Professional Development
Education is a lifelong endeavor and educators are committed to continually improving their practice, regardless of their role. Learn more how MEA helps with continuous professional development for members of all types, including for teachers and education support professionals.
The Latest:
- Summer Essentials Webinars – The theme of this series of June webinars: The essential trainings you need this summer to ensure a successful school year this fall. Offered by expert and highly engaged education colleagues across the state and at convenient times (11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) that allow you to get in some essential learning before lunch and getting on with the rest of your day. These informative peer-developed professional learning opportunities are open to all MEA members in good standing, including earning SCECH’s and certificates of completion. Register today!
- NEA Racial Justice Webinars – Advancing racial and social justice is critical towards meeting NEA/MEA’s organizational policies and goals. A central component of this work is ensuring that the education profession properly represents the diversity of our nation by recruiting, retaining and supporting educators of color. The NEA Center for Organizing, in collaboration with the NEA Center for Social Justice, will host a series of webinars for Early Career Educators centered around racial and social justice, specifically focusing on supporting educators of color. We hope to assist educators in understanding the effects of injustice on their ability to effectively teach in the classroom and how it manifests in various ways in a school environment. While these sessions are geared toward early career educators, members at every stage of their career are welcome. SCECH eligible for MEA members in good standing.
- SCECH Eligible Micro-credentials – A micro-credential is a short, competency-based recognition that allows an educator to demonstrate mastery in a particular area/skill. Upon successful submission of evidence, an educator is awarded an encoded, digital badge that can be shared with an employer, on social media, on a resume, etc. Micro-credentials are not traditional PD courses; rather, they are self-directed project based professional development.
- National Board Certification – MEA members pursuing National Board Certification can access SCECH credit and scholarship opportunities through MEA.
Professional Development News
Don’t Miss It – Register for Engaging New Peer-Led Summer Webinar Series
MEA member Brian Dalton learned how to survive a difficult endurance event while training to compete in four Ironman races in his 40s, and he discovered it wasn’t much different from strategies he used as an educator to successfully make it through a school year. Just as in a brutal race involving a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile…
Welcome Back Proud Michigan Educator – MEA Teacher Re-Entry Program
MEA is partnering with the new Michigan Department of Education (MDE) program, Welcome Back Proud Michigan Educators, encouraging educators with expired credentials to return to the teaching workforce by reducing or eliminating professional learning recertification requirements. For more information, visit MDE’s site about the program, which allows local school districts to apply for waivers to help previously credentialed educators employed by…
Free Virtual Event on Human Trafficking is SCECH-Eligible
Human trafficking has victimized more than 8,000 people in Michigan over the last decade alone. In our effort to continue to provide valuable professional development for MEA members, we will be screening “Ring of Silence,” a dramatic film about an epidemic that many may not know impacts students throughout all of our school districts. This virtual event will include a…
Earn SCECHs for Completing Survey on Third Grade Reading Law
The Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) research team at Michigan State University has launched their year two Read by Grade Three survey, which is now open to K-5 teachers and literacy coaches or interventionists/specialists. Any eligible participant who completes the approximately 25-minute survey will be awarded 5 State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECHs) and will be automatically entered for a chance…
Conference Lifts ESP Voices, Roles, Strength
If knowledge is power, then MEA member Timmery Foster figures she is helping to make a stronger union by attending this year’s ESP Statewide Conference. Not only did the Howell paraeducator spend time attending sessions at the conference for Education Support Professionals – held virtually this year because of the pandemic – but she also is gathering credits toward professional…
NEW! Join an Online Affinity Group
A new program from MEA’s Center for Leadership & Learning will bring together members with a shared interest or identity for five weeks of virtual discussion starting in April. The first groups will focus on social workers, world languages educators, and early elementary members. More groups will be added as the program grows. Early elementary members will meet on Tuesdays…
Expanded Conference Draws Aspiring and Early Career Educators
MEA member Owen Bondono may have been the keynote speaker at MEA’s Aspiring and Early Career Educator conference in March, but Michigan’s reigning top teacher began his speech by acknowledging he just as easily could have been an attendee. “I have now had the honor and privilege and terrifying responsibility of being Michigan Teacher of the Year for 246 days,…
Sign up today for latest round of MEA social justice book studies
A new round of SCECH-eligible virtual book studies is now open for member signups! Brought to you by MEA’s Center for Leadership & Learning, these five-week online group discussions center on two important books to help educators improve their skills as advocates for social and racial justice for our students and our society: “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo – Two…
Network, Learn, Grow at Statewide ESP Conference
This year, Education Support Professionals have faced unforeseen challenges in every job category as the COVID-19 pandemic has upended normal life – and their contributions are something to be proud of, says ESP Caucus President Roy Freeman. Now in the wake of that upheaval and change, the MEA ESP Statewide Conference on March 25-27 offers a chance to come together, network,…
Conference Appeals to Aspiring and Early Career Educators
MEA member educators in the first 10 years of their careers are invited to join university student members for a newly expanded MEA conference in March that will deliver professional development, networking opportunities, and training sessions. Participants at the free virtual event on Saturday, March 20, will discover classroom tips to put to use the following Monday. But they also…