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Dial-A-Teacher
The UFT sponsors a homework help program for elementary and middle school students called Dial-A-Teacher. Classroom teachers answer homework questions at 212-777-3380, Monday through Thursday, from 4 to 7 p.m. during the school year. They can also answer parents' questions and give advice on how you can help your child at home. The staff speaks 8 languages: Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese and Fukanese), English, French, Haitian-Creole, Russian, Slovak and Spanish.
Download Dial-A-Teacher fliers in English and in Spanish
A Brief History
The Dial-A-Teacher program began in January of 1980. It was a pilot program in 17 schools in 8 districts. Five teachers were hired to field these questions with one teacher proficient in Spanish. Students throughout the city quickly began to use the program to get help with homework problems that stumped them. By 1986, the program expanded to include all elementary schools in the city through funding by the NYC City Council. The UFT provided a large space where the newly hired staff of 45 teachers could work. Hundreds of texts and reference materials were bought and Dial-A-Teacher was now a world-class source of help for all the elementary students in the city.
As word spread to students that there was a telephone number that they could call to get free help with homework, the number of calls climbed steadily. Students in middle school and high school who were using the Dial-A-Teacher program since the third grade continued to seek this help. Dial-A-Teacher began hiring experts in advanced math and science to field these calls from older students.
Key Staff
The director of the Dial-A-Teacher program is Anthony Harmon. Karen Butler-Brock and Pierre Michelle Kalil are the coordinators that assist in the day-to-day administration of the program. The office telephone number is 212-598-9205. You can use this number to arrange for workshops, to order materials, to schedule classroom visits or to get general information about the program. If you need to speak to the director, call 212-510-6338.
Dial-A-Teacher celebration
Weatherman “Mr. G” of Channel 11 chose to spend his birthday at Dial-A-Teacher, bringing pizzas to help celebrate their record-breaking 80,000 call on May 10, 2011. On hand were UFT President Michael Mulgrew and School Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who lauded the jointly-funded program; and Robert Jackson, City Council Education Committee Chair.
“The answer people”
Read the New York Teacher feature story about the Dial-A-Teacher program.
