Features

When Great Start in Battle Creek found out its usual cab service could not help get parents and children to a special event they turned to another company and a new relationship was born.

Art Road is currently serving more than 1,200 students throughout the entire school year at three Detroit Public Schools.

More than half of Michigan's children from birth to age 3 are at risk of showing up to kindergarten unprepared to learn. A new report outlines measures with the most evidence of success and highest return on investment to help them.

Sad stories often start with silence.The level of pain recalled by a memory is only hinted at: a sideways turn of the head, downturned eyes or clasped hands.There are no words. Sad stories are, inherently, about the past. Things that happened. Dark things. Mean things. Frightening things. Sometimes terrible things. Jessie Taylor, 25, and Megan Hearn, 15, are daughters of the same mother. Their mother is not in the picture. Their respective fathers are not even in the conversation. But one St. Clair County RESA program is helping them to move from the darkness into the light.

Every child is entitled to a quality public education. However, too many children are not able to access this right due to circumstances they cannot control. The obstacles students face in and out of the classroom often spiral into negative effects on their education. The Student Advocacy Center of Michigan provides resources and support for our state’s most vulnerable students. InspirED Michigan chatted with SAC’s Executive Director Peri Stone-Palmquist to learn more.

For the children of Flint, the ongoing water crisis is a multifaceted distraction from and danger to their ability to learn. Fortunately, teachers, school officials and community groups are responding in kind, bringing a barrage of interventions, programs and resources to Flint's children to minimize the impact of lead exposure both today and far into the future.

For Erin Luckhardt, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Boyne City Middle School, the reality of teaching “digital natives” is clear -- including technology-focused curriculum into everyday learning puts students at an advantage.  

The modern high school curriculum doesn't look quite like it did a decade ago. While the core subjects remain, new ideas about how to teach to the next generation are finding their way into the classroom.

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

In early November, Gov. Rick Snyder signed new rules for evaluating teacher performance into Michigan law. Senate Bill 103 calls for research-based evaluation for Michigan educators, requiring school districts to establish performance evaluation systems that focus more on student growth and less on student test scores. But evaluation is only one part of the story. What are districts and administrators currently doing to support teachers before the evaluation even begins?

In a world consumed by instantaneous connections, screens and online relationships, students are both the new leaders in tech as well as those who take the brunt of its misuse by peers. For parents and teachers in the Troy School District, keeping lines of communication open is the name of the game -- this open communication now comes in the form of school-sponsored Tech Talks.

Something nearly all teachers, parents, post-secondary educators and hiring professionals agree on is that in order for students to earn future success, they must have access to real world application. The LEAGUE Michigan is helping teachers bring real world application into their classrooms in a way that also exposes students to opportunities to make a difference in their communities.

It’s early December and students at Petoskey High School are charged with hopes of a snow day, anticipation of classroom holiday parties and treats, and the stress of squeezing in the last minute tests and projects before break. For students in chef Bill Sommerfeldt’s Culinary Hospitality Program, there’s another source of energy mixed in.

“Ewww,” “yuck,” and “no way” can be heard emanating from the students when they learn what the owl pellet they are dissecting actually is! And then, the fun begins. Donning lab coats and preparing to explore the pellets, students discover the bones of field mice and reconstruct the skeletons.

Would you ever consider swapping chips and salsa for squash and salsa? Would cinnamon and sugar sweeten the idea of eating plain old squash? A new collaboration hopes to bring new life to the often under-appreciated squash. Partners in the collaboration include the food service programs at Montague and Whitehall schools, the Muskegon Area Career Tech Center’s (MACTC) Catering and Culinary Management program, and the statewide Cultivate Michigan initiative.