For the past several months, members of MEA and MEA’s higher education branch – MAHE – have begun every meeting by reading a land acknowledgment, which is a formal statement “collectively acknowledging that we meet on the traditional lands served by the 12 tribes of Michigan, upon which those participating in this meeting reside and […]
In-person vs. hybrid vs. online? Safety vs. normalcy? Essential frontline employees—who can feasibly do work remotely. Students whose learning may be delayed, while their physical and mental health is at risk. Educators and parents on every side of the divide—and our students in the balance. At the local and state level, your union leaders are […]
By Robyne Muray While some educators have transitioned to virtual teaching this year without missing a beat, remote learning has challenged many professionals to find ways to build student participation while continuing to provide necessary guided instruction, classroom management, differentiated support, and social-emotional learning. In my travels throughout the Lansing School District, I have witnessed […]
It’s been nearly one year since a novel coronavirus first began reshaping daily life across the globe and MEA mobilized its bargaining, advocacy, legal and communications resources in response. We sat down with MEA President Paula Herbart to look back at where we’ve been. Here’s an excerpt from our talk. Last month, with school employees […]
Throughout the pandemic, MEA member Jill Wheeler has gone above and beyond to get books to kids, hand-delivering titles to classrooms and sanitizing the returns since students could no longer check them in and out in-person due to safety protocols. Much has changed in her role this year as a library aide in Sandusky Community Schools, […]
One of the ways that MEA member Demetrius Wilson challenges students in his Engineering, Robotics, and Mechatronics program is to put “faults” into equipment that students have to solve before they can proceed with other tasks. It’s one thing to know how to build or use equipment, but it’s next-level to fix broken stuff, he […]
MEA member Jackie Lyons cried when she met with her principal to quit her first-grade teaching job last October. “I said, ‘I don’t want to leave. I love working with these kids, and I love the school community, and I love my teaching partners and all of our school staff.’ Then I walked away and looked […]
MEA member Rachel Niewiada already knew her Grandville Middle School choral music students were wonderful singers, but after she appeared on the ABC television program The View the seven-year teacher now knows they’re incredible actors as well. Niewiada says she had no idea several of her students would appear in taped interviews to talk movingly […]
After nearly a decade of equity work focused on improving student success and closing achievement gaps, Lansing Community College History Professor Jeff Janowick has some hard-fought wisdom to share. Some of it, the MEA member admits, may seem obvious. “The first thing we had to change as a department was our mindset,” Janowick said. “As […]
What’s it like to be a local union president in the age of COVID? In this story, we talk with three local leaders in Macomb County—an urban hotspot in northern metro Detroit—who have employed every tool at their disposal to unite members and guide collective action through the most challenging circumstances in living memory. As […]
