Welcome back! I hope you had a restful summer and are looking forward to the new school year.

In August, the UFT and the DOE welcomed more than 1,000 of your colleagues at New Teacher Week. Read the article and see the photos »

The UFT's Member Assistance Program and the UFT Teacher Center are pleased to invite you to attend a number of support and informational groups for new teachers this fall. You can find more information about the dates and topics below.

As always, please don't hesitate to contact your chapter leader, your UFT district representative or your UFT borough office with questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Karen Alford
UFT Vice President for Elementary Schools
UFT New Member Initiative Director

Are you a 1st-year teacher?

Welcome to the UFT! If you haven't already, introduce yourself to your school's UFT chapter leader and ask for your union cards for membership, the UFT's Committee on Political Education (COPE) and Welfare Fund health benefits. Also, remember that New York State requires every new teacher to receive school-based mentoring by an experienced teacher in your subject area. If you haven't been assigned a school-based mentor, speak to your chapter leader.

Support and informational groups for new teachers

The UFT Member Assistance Program and the UFT Teacher Center invite you to attend professional learning opportunities. Gain knowledge about your union, your benefits and your profession. Meet your peers through a supportive network. Refreshments will be served. For some sessions, professional development hours are available.

• Oct 19 — Welfare Fund: Learn about the many benefits available to you and your family
• Oct. 26 — Pension: Start to plan for your future
• Nov. 2 — Licensing/tenure/certification: Learn about the essentials (2 PD hours)
• Nov. 9 — Classroom management: Strategies and techniques (2 PD hours)
• Nov. 16 — Student engagement: Tools to create positive change (2 PD hours)
• Nov. 30 — Professional collaboration: Team teaching and communication (2 PD hours)
• Dec. 7 — Workplace safety: How to protect yourself and your students
• Dec. 14 — Time management: A better balance of work and home (2 PD hours)

Know your rights

As we enter a new school year, teachers should be aware of the rights of their students to instructional materials and reasonable class sizes.

It is your principal’s obligation to provide you with basic instructional supplies and books, including textbooks, paper, chalk, microscopes and math manipulatives. That’s a contractual right. If you find yourself short of basic supplies, let your chapter leader know. The chapter leader will schedule a special meeting with the principal to try to resolve the issue.

The UFT contract limits class sizes [see below]. Under the contract, principals have 10 school days to bring class sizes within contractual limits. Contractual limits vary with the school level, type of class and other factors. Within the first few days of each school year or term, check with your chapter leader to find out if your classes exceed the appropriate class-size maximums.

Learn more »

Finally, a rewarding role

After seven years of catering to adults who often acted like children, Alison Fox fled the entertainment industry for the classroom, where she teaches actual children. “Real kindergartners are so much nicer and more rewarding to spend time with,” she says.

Read more about Alison in our New Teacher Profile »

Know your benefits

The UFT Welfare Fund provides dental benefits through two programs: the Scheduled Benefit Plan, which provides services through our panel of dentists or a dentist of your choice; and Dentcare, a no-cost dental HMO.

Learn more about your dental benefits »

Support for new teachers

Are you a new teacher in need of support due to personal or work-related stress? The UFT's Member Assistance Program is a confidential and free program that offers individual, group and community services. Please call 212-701-9620 or email mapinfo@uft.org for more information.

Learn more about the Member Assistance Program »

Your September checklist

Here are some reminders to help you stay on track.

• Need a form or application? The UFT website has a wealth of useful forms — UFT, DOE and even New York State forms and applications. Go to UFT Forms to access or print forms pertaining to leaves, salary, Workers’ Comp, special education and much more.
• Connect with the union on social media! You'll find us on Facebook. You'll get timely news and feature stories, action alerts and information about union activities right in your news feed. Plus, you can interact with other users by commenting on our posts. Prefer Twitter? Follow us. On Instagram, see pictures of the amazing work our members do.

See an expanded version of the checklist »

Inside my classroom

I love making my students feel that they are right at home in our kindergarten classroom. Seeing their excitement as they walk through the door on the first day of school is like winning the Lotto!
—Keri Somerlad, kindergarten teacher, PS 206, Rego Park, Queens

Check out other Inside my Classroom photos »

Each month the UFT newspaper publishes photos submitted by teachers on its New Teacher Page. Have a picture of something in your classroom that illustrates a creative, unique or ingenuitive idea? Submit it to uftphotos@gmail.com and write "Inside my classroom" in the subject line.

UFT History 101

In October 1990, the UFT negotiated and won a contract that spelled out 100 improvements to working conditions for teachers. The new contract gave teachers the freedom to choose the format of their lesson plans and prohibited principals from routinely collecting and judging them.

Questions or concerns?

Contact your UFT borough office at the phone numbers below.

Borough Offices:

• Bronx 718-379-6200
• Brooklyn 718-852-4900
• Manhattan 212-598-6800
• Queens 718-275-4400
• Staten Island 718-605-1400