Category Archive
Verdict on Midwood’s fairy-tale trials: They’re fun and educationalJun 18, 2008
Midwood HS’s fairy-tale trials are fun and educational for students.
Keeping the chemical balanceJun 05, 2008
A day in the life of a New York City public school lab specialist illustrates her winning formula for educating kids.
‘Thank you for saving my life’Jun 05, 2008
A 10-year-old 4th-grader is grateful for chapter leader’s quick action after she was choking on an apple.
Living for artMay 22, 2008
In the student art exhibit “Making Choices for a Better Tomorrow,” Godzilla is a world savior right up there with Mother Teresa. Portraits of both were among the vibrant drawings that showcased the imagination and drawing skills of the young artists, off-site students of PS 721/Bronx Occupational Training Center. The students were thrilled to see their work exhibited at the office of Borough President Adolfo Carrion on April 17.
Conferees welcome straight talk from RegentsMay 22, 2008
Breakfast with the Regents, this year’s theme for Operation Soapbox, left members cheering the straight talk that was on the menu and wanting the discussion to last through lunch, dinner and dessert.
Dewey winner Thompson: DOE transparency, accountability ‘sorely needed’May 22, 2008
This year’s John Dewey Award was presented by the UFT to New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. for his steadfast commitment over his long public career to improving the city’s public schools.
May I have this dance?May 08, 2008
The ballroom dancing program that is now in more than 200 New York City public schools is helping city kids embrace learning.
Explore your imaginationApr 24, 2008
Members should consider attending the Lincoln Center Institute summer workshop, which is sure to get their creative juices flowing.
Doing more with lessApr 10, 2008
There are 1,280 psychologists working in New York City schools to handle all the referrals and other cases. On average, each school psychologist’s caseload is well over 100. Despite that impossible overload, the IEP team at PS 6 still manages to do the kind of good work that wins respect. Lauren Fontana, the principal of the school, said she appreciates how the IEP team supports the teachers in the school and helps to improve the overall teaching and learning climate.
Citizen/soldier makes his mark in classroom and, soon, in IraqApr 10, 2008
Tony Plata, 5th-grade teacher and data specialist at PS 46 in the Bronx, leads a double life: He’s also a captain in the New York National Guard with more than 130 soldiers under his command.
Not perfect, but betterApr 10, 2008
There was a time when the staff at PS 276 in Brooklyn could only accentuate the negative about Principal Jonathan Straughn. A time when they picketed in protest in front of their school. And a time when the principal, who called the union “toxic,” refused to meet with UFT President Randi Weingarten on her Oct. 3, 2006 visit to the school to try to sort things out.
Working in a Yoga WonderlandMar 27, 2008
There’s a new approach to a 5,000-year-old curriculum at PS 811 in the Bronx. And the lesson plans were designed by one of the earliest unions.
Learning to break the conflict cycleMar 27, 2008
One of the workshops at this year’s Parafest focused on conflict resolution techniques, which place responsibility squarely on the adult in such a conflict.
Tribute to paras stresses partnership with teachersMar 27, 2008
The UFT hailed the contributions of New York City classroom paraprofessionals at the union’s annual Para Festival.
What a ‘Rush’!Mar 13, 2008
“Raise It Up,” the glorious signature song from the movie “August Rush,” was the brainchild of teacher and musician Tevin Thomas and a few of his jam-buddies from Impact Repertory Theatre in Harlem.
Making beautiful music togetherMar 13, 2008
Two beacons of light illuminate a single state-of-the-art building in Brooklyn’s District 23.
And the winners are — teachersFeb 28, 2008
Two dozen Career and Technical Education teachers and CTE supporters were honored on Feb. 7 at a poignant ceremony held at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.
Sending off an institutionFeb 14, 2008
There wasn’t a chance folks at Thomas Edison Vocational HS were going to let Hazel Barr slip into retirement without a proper sendoff.
City’s treasures await your studentsFeb 14, 2008
Imagine seeing and hearing thrilling Metropolitan sopranos all free and at a high school in each borough.
Thanks, Teach!Feb 14, 2008
Students past and present counted the ways they love their teachers in a program sponsored by the UFT and DOE.
