
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.
Whether they are fighting for lower class sizes or literally saving their students' lives, UFT members are doing whatever it takes for their students. Read all about it in the New York Teacher's final issue of the 2021-22 school year.
Educators make an indelible imprint on their students’ lives, but they are also on the spot to save their lives when the need arises. These three New York City public school educators jumped into action this spring when they saw their students in distress. Their help made the difference in each life-threatening situation.
Maria Piasio Paraprofessional PS 247 Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
Maria Piasio, a paraprofessional, covers 1st-grade lunch at PS 247 in Brooklyn. On May 5, she was handing out chicken nuggets to the students.
Suddenly, one student jumped up and put his hands to his throat.
“This little boy must’ve put the whole entire nugget in his mouth,” Piasio said.
It was a fortunate coincidence she had just been trained in CPR and the Heimlich maneuver the night before.
“I said to myself, ‘You gotta try,’ ” said Piasio.
She performed chest compressions on the child.
“On the third hit, the nugget went flying out,” she said. “I was never so happy to see a soggy chicken nugget…
Capping a yearlong push by educators and parents to lower class sizes, state lawmakers passed a bill on June 2 to cap the number of students per classroom in New York City public schools at 20 to 25, depending on the grade, by 2027.
An administrative law judge has ruled that Bronx teacher Brenda Cartagena had been the victim of retaliation by her school’s principal for standing up for her members’ rights as school chapter leader.
One day, for a performance at PS 52 in Springfield Gardens, Queens, Elena Ellis’ 1st-grade students were instructed to wear white T-shirts and jeans. One student showed up in a shirt that was far too small.
“It looked like she was wearing her little sister’s top,” said Ellis. Luckily, PS 52 had a solution: a little room called the community closet, fully stocked with children’s clothes in all sizes.
“We found something that was a better fit for her, and she was able to perform without standing out,” said Ellis.
PS 52 has a large population of students living in shelters or doubled up with relatives and often “in need of some of the basics,” explained Sarah Fay, the magnet director at the school.
Ellis recalled a student who arrived on her first day without a warm-enough jacket. If not for the closet, she said, the student “would have had to stay inside and not interact wi…
Collaboration among three arts teachers and their classes at PS 295 in Brooklyn led to a 90-second commercial. They came up with the idea and designed a product in art class, composed a jingle in music class and wrote a script and acted out the commercial in drama class.
The Amazon Labor Union wins one organizing battle and loses one at two of the company's Staten Island warehouses.
Emma Gomez, a new chapter leader job at PS 206 in Rego Park, Queens, organized an action every single weekday that month as part of the Queens UFT borough office’s March Madness initiative in schools to help boost morale and build strong chapters.
As a paraprofessional in the Vision Education Services Chapter, which serves about 900 blind and visually impaired students citywide, Lucio Medina acts as a guide and advocate for the students he supports.
The UFT gave out $5,000 college scholarships to 189 high school seniors at the 53rd annual Albert Shanker Scholarship Awards Ceremony & Reception on June 7 at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew says reducing class size and paperwork are the keys to moving the public schools forward.
Heroes, change agents, fierce organizers, advocates, motivators, troubleshooters, trusted advisers and leaders. These are some of the words used to describe the educators, unionists and unified school communities honored at the UFT’s 2022 Academic High Schools Awards Celebration.
Eight New York City public school educators, selected from hundreds of applicants, met with education and political leaders at the “Listen Up: The reality is…” UFT Educator Panel on April 14 and detailed what they need to best help students succeed.
More than 230 people gathered in Shanker Hall at UFT headquarters on May 13 for the 9th annual Family Child Care Providers Chapter's Provider Appreciation Awards Ceremony. The event honored outstanding members of the chapter and offered the chance for their families and colleagues to celebrate their extraordinary work.
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.
There are other occasions — aside from personal illness — when you are entitled to be absent from work but still get paid without using your Cumulative Absence Reserve (CAR) or sick bank.
After coming through another very challenging year, it is important to celebrate yourself and recognize your successes, whether large or small.
As part of its expanded offerings of mental health support for members and their families, MAP formed a partnership with HelloHero, a clinical organization offering long-term, high-quality mental health care for adults and children.
Many of us who retire at age 62 can expect to live longer than our forefathers. But to be safe, it's important to prepare by having family discussions about what to do in the event of a debilitating illness or death. Here is a list of topics to discuss and the legal documents to have.
Smaller class sizes make parents feel better about their child’s education, makes children feel more seen in class and allows teachers’ hard work to become more effective. The bill passed by the state Legislature on June 2 takes us one step closer.
UFT Vice President for Education Mary Vaccaro writes that the UFT Teacher Center has been a leader in providing New York City public school educators with high-quality professional learning for more than 40 years. The program recently has begun working with new partners to ensure that educators across the city get the training they need.
Over and over, we bear witness to these horrors and raise an outraged cry for our elected leaders to keep those weapons out of our schools and off our streets. Each time, those cries fall on ears deafened by the National Rifle Association lobby and a glut of cash from gun manufacturers.
This spring Mayor Eric Adams launched an ambitious $7.4 million literacy initiative targeting children with dyslexia. While it’s an admirable idea, there are still many more questions than answers.
"Your EKG is great, blood pressure is down, pulse is strong — either you've quit your teaching job or the school year is almost over."
When I began my teaching career in 2007, more than a quarter of the students at my Queens elementary school were English language learners. Each year, our school seemed to shift its strategy for English as a New Language instruction in a fresh attempt to best serve those students.
There are many reasons for using Google’s Chrome browser — it’s generally fast and integrates seamlessly with Google programs you may use such as Google Classroom. But there is another good reason: the ability to add Chrome extensions.
Knowledge of advanced academic vocabulary makes it possible for students to engage with, produce and talk about texts valued in the classroom. But how do we develop our students’ academic language in meaningful ways?
Hana Nudelman, a universal literacy coach at PS 34 in Manhattan, uses this chart in her literacy centers to help develop phonemic awareness in early learners. Students say the picture word out loud and then use the different colored Post-its to represent each sound in the word.
Gaining tenure is an important milestone for new teachers. If you’ll be eligible for tenure in the 2022-23 school year, there are steps you can take to prepare for your tenure decision as you approach the end of this school year.
The past two years have been filled with unique and challenging experiences that taught me the essence of grit. I have come to realize that slow progress is still progress.
Elections can be valuable measurements of the trust that rank-and-file union members have in the leaders they choose. In this year’s UFT election, retirees voted overwhelmingly to support the current leadership. It was a hard-fought campaign run in the midst of an intensely controversial proposed health coverage plan.
Many points raised on social media about the implementation of the new health plan and other union issues were quite legitimate, but the faceless nature of internet exchanges also unleashed unprecedented vitriol. Ringing in my ears were the cautions of the poet William Butler Yeats, often quoted by me: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
In the political club I chaired in my youth, we argued strenuously for hours and then voted 28 to 3 in favor of the proposition. Such raucous turmoil used to keep…
If you are thinking of returning to work after retirement, you must adhere to some important rules to avoid jeopardizing your pension or Social Security benefits.
In a world that is increasingly dependent on technology, everyone is a potential victim of fraud. Tens of thousands of Americans fall prey to swindlers each year. But people over the age of 60 are targeted by scammers, often because they are trusting, polite, enjoy good credit, own a home and have financial savings.