When students at the UFT Middle Schools Division’s annual Anti-Bullying Conference break into small workshops and begin sharing their own stories, that’s when the real work begins. In those circles — where 6th-, 7th- and 8th-graders talk through what they’ve seen and what they can do — teachers say the lessons truly resonate.

About 400 middle school students from 39 schools across the city gathered at union headquarters on Oct. 23 for this year’s conference to raise awareness about bullying and give students strategies to address it.

“Let’s face it — bullying can impact everything: academic performance, self-esteem, mental health and relationships,” said UFT Vice President for Middle Schools Richard Mantell. “Middle school is a critical time in students’ lives. They’re developing their identities and building more social relationships.”

Students opened the day in Shanker Hall, then moved into smaller sessions led by the UFT’s BRAVE anti-bullying initiative, MindUP, the Harmony Power Foundation, Karate for Change, the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility and History UnErased, an LGBTQ curriculum advocacy group.

Brian Lesser-Hernandez, an ENL teacher at IS 125 in Woodside, Queens, said the Morningside Center session was “particularly helpful because the students get to interact with each other, talk about their own experiences and brainstorm ways to address and disrupt bullying.”

Robin Ransom, a 6th-grade science teacher at MS 217 in Briarwood, Queens, hoped her students would return to school ready to share what they learned with peers. “One of the pushes in school is to be able to address bullying, and so it’s important for the kids to understand what it is and the role they can play,” she said.

For educators like Desiree Chambers, the chapter leader at MS 57 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the conference itself sends a powerful signal. “To understand that we’re having a whole conference and schools from different boroughs are coming to this one place to talk about bullying — they’ll be able to see how important it really is,” she said.

The day’s discussions, she added, will stay with students even if it doesn’t seem immediately relevant. “Even though for middle schoolers it might not always land right away, I think that once they are in those situations, they’ll think back to this experience.”

Lesser-Hernandez credited the union for creating a space where middle school students can talk openly about bullying.

“Making the school community a more harmonious place is always a good thing, so I appreciate the effort,” he said.