By Chandra Madafferi Certified school librarians across Michigan are doing amazing work to help increase literacy rates and spark a love of reading among students. As a state, we must work to ensure every student has access to a certified librarian in their school. Certified school librarians run vibrant programs that allow students to learn […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
MEA member Kecia Waddell began her career in the analog world, moved into digital, and will finish in the artificial intelligence age. A 30-year special education teacher in Utica, she couldn’t be more excited. “I’ve always integrated technology for transformative teaching and learning experiences for my students, but I’m so, so, so excited to have […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unlike any technological tool that has come along in the history of higher education, and educators and institutions must immediately begin the ongoing work of adopting it and adapting to the rapid change it will bring. That was the striking thesis laid out in the […]
Phillip Hanson had “a bit of an existential crisis” when a new AI image generator emerged 18 months ago. An accomplished painter and digital artist, he realized artificial intelligence could achieve visual effects like his – only much faster. Having undertaken an art project using the system, called Midjourney, Hanson then made another discovery: leveraging […]
