“We’ve got to start feeling good and understand that what we do is powerful,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew told 1,300 UFT members at the union’s Spring Education Conference at the New York Hilton Midtown.

Mulgrew urged educators to stay positive amid all the negativity directed at public schools. “We are the ones who have chosen to help children, not the haters,” he said. “It’s our voice that must prevail over them.”

The May 20 event, whose theme was “For All Our Children,” began with a town hall on self-care followed by workshops and an exhibit hall showcasing the skills of career and technical education students. During the gala luncheon, the Voices of 130 chorus from PS 130 in Manhattan performed, and members heard from Mulgrew, state Attorney General Letitia James, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, New York State United Teachers President Melinda Person and city Comptroller Brad Lander. The conference wrapped up with a rousing performance by hip-hop legend Kurtis Blow.

Mulgrew declared the teaching profession in crisis. People are quitting in droves and not enough young people are becoming teachers, he said.

UFT Teacher Center Director Rosemarie LoMonaco (standing) leads a workshop about using “street data,” which considers the whole child, ­to advance classroom equity.

“The country needs to wake up because if you lose the public school system, you lose the foundation of your democracy,” he said.

At fault, Mulgrew said, are two groups of “soul-suckers”: those who have “politicized and weaponized education in America” and those who have “decided public schools are failing” and can only be fixed with high-stakes tests and then use test scores to “shame the students, the teachers and the schools.”

While book bans, drag queen story hour protests and new restrictions on how to teach Black history do not affect UFT members directly, they have all contributed to the national backlash against teachers, Mulgrew said.

He advised UFT members to focus on their caring, compassion and empathy for their students.

“That is what keeps us there,” he said. “How are we going to beat back the haters? With love.”

Then he brought the audience members to their feet for a spirited karaoke version of “Come and Get Your Love,” by Redbone.

Both James and Weingarten also spoke about the deep divisions in the country and how educators have been caught in the crosshairs. Weingarten urged UFT members to persevere. “We are fighting this fight for humanity, for democracy, for knowledge, for education, for our children, for our future,” she said.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew speaks at the luncheon.

Mulgrew recognized five students who led the fight this winter to block a proposed co-location of a Success Academy charter school in the Springfield Gardens Educational Complex in Queens.

“Stand up for what is right and never be afraid to speak up when you know things can be better,” said Aziza-Isha Hemmans, a student at Excelsior Preparatory HS, one of the four schools on the campus.

Hundreds of UFT members attended the morning workshops on autism, mindfulness, naturopathy and the benefits of using “street data” to advance student equity.

Teacher Sheryl Dixon from PS 95 in Queens, who attended the street data workshop, said it makes sense to use more than just test scores and grades to evaluate a child. “A test score is just one snippet, one moment in time,” she said. “That should not dictate how we determine a child’s future.”

In the “Autism in the Classroom” session, Claire Bard, an educator from MS 907 in Brooklyn, said she teaches all her students to accept and accommodate their peers with autism, such as by lowering their voices if someone is overstimulated. “They don’t need to be fixed,” she said of the autistic students. “They just need to be accommodated a little differently.”

Marquis Harrison, the chapter leader at MS/HS 499 in Harlem, said a highlight of the conference was seeing career and technical education students’ talents at the exhibit hall, but he was quick to applaud the Kurtis Blow appearance, too.

“It was a beautiful thing to see our union celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and its contributions to our society,” he said.