Jodi Sikma has been teaching for 28 years, and she plans to retire in 2020, so she’s been trying to cut back on her out-of-pocket classroom spending—meaning this year she’s only spent a few hundred dollars to do her job. She used to shell out $500 annually. Sikma, an elementary STEM teacher in a rural…
This year marks the 30th anniversary of a holiday charitable fundraiser held at MEA headquarters in East Lansing, a drive that raises more than $20,000 a year to help area families and charities across the state.
Waterford bus driver Becky Lesh tears up discussing her love for her job, and she shares how the MEA transportation unit she leads beat privatization—for now. Isn’t safety becoming even more important in your job? It is. There’s so many distracted drivers, and so many laws have changed for us as drivers. We now have hazard…
When Nicole Tschirhart landed a job at a traditional public school four years ago, she happily left the for-profit charter where she had worked for three years in an unsupportive setting she considered more business-like than nurturing. But she didn’t immediately join MEA when she started at her new workplace. She didn’t see the value…
In Otsego County’s Vanderbilt Area Schools, just down the road from Gaylord, two new teachers were hired this year—which might not sound like many. But in a small rural district, that number represents 20 percent of the teaching staff. In the northern Michigan district of 110 students, only a couple of teachers have more than…
Stories by Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor In Part Two of our year-long series chronicling the challenges and triumphs of two early career educators, we visit Brittney Norman and Zack Griffin during the time of year when the honeymoon has worn off, difficult student behaviors crop up, grades and evaluations become a factor, and exhaustion…
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor To say MEA member Bryan Forney has come a long way in less than five years would be a radical understatement. On Feb. 20, 2013, the former U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel was trapped in a burning helicopter on a mountain top in Thailand, both knees crushed and his…
By Christina Canfield and David Michelson, MEA Lobbyists This will sound strange, but one type of activity we regularly conduct as lobbyists requires us to threaten our MEA members with a swift kick! Before you get too alarmed, let us clarify that we have fortunately not yet had to follow through on that warning. The threat…
Note: As a proud MEA member, high school teacher, and student leadership advisor, I asked two journalism students to write an article explaining a hugely successful community service project we’ve conducted in Lake Orion. Sponsored in part by our local education association, LOEA, this event focuses our students’ attention on the needs of military personnel…
