The Delegate Assembly is Wednesday, Jan. 16

This Week's Focus

Celebrate the chapter’s 50th anniversary at the Paraprofessional Festival and Awards Luncheon

Fifty years ago, in June 1969, the UFT’s Paraprofessionals Chapter was founded. Celebrate this momentous occasion at the UFT’s 38th annual Paraprofessional Festival and Awards Luncheon on Saturday, March 23. This event will be held at the New York Hilton at 1335 6th Ave., from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Encourage paraprofessionals in your school to attend the celebration. This year’s theme is Uplifting Hearts and Minds: Pathways to Social Emotional Learning. There will be the opportunity to collect two CTLE hours, special guests, an awards ceremony and other activities. Workshop topics include children’s literature, crisis intervention tools, tapping into students’ strengths and tools for teaching empathy. The registration fee is $25. For a full list of workshops and to register, go to the online form.

Wear #RedforEd again on Jan. 14 in support of LA teachers

United Teachers Los Angeles, the LA teachers’ union, has asked fellow AFT members to wear red on Monday, Jan. 14, the first day of their planned strike. Please encourage your members to put on their red wardrobe items once again. Thanks to all the chapter leaders who encouraged their members to wear red to work on Jan. 10. Los Angeles teachers deserve better working conditions and their students deserve better learning conditions. Post photos of you and your fellow members on social media with the hashtag #RedforEd and tag @UFT. Send your best photos (full size) to uftphotos [at] gmail [dot] com (uftphotos[at]gmail[dot]com). "We want an agreement that works for our kids — that gets to a place where we're not dealing with 50 kids in a classroom, where we're not dealing with 40 percent of our schools having a nurse for only one day a week," said Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, an AFT affiliate. We appreciate all the great photos sent to us. You can see photos of UFT members wearing red in the #RedforEd album on the UFT Facebook page, in the photo gallery on the UFT website and on the UFT’s Instagram page.

Support is available for talking with children about cancer

The UFT Welfare Fund has expanded its collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to offer all UFT-represented public school educators free access to Talking with Children About Cancer, a program offered by the Department of Social Work at MSK designed to help adults communicate with children who have a loved one in their life who has cancer. The program offers telephone consultation and educational group workshops with experienced Memorial Sloan Kettering oncology social workers. School staff are often the first to notice changes in student behavior or mood. Being a source of comfort during this challenging time is vital to a child’s emotional well-being. You can access this program by calling the UFT Welfare Fund’s dedicated phone number at 844-350-5034. Response time is within one business day and no enrollment is required. For more information, see the MSK Talking with Children about Cancer flier and the program FAQ on the UFT website.

Encourage eligible seniors to apply for UFT Shanker scholarships by Jan. 31

Make sure high school seniors take advantage of the opportunity to apply for a $5,000 Albert Shanker college scholarship. The application deadline is Thursday, Jan. 31. Each year the UFT awards $1 million in scholarships to academically excellent and financially eligible New York City public high school seniors through the Albert Shanker College Scholarship Fund. Please reach out to your school’s college advisers and school counselors to make sure that high school seniors know about these scholarships and apply. If you do not work in a high school, please reach out to family, friends and community members who may qualify for this award. To receive a $5,000 scholarship from the fund, those selected must be accepted in a full-time, matriculated, degree-granting program at an accredited college or university. You can get more information on the scholarship and application materials on the UFT Scholarship Fund page of the UFT website.

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Your Chapter Leader Checklist

