Teachers & K-12 Certified Educators

When MEA member Amy Rever-Oberle experienced a mishap on a field trip with 150 sixth-grade band students and 30 adult chaperones from Rochester Community Schools, she handled it, got everyone back to school early, and let administration know what happened. Over the next few days, the principal responded to a few parent questions, and life moved on. But the incident…

THE STORY One year ago, a group of Oakland County teachers began negotiating a new contract. They had been underpaid for a long time. Their bargaining unit was not tightly organized. They had little union infrastructure or member involvement. Few members even knew what the contract said. Yet today those educators boast major contract wins plus a newly solidified and…

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Things weren’t going according to plan at a recent meeting of the board of Brandywine Community Schools in Niles, where community opposition is growing as a new board majority has begun to enact an extreme political agenda targeting library books and teaching materials. Missing two of its seven members, the school board was unable…

Shana Saddler My first article back in August, titled “A Chance Encounter,” was a tribute to the love I hold for my mother and the teaching profession. This is my last article for the My View series, and upon much reflection I decided to write a love letter to honor all my educator colleagues. Anyone who knows me knows that…

Many people think of collective bargaining for salary, benefits and working conditions as the most essential benefit of union membership, but the solidarity created by belonging to a union family is at least as important. Aspiring educators from chapters at other universities, including Ferris, sent messages to colleagues at MSU. That solidarity was demonstrated recently through the work of both…

Bryan Schuerman plays two roles that put him in the spotlight: Family Consumer Sciences teacher in Grosse Pointe and weekend meteorologist at WDIV-TV in Detroit. How did you end up pursuing two demanding careers? In about 2012, I was working Monday through Friday nights doing the 7 and 11 p.m. newscast in Hagerstown, Maryland. I wasn’t making much money, and…

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Michele Morgan (above) has created a multi-faceted occupational therapy program to both develop job skills and strengthen mental health in students. Several years into her career as an occupational therapist in Warren Woods Public Schools, MEA member Michele Morgan realized why her high school students didn’t always make an easy or successful…

Just over four years ago, Dayna Polehanki and Matt Koleszar were working as classroom teachers — facing firsthand the challenges that decades of under-funding and misguided policy presented for public education. Matt Koleszar and Dayna Polehanki, new chairs of the Senate and House Education Committees Today, they not only serve in the Michigan Legislature, but have been named the new…

Cleorah Scruggs-DeBose, award-winning lifetime MEA member, saw the curriculum reflected little diversity when she began teaching in Flint in 1970, so she infused multicultural learning into lessons; led NEA to adopt National Multicultural Diversity Day; and still runs a non-profit that hosts an annual event to celebrate diverse cultures. Cleorah Scruggs Where did you grow up, and how did you…

By Shana Saddler When my third-hour class behaved badly with a substitute teacher, I was extremely disappointed in my student leaders. The next day, I approached “Maya” (a spirited, driven, yet funny student) and said, “Maya, why did you not step up as a leader and try to positively influence student misbehavior?” Shana Saddler Maya replied, “Mrs. Saddler, when a boat…