MEA member Chris Erickson remembers early in his teaching career when he was easily discouraged by defeat, because he didn’t realize change takes time and persistence is a skill. A shift in his thinking happened when he attended NEA’s Teacher Leadership Institute (TLI), a fellowship program creating a national network of teachers to mobilize, advocate, and lead on […]
By Jessica Lumbreras MEA Political Action Organizer When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pitched her budget plan to lawmakers last month, proposing the biggest increase in public education funding in a generation, I know that many of you felt something you hadn’t experienced in a long time. Hope. It might have been just a glimmer. Maybe you worried about letting it […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor One morning last month, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sat in a rocking chair to speak with a classroom of fifth graders in Jackson after reading to them from a picture book, What Do You Do with a Chance? The students had conducted research on the governor before her visit, and they asked her questions […]
Incoming third graders next fall will be the first group whose spring test scores will be used to determine if they move on to fourth grade or not, under requirements of the third grade reading law passed by state lawmakers in 2016. Many questions remain about how the law’s mandates will work in practice. One […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor When MEA members Hattie Maguire, Kristin Franchi, and Jodi Forster—along with Assistant Superintendent Dr. RJ Webber—started an innovative new class at Novi High School last fall, they expected to figure things out as they went. They just didn’t know how much they would learn—or how quickly. The educators leading […]
By Madonna Jackson, EdD Disadvantaged/LEP Coordinator Mott Community College Treasurer, Professional Technical Unit (Pro-Tech) It is wonderful to hear policymakers such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer echoing what individuals working within career technical education have known for a long time—opportunity abounds for people who complete quality job skills training through degree and certificate programs. Students, both […]
In the light of current national events, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently made a call for strengthening civics education. She made the statement as she announced her struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and planned withdrawal from public life. “It is my great hope that our nation will commit to educating our youth […]
MEA member Chad Downs almost left the field of education before he started. During his pre-student teaching at Eastern Michigan University, Downs said he couldn’t find a school or program that fit with his beliefs about education and creativity. Then an EMU advisor intervened and introduced him to Ann Arbor Open School, and the rest […]
Every other Wednesday a group of silver-haired men sit around some pushed-together tables in a Brighton diner for breakfast and companionship, and their talk inevitably turns to the state of public education. They can’t help themselves. This gathering of more than a dozen regulars typically includes six former presidents of the Huron Valley Education Association […]
Are there political divisions or tribes at your school? Although our area of Northern Michigan is relatively conservative, divisions do not come through strongly at Cherryland Middle School in a normal election cycle. I’m not sure anyone would call the 2016 Presidential election normal, though. During the summer and fall of 2016, it was the […]
