My View is a special series taking a ground-level look at big issues My preparation for a new school year follows a similar routine: buy new classroom supplies, organize and set-up the classroom, look over and revise lesson plans, and my favorite part—get to know my newest third graders. I can’t wait to meet the…
Early career educators band together to strengthen colleagues and the union By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor For fourth-year educator Danielle Werner, the stress of phoning parents about their child’s misbehavior or lackluster effort is one of the hardest parts of being a new teacher. “In general, I still don’t even like calling to order…
In 22 years, the K-2 paraeducator working with students on the autism spectrum in West Bloomfield—has seen good (kids) and bad (cuts) What’s your typical day like as a paraeducator in a special education classroom? I supervise cars in the drop-off line in the morning, so I get to see all the good-byes and well…
Three MEA members received the Paul Blewett Friend of Education Award in April for their work to help MEA and public education. The honor comes with a monetary award endowed through the trust of Blewett, a longtime educator and leader from Region 17 in the U.P. Sandy Brasil is a Novi High School administrative assistant…
Every Michigan Teacher of the Year brings personal passions to the role as spokesperson for the state’s educators. The state’s top teacher for 2019 sums up her mission in two words: professional revitalization. MEA member Cara Lougheed, an English teacher at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Community Schools, said as MTOY she will continue…
How to reduce student attrition is a topic of great interest to college administrators, but Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) Communication Professor Dr. David Schneider is on a mission to make it the concern of every instructor and professor as well. A longtime member and leader of MEA’s higher education branch, Michigan Association for Higher…
MEA member Carrie Warning says she’s like a mother with her first- and second-year engineering and design students. She teaches and hand-holds the juniors but lets go with the returning seniors and takes a more hands-off approach. In fact, Warning employs a tough-love tactic with the older students at Genesee Career Institute in Flint, which…
William Renner knows technology evolves at about a three-year rate, so the goal in his middle school computer science classes is not for students to learn the ins and outs of any particular software. Instead, “I want to teach them how to figure out the software,” he says. That distinction may sound like semantics, but…
Thousands of public school supporters from across the state repeatedly broke into thunderous chants accompanied by banging noise makers and waving homemade signs at two June #RedForEd rallies at the Capitol to press for adequate state funding of public education. In these pages, soak up some inspiration and resolve to join the fight! At press…
MEA member Matt Cottone has been on a roll lately, and he wants other educators to know they can be lucky too. The NEA Foundation announced in June that Cottone—a sixth-grade World Studies teacher in Rochester—has been selected as a NEA Global Learning Fellow for a one-year course of study and a nine-day field study…
