New York TeacherApril 13, 2023
For thousands of New York City educators, the workday doesn’t end when the school day is over. Across the city, Contract Action Teams organized grade-ins where UFT members did their work in public spaces to highlight their fight for a fair contract.
Cover Story
Making educators’ work visible
For thousands of New York City educators, the workday doesn’t end when the school day is over. The work teachers do to plan, prepare and deliver quality instruction to students often takes place outside the classroom and on their own time — and the Department of Education is placing more and more of its own demands on that time.
So on March 30, as part of their fight for a fair contract, educators across the city set out to make that workload visible to their school communities and to the city. During a citywide grade-in, UFT members took to the streets — and to parks, coffee shops, libraries and other public spaces — to demonstrate their expertise and their commitment to their students and to demand respect, autonomy and improved working conditions in their…
Latest News
‘No debate’ on class sizes
UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the Delegate Assembly on March 15 that, despite Mayor Eric Adams’ comments to the contrary, the city must comply with new class-size requirements that have been funded by the state.
UFT contract update
Negotiations between the UFT and the city are expected to shift into higher gear now that the members of District Council 37, the city’s largest union, have overwhelmingly ratified a new pattern-setting five-year contract with the city.
Feature Stories
‘Building their brains’
Last school year, Monica Heldt found herself struggling to help the 3-year-olds in her 3K class at PS 7 in East Harlem resolve conflicts among themselves. Heldt, who taught kindergarten for 20 years before moving to 3K in 2019, had exhausted her usual arsenal of tactics so she asked the advice of Danny Gomez, a social worker from the DOE’s Division of Early Childhood Education (DECE) who supports PS 7.
Gomez visited her classroom, knelt down beside two students squabbling over a toy and modeled a simple, three-step strategy: Narrate what’s happening (“I see you really want that toy”), validate students’ feelings (“That’s why you’re feeling so upset”) and then pause.
Heldt watched in astonishment as one student obligingly shrugged, dropped the toy and skipped off to another activity. Soon she was using the same strategy throughout the day in…
STEM for beginners
A lunchtime LEGO club conceived by two paraprofessionals grows into an award-winning career and technical education STEM program at Fairmont Neighborhood Elementary School in the Bronx.
Para’s allergy alert
A student-friendly book and seminar on food allergies was created by Fatima Straughn, a paraprofessional at MS 45 in the Bronx, as a way to teach young children about the effects of food allergies.
Member Spotlight
Sorangel Acosta, dual language teacher
As a student teacher, Sorangel Acosta was “amazed and mesmerized” that it was possible to respect both languages equally in a dual-language class. She tries to bring that experience to the 3rd-graders in her English/Spanish classroom at PS 280 in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Kudos to Kristin Golat-Defendis, MS 51, Brooklyn
Kristin Golat-Defendis, the chapter leader at MS 51 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, stood up to an abusive principal. On Jan. 30, 2023, the principal was transferred out of the school.
Around the UFT
Paraprofessionals Festival & Awards Luncheon
At their 41st annual Paraprofessionals Festival & Awards Luncheon on March 25, members celebrated the many rights they have gained since their chapter's founding and the trailblazers who led the way while acknowledging there is much more to do.
School Counselors Conference
Shanker Hall at UFT headquarters was packed on March 11 for the 19th annual School Counselors Conference — the first fully in-person conference the chapter has held since school buildings closed during the pandemic — and members relished the opportunity to connect in person and share their experiences.
Social Workers Appreciation Day
Helping students learn to cope with anxiety experienced during and after the COVID-19 pandemic was the key takeaway from the UFT's seventh annual Social Workers Appreciation Day event on March 10, which attracted about 900 UFT members both in person at union headquarters in Manhattan and remotely.
Gun violence discussion
Along with police officers and EMTs, teachers must deal with gun violence and its aftermath and should have the opportunity and the time to develop meaningful curriculum around the issue, education activist Amina Brown said at a UFT-sponsored community discussion on gun violence.
Labor Seder
The Labor Seder celebrated by the UFT Jewish Heritage Committee and the Jewish Labor Committee Educators’ Chapter on March 30 connected the themes of liberation and redemption in the Passover story of the exodus from Egypt with the struggles of the modern-day labor movement.
More in Around the UFT
Your Rights and Benefits
Know Your Benefits
Prescription drugs
All eligible in-service UFT members and their dependents have prescription drug coverage through the UFT Welfare Fund.
