Blog
Need loan forgiveness help? Register for MEA’s drop-in assistance!
UPDATE 8/26: All drop-in sessions are currently at capacity — we’ll provide updates here about further opportunities. Despite the rapidly approaching Oct. 31 deadline, many MEA members are eligible for college loan forgiveness through the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program but haven’t yet applied for a temporary waiver that could speed up debt elimination. […]
Donations help jumpstart summer trades program for middle schoolers
MEA member William Renner has always relied on community support to help equip his technology classroom at Hastings Middle School, but even he was surprised by the generosity of donations from area business and civic leaders to support a summer trades camp he operated this year. “It was money, it was time, it was talent,” […]
Labor Voices: Mentoring, professional support essential for educator retention
Michigan kids deserve the best and brightest educators. That seems like an uncontroversial statement, yet in the face of an educator shortage, some lawmakers have proposed significantly lowering our state’s teacher certification standards and making it easier for unqualified people to lead a classroom of young students. The last thing our state’s leaders should be […]
Pontiac paraeducator finds special takeaways at MEA Summer Conference
Pontiac paraeducator Gabby Price attended her first MEA conference last week, caught a front-row seat to a well-attended motivational talk by former NBA player Tim McCormick, responded with a smile to the speaker’s light-hearted banter and left with an autographed basketball. More importantly, she said in an interview after the conference session, she learned so […]
MEA Voice Magazine – August 2022 Issue
Click to view online. In this issue: Letter to Members: Where we stand on gun safety Above and Beyond: ‘Beyond awesome’ special-ed teacher involves students in wedding AEM-MiNE – A True Grow-Your-Own Success Story MY VIEW – A Chance Encounter October Deadline Looms for Student Debt Forgiveness FAQ: Public Service Loan Forgiveness Federal funds provide […]
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Veteran educator’s journey through pandemic bookended by losses
For MEA member Sandy Safford-Groff, the last two years have been especially hard – both as an 18-year English teacher in Cheboygan and a human being. Early in the pandemic Safford-Groff lost her mother, Dale Safford – a retired school librarian in Iron River, the small Upper Peninsula town where she grew up loving books […]
MEA Partnerships Create Quality Supports
MEA member Jay Holtvluwer is 29 years into his career and still enjoys learning new ways to improve his practice. A mentor to “anybody who will listen,” the middle school engineering and social studies teacher last year joined a union-sponsored program to strengthen his use of formative assessments. The Warren Consolidated Schools veteran became part […]
Fifty-Year Bus Driver Wins Award, Reminisces on Retirement
Over his 50 years of driving a school bus in North Central Area Schools in the western Upper Peninsula, MEA member Bob Hanchek says one day clearly stands out from all the rest. On Jan. 4, 2004, Hanchek made a stop on his afternoon route along U.S. 41. With red lights flashing and two of […]
Escanaba Educator Named Michigan Teacher of the Year: ‘I want to be that light in someone’s darkness’
Although MEA member Nanette Hanson has achieved rarefied status as the newly crowned 2022-23 Michigan Teacher of the Year (MTOY), the first grade teacher in Escanaba embodies the story of so many educators. Troubled by low self-esteem growing up in the small Upper Peninsula town of Gladstone, Hanson said in an interview it was caring […]