Leigh Anderson

Second-year teacher Taylor Rettig of IS 93 in Ridgewood, Queens, has found pedagogical success by building inclusive curricular units for her 6th grade ENL science students. Her tactics encourage students of all language proficiencies to participate in class discussions.

A cluster teacher at PS 372, The Children’s School, in Brooklyn, shows off the LEGO wall he's built in his classroom to support the educational needs of his District 75 students.

The UFT gave out $5,000 college scholarships to 164 high school students and 12 graduate students at the 57th annual Albert Shanker College Scholarship Awards Ceremony on June 2 at UFT headquarters. 


UFT President Michael Mulgrew reminded the more than 1,100 educators at this year's Spring Education Conference that they are the protectors of students' hopes and dreams as he praised members' tenacity in rallying them to continue standing up to ongoing threats to public education.

Over 200 honorees and guests attended the inaugural Middle Schools Awards at UFT headquarters in Manhattan, where some 40 members were honored for excellence in education, collaboration and union activism.

UFT members enjoy robust retirement benefits, often the envy of workers outside the union's ranks. Union leaders urged members at its second Pension Expo to support efforts to guarantee such benefits for all U.S. workers.

Some 200 members and guests gathered as the UFT Speech Improvement Chapter hosted its 20th annual celebration of National Speech-Language-Hearing Month. 
Award-winning topics and projects, including those that raised awareness about cerebral palsy, utilized augmentative and alternative communication devices and described strategies to address selective mutism.

Nurses at Staten Island University Hospital–South represented by the Federation of Nurses/UFT overwhelmingly ratified a three-year contract on March 27 that raises salaries by a compounded 14 percent, preserves premium-free health care and increases staffing in key units.

After a five-year fight for recognition as a bargaining unit, the UFT's newest chapter, the Division of School Facilities Supervisors Chapter, is negotiating its 1st contract with the city Department of Education.

The invaluable need for human connection in a fast-moving digital world was top of mind as School Counselors Chapter Leader Rosemarie Thompson welcomed about 200 counselors and other related service providers to union headquarters for the 22nd annual School Counselors Conference.