One of the ways that MEA member Demetrius Wilson challenges students in his Engineering, Robotics, and Mechatronics program is to put “faults” into equipment that students have to solve before they can proceed with other tasks. It’s one thing to know how to build or use equipment, but it’s next-level to fix broken stuff, he […]
MEA member Rachel Niewiada already knew her Grandville Middle School choral music students were wonderful singers, but after she appeared on the ABC television program The View the seven-year teacher now knows they’re incredible actors as well. Niewiada says she had no idea several of her students would appear in taped interviews to talk movingly […]
MEA member Rachel Niewiada already knew her Grandville Middle School choral music students were wonderful singers, but after she appeared last week on the ABC television program The View the seven-year teacher now knows they’re incredible actors as well. Niewiada says she had no idea several of her students would appear in taped interviews to […]
Last March Kat Sibalwa, Byron Center High School teacher and BCEA co-president, was set to talk about MEA with soon‑to‑graduate aspiring educators at Grand Valley State University. Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly she was teaching from home with two small children and a husband working in health care. Had you presented to aspiring educators before? […]
When MEA member Ben Henri won this year’s Teachers Tournament on the long-running game show Jeopardy!, he returned home with something beyond the $100,000 in winnings. Henri found an extended support network in the educators he defeated for the grand prize. Of the 15 tournament competitors, 14 remained in touch months later – meeting virtually […]
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 […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor As a self-described “Harry Potter nerd,” MEA member Ashley Calhoun has brought a bit of magic to her hometown of Homer, where she is now finishing her fourth year of teaching fourth grade. When the global COVID-19 pandemic forced school buildings in Michigan to close in March, Calhoun was […]
While educators across the country are doing amazing things to help our students, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is using this crisis to push her education privatization agenda – this time proposing “microgrants” that sound very much like school voucher programs she’s pushed for years. “Once again, she’s tone deaf. She’s out of touch,” […]
New distance learning guidelines have been issued by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), taking into account that 500,000 of the state’s 1.5 million students – one-third of the K-12 school population – do not have home internet access. Mostly teacher written, the document is designed to help district administrators and local union leaders who […]
A fanciful watercolor painting titled, “Even Cows Deserve a Vacation, Bovine Beach” won the Best in Show Award at the 56th Annual MEA MAEA Art Acquisitions Purchase Exhibition. The piece was one of two accepted into the show from MEA-Retired member Thomas Thiery, a retired art teacher from Adrian. The painting features a dreamy depiction […]