• New Apply to become a PROSE school: If you work in a school that is highly collaborative and has innovative practices, you may be interested in becoming a PROSE school. PROSE offers truly collaborative schools the ability to make changes to the UFT contract and DOE regulations to enable out-of-the-box ideas and teacher-led innovations. The key is teacher voice, and the PROSE application itself should be created with strong staff involvement. Schools may apply to PROSE by submitting an application to the PROSE panel. The deadline to apply is March 29. For more information and a link to the application, see the PROSE page on the UFT website or contact the PROSE panel at prose [at] UFT [dot] org (prose[at]UFT[dot]org).
• New  Be wary of outside pension “specialists”: Tell your members to be mindful about information or solicitations they may receive from individuals claiming to be connected to the DOE or the UFT. Examples include fliers in your school for outside pension “specialists” who invite members to attend their workshops or who want to come to your school to speak. They may go by impressive-sounding names like Fortis Lux Financial or Pension Seminar Plus. These groups are not sanctioned or endorsed by the UFT, and we cannot guarantee the accuracy or quality of their information. They may even try to convince members to remove money from their pensions or TDAs so they can manage the money and collect commissions and fees. The DOE has a memorandum (#24, 1988-89) and bylaws that prohibit these people from speaking on school premises. Tell your members that their retirement savings are too important to risk with solicitors.
• DA resolutions online: Couldn’t get to the last Delegate Assembly? You can now find online all the resolutions passed at DAs. On the home page of the UFT website, click on “Where We Stand” at the top of the page, and then click on Union Resolutions.

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Share with Your Members

MSK Talking with Children about Cancer flier

Sign Up for UFT Text Messages flier

Early Childhood Conference flier

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You Should Know

English Language Learners

New Translation services for ELLs: It’s important for teachers of English language learners to review with your administrator the DOE’s language access policy on the DOE website to ensure that translation and interpretation supports are available to parents with limited English proficiency. Services include translation of all DOE documents and over-the-phone and on-site interpreters.

Evaluation

New  A time to talk: Midyear professional conversations provide teachers with the opportunity to talk to evaluators about the good work they are doing in their classrooms. Discussions about successful teaching units, specific struggles with students or pedagogy, and the improvements that teachers have seen in their students can help to humanize the evaluation process and ultimately make future observations much more authentic. These conferences are optional for teachers except those on a Teacher Improvement Plan (TIP). See your administrator if you would like to hold a midyear professional conversation.

Functional Chapters

New  Paraprofessionals are encouraged to join the pension system: Paraprofessionals are eligible to join the pension system, but their membership in the Teachers’ Retirement System is not mandatory. Paras must contact TRS at 888-869-2877 and ask for an enrollment application. Substitute paraprofessionals may join the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS). For more information, call 929-305-3800.

Political Action

Come to a pre-Women’s March breakfast forum: An unprecedented number of women won elected office in New York State and across the country in November. But that was only the beginning. We need to build on that momentum by continuing to support progressive women candidates and by encouraging a broad range of newcomers to take the plunge and run for public office. You are invited to attend a pre-Women’s March breakfast forum on Saturday, Jan. 19, from 8:30 to 10 a.m., hosted by the UFT and Eleanor’s Legacy titled Meeting the Challenge of Electing More Women to Public Office. The forum will take place at PS 191, 300 W. 61 St., Manhattan. A light breakfast will be served. Brette McSweeney, the executive director of the nonprofit Eleanor’s Legacy, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew will discuss recent political victories and what it takes — in time, money and commitment — for women to launch successful campaigns. They will be joined by women City Council members and other elected officials. Eleanor’s Legacy has helped elect dozens of progressive, pro-choice Democratic female candidates since it was founded in 2001. To register, see the online form.

Recognition

New Shoutout to Chapter Leader Rose Marie Hannon: Congratulations to Rose Marie Hannon, the chapter leader at PS/MS 47 in Broad Channel, Queens, for working to get a new roof over the heads of staff and students and to remove the mold and odors that plague the school. Hannon kept a sharp eye out for problems, repeatedly calling in UFT health and safety experts to ensure that everyone in the small, tight-knit school community has a healthy and safe work environment. Read more about Rose Marie Hannon’s achievements as chapter leader.

Salary and Personnel

The UFT can help you with school debt: Members burdened by student loans can learn about the Student Debt Relief Program, a new service for UFT members only that helps them access federal debt relief and loan forgiveness, at a free information session. The sessions will be offered in the five UFT borough offices throughout the school year. At the information sessions, you will receive an overview of the range of debt forgiveness programs. After you attend this session, you can make an appointment to speak by phone with trained UFT staff and a loan specialist to discuss your individual needs and create an action plan. The first round of information sessions are full but you can fill out our expression-of-interest form and be the first to be notified about the next round of sessions.

