Carmen Alvarez, the UFT’s first vice president for special education, and Ellen Procida, the former director of the union’s Grievance Department, both recently retired, were honored at the union’s HERstory brunch on March 31 at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.

The UFT negotiated a provision in the new DOE-UFT contract that provides for joint training for administrators and chapter leaders on the teacher observation and evaluation system beginning in September 2019. A group of 40 teachers gathered on April 11 for the first in a series of meetings designed to give UFT members a voice in what that training should look like.

The turnout “exploded” — reaching 330 — at District 12’s April 13 Scholarship Committee breakfast at which 24 students were awarded new laptops.

Did the Founding Fathers prepare us for the digital age? Participants at the 59th annual Greater Metropolitan New York Social Studies Conference on April 13 considered that question.

Some 250 educators turned out for the UFT’s sixth annual Middle School Conference at union headquarters on March 30. The theme was William Shakespeare.

The UFT helped students from the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance get a head start on their futures on April 1 by hosting the high school’s annual Career Day at the union’s Brooklyn borough office.