Click to view online. In this issue: Letter to Members: You are the Strength in Union Above and Beyond: Retired educator Pam Kellar Nominations sought for ESP Caucus Board My View: Eclipsing Restoration with New Growth Savoring a Win for the People Push is On for Changes to Evaluation System Legislative Councils: a case study […]
Stories by Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Ryan Ridenour has never known a teacher evaluation system other than the one used in Michigan since 2015. Still the world history and psychology teacher, in his sixth year at West Bloomfield, has found key problems with the state’s method for scoring, rating, and ranking educators. “I […]
When Ed Clements attends a dinner (or for now, a Zoom call) with other MEA members and their invited guest—a state representative or senator—he doesn’t expect the educators and politician will agree on everything. Sometimes they don’t agree on much. Yet the 22-year Bay City educator and current city commissioner keeps coming back for more of these […]
As MEA pursues fixes to problematic teacher evaluation reforms enacted in 2015, bargaining teams in some districts have had to contend with a legislative change from 2017 that seeks to add more weight to already high-stakes evaluation scores. At the state level, MEA’s bargaining wing has developed prototype contract language to knock down the threat, and many […]
Love ultimately led MEA member Tavia Redmond to don her teacher’s cape 28 years ago. Since then, she’s faced tough challenges with grit and patience—mostly in her hometown of Romulus, the Downriver suburb that is home to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. But nothing compares to this year’s struggles, she says. “This right here is a whole new […]
Early in student teaching in January, Gillian Lafrate was operating from an empty classroom with her Warren third graders fully virtual and her host teacher working from home. The Saginaw Valley State University senior elected to come in, given a choice. “My little sister is in seventh grade. She was learning virtually. My stepmom is a middle […]
Although the children on her bus can’t see her smile through the face mask, MEA member Julie Ingison makes sure they can hear the smile when she greets them by name each day. They also can feel her love through the huggable gift she crafted for each child over the winter. The 22-year U.S. Air […]
Ferris State University Professor Chris DeFraia has experienced many of the same effects from the global health crisis as other educators. For one, the MEA member misses sharing advice, encouragement, and friendship with colleagues. In addition, his genetics and biology students have seemed less engaged as the pandemic and mitigation measures to contain the virus have […]
MEA member Eric Hudson loves being surrounded by his orchestra students in Kentwood as each one contributes a musical puzzle piece to a mosaic of sound that becomes melody, harmony, rhapsody, symphony. It’s also a fitting metaphor for the 37-year-old educator’s decision to join a clinical trial of a newly developed vaccine against COVID‑19 last […]
The pandemic hit MEA member Sally Purchase’s AP art students in Muskegon especially hard as they were interrupted by the sudden closure of buildings last March in the final stretch of completing a multi-media art exploration on a personal theme. “We didn’t know they weren’t coming back, so here are these kids in their homes and no […]