Last chance to use Teacher’s Choice: You have until this Sunday, Jan. 13, to make Teacher’s Choice purchases. Eligible members should submit receipts and the Teacher’s Choice Accountability Form detailing purchases to their payroll secretary by Friday, Jan. 18. Members who received Teacher’s Choice funds and do not file an accountability form with the required receipts by the deadline must pay back the money to the DOE. Educators in the Absent Teacher Reserve pool should submit receipts to the administration of the school to which they are assigned on Jan. 18. Eligible UFT members received their Teacher’s Choice allotments ($250 for teachers and other amounts for other eligible titles) in their Nov. 30 paychecks. For more information about Teacher’s Choice, including the amounts that members in different titles received, see the Teacher’s Choice section of the UFT website.

Special Education

Your rights on reorganization: Special education teachers with an unreasonable number of different courses, each requiring preparation or given in multiple rooms, may use the reorganization grievance process. This procedure includes ICT and special class teachers in middle/junior high schools and high schools. Teachers have two days to file a reorganization grievance from the date of knowledge. Any change in schedule or assignment may be considered a new date of knowledge. Because the circumstances that lead to a reorganization grievance vary, and other factors affect the viability of a grievance, members should immediately bring the problem to the chapter leader.

Teaching and Learning

New  Dial-A-Teacher is in full swing: Students who need homework help can call Dial-A-Teacher at 212-777-3380, Monday through Thursday, from 4 to 7 p.m., during the school year. Dial-A-Teacher’s classroom teachers can also assist parents with questions and give advice on how they can help their child at home. The staff speaks 10 languages: Armenian, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese and Fukanese), English, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog. Please post this Dial-a-Teacher flier on your UFT bulletin board. For more information about Dial-A-Teacher,  read the article on the UFT website.

New Civil rights lessons for MLK Day: The AFT’s Share My Lesson website has many lessons to help celebrate the civil rights activism of  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary students can use primary and secondary sources to increase their knowledge about the civil rights movement. Middle school students can learn about Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence. High school students can study Dr. King's perspective on the next stage of the movement in the context of examining the effects of the 1967 race riots. You can find more lessons and webinars on the Share My Lesson website.

 

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This Week in Education and Labor News

Judge sees no reason to delay LA teachers' strike: A judge has ruled that a teachers' strike pushed to Jan. 14 can move forward, despite claims by the Los Angeles Unified District that the union did not give them enough notice, reports CBS Los Angeles. The strike, originally scheduled to start on Jan. 10, follows two years of negotiating, mediation and a fact-finding session between the school district and United Teachers Los Angeles. Los Angeles teachers last walked off the job in 1989.

Florida parents group loses challenge on school funding: A 4-3 Florida Supreme Court ruling has found the state’s public education system constitutional, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The decision overrules a petition from Citizens for Strong Schools, a parent’s group calling for more funding for K-12 schools. The lawsuit, brought nearly a decade ago, asked the court to declare that the state’s constitution requires the provision of a quality education to every student. The suit also took aim at the school choice initiatives passed by the Republican Legislature in the last 20 years, including vouchers for religious private schools and charter schools.

South Carolina teachers consider striking: Some of South Carolina’s 52,000 public school teachers have warned lawmakers that without a pay raise and workload ease, they may strike, reports The State. Legislators seek to keep teachers in classrooms in the face of a teacher shortage but are unsure of which education proposals their colleagues or the governor will embrace in the upcoming legislative session. Public school teachers say they have been excluded in high-level discussions about potential fixes that, if passed, will affect them and more than 775,000 K-12 students.

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Events Calendar

Featured

Wednesday, Jan. 23: REGISTRATION CLOSED — School social workers and school psychologists are invited to the UFT’s 13th annual Clinician Appreciation Day from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 2nd floor, Shanker Hall.

Friday, Feb. 8: Career and Technical Education teachers may honor their colleagues who teach, collaborate and advocate for students at the 2019 CTE Awards Recognition Ceremony at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 2nd floor, 4 p.m. For more information, see the CTE Awards Recognition Ceremony flier. Register online.

