#SMWay Podcast

by Daniel Bader South Milwaukee

We can all learn something, right? The #SMWay podcast addresses current issues in Education, celebrates students and staff in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and addresses what challenges are in front of us as educators and as a community and how we can address them.

Who should listen to this show? South Milwaukee residents, for sure, but also anyone who takes an interest in education - whether they live in Wisconsin or an ... 

 ...  Read more

Podcast episodes

  • Season 2

  • En Espanol - Modern Spanish Language Education

    En Espanol - Modern Spanish Language Education

    The annual Wisconsin State Spanish Pronunciation Contest Championships is becoming a tradition in South Milwaukee. For those not familiar, it’s a contest where students study a bit of text, this year and last year it was a fragment of a poem, and practice pronouncing it exactly correctly. Today on the podcast we’re going to hear from four students who participated and got a first or second place medal for their mastery of the poem. Then we’ll hear from Cheryl Caruso on three decades of teaching a global language – Spanish – and how during her career language education is taught and how students are different today than before.

  • Sending Care - Learning Kindness

    Sending Care - Learning Kindness

    An annual tradition is about to happen at Rawson Elementary School, and that’s why third-grade teacher Bill Gaynor has student art collected from the entire year in every corner of his classroom. Soon that artwork will be gently placed into a box, wrapped with care by students, police officers, firefighters, and other volunteers, and delivered with notes of care and encouragement to area cancer patients urging them to keep their spirits up and fight the Cancer Bully. On this episode, we’ll hear from Mr. Gaynor about the cancer box project and talk a little bit about his career as an educator and who his students are – a fitting tribute during Teacher Appreciation Week.

  • Water, Water

    Water, Water

    With the financial assistance of a grant, and its connections to high learning, the two South Milwaukee High School teachers and their students are teaming up to do real research on microplastics in water.

  • Scholars and Servants: Community Service at the High School

    Scholars and Servants: Community Service at the High School

    Today we’re talking about the National Honor Society at the high school and the real commitment that society has to community service. I think maybe we don’t celebrate enough the community service our students do. Just last week the Lakeview Elementary Student Council donated dozens of toys to an animal shelter and a box of tennis balls to the police department’s K-9 Unit - Rocket, who happily accepted them. This winter the middle school spent six weeks or more on community service projects to build a sense of community inside the school. At the high school level, the National Honor Society is one of the main vehicles for students to give back. In honor of the nearly 40 students inducted this week into the society, I thought it would be a good time to shed some light on that group and what they do for the school.

  • The Science of Reading - ACT 20 in South Milwaukee

    The Science of Reading - ACT 20 in South Milwaukee

    Welcome to the SMWay Podcast, I’m your host, Daniel Bader. Today we’re touching on a hot-button topic in Wisconsin, reading legislation. Specifically, ACT 20, a law passed last summer states that all Wisconsin schools are required to provide science-based early literacy instruction in both universal and intervention settings. Today we’ll speak with Christie Gajewski, Director of Curriculum and Instruction about what ACT 20 is, what South Milwaukee is doing to follow the law in our schools, and what we can expect.