MEA member Marti Alvarez makes a distinction between her job at Traverse City Area Public Schools and her reason for being. She is employed as a bus driver, but she is driven by a goal to help students be successful human beings – a message she spreads to colleagues doing every type of work in […]
Yvonne Williams wants MEA’s Education Support Professionals to banish a word from their vocabulary: “Justa.” “It would not be unusual to hear one of our colleagues say I am justa bus driver, I’m justa secretary or I’m justa custodian,” the recently retired MEA Northern Zone Director told attendees at the ESP Statewide Conference in Port […]
This year’s winner of “Best in Show” at the 55th Annual MEA/MAEA Art Acquisitions Purchase Exhibition is an artist and teacher who exemplifies the circle of life in education. Josh Gove, a first-year elementary art teacher in St. Johns, says he credits skilled and encouraging educators from his youth for his love of art and […]
Michigan’s K-12 public schools would receive a $120-180 per-pupil boost in funding, plus additional aid to support the costlier needs of at-risk, special education, and career/technical students, under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s first state budget proposal released today. The governor’s spending blueprint follows the recommendations of several recent studies which examined Michigan’s school funding system and […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Brian Taylor moved to Michigan with his wife 20 years ago having never visited the state, and he became a teacher in West Ottawa 16 years ago having never graduated from high school nor earned an equivalency degree. As a teenager in Oregon, Taylor was “a non-conformist […]
In this issue: SPECIAL REPORT: Putting a Spotlight on Student Mental Health Above and Beyond Members Bring Mindfulness to Schools Breaking the Silence Delta College Faculty Unionize How to Build School Funding A Clarion Call Retirees Lead on National Level Member Spotlight: Chad Downs
What does political interest/involvement among students look like where you are? I have seen many of our students volunteer time working on local, state, and national political campaigns. Recently, one of my students was on the campaign for newly elected U.S. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin. Also our students work the voting stations for each election in […]
It’s being called a silent epidemic; a crisis. More and more young people from K-12 schools to college campuses are experiencing anxiety and depression, a problem accompanied by a dramatic growth in youth suicide. Rural and urban, large and small, rich and poor. No community is immune, and schools across the state are trying to […]
One teacher focuses on student engagement and empowerment through study of history and the U.S. Constitution. The other promotes acceptance of students’ social and cultural identities through multicultural learning and family outreach. Both educators – Ann Arbor’s Renea DiBella and Royal Oak’s Christy Osborne – were honored for their accomplishments during last week’s MEA Winter […]