Saturday, March 16: The UFT’s 12th annual Early Childhood Conference will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, Shanker Hall. The conference will feature a plenary greeting from UFT President Michael Mulgrew and a welcome address from UFT Vice President for Elementary Schools Karen Alford. For fee breakdown and to register, see the online form. For a full listing of workshops, see the Early Childhood Conference flier. The registration deadline is Friday, March 8.

Saturday, March 23: The UFT’s 38th annual Paraprofessional Festival and Awards Luncheon celebrating the 50th anniversary of the para chapter will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the New York Hilton Midtown at 1335 6th Ave. This year’s theme is Uplifting Hearts and Minds: Pathways to Social Emotional Learning. For more information, see the item in This Week’s Focus.

This Week

Saturday, Jan. 12: Teachers and paraprofessionals are invited to the UFT Teacher Center’s citywide conference, Nurturing the Whole Child: Social-Emotional Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway. Participants will earn four CTLE hours. For a full conference description, fee breakdown and to register, go to the online form.

Monday, Jan. 14: The School Counselors Executive Board meets from 4 to 6 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 19th floor.

Wednesday, Jan. 16: The Delegate Assembly takes place from 4:15 to 6 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 2nd floor.

Thursday, Jan. 17: Bronx-based members are invited to a maternity and child care leave workshop from 4 to 6 p.m. at the UFT Bronx borough office, 2500 Halsey St. Register online. For more information, see the Baby On the Way Workshop flier.

Thursday, Jan. 17: The Paraprofessional Chapter’s representatives meet from 4:15 to 6 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway.

Save the Date

Saturday, March 2: The 4th annual Men in Education Symposium takes place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway. Workshops will be offered on mentoring, fatherhood and empowerment. Breakfast and lunch provided. Registration will be available soon.

Saturday, March 9: The 19th annual School Counselors Conference will be held at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway. Registration will be available soon. If you would like to conduct a workshop, please submit a proposal using the online form by Friday, Jan. 18.

Saturday, March 30: The UFT’s 6th annual Middle School Conference will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, Shanker Hall. For more information, see the Middle School Sixth Annual Conference flier.

Upcoming LearnUFT workshops

LearnUFT, the UFT’s professional development institute, offers an array of affordable workshops and professional learning opportunities for UFT members. The cost to register, unless otherwise indicated, is $30 for teachers seeking CTLE hours and $15 without CTLE hours. The cost for all paraprofessionals is $15. Participants will earn two CTLE hours for each workshop, unless otherwise specified.

These workshops will take place at UFT borough offices, unless otherwise indicated:

See LearnUFT courses in the Bronx »
See LearnUFT courses in Brooklyn »
See LearnUFT courses in Manhattan »
See LearnUFT courses in Queens »
See Learn UFT courses on Staten Island »

For a full listing of upcoming LearnUFT workshops, see the LearnUFT page on the UFT website.

For more events, go to uft.org/calendar.

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Professional Committees

UFT Professional Committees offer a wide range of workshops, presentations and exchanges, enabling all members to take an active part in their professional growth. Unless indicated, meetings are at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, Manhattan. Check in the lobby for exact locations. For further information, contact us at 212-598-7772 or visit us online.

Pride Committee

• Thursday, Jan. 24, 4 to 6 p.m., Pathways to Parenthood workshop. For more information, see the Pathways to Parenthood flier.

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Editor: Peter O’Donnell

Executive Editor: Bernadette Weeks

Contributors include: Karen Alford, George Altomare, LeRoy Barr, Jackie Bennett, Jeffery Bernstein, Hannah Brown, Joseph Colletti, Crystal Deoraj, Evelyn DeJesus, Paul Egan, Christina Gavin, Alison Gendar, Mary Jo Ginese, Kathleen Guilbert, Anthony Harmon, Sarah Herman, Janella Hinds, Katherine Kurjakovic, Junior Linton, Joe LoVerde, Samantha Mark, Deidre McFadyen, Michael Murphy, Gabriel Nott, Suzanne Popadin, Jeffrey Povalitis, Tina Puccio, Briget Rein, Nadine Reis, Sterling Roberson, Michael Sill, Anne Silverstein, Dermot Smyth, Geofrey Sorkin, Rosemarie Thompson, Miriam Vega, Vanesia Wilson and Shelvy Young-Abrams.