A new MEA offering allows members to earn up to nine post-graduate college credits per year for just $275 — and choose from a variety of online courses to address their professional development interests. The PD Course Subscription gives MEA members access to online non-matriculated graduate courses for one low annual fee through a partnership […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor In Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss, only the kindly elephant with his enormous ears can hear cries for help from residents of a microscopic community he can’t see — the Whos in Who-ville — who populate a speck of dust blowing in the wind. Horton protects the […]
Reading the cover story about this year’s NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence winner prompts two thoughts: First – East Jordan’s Matt Hamilton is a truly exceptional educator. And – every student, no matter where they live, deserves a Matt Hamilton in their life. Matt’s work both in and outside of the classroom is more [...]
By Brenda Ortega and Heather Palo MEA Staff It was mid-August, the dog days of last summer, and MEA member Matt Hamilton looked like a mayor on parade walking down Main Street in East Jordan, a small town along the Jordan River in northern Michigan’s Charlevoix County where he teaches middle school social studies. The […]
By Chris Curtis Chris Curtis is an award‑winning professor of psychology and former president of the faculty association at Delta College in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Like most professors, I’ve accumulated small gifts from students over my career: a Sigmund Freud pencil sketch, copies of Psychology for Dummies and The Journal of Irreproducible Results, [...]
The Aspiring Educators of Michigan (AEM) wrapped up their latest reading/writing competition with an awards ceremony for students who were asked to analyze which voices were missing from their school’s book collections. The “Growing Libraries with Representation” project, funded by a CREATE grant from NEA, asked secondary students in Mason to survey their classroom and […]
“We will use all the tools at our disposal—congressional action, legal action, and collective action—to stop the politicians and billionaires who want to defund our public schools.” —NEA President Becky Pringle, calling on members to get involved in pushing back against the Trump administration’s attacks on public education. NEA is signed on to two federal […]
Over a long career—first in the U.S. Army and now as a teacher in the career and technical education (CTE) field—MEA member Mike Cook has always used education and training to reinvent himself and build a resume of marketable skills. This year Cook began creating a new CTE program in Redford Union Schools, a western [...]
The MEA awards for Human Rights & Excellence are awarded at the MEA Winter Conference, MEA Summer Conference, and MEA Representative Assembly. Nominations are accepted October 1 – December 31 of the previous year. Nominating individuals or groups must be MEA members in good standing. If the nominee to be considered is an MEA member, the […]
A veteran paraeducator in Reed City and vice president of her local union, Nicki Strach has worked to implement innovative literacy programs while making sure everyone — regardless of behavioral or academic challenges — feels understood, valued and nurtured. For the last five years, Strach’s primary focus has been on emerging students at G.T. Norman […]
