New York TeacherNovember 5, 2020
Volume LXII, Number 2
As educators and as union members, this fall has presented unique challenges. A phased-in reopening and the closure of schools in COVID-19 hotspots added to the challenge of navigating remote, in-person and blended learning. Outside the classroom, members are working to get out the vote for the crucial presidential election. In this issue, we highlight UFT members’ efforts on both fronts.
Cover Stories
Students return despite challenges
UFT members supported by their union helped pull off a return to in-classroom instruction during a phased-in reopening that began on Sept. 21 and, by Oct. 1, incorporated 500,000 students from every grade.
School Year 2020–21
As UFT members continue to navigate this extraordinary school year, the following Q&A answers some of the most-asked questions about safety, testing and tracing, remote work and student support.
Latest News
Arbitrator overturns city’s decision to delay lump-sum payment
An arbitrator overturned City Hall’s decision to delay lump-sum payments to thousands of city educators, ordering the city to pay half the amount owed by Oct. 31, and the rest by the end of July 2021.
UFT makes final push in key races
The UFT mobilized members to get out the vote for Joe Biden for president and other candidates up and down the ballot who support the union's education, economic and labor agendas.
Feature Stories
Oct. 19, 2011: BRAVE program is founded
Bullying has no place in any child’s education. That was the inspiration behind the UFT’s creation in 2011 of the Building Respect, Acceptance and Voice through Education, or BRAVE, program to provide tools, knowledge and support in confronting bullying.
Virus Can't Slow Strides
The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks were canceled this year because of COVID-19, but UFT members mobilized in spite of that to raise awareness of the disease and funds to fight it.
Member Spotlight
Kristina L. Pillmeier, school psychologist
School psychologist Kristina Pillmeier assesses and evaluates students’ needs and how they affect their performance in the classroom and their experience in the school environment, then refers them for support services if necessary.
Marquis Harrison, Frederick Douglass Academy, Manhattan
Chapter Leader Marquis Harrison of Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, stepped up during COVID-19 to take on new duties as a safety inspector, a counselor, an advocate and an expert on new work rules.
Your Rights and Benefits
Know Your Benefits
Dental care
The UFT Welfare Fund provides dental benefits through two programs: the Scheduled Benefit Plan, which provides services through the Welfare Fund panel of dentists or a dentist of your choice; and Dentcare, a no-cost dental HMO.
Know Your Rights
COVID-related leaves and absences
The coronavirus has necessitated many changes in our work world. To ensure the safety of school communities, staff and students are now being tested regularly, and recently negotiated leaves and absences related to COVID-19 are one accommodation to our new reality.
Your Well-being
Domestic violence and COVID-19
While working remotely can help to reduce the spread of COVID-19, staying home is not a safe option for survivors of domestic violence. The first step when confronting domestic violence is to create a safety plan.
You Should Know
Secure Your Future
Build nest egg with tax-deferred annuity
The Teachers’ Retirement System’s Tax-Deferred Annuity Program is an excellent way for eligible UFT members to save money for retirement to supplement their defined-benefit pension. If you’re not already enrolled, start building your nest egg now.
Opinions
President's Perspective
As you vote, remember: Joe Biden gets us
Looking through the lenses of education policy and labor issues, the best candidate for president is Joe Biden — someone who is focused on our dignity, pay, benefits and the workplace protections we deserve.
VPerspective
Early education during a pandemic
As always, it is the teachers in the classroom who are figuring out how best to serve their students in this unusual school year, with help from three hardworking union groups.
Editorials
Victory and vigilance
The UFT’s vigilance won deferred wages for work our members did as far back as 2009, even as the city sought to renege on its promise to deliver them, and a no-layoff guarantee for this school year.
Editorials
Safety first
The UFT’s 50-point school safety plan remains essential for students and staff working in school buildings. The DOE agreed to the plan as a condition of reopening the schools, but we need your help to keep our workplaces safe.
Teaching Resources
Learning Curve
Embracing education informed by trauma
Along with notebooks and pencils, students come to school carrying the weight of anxiety, fear and trauma in their lives. As we grapple with COVID-19, educators say students’ mental health should be the priority.
Linking to Learning
Google Classroom: Tips and tools
Google Classroom is easy for novices to use. But it’s also a highly versatile platform. Three New York City teachers share their tips and favorite tools for teaching remotely with this powerful program.
Teacher to Teacher
Using memoirs helps students understand the Holocaust
Lisa Berke, an English teacher at Edward R. Murrow HS in Brooklyn, teaches a course on Holocaust literature through the lens of memoir because she believes in its ability to cultivate empathy.
Building Your Career
Inside My Classroom
Providing a safe and welcoming literacy-rich environment
Fifth-grade literacy teacher Jamala Roper, of PS 179 in the Bronx, took on the challenge of providing a safe and welcoming literacy-rich environment that is also safe and conducive to the guidelines for blended learning.
New Teacher Articles
Self-care more important than ever
Practicing self-care is important, especially in these unprecedented times. Achieve a sense of belonging by connecting with colleagues, establish work boundaries at home and make time for things that are important for your well-being.
New Teacher Profiles
‘The best first experience’
Paulo Chalco, a kindergarten teacher at PS 108 in Brooklyn, has a 5-year-old son who often serves as his sounding board. “If I prepare a lesson, I put it on his table and see what he does. If he gets into the material, then I have an idea it might be a good lesson to use with my kids,” he says.
Retired Teachers News
Using our credibility
In a crisis, the only asset you have is your credibility.
— Paul Volker
This quote from the late Federal Reserve System chair has been on my mind in the midst of Campaign 2020, as we work to cure our national nightmare. When the UFT and its state and national affiliates endorse political candidates for election, what kind of credibility do these political recommendations have with our grassroots, rank-and-file members?
For citywide endorsements, the UFT assesses the candidate’s record on education, labor and human rights. The same criteria are used by our state affiliate, NYSUT, for statewide endorsements and by our national affiliate, the AFT, for presidential and congressional endorsements. In 2016, some members were disgruntled over the endorsement of Hillary Clinton, which was announced early in the presidential campaign when some candidates had not yet entered …
Zooming in on courses
As part of a 12-class Si Beagle schedule put together for Westchester Section retirees, members are creating historic records of the pandemic of 2020 in the COVID Metamorphosis Class, writing memoirs of life as we are living it today.
Returning to his farming roots
Joseph Lukose, a school social worker in Queens for 32 years, went back to his roots in retirement. A native of India, he is now a hobby farmer in south Florida, planting and nurturing the tropical fruit trees that surrounded him in his youth.