Milwaukee.

We're talking Teacher Appreciation Week.

We'll have more on the other side of this very short break.

What is your favorite Bill Murray role, folks, or character?

Be part of the fun, be part of the show, text us, call us.

Just get ahold of us one way or the other, because this is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach, and we are coming right back on The Civic Media Network.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

We are having a great conversation with Michael Nguyen.

He is the executive director at Teach for America Milwaukee.

He's joining us tonight over the stream from the great city of Milwaukee.

Michael, so I'll, I read this great article by one of our colleagues here at Civic Media, John Scott.

And he kind of pointed out in the article that so many teachers leave the industry because of low pay.

At what point, and I keep hearing that this is going to be an issue, but it doesn't see, it seems like we are filling positions.

So at what point does it get dangerous?

Or do you see that trend changing anytime soon based on your knowledge?

Here's what the research shows us, right?

Research shows us that when teachers leave their schools, that there is a, there also has a reset, right?

So there's a reset for that classroom.

Sometimes there's a reset for that grade level.

And then when you bring a new person in, you have to retrain them on the school culture, the school's expectations, building those relationships with students, that institutional knowledge.

So what actually happens is you're losing consistency.

And so there's actually a danger of that every year, that every time a teacher leaves a building,

That cycle has to begin again.

And so I think, you know, just like any profession, that's true.

I think if we think about reasons why people leave is oftentimes they start thinking of building a family, thinking about other opportunities that might pay more.

A lot of the things that I see mitigating that is when people are in schools where they feel supported.

There are school leaders or principals that are building adult cultures.

that people are feeling successful, feeling connected, and feeling in community with each other as adults.

So I think the obvious answer that I agree with is like, how do we compensate teachers better?

What I also see as important to people that I've talked to my core members about is being in an environment where they can see themselves long term in that

community.

Coming to, you said you were at a dinner with folks who are fulfilling their commitment.

We're coming to the end of the school year for some kids where some kids are graduating.

For Teach for America Milwaukee specifically, what does this summer mean for you all as far as is it training, recruitment, things of that nature?

Or is it like we're gonna take a couple weeks off?

Or what do you do during the summertime for Teach for America Milwaukee?

You know, it's funny, Greg is like my staff wish we could take a few weeks off.

So yesterday we just want to say my staff.

I mean, the people on my team, the coaches, the folks who work with teachers in our community.

Yesterday we had a meeting preparing for the summer training that we're doing.

So we are expecting nearly 30 new teachers with Teach for America Milwaukee next year.

They start online training with us in.

on June 10th.

And then, yeah, some of these folks are just graduating college.

They have a few weeks themselves.

Our teachers right now, their school years are yet, and we're gonna start training the new group, and then they're gonna join us in Milwaukee for summer school, where they're going to teach students over the summer, get coaching, get mentorship, build some of those relationships early on, so that when they get to the fall,

They have skills and mindsets.

They can immediately implement for their new school and new classroom.

That's great.

Love it.

We were talking earlier in the show about data centers and AI.

Michael, how do you see, will AI affect teaching in your opinion?

I'm sure it will affect it one way or the other, but how do you think it will affect it?

I'll start with how it will not.

How it will not, like Pete, your wife, my wife.

They're irreplexible in the sense that kids will always want to build relationships with them.

Kids will always trust them.

Their family members at home will always want to connect with them because that's the human element.

The human relationship is what will never leave teaching, no matter how strong AI gets.

Now, that does not mean AI is a bad thing.

I had a conversation with someone yesterday.

We have a teacher who teaches at Ronald Reagan High School in Milwaukee, the top performing high school in the city.

His name is Brent Champion.

And what Mr. Champion does is he uses something called Google Notebook LL.

And he puts all of his classroom notes on there.

The kids have access to his notes.

The kids can rearrange the notes.

The kids can create study guides from them.

The kids can create test questions that they can practice with it.

Mr. Champion doesn't have to do any of that.

AI is doing that for him, and AI is essentially functioning as like an additional tuber and resource for the kids.

And that's good for the kids too, right?

Because, you know, why redo something?

Why have to create something?

There is no character building there.

The point is for kids to be educated.

Do you think AI will affect our marriages, Michael, in any way?

I hope

not, man.

I hope not mine,

right?

I

gotta go.

Wow.

He took it in a direction, Michael, that surprised both you and me.

I'll tell you that.

I went with it though.

He was right there.

I'm sure we've all read the same articles about how folks are getting connected to AI and I can assure you that will not happen in my household.

There you go.

My wife's husband might as well be named Claude because she calls it her best friend and she just called me that in a while.

So yeah,

it's here to stay

for

sure.

I'm cheering for you.

I appreciate that.

Back at you, buddy.

Michael Nguyen, it was nice getting to know you.

Keep up the great work and enjoy your dinner tonight.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

It's really nice meeting you too.

Thank you.

All right.

That's Michael Nguyen.

Check out Teach for America.

