Southwest Michigan : Features

A simple question holds big answers in education these days: why are teachers working to incorporate technology into lesson plans?

Why do service learning at all? Teachers are already swamped with content and criteria. After only three months and first-hand experience facilitating and witnessing service learning, I am convinced that every student should be exposed. Every young person becomes a member of society; therefore, they must play an active part in it.

It takes an army. Intermediate school district administrators, educators and parents all play a role in order to provide students with disabilities the education they deserve and a chance to lead self-determined, independent lives.

For decades, employees at DTE Energy in Detroit used an outdated filing system. It didn’t work properly and everyone hated using it. Anthony changed all that.

From painting to sculpting to chalk and paper mache, there are all types of art that students are exposed to in school. Otsego students, however, have unique opportunities to step out of their classes and experience art as a professional artist and view professional artists at work.

By building a bridge to an experience, staff members are giving students memories of a lifetime over the summer.

Students and teachers are having a summer of learning in Bronson, Michigan. Several years ago, the community pulled together several organizations and resources to provide summer learning for students and teachers. The small community has found out, when they all work together, great things can happen.

A consortium of west Michigan educators who want to boost third-grade reading proficiency is utilizing its network to share ideas about combating the summer slide. Reading Now Network (RNN) developed a flier that aims to sneak fun, simple literacy activities into summer vacation, or any time of the year.

Most students­­­­ would agree that a break from school is great. But a break from the classroom doesn’t have to mean a break from learning. InspirED chatted with Zeeland Public Schools’ Lincoln Elementary principal, Tom DeGraaf, who has worked in the education system for over 20 years, to see what principals and schools are doing to prevent summer slide.    

If you didn’t know better, you’d think Whitehall Middle School’s school colors were shades of green, instead of red and black. Whitehall students, passionate about the environment, have made a name for themselves the past three years by winning multiple times in the Lexus Eco Challenge, a national STEM competition.

These days, biking and walking to school may seem to be a tradition of past generations. InspirED recently chatted with Katie Johnson, the Safe Routes to School program coordinator at the Michigan Fitness Foundation, to find out what's being done to encourage healthy -- and green -- ways to get to school.

A dry erase marker squeaks across a white board while a young woman builds out a project plan for the upcoming mixer event, complete with deadlines, tasks and role assignments for her colleagues.

Earlier this month, hundreds of Michigan’s most passionate educators, public servants and business leaders gathered in the RenCen for GES15, the Governor’s Education and Economic Summit. InspirED Michigan Editor Kate Snyder brought us back this report.

Imagine a future where every Michigan student not only went to college, but started that collegiate career before they even left high school. What would that mean for our state? For our high school graduation rates? For our economy? For the kids who are often forgotten? For those struggling to break out of poverty?

After graduating this spring from Oakridge High School in Muskegon, Louis Boucher is on the hunt. “I’m looking for another job, working at a store or wherever I can find one,” says the 20-year-old. But his goals lie far beyond working at a store. After working as a youth ranger at Muskegon and Hoffmaster state parks this summer, Boucher feels the pull of the outdoors. He was such a diligent worker -- repainting picnic tables, clearing brush from trails, filling potholes -- that park rangers asked him to apply for a summer job next year.