Heart-warmingJan 31, 2008
A mighty human spirit burns in the developmentally disabled and autistic kids at the Roy Campanella Occupational Training Center, aka PS 721, in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Annual ‘Worlds Fair of Education’Jan 31, 2008
It’s time again for the Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21 Teaching and Learning Celebration described by many of the thousands who have attended over the past two years as the “Worlds Fair of Education.”
Designing teachersJan 31, 2008
It may be the only award given for not doing a particular thing. This year the organization Teachers Network awarded 10 of New York’s brightest with Not Teaching to the Test Grants, lauding them for helping students succeed on Regents exams without — you guessed it — teaching to the test.
Daring to ‘try something different’Jan 31, 2008
More than 150 teachers, paras and school secretaries were honored at UFT headquarters for their innovative ideas that earned them Teacher Center Mini-Grants.
Sculpting an educationJan 22, 2008
Where to have an art installation by emerging young artists but Tompkins Square Park in the hipster heart of the East Village?
Educators just want to have fundsDec 06, 2007
What’s the buzz all about?DonorsChoose.org. It’s a brilliantly conceived Web site where public school teachers can post one-page proposals and “citizen philanthropists,” as donors are called, can browse, find a project that appeals to them, and fund it with a tax-deductible donation.
If you rebuild it ...Dec 06, 2007
The UFT made a special delivery to help rebuild the damaged library of a New Orleans elementary school in October.
'Survivor'Dec 06, 2007
When Dan Brown began teaching a class of extremely diverse, challenging students, he did one thing besides enter a lion’s den. He wrote about it.
Cinderella storyOct 18, 2007
Once upon a time there was a school librarian named Judith Dahill who loved her job so much she would just throw on some comfy clothes in the morning, rush out the door, and work from morning till evening among leaning towers of beloved books in an old library painted yuck peach.
Teachers were the stars at PBS concertOct 18, 2007
Usually, when educators attend a concert, they go as spectators, listen to the music and, if the artists on stage are talented and lucky, applaud at the appropriate moments. But a town hall event held in September changed all that.
Astronaut lands safely at GompersOct 18, 2007
A month after visiting the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's mission was a bit more down to Earth: he met with students and staff at Samuel Gompers Career and Technical HS.
SurvivorsOct 04, 2007
Here are the stories of four brave UFTers who heard the words “You have breast cancer” and lived to tell about it.
Mini-grants produce maxi learningOct 04, 2007
Do you have an idea to enhance the learning environment in your school? The UFT Teacher Center Mini-Grant Program awaits you. Educators have until Oct. 30 to submit an application.
House of love and learningSep 06, 2007
Sharing heartbreak and joy is part of the job at PS 23 at St. Mary's Hospital for Children, the prettiest place you hope a child never has to be.
There's a big 'classroom' out thereAug 09, 2007
Are class trips really worth the effort and expense? Use the simple formula below to find out.
Comic TripsAug 09, 2007
Trips are a fun way to teach unique lessons to your students, as this strip points out.
'indispensable'Jun 07, 2007
Paraprofessionals have become such a fixture in the New York City school system today that it’s hard to imagine 40 or so years ago before there were any.
Queens teacher inspires students to dreamJun 07, 2007
When Luis Daniel Estrada Santiago sits down in his study to write every night for three hours, he thinks of his former teacher in Queens encouraging him to discipline himself and to let his flamboyant imagination run loose.
Helping pick up the piecesMay 24, 2007
Twenty-five high school students from Brooklyn have recently returned from a class trip to New Orleans and already they’re talking about going back.
Vivat longe Schola Latina Brookliniensis!May 24, 2007
Ovis the Imperfect Sheep is an important teaching tool at Brooklyn Latin School, a new high school for gifted students in East Williamsburg.
Student journalists have the write stuffMay 24, 2007
Across the five boroughs, young journalists gather every day to write stories, discuss editorials, take photos, lay out newspapers and spread the news to their readers, under the guidance of UFT members.
Learning on the menuMay 10, 2007
What to you get when you take a great idea, spice it up with two Latina teachers who cook a mean mofongo, add two dozen bright young minds and stir for 37.5 minutes?
