Editor’s Note – Spring 2025
Samantha Burdick Expect the Unexpected Little did I know as a teenager that the Survivor tag line “expect the unexpected,” would become my mantra for 2025. The first part of this year has been filled with many unexpected challenges—the least of which was the flat tire...
Meet Our 2024 Award Winners
2024 Award for Teaching Excellence: Chris Coleman Chris Coleman awarded the Maine Award for Teaching Excellence at the 2025 NEA Foundation Gala Educators often go above and beyond, never intending to be recognized for the many things that they do inside and outside of...
MEA President’s Letter – Spring 2025
"The Power of We" I was heading home, much later than usual. My wife and kids had long been finished with school and were into evening activities – music boosters, Rocket League, taunting the cats, maybe a little homework. But the sun….it was still out, bright, and...
$50K Salary
Just four short years ago, Zach Wentworth wrote his college application essay to the University of Maine about his passion for education and his dreams of returning to serve communities in rural Maine—like Calais where he grew up. Now, as he approaches the completion...
Scenes From MEA’s “Together As One” Winter Conference
Hundreds of MEA members, including educators, support staff, and aspiring teachers, gathered for the MEA’s Together as One Winter Conference. The event was held at the University of Maine Presque Isle in late January and at Bangor’s United Technologies Center in early...
Teaching and Learning: Fostering Safe and Affirming Schools for All Students
As anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has skyrocketed across the state and county, so do mental health concerns among LGBTQ+ students and colleagues. You can help. Find out how you can foster safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning environments. All students and educators deserve...
Higher Education Members Advocate for UMS Funding at the State House
Members of all three bargaining units at the University of Maine System—the Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine (AFUM), the Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association (UPMSA), and the Associated COLT Staff of the Universities of Maine...
From MEA’s Executive Director – Spring 2025
The Only Constant is Change Once again, the weather is changing, and the days are getting longer. This is incredibly good news for those of us who struggle in the darker months of the year here in the Maine. The sun has begun to make us long for flipflops and short...
Action Steps to Foster Culturally Responsive Practices
What is Culturally Responsive Teaching? “I define culturally responsive teaching simply as…An educator’s ability to recognize students’ cultural displays of learning and meaning making and respond positively and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural...
The Maine Educator is the nationally recognized award-winning official quarterly publication mailed to the households of approximately 23,000 Maine Education Association members. The Maine Educator is published four times a year (Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer).