Busted Pencils

Join the BustED Pencils team as we continue to digest our Thanksgiving meals and conversations. This Homeroom has no trending news beyond our full bellies and full hearts. Instead, listen as Dr. Tim throws a classic “Tim Bomb” at Johnny and Jess (no Pencil Busters were hurt in the making of this podcast) taking us all into a conversation on food politics. Extend your Thanksgiving break by 20 minutes to breathe with us and take in a few minutes of peace.

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! We have so much to be thankful for, and we take time to acknowledge that in this episode. We also have much to work towards, reminiscing on our interview with David Pepper. How could so many people choose both their public schools and Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of defunding public schools? Was it because too often education turns into a system of schooling that separates the “educated” from the “uneducated”? Or do we just need more than a binary system? Our educated educators kick the ideas around.

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

We’ve been following Wisconsin’s high school football teams, both 11-player AND 8-player, since September. Here at the end of First Downs and Friday Night Lights, we check in with a brand new Pencil Buster. Travis Wilson is the general manager of the Wisconsin Sports Network (WSN). WisSports covers all of our state’s high school athletics, but Travis knows that ALL of the essential curricular activities contribute to a full high school experience. He joins us to recap the end of the football season and share kudos with the state champions.

We now look ahead to the start of basketball and hockey. As we move into the winter sports, look forward to our weekly Freethrows and Faceoffs.

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Class, welcome our newest Pencil Buster, David Pepper! In addition to being a lawyer, a political fiction author, and former Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, David is an educated educator, teaching election and voting rights law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. David joins Dr. Tim and Dr. Johnny to talk about a strange phenomenon he observed in the 2024 general election. Across the country, voters cast simultaneous levers for Donald Trump and against vouchers. This pairing surprises us, because Trump campaigned hard on a platform with a central pillar of “school choice”- vouchers. So what happened? David Pepper went to a district where voters rejected vouchers 74-26 while choosing Trump 80-20. Grab your pencils, class is in session.

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush argues that in this past election, voters voiced their favor for “school choice,” which any Pencil Buster knows is just code for vouchers. Bush may be conflating the votes people made at the top of the ticket for Trump with a vote for vouchers. Because across the country, where vouchers appeared on ballots, voters roundly gave a huge thumbs down.

Then, the University of Oklahoma faces the ire of their current governor for a class that may fall under their DEI ban. The weird thing though… well Johnny’s taught this class for 18 years. And every accredited teaching program in the country has a version of this same class. So what exactly is Governor Stitt’s problem here???

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Many of us are experiencing despair following the 2024 general election. For the fate of our country, for bigotries laid bare, and for a deep grief over who we thought we could be. How should we name this moment, and how can we talk to our loved ones about what we’re experiencing? Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, a most qualified returning Pencil Buster and all around excellent human, joins Tim and Johnny to check in on all this and more. If, like Producer Jess, this is your first time meeting Kevin K, know that you will leave this hour more at peace and in better spirits than you arrived!

If you’re an educated educator looking to get educated with Kevin K, check out the 14th International Conference on Education and Justice, coming up December 6-7 in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Returning Pencil Buster and Civic Media talk host Chad Holmes joins us to cheer on the high school football playoff teams and preview winter sports. All high school championship games will be at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. Check here for Civic Media coverage of the games. And as football ends, the winter sports begin! Dr. Johnny is particularly excited for the beginning of hockey- for obvious reasons, he being a coach for the Washington State men’s team and all…

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Welcome to Class, Pencil Busters! All over the news, President-Elect Trump is “tapping” people to fill his cabinet. Why do presidents have cabinets stuffed full of people? Well, they shouldn’t. So what is a Presidential Cabinet if not a piece of furniture? Dr. Tim and Dr. Johnny lead a lesson on the Executive Branch of the United States government. And then, we take a look at a man who has been auditioning to be Trump’s nomination for Secretary of Education for the past year. Ryan Walters, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, mandated in June that each public school in Oklahoma needed a Bible. This week, he mandated that each PUBLIC school in the state needed to play a video announcing the establishment of a new state department to promote school prayer. Well, get those pencils ready, we’ve got busting to do!

As a note, between recording this episode and its release, Trump tapped WWE executive Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education. Truly, the only requirement for nomination is to be chosen…

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Welcome to another week of Pencil Busting, class! This week, we’re starting off by reminding ourselves and you of something very important. Education, ESPECIALLY public education, teaches us so much more than how to count, read, and write. It’s where we learn how to be citizens in a democracy. Our institutions of higher education are especially potent place of civic learning and engagement. A white paper published last week by Complete College America demonstrates the unimpeachable power of higher ed to grow and strengthen democracy. However, one multi-impeached man who will return to the White House in January has threatened to use college accreditation as a “secret weapon”. Tim and Jess discuss what this might mean.

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! To learn more about the show and 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!

Class, give a big BustED Pencils welcome to our newest Pencil Buster, Jason Feig! Jason is part of the Khan Academy team, which works to bring the highest quality education to as many people as possible. He also works closely with schools looking to broaden their curricula to include AI materials and resources. Khan Academy’s newest learning mode, Khanmigo, is an incredible set of tools. Hell, it’s so cool, it got Dr. JOHNNY fully amped, and he’s usually our AI skeptic! Jason highlights that the AI is a tool to help teachers work on the most important parts of teaching: forming strong human connection and inspiring engaged learning. We may not BE machines, as Dr. Johnny says, but we sure can be friends with them!

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! To learn more about the show and 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!