Know Your Rights
Cumulative Absence Reserve
Cumulative Absence Reserve (CAR) is the formal name for the bank of “sick days” earned by UFT-represented employees who work for the city Department of Education (DOE). All full-time, school-based UFT members may earn up to 10 CAR days for the full school year.
Your Well-being
Daily meditation
Meditation can lower your stress level, reduce anxiety and depression, increase your ability to concentrate and bring a sense of calm and purpose to your life.
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.
Q&A on the Issues
Paid parental leave
The UFT in 2018 was the first municipal union in New York City to secure paid parental leave for its members. Parents of any gender may be eligible to take paid parental leave following the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child under the age of 6. The following FAQ provides answers to the most commonly asked questions from members.
Secure Your Future
Planning for retirement
The most common retirement date by far for UFT members is July 1 because it coincides with the end of the school year. If you’re planning a July 1 retirement, you should have already begun to prepare. Fortunately, the UFT has done much of the heavy lifting for members by developing tried-and-true steps you should take.
Opinions
President's Perspective
Building our power through activism
We are at a stronger place as a union than we were a year ago. We are using the muscle of activism. We have engaged our communities in a conversation about what is important to us as a profession. We have used our superpower — the power to educate — to make our voices heard. And we will keep on pushing until we have the contract we deserve.
VPerspective
Leading the charge for safe staffing
UFT Vice President Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT, writes that city hospitals are not required to have adequate staffing. The game of health is allowed to proceed knowingly shorthanded, without economic penalty and at risk to patients. Our union is leading the fight to focus on this injustice and require proper staffing.
Editorials
Prep to trim classes
The state's new class-size law designated the 2022-23 school year as a planning year, but there is little evidence the city Department of Education has done any planning to implement it. In fact, the city’s recent budget proposal and co-location decisions suggest that it is willfully ignoring the law.
Editorials
Don’t defund schools
It is a crucial year for New York City public schools as educators continue to help students recover from pandemic learning loss and isolation while welcoming some 14,000 newly arrived migrant children. But for the second year in a row, Mayor Eric Adams wants to slash education funding in the budget.
Editorial Cartoons
Teaching Resources
Learning Curve
A revolutionary teaching tool
ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence tool launched in November 2022, has the potential to be a game-changer for both students and teachers.
Linking to Learning
Powerful tools for special needs students
Assistive technology can be a game changer for special needs students. The following resources can supplement any assistive technology you may already use in your classroom.
Teacher to Teacher
Strategies to spice up math instruction
I implemented random grouping, whiteboards and low-floor, high-ceiling questions in my 7th-grade math classroom to promote greater engagement. My classroom now is a place of student exploration, collaboration and discussion.
Building Your Career
Inside My Classroom
Combining art and science
High school health teacher Massiel Sori combined art and science in a student project on the body's immune system.
New Teacher Articles
Never too soon to think about retirement income
When you retire from teaching, your pension plan guarantees a lifetime annuity of regular payments based on a formula that takes into account your years of service, your salary and your age. Here's what you need to know about this valuable benefit.
New Teacher Checklist
To Do List for Spring
Here are some items to take care of right away and others that will help you prioritize and stay on track.
New Teacher Profiles
Leader of the pack
Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship HS's commitment to student well-being is why Sylwia Nosowicz, a first-year teacher whose first career was as a clinical mental health counselor, feels comfortable calling the school “a perfect match” for her.
Retired Teachers News
Be ‘guardians of civility’
Decorum, it seems, is honored lately more as an ideal than a practice. Outbursts at our December RTC membership meeting come to mind.
As a middle child, having grown up in a family that spoke to one another respectfully, I try to foster positive interactions. What in human behavior makes things sometimes fall apart?
Basic psychology tells us the subconscious mind is composed of the id, a source of raw impulses and instincts, and the superego, which operates as a moral conscience. The interplay between the two guides us toward a healthy ego, allowing us to function normally in society. Buy it or not, it’s one way of understanding that when things are out of…
Back in person in Brooklyn
As the pandemic subsides, the Retired Teachers Chapter’s Brooklyn section, like other sections, is welcoming retired members back for line dancing, crocheting, seed beading and other in-person classes while it continues to offer remote classes, too.
Training her sights on cancer research
Retiree Peggy Keyes establised a model train museum to raise money for pancreatic cancer research in honor of her husband, who died of the disease.