Blog
March is Reading Month Fundraiser – Help Buy Books for Schools in Need
This year for March is Reading Month, the MEA Classroom Support Fund is raising money to buy books for schools that cannot afford them for their students. As a thank you for donating, you’ll receive some amazing artwork by MEA member Sarah Ellis – she created the pieces to honor her colleague, Christine Beachler, who […]
White Fragility book study starts March 4
You are invited to a five-week, online book study on White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. This New York Times bestseller explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. Free SCECHs are […]
Join MINE for winter PD for new educators
Please join us as we explore some great learning opportunities hosted by MEA and MiNE – Michigan New Educators. Centered in the Michigan Core Teaching Practices, this training series is a continuation of our fall offerings. The Winter Series focuses on instructional practices and helping navigate the end of year evaluation meeting. You do not […]
Members step up to activism now in critical election year
In her 10-year teaching career in Livonia, MEA member Sara Williams has never been involved in politics. But Williams says she is stepping up now because “It feels like education is going in the right direction finally. We have educators on the education committee fighting for us.” Williams and other volunteers on the local union’s […]
Michigan’s educators prioritize student health, success in school rescue fund plans
Michigan’s dedicated public school educators prioritized the safety, health, well-being and success of their students when planning use of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding. The funds, distributed district by district, include the largest amount allocated by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in the American Rescue Plan to address learning […]
IN MEMORIAM
We are saddened to report the passing of Juwan Willis, whose exceptional contributions to his Oakland County CTE students and colleagues were featured in the December Voice magazine cover story. On behalf of the entire MEA, we send deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and students.
Late SVSU union leader honored for lasting legacy, large estate gift
Deb Rickert joined the support staff association when she began working at Saginaw Valley State University three decades ago, but she wasn’t active in the union for the first 15 years of her career as an administrative assistant – not until she testified at an arbitration hearing. “It was then I realized that labor has […]
Mother & daughter learn labor lessons together
Deborah Robertson had a tough go in her first year as president of the Harper Woods Education Association in 2021. She had only been a building rep for several months before becoming vice president, and only served in that role a few months before stepping into the top post. “My first year of being a […]
ICYMI: Free AI resources for your school district
MEA member Doug Hartley completed his student teaching and teacher certification amid COVID. Today at 27, in his second year teaching computer science in Utica, a second global upheaval has begun that will affect the rest of his career: the rise of generative artificial intelligence. A colleague of Hartley’s at the opposite end of her […]