Around the UFT: Thursday, November 22, 2012

The 8th-grade class at JHS 157 in Queens — all 350 students — marched to a movie theater a mile away from their school to view the documentary film “Bully” on Nov. 9. Guidance counselor Shimona Shriki reported that “some students were teary-eyed and silent while others wanted to talk about it.”

A 48-foot-long trailer truck coming from Virginia pulled up to P 721 – the Brooklyn Occupational Training Center in Gravesend, on Nov. 15 to replenish relief supplies at the busy District 75 school that has been working around the clock to help staff, students and families who are still in desperate need in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

While Coney Island parents stood in a long line to pick up the necessities of daily living that Hurricane Sandy had swept away, their children were entertained by UFT members who knew how to bring smiles to young faces.

Nobody knows how to celebrate Halloween better than Bronx UFT members and staff who, for the eighth straight year, transformed the borough office into a magical mix of horror and delight.

It was a busy day and a full house at the annual New York City and New York State Associations of Foreign Language Teachers Conference at UFT headquarters on Oct. 27 as hundreds of teachers focused on the conference theme “A Core Subject for a Global Society.”

More than 250 parents and family members came to Manhattan District 5’s first Anti-Bullying and Safety Conference on Oct. 27 at PS/MS 46. Parents had their choice of workshops to attend, with topics such as cyberbullying, violence prevention, gang awareness, positive behavior intervention systems, healthy relationships, Stand Up and Lead: Bullying Solutions and more.