And whatever you do, folks, this week, be good to your teachers.

Appreciate them.

Show them appreciation the best way you know how.

I do.

It's a box of donuts.

Maybe something that doesn't cause them harm long term.

All right.

So we've got the Nightlight Movie Club coming up next hour, folks, at 6.20.

When we come back after the news, we're going to read some of your texts based on our question.

What is your favorite Bill Murray character or role?

So have fun with that.

Let us know.

We've got some great answers already.

We'll be reading your texts after the news.

Then it's the movie club and of course the nightcap to close out the show.

But don't go anywhere.

Be part of the fun.

It's coming up next.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Trying to make sense of the world.

You've got Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Call our toll-free number now.

Headlines, culture and real conversation.

And

now, our feature presentation.

Here's Pete and Greg.

Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

You can always join us

call our texts.

The number is the same eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five.

So they could have a comment on that live stream.

We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still call Twitter still ahead.

We are going to be talking about the nightlight movie club.

We're going into the club folks.

And this evening.

Oh,

Bustin makes us feel good because it's Ghostbusters, baby.

The 1984 classic film.

And then we'll be wrapping everything up with the nightcap.

If you want to get in touch with us regarding Ghostbusters, our question of the night or anything you can always call or text.

You can also do this.

Get yourself the Civic Media app.

Download it right now because you can call text.

Leave a voice note if you'd like.

You can also listen to shows live.

Get your news.

It's all right there.

Neatly confined, curated beautifully on the Civic Media app.

You can also go to civicmedia.us slash shows.

and download past episodes.

If you've missed them, you can catch up, download them, download them like a podcast.

If you missed the first hour, missed yesterday, you can always catch up by going to civicmedia.us slash show.

So there's still lots of great programming still ahead of a big, big, big, huge super duper.

Thanks to Michael Newen.

He is the executive director of Teach for America Milwaukee for stopping by and talking about teacher appreciation week and how great teachers are.

I have a couple of friends who did Teach for America and they loved it.

And one of them is now.

lawyer, not working in that policy, but working somewhere.

It's like he's working in the state of Wisconsin, trying to make just trying to make things better for everyone.

And I can appreciate that one right there.

So, um, yeah, guys, first good hour, right?

Yeah, first good, first good hour.

Good first hour.

Yeah,

absolutely.

I don't think we've had a bad never not enjoyed an hour of nightlight.

Right.

So yeah, we're doing all right.

Okay,

I never not enjoyed when they're fine.

It's fine.

It was way too casual.

No, I say it's an average of like a 6.5.

I guess I don't know WBA you're

listening Tom said something you before we we broke And I didn't hear it.

Oh, it's not it

funny.

Um, what it was.

I do remember when it was repeated on the air

Um, well, I just went to the bathroom in my britches.

That's what I meant to say.

In

your britches?

What?

Yeah, that's what I said.

Well, good ol' Dominic had himself a moment in his britches, oh boy.

Oh my gosh.

Take yourself back to the outhouse, clean yourself up, cause dinner's coming soon.

Wash your hands or else you don't get no dessert.

It's not true,

it's

fake news by the way.

I'm wearing knickers tonight, so.

Oh wow, oh wow.

Everyone's just

going super duper old school.

All right, before it gets too fun, let's restate the question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Question.

Questions.

In celebration of the night nightlight movie club, which is Ghostbusters, we want to know what's your favorite Bill Murray role or character?

It can be either a character from Saturday Night Live, a character played in a movie or a movie he starred in.

Doesn't matter.

What is your favorite Bill Murray role or character?

Give us a call.

Send us a text 855-752-484-285-757.

Leave a comment on that live stream.

Again, we're streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform we still call Twitter.

Pete, what do you have, like, as far as, like, you know, your, your, your Bill Murray knowledge?

Well,

you know, I kind of cheated.

I listed about four or five films because I just couldn't decide.

And I should have just picked one because I was reading everybody else's comments.

And I'm like, Oh yeah, I could have put, I could have put 10 or 12 movies on here.

But I went with Herman Bloom from Rushmore.

He had just a great performance there.

And then I went with Bob Harris, Lost in Translation.

This

is Sophia, a couple of movie.

Grim from Quick Change.

Do you guys see Quick Change?

Yes, of course.

Just a phenomenally underrated movie.

Ken Bowden from Wild Things, he played an attorney.

Ken Bowden, very funny.

And Phil Connors in Groundhog Days, just because, well, he was great in it, but it's one of my all time favorite

movies.

Groundhog's Day, that's one of the, yeah, that one, absolutely, absolutely.

Dom, what about you, my friend?

This is gonna be, this might be off-putting, but he was a great voice actor, and he was the voice actor of Garfield, and I loved that movie.

Oh,

yeah.

He was, that's right.

That was one of my favorite animated movies of all time, so I love Garfields, and I think I'm gonna have to go

with that one.

There you go.

Yeah.

brought to you

by Taco

Bell