The Legacy That Started It All
Morgan Vinstra’s path to teaching began with a family story, one she grew up hearing again and again. Her Grandma Vinstra taught first grade, and the joy she found in helping students learn stuck with Morgan early. Books, curiosity, and small everyday adventures became the foundation of how Morgan learned, and eventually, how she wanted to teach.
“I have always strived to mirror the kind of teacher she was, loving, selfless, and deeply committed to supporting every student,” Morgan says. “Her passion for education continues to guide my teaching, reminding me to create a classroom where students feel valued, encouraged, and excited to learn each day.”
Today, Morgan is a 2nd grade teacher at Flint Cultural Center Academy (FCCA) and a 2025 TeachMichigan Early Career Educator Fellow, teaching in a community that has shaped her commitment to consistency, care, and opportunity for all of her students.
Calm, Caring, and High Expectations
Step into Morgan’s classroom and you can feel it: students are safe to try, safe to be themselves, and safe to learn out loud. That balance, warmth and strong expectations, shows up in the routines she builds from day one and the way she treats students as capable, growing learners.
FCCA CEO Eric Lieske says Morgan sets that tone intentionally. He describes a space where “all students feel welcome, seen, and heard,” while Morgan holds “very high expectations for academics and character.” He notes that her classroom has “a special calmness… all while encouraging student voice to be elevated to enhance the learning experience for her scholars.”
For Morgan, that environment is intentional. “Teaching in Flint has reinforced the importance of relationships and consistency,” she explains. “I focus on building routines and relationships that help students know what to expect and feel confident taking risks in their learning.”
When Reading Clicks, Confidence Follows
Morgan lights up talking about the moment learning “clicks.” Not because it’s a quick win, but because students often arrive carrying doubt, and she gets to help replace that doubt with belief.
“What I find most rewarding about teaching is witnessing the moment when learning finally clicks for a student,” she says. “Seeing their face light up with pride and excitement… reflects not just academic growth, but a growing confidence in a student’s ability to learn.”
One experience stays with her: a student who entered her classroom discouraged, especially in reading. Through small-group instruction, consistent encouragement, and a relationship built on trust, Morgan watched the student begin to take risks. Then one day, they read a text they once would’ve avoided, looked up, and said: “I did it!” Their family later shared that the confidence carried home too, reading by choice, talking about school differently, believing in what they could do.
“That experience affirmed the importance of patience, belief, and meeting students where they are,” Morgan says.
Flint’s Resilience, and the Responsibility to Teach With Care
Teaching in Flint also means understanding the broader context students are learning within, including the lasting effects of the water crisis. Morgan names it directly: trust, health, and emotional well-being are part of the learning landscape, whether or not they show up on a report card.
“This reality has shaped my approach… by reinforcing the importance of patience, consistency, and trauma-informed care,” she says. “I focus on creating a classroom environment where students feel safe, supported, and believed in every day.”
That commitment shows up in the way she builds support around each student: differentiated instruction, small-group learning, student choice, and a culture where mistakes are part of growth, not something to be ashamed of.
Student-Centered Learning That Feels Like an Adventure
Morgan believes students learn best when they feel ownership, so she makes room for choice, curiosity, and hands-on learning.
She’s introduced choice boards so students can select activities that match how they learn best, and she’s built soft-start mornings with STEM building to help students begin the day calm, connected, and engaged.
And her students still talk about one lesson in particular: a fossil unit where they became paleontologists, using real tools to “dig,” reconstructing dinosaur bones, and problem-solving together until the pieces finally made sense.
“It made learning feel like a real adventure they got to live themselves,” Morgan says
TeachMichigan and the Work of Becoming a High-Impact Teacher
Morgan describes TeachMichigan as a milestone in her journey, not just professionally, but personally. Through the fellowship, she’s reflected deeply on her practice and strengthened her commitment to people centered teaching.
“The fellowship has… helped me become more aware of my own biases and how to actively work against stereotypes,” she says. “TeachMichigan has encouraged me to continuously learn, take risks, and refine my practice in ways that directly benefit my students.”
CEO Eric Lieske has seen that growth translate into results. He points to Morgan’s strong routines that “maximize instructional time,” and says her students show “high levels of growth in literacy and mathematics… all while loving school due to the passion their teacher places in them.”
A Teacher Students Remember
Morgan takes an expansive view of data. Alongside academic growth, she looks for students believing they belong, trying again after mistakes, speaking up, and finding their voice as readers and learners. She’s proudest of the relationships she’s built with students and families, especially when former students return to visit or families share how supported they felt during the year.
More than anything, Morgan wants students to remember what it felt like to be in her classroom.
“My mission as a teacher is to build a classroom where students know they belong,” she says. “I want them to remember routines that grounded them, relationships that encouraged them, and a teacher who believed they could do hard things.”
Morgan Vinstra
Morgan Vinstra is a 2nd grade teacher at Flint Cultural Center Academy in Flint, Michigan and a 2025 TeachMichigan Early Career Educator Fellow. With six years in education, Morgan is known for building strong relationships, creating calm and inclusive classroom routines, and strengthening student confidence through joyful, student-centered learning, especially in literacy.
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