New York TeacherDecember 16, 2021
After decades of advocacy, the UFT won automatic enrollment in the Teachers' Retirement System for full-time paraprofessionals while, in a battle that will continue, the union came closer than ever to winning smaller class sizes. Learn about these campaigns and other union news and information in the last New York Teacher digital edition of 2021.
Cover Story
UFT members, parents fight for classroom occupancy limits
Thousands of UFT members and parents came together this fall to press the City Council to pass groundbreaking legislation that would reduce class sizes in city public schools by a quarter to a third.
Large class sizes have been a pressing concern of city educators and parents for decades. The union and school communities saw an opening with the COVID-19 pandemic to approach the issue from a new vantage point this year: setting stricter occupancy limits for classrooms to help prevent the spread of disease.
“If we cannot finally agree as a city in the middle of a pandemic that we need a plan to lower our class size, I don’t know where we’re ever going to get to it,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew testified at a City Council…
Latest News
Automatic TRS pensions won for full-time paras
Decades of UFT advocacy bore fruit for the union’s paraprofessionals on Oct. 29 as a newly enacted state law guaranteed all UFT-represented full-time paraprofessionals — on the job now and in the future — will automatically become members of the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS). After they retire, TRS members receive a monthly pension for the rest of their lives.
400-member contract team to be formed
UFT President Michael Mulgrew told delegates at the Delegate Assembly on Nov. 17 that the union plans to seek extensive member input to help shape priorities for upcoming negotiations on the next contract and health care.
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Feature Stories
Clean confidence
Curtis HS on Staten Island has a dance program, and students who participate remove their shoes. One day, a student asked school counselor Robin Chapman-Rodriguez if she had any socks. “Why?” she asked.
He said, “because I have to dance and I don’t have on clean socks.”
“That broke my heart,” Chapman-Rodriguez said. She bought a big package of socks to keep in her locker, and the student occasionally asks for a pair. “He loves to dance, but he refused to take his shoes off,” she said.
Some of the UFT’s 32 United Community Schools have laundry facilities on site, but a new six-month pilot program and partnership between UCS and Clean Rite laundromats will allow students and their families at five schools in four boroughs, including Curtis, to do laundry in their own neighborhoods. UCS will use City Council funding to pay for laundry cards that can be used at Clean Rite locations, where families can do…
Born ‘leaders’
Three current UFT chapter leaders in District 22 in Brooklyn follow in the footsteps of family members whose dedication and hard work as chapter leaders inspired the next generation.
Visionaries
Teacher Tisha Gomez and the students in the vision technology program at the School for Cooperative Technical Education in Manhattan give the gift of sight, free of charge, to students and community members every day, producing eyeglasses in their fully equipped career and technical education facility.
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Member Spotlight
Madeline Velez, school counselor
Madeline Velez-Vazquez, a bilingual school counselor at PS 58 in the Bronx, says school counselors are needed “now more than ever to help students succeed.” She says, "I’m seeing both extremes: children who are more hypervigilant about the pandemic and then those who are completely aloof."
Kudos to Alaa Yousef, Park Slope Collegiate
Alaa Yousef was elected chapter leader at Park Slope Collegiate in Brooklyn this October, and in her first action in that role, she used the operational issues complaint process to get her members paid for instructional lunch periods. When those payments stopped, she resumed her fight.
Around the UFT
Cogen winner Ellie Engler all about ‘selfless sacrifice’
Cogen Award winner Ellie Engler made a habit of keeping UFT members safe, from her work with the union’s Safety and Health Department, where she created the Health and Cancer Helpline and the Member Assistance Program, to her early warning about the danger of COVID-19.
Courage in ‘a moment of great danger’
The courage and hard work of members during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was recognized on Nov. 7 at the UFT's annual Teacher Union Day celebration, held in Shanker Hall at UFT headquarters in Manhattan and online via Zoom.
Happy coats-giving!
The UFT hosted an afternoon of food, fun and free coats for students experiencing homelessness at its Thanksgiving Luncheon on Nov. 20, when more than 130 children filled Shanker Hall at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.
Psychologists Appreciation Day
Nearly 400 school psychologists attended this year’s Psychologists Appreciation Day on Nov. 12, the chapter’s first hybrid event featuring workshops on assistive technology and intelligence assessments.
UFT Middle School Division’s Anti-Bullying Conference
Students from 105 schools registered for the UFT’s citywide Anti-Bullying Conference, held virtually on Oct. 28, which focused on conflict resolution strategies and how to be an upstander, or someone who intervenes or stands up for a person who is being attacked or bullied.
