Feature Stories
Members push back against principal
Educators at Flushing High School called on the UFT and took a stand when the principal initiated a program that resulted in isolating ELL students. Instead addressing students' learning and language issues, they were isolated in two windowless classrooms, apart from their peers, except for lunch and physical education. Educators raised objections immediately and then went to work to fight back.
Powering up student success
When students ask John Isaza why he teaches — despite the higher salary he could earn as an electrician — his answer is simple. “I love my job,” he tells them. “When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.” Isaza, a UFT Career and Technical Education Award winner, teaches electrical installation at Coop Tech in Manhattan, not far from where he began his own journey in the trade.
A stroke of genius
Follow along as the 2nd-grade students in Jacqueline Velten and Melissa Hamm’s integrated co-teaching class at PS 54 on Staten Island travel to the Staten Island Museum to experience “Art Now: Watercolor Fun,” one of 20 class trips the museum offers in science, art and history.
Living out her dream
Teacher Jacqueline Armento's development and coordination of the Law Institute at John Bowne HS in Queens earned her recognition at this year’s UFT Career and Technical Education Awards night, where she received a UFT CTE Educators Award.
Freedom to explore
Educators at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria in Queens utilize their ability to have a flexible schoolday schedule to engage students with two weeks of intensive immersion in a single project. The Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence (PROSE) program, of which TYWLS of Astoria is part, affords schools the freedom to experiment and innovate.
"Jewels” sparkle at Radio City
Middle school teacher Rachele Domond and paraprofessional Daquan Harris of the Catherine and Count Basie Magnet School for Multimedia and Performing Arts, in Jamaica, Queens, took on the roles of choreographers and proudly watched their middle school dance troupe make history as they joined the Rockettes on stage at Radio City Music Hall.