MEA member Carrie Warning says she’s like a mother with her first- and second-year engineering and design students. She teaches and hand-holds the juniors but lets go with the returning seniors and takes a more hands-off approach. In fact, Warning employs a tough-love tactic with the older students at Genesee Career Institute in Flint, which […]

William Renner knows technology evolves at about a three-year rate, so the goal in his middle school computer science classes is not for students to learn the ins and outs of any particular software. Instead, “I want to teach them how to figure out the software,” he says. That distinction may sound like semantics, but […]

Thousands of public school supporters from across the state repeatedly broke into thunderous chants accompanied by banging noise makers and waving homemade signs at two June #RedForEd rallies at the Capitol to press for adequate state funding of public education. In these pages, soak up some inspiration and resolve to join the fight! At press […]

MEA member Matt Cottone has been on a roll lately, and he wants other educators to know they can be lucky too. The NEA Foundation announced in June that Cottone—a sixth-grade World Studies teacher in Rochester—has been selected as a NEA Global Learning Fellow for a one-year course of study and a nine-day field study […]

By Nicole Droscha Third-grade teacher Mason Public Schools “We are a team, we stick together. We are here to help everyone learn and grow in our classroom.” I can still hear those words being spoken by my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Frank, nearly 34 years ago. She had no idea how powerful her words would be […]

It was nearing the last day of school in June, and second graders in MEA member Sally Howell’s Saginaw-area classroom patiently awaited a special unveiling. With their classroom full of dignitaries and unfamiliar visitors, the youngsters listened patiently as various speakers talked excitedly of what was about to happen and why. Bridgeport-Spaulding Superintendent Mark Whelton […]

By Cara Lougheed Michigan Teacher of the Year 2019-20 “I know there’s been a lot of advice against going into education these days, but I have to say I feel a little sorry for people who don’t get to hang out with teenagers on a regular basis. They are lovely & funny & life‑renewing & […]

Yvonne Williams wants MEA’s Education Support Professionals to banish a word from their vocabulary: “Justa.” “It would not be unusual to hear one of our colleagues say I am justa bus driver, I’m justa secretary or I’m justa custodian,” the recently retired MEA Northern Zone Director told attendees at the ESP Statewide Conference in Port […]

Three MEA members—a bus driver and two teachers were honored with association awards during the MEA Winter Conference in February and the MEA ESP Statewide Conference in March. Marti Alvarez won the Leon A. Brunner Award for her work on behalf of students and union members in her roles as a bus driver and union […]