Who knows better than educators themselves what they want to learn to enhance their skills?

That’s why teachers and other educators design and deliver all the high-quality courses and workshops the UFT offers through the UFT Teacher Center and LearnUFT and at its citywide conferences and summer institutes. These professional learning opportunities deepen your pedagogical knowledge and confidence while fulfilling your requirements for continuing education that may count toward salary differentials and your Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) hours.

Cutting-edge and engaging, UFT-provided courses and workshops are based on an immersive, experiential style of teaching so you can experience the strategies being modeled and bring this learning back to your classroom. The focus is on strengthening the instructional core, with differentiated instruction for teaching a diverse student group, with scaffolding for every student in your class.

Thanks to member feedback at union conferences and in surveys, the UFT offers topics that educators have requested for their ongoing professional development.

An advantage to the union’s offerings is that the UFT will keep all course records for seven years, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of your credits and CTLE hours. For all these reasons, thousands of your colleagues take UFT-provided courses and workshops each year.

UFT Teacher Center-led workshops and weekend conferences cover a wide variety of topics, from social-emotional learning in the early childhood classroom to strategies and practices for the culturally responsive classroom, all aligned with the New York State learning standards. Once a year, the Teacher Center offers an eight-session precandidacy course for teachers interested in pursuing National Board certification. The Teacher Center also offers a Para Academy for paraprofessionals and workshops for family child care providers.

See our list of current offerings.

State regulations now require all teachers who hold professional certificates and paraprofessionals who hold Level III teaching assistant certificates to collect and track 100 professional development hours. LearnUFT is a state-approved provider of low-cost, high-quality workshops for CTLE credit for all New York City public school educators at all grade levels and in all subject areas. LearnUFT workshops are held at all UFT borough offices and at union headquarters in Manhattan.

LearnUFT workshops offered this fall include topics such as how paraprofessionals and teachers can work together to create a classroom team, using Google G Suite and deepening reading comprehension for English language learners.

See more information and a current list of offerings.

The UFT also offers workshops that teachers and paraprofessionals are required to take to obtain New York State certification: a child abuse recognition and reporting workshop and a Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) training session on harassment, bullying, cyberbullying and discrimination in schools focused on prevention and intervention.

The UFT offers these required workshops throughout the school year at various locations. For more information, put DASA or child abuse recognition in the search bar on the UFT website.

Keep your eyes open for other UFT-provided professional learning opportunities, including all-day sessions on Chancellor’s Day and Election Day.

See our information on new A+ courses offered by the UFT for the MA+30 salary differential.