Hope grows in BrooklynMay 10, 2007
At PS 304 in Brooklyn, parents, teachers and students tended a community garden — a bucolic oasis started by a teacher nine years ago.
Honoring the dead, fighting for the livingApr 26, 2007
Some 1,000 supporters of labor rights and job safety crowded a Greenwich Village intersection March 26 to commemorate the 96th anniversary of what until 9/11 was the single-most-horrific workplace disaster in the city’s history.
Oh, baby!Apr 26, 2007
Like many of their colleagues in the school system, UFT district representatives Karen Blackwell and Servia Silva are back on the job after giving birth.
The 'Children First' GameApr 12, 2007
A parent uses spoofs of the game Monopoly to throw darts at the chancellor.
Heading 'home'Apr 12, 2007
Who are these home-based child-care providers the UFT has been working to organize the last two years? Here are some snapshots of a handful of them.
Getting kids to open up and go deepMar 06, 2007
Scared, blue, embarrassed, misunderstood, worried, hurt, mad, curious, triumphant, brave -- these are some of the emotions that 7th-grade guidance counselor Laurie Bernstein gingerly explores with kids every day.
What's your pleasure?Feb 01, 2007
Drop by union headquarters most afternoons and weekends and you’ll find the place humming with activity.
Give your students a taste of the Big AppleFeb 01, 2007
For Avril Wenderoff’s 4th-graders at PS 24 in the Bronx it was the ultimate learning experience: the crunch and bite of the pickle, the creamy smoothness of fresh mozzarella, the sweetness of the halvah.
Prospecting for lesson plans?Jan 18, 2007
One of the best-kept secrets in the education community is the gold mine of award-winning lesson plans — appropriate for all subject areas and all levels — just waiting for teachers to discover.
Best 'Buddies'Dec 07, 2006
Madeline, Little Bear, the Cat in the Hat, Lovable Lyle and many other imaginary celebrities were in full force at the Nov. 1 grand opening of “Reading Buddies,” an ongoing community service program that is an integral part of student life at the union’s newest charter school.
Retirees' expertise a valuable resourceNov 02, 2006
Corporate CEOs may float off in their golden parachutes when they retire. Not so UFTers, who remain active and involved in their union.
What the job entailsNov 02, 2006
The job of chapter leader entails a great many responsibilities. The most effective chapter leaders are great communicators, problem-solvers and organizers in their building.
Aces at organizingNov 02, 2006
The union’s 1,400 chapter leaders take on tremendous responsibility when they are elected to lead their schools.
Class trip opportunities abound in Big AppleOct 05, 2006
New York City school kids are mighty lucky they live in the Big Apple. After all, where else are there so many exciting things to do, see, explore and interact with beyond their classrooms?
'Unity' march features UFTers front and centerOct 04, 2006
Some 200,000 New York unionists, including more than 1,200 UFT members, marched up Fifth Avenue, bringing labor’s economic justice message to the public in the Sept. 9 Labor Day parade.
Dial-a-teacherSep 07, 2006
Dial-A-Teacher, the UFT's award-winning homework helpline, is once again open for business. Be sure to recommend it to your students.
Sizzlin’ summerAug 16, 2006
From polar bears to pensions to polymer-preserved pancreases, the UFT’s summer series for new teachers covered a lot of ground.
Photo GalleryJun 21, 2006
Supplies party
Jun 08, 2006
Everybody loves a sale. But thousands of city teachers have scored one even better than a sale. They’ve discovered freebies!
Summer reading about labor, lifeJun 08, 2006
With summer coming, you may have some time to read a few of the better books on labor and social change published since 2001.
Music to her earsJun 08, 2006
Music teacher Marie Sanzone got a standing ovation when she was recently named one of six 2006 recipients of the Sloan Public Service Awards.
Kindest CutsJun 08, 2006
The walls of isolation at Graphic Arts HS began to disintegrate about three years ago when the school was picked to participate in the “Small Learning Communities” initiative.
