Busted Pencils

Hail the conquering heroine! Friend of the show Hallie Newman Schmeling, or Teacher Hallie as we call her around these parts, is back on BustED Pencils for the first time since being elected to the Menomonee Falls school board! Drs. Tim Slekar and Johnny Lupinacci have a lot of catching up to do with Hallie as she discusses her journey from educator to deciding to run for public office, the good times and the tough moments of running a political campaign in 2025, and how to bring good old fashioned classroom lessons into the realm of public service. Join us as we talk about it all on THIS exciting episode of BustED Pencils.

Teacher Hallie and her partner Teacher Joanna are Educators Amplified, a podcast dedicated to raising up the voices of educators. 

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

You’ve all been waiting for it, and we’re finally delivering. For the first time in 28 DAYS sports whiz kid Jimmie Kaska has made his TRIUMPHANT return to the podcast to discuss the wide and wonderful world of Wisconsin sports. Jimmie informs our intrepid hosts Drs. Johnny Lupinacci and Tim Slekar about the WIAA’s upcoming slate of reforms to high school athletics covering everything from allowing kids to earn money through NIL deals to coaches being allowed to give their players a few pointers during the off-season.

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon promises Americans an A1 education as she confuses A.I. with a popular barbecue sauce brand, Dr. Tim Slekar makes his triumphant return to the show after getting his pearly whites repaired, and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci takes a walk on the bright side by pointing out some of the opportunities presented by a rapidly shifting education landscape.

With higher education facing a turbulent sea of challenges and threats, Tim and Johnny discuss the way that declining demographics and economic austerity are forcing institutions of higher learning to either adapt or die.

And producer Jakob does a great George W. Bush impression.

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

Blue-collar scholars and warrior poets Dr. Johnny Lupinacci and producer Jakob overcome their grief over Tim’s absence to take a look at one of the perhaps not unexpected results of Donald Trump’s executive order banning “DEI” and “woke” from classrooms as in Idaho a 6th grade teacher finds herself in a difficult situation when her school’s administration asks her to take down a classroom poster that simply reads “everyone is welcome here.” When the definition of controversial changes, should our values change too? Or do we all have an obligation to continue making everyone feel welcome regardless of what certain forces within society might like to scare us into doing? And what could be more patriotic than loving your country enough to want to see it improve?

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

On a lonesome, Tim-less episode of BustED Pencils Dr. Johnny Lupinacci is joined by newly-minted producer Jakob. They discuss the paths people take along their education journeys, the Frozen Four, and sticking up for the idea that Diversity is American so we can all enjoy the country we love. Western Michigan’s teacher training program gets a shoutout. The ongoing battle for keeping diversity in our classrooms continues playing out, and they discuss the chilling effect that curbs on education and expression have on our schools and society at large.

They talk about their admiration for the heroic teachers out there who not only teach children but make them feel welcome and comfortable in their schools and communities. We tackle states’ rights vs. federal intervention and how to be patriotic Americans while still recognizing historic and ongoing failings on the part of our country.

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

Spring sports run the gambit between everything from track and field to baseball, softball, lacrosse, and so SO many more, but which spring sports are closest to OUR hearts? Today we look to get to the bottom of that very question as Dr. Johnny Lupinacci and new producer Jakob spend their Friday debating the merits of various spring sports, discussing the various paths that students take on their journeys to finding the right essential curricular activities for them, and the value of finding an activity and community that works for you, whether it involves singing, dancing, pucks or strikes.

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

This week on a very special episode of BustED Pencils Doctors Johnny Lupinacci and Tim Slekar discuss the politicization of the education landscape as states like New York choose to sacrifice federal funding in order to uphold their DEI policies while others like Kentucky and Ohio move in the exact opposite direction as they now BAN DEI outright.

Do we live in a country of separate states with separate truths? How do states’ rights interact with students’ rights to an education? And will producer Jakob get to pose his own question at some point during the podcast? Listen to find out!

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

Today Dr. Tim Slekar comes fully leaded with a perplexing story out of Oklahoma as the state makes a controversial decision to begin teaching 2020 election denial as part of its official state social studies standards, a move that even David Griffith from the conservative think tank the Fordham Institute called “disappointing.” But is there an opportunity to come at this problem from another angle while insisting Oklahoma’s haphazard implementation is just not ok? Dr. Johnny Lupinacci responds with a different take, seeing a chance to delve into the wider issue of growing election denialism in American society.

When the subjects get tough, the only solution is a healthy dialog and that’s precisely what occurs on today’s episode as our hosts and special guest Jess PS grapple with the challenge of teaching students to embrace a healthy skepticism towards their government and its institutions without yielding ground to baseless conspiracy theories and debunked claims.

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

Pencil Busters, this episode is a little different. Today, we celebrate 10 incredible months of Producer Jess’s time with BustED Pencils. Why? Because this educated educator is going on to more education! Over the past 10 months, I- that is Jess- have learned and grown so much. I planned and produced each episode of the show and wrote each of these podcasts. It’s a bit surreal to write this last one. For today’s show, Dr. Tim and Dr. Johnny interview me about my educational journey. From where I’ve been to where I’m going, I bring you in on my path to medicine. I don’t know all of what the future holds, but I know for damn sure there’s more education and more pencil busting it it! So this isn’t goodbye, it’s just see ya later. And now I get to say it to you all. Thank YOU for busting pencils with me!

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

Randi Weingarten, President of AFT, joins us to discuss the lawsuits her organization is pursuing against the Trump administration’s reckless and harmful policies. She shares the deliberations she and AFT undertake when considering which lawsuits to pursue. It comes down to two simple factors. First- is the policy actively hurting people and standing in the way of people attaining the American Dream? Second- does AFT have standing to file? If so, they’re suing. This isn’t what AFT wants to spend their time doing. But they are advocates for laborers, educators, and so many of the first targets of this administration.

As we often discuss here at BustED Pencils, the American Dream is a fuzzy, ill-defined thing. One thing we know it absolutely requires is engagement. We must be able to engage with the difficult aspects of America, the contradictions and dark past of our great country. If we cannot, we lose whatever the hell the American Dream is.

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!