Noteworthy Graduate: Heather Simms, Broadway actor
Actor Heather Simms is playing Missy Judson in the current Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious. She made her stage debut in 2nd grade at PS 243 in Crown Heights, hamming it up as the mother in “Hansel and Gretel.”
Kudos to Sonja Hill at PS 41, Brooklyn
The UFT’s COPE — Committee on Public Education — program is one of the benchmarks of Sonja Hill’s chapter leadership.
Hill, a 5th-grade teacher in her 31st year at PS 41 in Brownsville, Brooklyn — and the school’s chapter leader for more than half of...
Teacher Union Day 2023
About 1,500 UFT members, family and friends gathered at the New York Hilton Midtown on Oct. 29 to honor the brave educators who put everything on the line in the 1960 strike that forged the union and the UFT activists who follow in their footsteps. This year, Teacher Union Day was dedicated to the Contract Action Teams.
Kudos to Dan Wever, Sunset Park HS, Brooklyn
Art teacher Dan Wever said he ran for chapter leader at Sunset Park HS in Brooklyn in 2021 knowing that at some point the union chapter would have to organize to demand the removal of the school’s longtime principal, Victoria Antonini.
Less than two...
‘Revolutionary’ learning experience
The Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton, with its collections of weaponry, uniforms and memorabilia from the American Revolution to World War II, is an interesting destination for a class trip.
On a roll
There was no foot-dragging on the way to PS 372 in Brooklyn on May 3. That morning, pre-K through 5th-graders enthusiastically pedaled and scooted their way to the Gowanus school on National Bike & Roll to School Day.
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.
Contract Grade-Ins
UFT members demonstrated through "public grade-ins" across the city on March 30, 2023, that educators deserve respect and autonomy in their next contract.
Prioritizing the planet
Teachers often go above and beyond for their students, but for Seanelle LeeSang, a teacher at IS 68 in Brooklyn, teaching is an opportunity to go the extra mile for the planet, too.
NYU Langone nurses’ contract spotlights staffing shortage
Federation of Nurses/UFT members employed by NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn on Feb. 24 overwhelmingly ratified a three-year contract that provides solid salary increases while making inroads in addressing the universal problem of staffing shortages.