Around the UFT
Better Speech and Hearing Month Celebration
Good therapy
Jonathan Fickies
Speech therapists Ana Machuca (left) and Kathleen Gomez of PS 74 on Staten Island were honored for a bilingual project.
Jonathan Fickies
Speech therapist Marjorie James and her student Michael of East Elmhurst Community School in Queens were honored for their project “Lazy T.”
Brightly colored balloons floated above tables set with place mats depicting students’ winning artwork at the UFT Speech Improvement Chapter’s 10th annual Better Speech and Hearing Month Celebration on May 19 at UFT headquarters.
“We have a very full program and a very full room,” Chapter Leader Mindy Karten Bornemann said in Shanker Hall, where the walls were lined with projects by students and their speech therapists. She welcomed about 260 speech providers, their students, families and guests to an evening filled with laughter and touching moments as students spoke from the stage, and the heart, showing what they had learned and what keeps their therapists motivated.
“This is about honoring you,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the speech teachers, “for what you’re doing in the face of all your challenges; for the fact that you continue to push this union, the school administration and each other because you understand the impact you have on a child’s life every day.”
The nearly 60 award-winning projects on display included posters, videos, songs, papers and grants, crossword puzzles and even a phone app that students can use to tell teachers what their disabilities are and what accommodations they need.
The app, called Disclose Me, is the brainchild of student Giovanni Rescigno of Gramercy Arts HS in Manhattan, whose speech therapist is Jaimee Samson. Providers Erica Kobayashi and Stephanie Castro of PS 373 of District 75 on Staten Island got one of the biggest reactions of the evening for their riveting Dancing with the Stars student video.
Complete with three dancing couples, a master of ceremonies and three judges holding up scorecards, audience members couldn’t take their eyes off the screen, except to dry the tears that ran because they laughed so hard. Daniil Akhobadze of JHS 185 in Queens, whose speech teacher is Katherine Regnell, was recognized for his project “What Speech Taught Me.”
He gave a rousing “shoutout to the UFT for giving me this amazing award.” Friends of the Chapter Awards were presented to Mulgrew, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Corinne Rello-Anselmi, the deputy chancellor for the DOE’s Division of Specialized Instruction. Chapter members Katherine Lewis, Brenda Caquias, Ava Geddis, Lorina Allert and Jennifer Knight also were honored for helping organize the celebration for 10 years.