Family affair at Special Ed SchoolJun 08, 2006
Bond between staff, students makes this special ed school extra special
Spring in AugustJun 08, 2006
August Martin HS was tanking. And its doors were in danger of shutting forever.
Collaboration was key in Columbus transitionMay 25, 2006
Each step in the reconstitution of Columbus HS as four separate, but equal academies has been scrutinized and debated in a “community conversation.”
Small, but big on supportMay 25, 2006
Pelham Preparatory Academy accomplished its mission with Tatiana Hernandez, a 17-year-old in the small school’s first graduating class: She is college-bound.
Student’s ‘positive’ experience looms largeMay 25, 2006
During her first three years at Columbus HS, Stephanie Tolentino took an extra full load of classes. Now in her final year, with an 85-percent average and all her Regents behind her, she is focusing on what she loves best: school service.
Columbus aims to be prototype for how schools can co-existMay 25, 2006
Columbus HS, once on the brink of closing, is now hard at work remaking itself and remaking its relationship with the four small schools in its midst.
Documenting successMay 11, 2006
“I just want you to know how much I loved this movie,” U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told the packed house at Stuyvesant HS April 28 after viewing a new 35-minute film chronicling the first months of the UFT’s charter school in East New York.
The city’s resistance to cutting class sizeApr 27, 2006
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have made sweeping changes in the city’s schools, but the administration has ignored the No. 1 concern of many parents, teachers and advocates: class size.
Kids get the blues — musically speakingApr 27, 2006
Long before she arrived for the first in a series of visits at a Manhattan school, the teaching artist from the Lincoln Center Institute for Arts in Education (LCI) had met and brainstormed at length with teachers about the lessons she would present.
UFTers get grim view of global trade at Mexican borderApr 13, 2006
A group of UFTers is helping to bring attention to the desperate living conditions of workers in factories operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) near the U.S.-Mexico border.
A night with the starsMar 16, 2006
Last month at the UFT’s annual Career and Technical Education Recognition Week Awards Ceremony at union headquarters, CTE teachers received awards from current and former students. The students spoke in heartfelt tones about how their teachers turned their lives around, encouraged them to dream big dreams, consoled them in times of anguish and understood how fragile young minds can be.
NY-PDMar 16, 2006
Educators from all over the U.S. come to New York each year, as well, to take in the top-notch professional development offered at the AFT/UFT Institute.
For school secretary, education runs in the familyFeb 16, 2006
School cecretary Nickie Zambardino is just one in a long line of educators teaching the city's children.
Planning a trip?Feb 16, 2006
City public school students and their teachers have a wealth of riches to choose from to make other times and places spring to life.
March of the ‘Nerds’Feb 16, 2006
They call themselves “Nerds on Strike.” They’re the unionized graduate assistants at New York University, who have been engaging in job actions since August in an effort to force the school administration back to the bargaining table.
From Big Easy to Big AppleFeb 02, 2006
When teacher Charles Block was forced to leave his home in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last September, he headed to New York and became an asset of the city's public school system — with help from the UFT.
Not just a ‘book checker-outer’Feb 02, 2006
School libraries work! But they work only when the enthusiasm, energy and professional skills of the school librarian — known today as the library media specialist — make a school library come to life.
Light on!Feb 02, 2006
Readers of the New York Teacher weren’t the only ones wowed by blind physical education teacher and coach Steve Sloan, who starred in the Oct. 6, 1999, feature headlined: “A True Visionary.”
From Big Easy to Big AppleFeb 02, 2006
When a high school teacher was forced to leave his home in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last September, he headed to New York — and landed in a public school classroom, with an assist from the UFT.
‘Gun, gun, gun!’Jan 19, 2006
One minute Freddie Rodriguez was in his classroom writing “parallel circuit analysis” on the board and the next minute he was running down the hallway with a 357 Magnum, chasing the masked gunman who tossed it.
Educators cited for developing innovative techniques, strategiesJan 19, 2006
To cut through teachers’ isolation from their own profession, and to prove that they can provide direction to one another, the Teachers Network was established 25 years ago.