You Should Know
Grants, Awards & Freebies
Grants, Awards & Freebies
See our list of current opportunities for educators to receive funds and recognition for their hard work and dedication.
For Your Information
Classroom ventilation
If you rely on open windows for good ventilation in your classroom, you will still need to keep a few windows cracked open a few inches even though it’s getting colder.
For Your Information
Staten Island UFT site move
The UFT’s borough office on Staten Island is moving, with the new location at 1200 South Ave. in the Bloomfield section expected to open in February.
For Your Information
High school seniors may apply for Shanker scholarships
Make sure high school seniors apply for the UFT’s $5,000 Albert Shanker college scholarships. This year the application deadline is Feb. 28, 2022.
Opinions
VPerspective
DOE must give special ed more attention
UFT Vice President for Special Education MaryJo Ginese writes that we have seen how so many of our students with disabilities have lost ground since the pandemic hit. This fall, we have been confronted with the rocky rollout of the DOE’s Special Education Recovery Services program that was supposed to provide targeted help to these students.
President's Perspective
Our fight for smaller class sizes
We’ve known for decades that smaller classes enhance teaching and learning. But the pandemic drove home that class size is also a public health issue. We are pushing for legislation that would change the health section of the city’s administrative code to mandate minimal square footage of 28 to 35 square feet per student.
Editorials
COVID tests for adults
With the number of COVID-19 cases across the city on the rise, the increase in breakthrough infections and the threat of the new Omicron variant, in-school testing of unvaccinated students only was clearly no longer not enough. That’s why the UFT called on the city to resume testing vaccinated adults in school buildings.
Editorials
High-stakes collapse
High-stakes teacher evaluations, which leaned heavily on student test scores, had no discernible impact on improving student achievement or student test scores, according to a report by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. That comes as no surprise to anyone who has spent time in a classroom.
Editorial Cartoons
Teaching Resources
Learning Curve
Back to basics
After a year in which instruction was disrupted by the pandemic, that back-to-basics approach of phonics-based reading instruction may be especially important to help struggling readers take concrete steps toward progress.
Linking to Learning
Inviting virtual visitors has many benefits
Bringing visitors into your classroom to speak to students can be a powerful vehicle for learning. And though New York may have the highest number of experts per capita, a remote visit allows you to hear from people around the country and the world.
Teacher to Teacher
Incorporating movement into learning
Teaching elementary school students while they are up on their feet gives them the opportunity to allow their bodies and minds to work together.
Building Your Career
Inside My Classroom
A classroom that feels like home
"The decor and ambiance in my classroom have little touches to make it feel like home — things like curtains on the windows, beanbag chairs in our carpeted area and decorative lights. I try to address all five senses, like using air freshener to make sure it smells good. I like the classroom to be clean and organized, and my students have jobs, like engineer and janitorial staff, to help us maintain that organized environment."
New Teacher Articles
Working relationships with colleagues are vital
Whether you co-teach on a regular basis or sit on the same grade or subject team as other educators, you have a host of colleagues who can be your allies and support network.
New Teacher Profiles
‘I want to be him’
New teacher Gabrielle Vega was drawn to her 8th-grade social studies teacher's flair for the dramatic, and her affinity for theatrics is serving her well as she teaches that subject at MS 936 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a District 20 middle school dedicated to the performing and visual arts.
Retired Teachers News
Reviewing 2021
Reviewing end-of-year Retired Teachers Chapter events brings to mind my sophomore geometry class. A theorem jumps out at me: The whole is equal to the sum of its parts. Let's add up those parts as they apply to us.
We opened 2021 buoyed by Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election and rattled by the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. Those events infused us with a sense of optimism mingled with concern.
Several factors shaped the rest of the year: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the growing availability of vaccines and the vaccine mandates in many workplaces; the New York City Medicare Advantage Plus Plan; the enhancement of the UFT's Supplemental Health Insurance Program (SHIP); and local elections…
Growing the Garden State
Building an RTC section can take time, but there are ways to make sure the building blocks are in place. Judy Rosenstein, coordinator of the New Jersey section, says the Si Beagle courses are an important part of the process.
‘Every doll has a story’
Retired elementary school teacher Loretta Nardone never outgrew her childhood love of dolls. Instead, she took her collection of dolls from around the world into her classrooms, where she incorporated them into lessons about different cultures and traditions.