During a pay freeze in his district, MEA member Steve Conn watched as teacher colleagues left Wayne-Westland Community Schools by the dozens. “People were having resume-building parties, looking for jobs in other districts. Some left education altogether.” As years passed, with educators stuck on low rungs of the salary schedule, the poaching by wealthier nearby districts […]
For the last few years, students in Alanson Public Schools about 10 miles north of Petoskey did not have physical education classes. Declining enrollment and inadequate state funding meant the course had to be cut from every grade level except for one semester of high school to meet graduation requirements. This year, thanks to a […]
by Nicole Droscha Third-grade teacher, Mason Public Schools “We still have so many third graders not meeting target scores for reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. How will we close these gaps by year’s end? What other strategies or interventions can we try? What other resources can we use to reach more kids?” These difficult questions […]
MEA member Stefanie Sedlar was drawn to become an educator in two ways. She felt a strong desire to help at-risk kids find their way to success, and she believed a federal loan forgiveness program for teachers would help her “afford” to make less income than other college-educated professionals. This week Sedlar shared her story […]
Three years ago, Ann Arbor English teacher and MEA member Jeff Kass committed to take a difficult year of working three jobs to make ends meet and turn it into art. The result was his book of poems, Teacher/Pizza Guy, published by Wayne State University Press in 2019. Now the 23-year veteran of Pioneer High […]
One of the hardest things Nick Peruski has learned to do as a teacher in Huron Valley over the past decade is to let kids fail. Not letter-grade “F” fail. Peruski’s approach asks students in his high school business, multimedia, and web design classes to face challenges, develop and test solutions, and learn from what […]
Amber Guerreiro felt exhausted one Friday night, so the Greenville Middle School teacher wrote her thoughts down, titled “A Day in the Life of a Teacher,” and put it on Facebook. She thought a few teacher friends might relate. Her post went viral with more than 108,000 shares. What was it that resonated with so many people? […]
Five years after accepting dramatic concessions to help pull Flint Community Schools out of deficit spending, the district’s teachers have overwhelmingly approved a contract that raises pay, lowers class sizes, and restores MESSA health care benefits, among other improvements. In addition, added provisions aim to create a new educator pipeline through a tuition reimbursement plan for long-term substitute […]
If you put a bunch of educators in a room and ask them to solve what ails public education these days, you might expect they would produce a pretty darn amazing set of recommendations. Lansing grades 7-8 teacher Erika Bushey reports out on her group's recommendations for recruiting and retaining educators. Expectation confirmed. Over several weeks this fall, [...]
“I know my child struggles in reading, but will she pass third grade?” These gut-wrenching words were tearfully repeated many times to me during parent teacher conferences this October. I tried to encourage parents to focus on inspiring a love of reading in their child. I tried to share where benchmark scores, classroom observations, and assignments indicated […]