Hobart honored for creating ‘united, strong powerhouse’ in stateDec 08, 2005
This year’s Charles Cogen Award, the UFT’s highest honor, went to Thomas Y. Hobart Jr. for his visionary work in helping to forge a statewide union — New York State United Teachers — that today represents more than a half-million educators and health-care workers.
Well-deserved praiseDec 08, 2005
While this year’s Teacher Union Day celebrated hard-won accomplishments, the clear message was that the real heroes of the union are the “shop-floor” leaders and the classroom practitioners.
Big-hearted teacher goes on a missionDec 08, 2005
Watching the utter horror of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on CNN and other news programs, Susan McGuire-Crenny couldn’t sit still. “All I could think about was how were the children going to be able to start school?” she recalled.
Comfort from the stormsDec 08, 2005
It has been close to 10 weeks since Grace Garrison, a Federation of Nurses/UFT member, returned from the hurricane-wrecked Gulf Coast, and she still lives with the tragedy of the stories her patients told.
L.A. loves Dial-A-TeacherNov 17, 2005
The UFT’s acclaimed Dial-A-Teacher program may soon have a West Coast replica. Leaders of the Los Angeles teachers’ union spent the day at UFT headquarters on Nov. 1 on a fact-finding mission to learn about the UFT’s after-school homework helpline.
Have family, will travelNov 03, 2005
Something unexpected happened as I was globetrotting: I discovered my family.
Trippin’Oct 06, 2005
If you’re a kid growing up in New York City or a teacher in the city’s public schools, riches of every sort are at your fingertips.
Everybody is a starOct 06, 2005
The the star-studded alumni of Fiorello H. LaGuardia HS of Music and Art and Performing Arts are everywhere.
Welcome to the U.S.!Sep 22, 2005
Newcomers HS in Long Island City faced the unusual opening-day challenge of absorbing 180 teenagers new to the New York City school system and the United States.
A former honoree now saving livesSep 08, 2005
You never know where or when those UFT scholarship winners might pop up in your life — as Brooklyn Borough Representative Robert Astrowsky discovered.
The pride of public schoolsSep 08, 2005
If anyone at Tweed or City Hall wants to know about the importance of educators in our town, they should attend the next Albert Shanker College Scholarship Fund Awards ceremony event at UFT headquarters.
Red hotMay 12, 2005
Some schools are wearing blue for the Bloomberg blues, others are in mourning black, but at PS 32 they’re in rage red. Staffers at the Bronx school make their message clear during morning informational picketing recently.
Doin’ ‘The Robot’May 12, 2005
“Our hand are tied, we must abide, and yet we still have our pride.” At Brooklyn’s PS 19, that was the clever — and unfortunately, accurate — theme for the protest against the DOE’s one-size-fits-all approach to classroom teaching.
The buzz in the BronxMay 12, 2005
The teachers and parents rallying outside PS 150 in the Bronx on April 20 share more than a concern for the kids indoors.
Beat goes onMay 12, 2005
In their early-morning protest, Franklin Delano Roosevelt HS staffers were drumming up support for teacher respect, higher salaries and lower enrollment.
Life, liberty ... and the pursuit of respect for teachersMay 12, 2005
Educators in District 32 enjoyed “A Day of Teaching” on April 20, when they rolled up their classroom rugs, rearranged their tables and chairs in rows and defied the restrictive 10-minute mini-lesson.
Tremendous ‘feets’May 12, 2005
The costumes get more and more creative as protests, rallies and other actions keep popping up at schools and in districts across the city as UFTers continue to express their frustration over the lack of a contract and lack of respect from the Department of Education.
Dark moodsMay 12, 2005
PS 84 staffers delivered a bruising black eye to the mayor and the chancellor when they hit the streets in black T-shirts — a black day for education, no contract, no respect — during a recent morning rally.
It must be WednesdayMay 12, 2005
The staff at Brooklyn’s PS 217 has been walking an informational picket line every Wednesday morning before the start of school, and it was no different on April 13.
‘Give us what we’ve earned’May 12, 2005
A large number of teachers, paraprofessionals and parents gathered in front of Brooklyn’s PS 105 on April 22 — Earth Day — to protest the approaching two-year anniversary of UFT members working without a contract.
