Dial-A-Teacher
A Brief History
The Dial-A-Teacher program began in January of 1980. It was a pilot program in 17 schools in 8 districts. It was originally designed to be a resource for parents to call if they had a question about their child’s homework. Five teachers were hired to field these questions with one teacher proficient in Spanish. It was evident quite quickly, that students, throughout the city were going 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 Jr. High 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 callers.
Key Staff
The Director of the Dial-A-Teacher program is Amina Rachman, Special Assistant to Randi Weingarten, President of the UFT. Enrique Montes 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) 598 7787.
