MEA VOICE At Issue
MEA 'sparks' interest among newer members
Program designed to increase leadership, awareness and participation for teachers and support staff with fewer than six years on the job.
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| Newer MEA members participate in a team-building exercise during SPARKS training. |
They laughed. They cried. They ran around in “conga-line” style during a team-building exercise. But, mostly, they sparked.
MEA members in their first five or six years of working in public schools were brought together as part of a year-old program called SPARKS. They learned from education veterans—and each other—what to do, and what not to.
“Being a new teacher, and being new in the education association, I really wanted to learn about who’s out there, where are my dues going, what are my options,” said Bob Lawson, a fourthgrade teacher in Sterling Heights who is in his fourth year of teaching.
He learned all that and more a year ago at a golf country club in Augusta in west Michigan.
SPARKS is designed to, well, spark interest in the association and develop leadership potential in MEA’s newest members, said Melissa Sortman, a SPARKS trainer and an MEA UniServ director in Jackson.
Reaching out
“To have a healthy organization, one that meets the needs of all of its members, you have to have to have all members— whether new or more experienced— involved and part of the conversation,” she said.
With more than 30,000 members having five years of experience or fewer, the program is just one way the MEA is reaching out to its members to increase participation and awareness.
Begun in Washington state and funded MEA ‘sparks’ interest among newer members here through the Building Full Capacity Locals initiative, the SPARKS program hosts some 20 MEA members from throughout the state from Thursday afternoon through mid-day Saturday for what organizers call “an experience.”
Dynamic, hands-on training
To say that the training is dynamic and hands-on is a bit of an understatement. In one session, participants put balloons between one another, then try to move in a line as one without dropping the props.
April Bradley, a third-grade teacher in Utica, attended a SPARKS training in September.
“I learned to stay positive, even with all the pressures of being an educator,” she said. “It was nice because a lot of us shared our frustrations and concerns about the day-to-day issues.”
The sharing aspects also are what Melissa Gronzo, another third-grade teacher in Utica, excitedly speaks of when asked about the training. She still communicates regularly with her fellow SPARKS participants.
“I have a picture of the group on my desk,” Gronzo said. “I get to remember all of the great things we did that weekend when I’m having a hard time.”
For more information on the SPARKS program, contact your local president, UniServ director or Teri Battaglieri at 800/292-1934 or tbattaglieri@mea.org.