It’s not about perfection, and it doesn’t move in a straight line. But it’s what we do as educators—always developing new ways to reach and teach our students.

Given the freedom to try a different approach, we learn what works and what doesn’t and constantly hone our practice to prepare the kids we serve to thrive in a changing world.

We build and shape the future despite too many mandates and not enough funding. We fight the strictures of standardized tests to provide skills, hope, and opportunity to the young people who walk through our doors each day.

We do not do this work because it’s easy. We aspire and struggle and succeed and fail and try again and keep coming back because it matters to our children, our communities, and our society.

In this occasional new series of stories, read about colleagues crafting, retooling and collaborating to advance their practice and profession. If you or a member you know does innovative work that deserves attention, email MEA Voice editor Brenda Ortega at bortega@mea.org.

This month we feature two of the 10 MEA members who belong to the first two cohorts of the Innovative Educator Corps, a new state grant program.

No one knows how to deliver what our students need better than we do. We are MEA. We are public educators. We are the innovators.

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