By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor (Part 5 of our five-part series on how anti-LGBTQ political attacks are harming educators and students) For those who didn’t hear the important news in late July, MEA member Anthony Pennock wants it noted the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that individuals cannot be fired, evicted or otherwise discriminated […]
by Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor (Part 4 of our five-part series on how anti-LGBTQ political attacks are harming educators and students) When veteran educator and local MEA leader Cathy Murray married her wife in December 2015, six months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, she was surprised to learn several others from […]
by Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor (Part 3 of our five-part series on how anti-LGBTQ political attacks are harming educators and students) MEA member Owen Bondono remembers well-meaning advice he got from a professor when he came out as transgender in college: either don’t transition or don’t become an educator. He would go on to […]
by Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor (Part 2 of our five-part series on how anti-LGBTQ political attacks are harming educators and students) In the summer of 1995 life was good for Gerry Crane, a young music teacher in west Michigan who had turned around a struggling high school program, earning awards and a glowing evaluation […]
By Corban Van Dam High school is a time when young people explore different interests and begin to work out what they want to do with their lives. This crucial developmental exercise requires a diverse array of learning experiences and educators to guide that journey. Unfortunately, the crushing teacher shortage is weighing on every aspect […]
We all know it takes a village to raise a child, and as educators we value everyone within the school community who plays a role in it. School children start every day greeted by a bus driver as they climb aboard. They arrive at school to a building full of folks ready to care for […]
A diverse group of 37 high school students spent two weeks of their summer break at Wayne State University’s Next Gen Teachers program, a partnership with MEA that introduced the young people to a potential career in education. Chosen from more than 200 applications, the students from 29 high schools in Michigan and Illinois stayed […]
For MEA member Sandy Safford-Groff, the last two years have been especially hard – both as an 18-year English teacher in Cheboygan and a human being. Early in the pandemic Safford-Groff lost her mother, Dale Safford – a retired school librarian in Iron River, the small Upper Peninsula town where she grew up loving books […]
MEA member Jay Holtvluwer is 29 years into his career and still enjoys learning new ways to improve his practice. A mentor to “anybody who will listen,” the middle school engineering and social studies teacher last year joined a union-sponsored program to strengthen his use of formative assessments. The Warren Consolidated Schools veteran became part […]
Over his 50 years of driving a school bus in North Central Area Schools in the western Upper Peninsula, MEA member Bob Hanchek says one day clearly stands out from all the rest. On Jan. 4, 2004, Hanchek made a stop on his afternoon route along U.S. 41. With red lights flashing and two of […]
