A city DOE employee since 1986, Friedman says she now works 24/7. “My phone is always with me. Teachers who work in the building call or text me if they're going to be out and then I have to get a sub. That’s been much harder this year.” She misses...

The pandemic has created unique challenges for Kasowitz and other teachers like her, “but we're not letting them get us down,” she says. Social distancing affects seating arrangements and masks make it hard to see facial expressions. “I have taught...

“Before I was always visible,” says Perry. “That's gone now. You take on different roles because there are fewer staff and fewer children in the building.” Perry says students’ families are overwhelmed by remote learning and the process for setting...

“There’s nothing that compares to in-person learning,” Kaplan says, “but I'm putting the same amount of energy and love into every session I create, whether in-person or remote.” In a challenging year, Kaplan points to rewards: speaking to parents...

Jeff Orlowski, who attended PS 42 and IS 7 on Staten Island, is a filmmaker who specializes in movies about existential threats such as climate change and social media. As a senior at Stuyvesant HS in Manhattan, he was editor-in-chief of the school...

“My greatest challenge,” says Johnson, “has been making sure my school community was able to keep safe. I knew it was essential for classroom teachers and support staff to have easy access to first aid items because they had to remain contained...

“In our school,” Pardo says, “we do as many things as we can to engage students. Our goal is to create a safe space where students feel they belong and are validated.” Pardo has been working remotely since March and finds it extremely difficult...

The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history claimed the lives of 14 students and three staff members on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, Florida. Five weeks later, students nationwide walked out of classes to support the...

The UFT's 115 in-school Teacher Centers, located in all five boroughs, support educators as they investigate best practices, seek out new materials and collaborate to improve their instruction and, during the pandemic, have also helped with the...

Joseph Buro's students at Staten Island Technical HS can really get inside their teacher's head during Buro's 3D computer-aided design class. For their remote teaching lessons on biomedical engineering, Buro uses images of his own CAT scan, taken...