Feature Stories
Protecting their kids
The strategies employed by educators at Brooklyn's Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School to protect their immigrant school community have been replicated by schools across the city, earning them a Team High School Award at this year's UFT Academic High Schools Awards.
Making moves to boost mood
Whether it's creating a dance troupe of educators at JHS 157 in Rego Park, Queens, or a walking club at PS 4 on Staten Island, teachers are creating opportunities for joy and self-care for themselves and their colleagues.
Members push back against principal
Educators at Flushing High School called on the UFT and took a stand when the principal initiated a program that resulted in isolating ELL students. Instead addressing students' learning and language issues, they were isolated in two windowless classrooms, apart from their peers, except for lunch and physical education. Educators raised objections immediately and then went to work to fight back.
Powering up student success
When students ask John Isaza why he teaches — despite the higher salary he could earn as an electrician — his answer is simple. “I love my job,” he tells them. “When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.” Isaza, a UFT Career and Technical Education Award winner, teaches electrical installation at Coop Tech in Manhattan, not far from where he began his own journey in the trade.
A stroke of genius
Follow along as the 2nd-grade students in Jacqueline Velten and Melissa Hamm’s integrated co-teaching class at PS 54 on Staten Island travel to the Staten Island Museum to experience “Art Now: Watercolor Fun,” one of 20 class trips the museum offers in science, art and history.
Living out her dream
Teacher Jacqueline Armento's development and coordination of the Law Institute at John Bowne HS in Queens earned her recognition at this year’s UFT Career and Technical Education Awards night, where she received a UFT CTE Educators Award.