QUOTABLES

“Now we just need to get the word out that this opportunity is available statewide for prospective educators in our rural regions.”

— MEA member Kathryn Dirkin, a faculty member at Central Michigan University and director of Partnerships and Programming at MiCAREER Resource Hub, a new initiative offering no-cost credentialing to current and prospective rural educators. Read the story.

QUOTABLES

“This is breathtaking — I never in my life thought I’d be standing up in front of colleagues in the numbers that are here today receiving a great award like this is.”

— MEA member Roy Freeman, a custodian in Dowagiac, MEA board member, and chair of the Education Support Professionals Caucus, on receiving the Paul Blewett Friend of Education Award at the MEA Representative Assembly in June. Read the story.

Above and Beyond

The February cover story from MEA Voice, “Mr. Smith’s Dream Center,” won a national award from State Education Association Communicators (SEAComm) this spring. If you didn’t have time when it published to sit with this uplifting piece on Grand Rapids art teacher Stephen Smith, read it now. If you’re in need of inspiration in troubled times, Smith’s story of resilience and hope delivers.

Collective Action on the Ave

About 1,000 people turned out to line five miles of Woodward Avenue between Interstate 696 and 16 Mile Road at a huge Day of Action last spring, organized by more than a dozen MEA units from coordinating councils 7-A and 7-B in Oakland County.

Car horns honked and blared in support of protesters calling attention to Republican plans to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. The event drew educators from numerous districts in Oakland and Macomb counties, joined by parents and other friends of public education.

MEA member Alyssa Reese, a school social worker in Ferndale, said she drew energy from the spectacle. “Lots of honks, lots of waves, lots of double thumbs-up. A lot of back windows down with kids waving to us from their car seats, and that’s been really endearing.”

The high school students she serves watch the news and often come to her with worries about what they see, which motivated her to join the action, Reese said. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that our kids feel like they can grow up safe and be themselves and learn authentically.”

Read the story.

ICYMI: School violence task force

A new MEA task force will examine ways to address increasing workplace violence against educators and advocate for policies, legislation and resources to ensure classroom safety for school employees and students alike. Formation of the task force was approved this spring by the MEA Representative Assembly (RA) — the union’s governing body made up of delegates from across the state — from a proposal by an early career educator from the Upper Peninsula.

Erinn Parker, an eighth‑year teacher and president of the Stephenson Education Association in Menominee County, said workplace violence is an increasing concern she’s heard repeatedly expressed since becoming an RA delegate three years ago. Parker also is a teacher‑leader in MiNE — MEA’s program for new educators — and heard the same issues discussed at a classroom management training she led last year for early career educators.

“Overall there’s a lot of hitting and kicking, biting, throwing of items, classrooms being destroyed, especially in the younger grades. It disrupts the learning environment, and it creates the question in your mind of whether you will be safe — for students, too, not just educators.”

The high school social studies teacher said she was “awestruck” to see her idea win passage from hundreds of elected delegates who conduct the union’s business at the annual two-day MEA RA. “It’s amazing, and I don’t want it to stop here.”