“How are we going to translate today’s learning and our collective power into making a difference on behalf of the people we serve?” asked Anne Goldman, the UFT’s vice president for non-DOE members, at the 2018 Professional Issues Conference of the Federation of Nurses/UFT on Nov. 16.

Jackie Herman, the chapter leader at IS 98 in Brooklyn, has volunteered every year at the Thanksgiving Luncheon that the UFT Middle School Division hosts with the Coalition for the Homeless since it was first held five years ago. But the event never ceases to pull at her heartstrings.

Dr. Shelly Latte-Naor of Memorial Sloan Kettering led a UFT Welfare Fund Medical Learning Series seminar on mindfulness. “Our mind wanders,” and research has found that causes unhappiness. “Sometimes you have to ask, ‘Where is your mind now?’ Mindfulness allows us to pause and see what’s actually in front of us,” she said.

New educators in the Bronx’s District 12 had the opportunity to meet each other and their UFT representatives at a meet-and-greet on Oct. 29 at the UFT’s Bronx borough office.

Some 200 teachers on Nov. 3 attended “Celebrating Cultural Relevance in our Languages Other than English Classroom,” the 21st annual professional development conference of the New York City Association of Foreign Language Teachers/UFT and the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers.

The union’s third annual School Psychologist Appreciation Day on Nov. 20 drew more than 150 school psychologists to UFT headquarters for a day of exhibits and presentations.