New York TeacherSeptember 7, 2017
Volume LIX, Number 1
Cover Stories
Bronx para soars in new position
[[nid:102757; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; styleName:article_x_large_auto]]On a hot afternoon in June, lead teacher assistant Melissa Calderon walks along a green and white checkered hall in Archer Elementary School in the Bronx, her students trailing beside her. They look like a flock and its shepherd as she leads them into Class 403.
In the self-contained bridge class of 4th- and 5th-graders, Calderon and teacher Regina Shin help students compare decimals. Calderon’s teaching style is energetic and colorful in a room where kids are wild about learning. They bounce up and down in their seats before the readiness drill, but are easil…
Shaping a school through a teacher’s voice
When English teacher Leslie Lehrman stepped into the role of master teacher in 2014, she did so out of a desire to take on a more formal leadership role in her school, Lehman HS in the Bronx.
New UFT program offers special access to Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
MSK Direct, a new program offered by the UFT Welfare Fund, ensures access to a dedicated and compassionate team of cancer specialists at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Latest News
UFT backs Moya in City Council race
The UFT has endorsed New York State Assemblyman Francisco Moya to in the Democratic Primary on Sept. 12 for the New York City Council’s 21st District in Corona and Elmhurst, Queens.
Another jump in city test scores
The number of students who tested as proficient on state math and English Language Arts exams in 2017 continued to rise across New York City, according to test scores released by state and city officials on Aug. 22.
Missouri unions stop anti-labor ‘right-to-work’ law
Missouri unions gathered well over 300,000 signatures to block the state’s anti-union right-to-work law, putting the measure up for public vote in 2018.
Nissan uses ‘scare tactics’ to foil unionizing attempt
Workers at the Nissan Motor Company’s plant in Canton, Mississippi, voted nearly 2 to 1 against union representation, following a hard-fought organizing drive marked by accusations that Nissan used illegal tactics to thwart the effort.
Puerto Rican teachers join the AFT
Teachers in Puerto Rico voted to join the American Federation of Teachers in August, bringing approximately 40,000 educators into the union.
Feature Stories
Gearing up for life
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They’re putting a new spin on learning at the Brooklyn hub of Pathways to Graduation.
Earn-A-Bike is an elective program in the city Department of Education that helps students ages 17 to 21 get high school equivalency diplomas. Students learn to take apart and recondition bicycles, then put them back together. They get to keep the completed bike.
“It gives them a chance to be an expert at something,” says math and literacy teacher Nicole Santiago.
At Pathways, “we teach everything and that’s great,” says Ariff Hajee, a science teacher. “But we also want to give the students something they can use, something hands-on.”
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Hajee, a cycling veteran, and Santiago, then a novice, started Earn-A-Bike in …
Face to face with history
Brooklyn 8th-graders learn about the civil rights movement through the story of a Bronx woman who left her mark on segregated Alabama when she was about their age.
The wind at their backs
Big Apple Award-winning math teacher in the Bronx keeps her 6th-graders interested and engaged with lessons that revolve around math/science inquiry-based projects.
More in Feature Stories
Member Spotlight
What I Do
What I Do: Robert Otero, audiologist
An educational audiologist serving District 75 and community schools in Brooklyn, Robert Otero ensures all students can hear their teachers loud and clear.
Around the UFT
Around the UFT
New Teacher Week
More than 1,400 new teachers kicked off the school year by attending New Teacher Week, which took place Aug. 21-25 at UFT borough offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
You Should Know
You Should Know
Theft-prevention tips
The NYPD School Safety Division has specific recommendations on how you can reduce the risk of theft of both personal items and school property.
Secure Your Future
Union membership provides security
Through your membership with the union, you remain among the few Americans who still have a defined-benefit pension.
Opinions
VPerspective
Supporting our new teachers
It’s not easy being a new teacher. There’s so much to learn and navigate. That’s why the UFT has an array of programs to support new teachers as they begin this challenging and rewarding career.
President's Perspective
New year, new challenges
Welcome back. We're off to a good start, but there is no denying that we are living in turbulent times.
Opinion
Universal free lunch
It’s a big win for our students: This year, virtually all New York City public schools will offer universal free lunch. The UFT helped to make it happen. UFT members and officers testified at hearings, lobbied Mayor Bill de Blasio and spread the word through social media, rallies and regular news conferences.
Opinion
Double standard
The State University of New York proposal to allow charter schools it authorizes — including Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy schools — to devise their own teacher certification process would dramatically lower the entry bar for the profession. It also exposes a troubling double standard.
Editorial Cartoons
Teaching Resources
Linking to Learning
Technology standards for educators
This past June, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) unveiled new standards for educators that can serve as a roadmap to integrate technology in your classroom.
Research shows
A look at credit recovery results
New research in credit recovery fiinds that in-person instruction in algebra is more successful in the short term than online instruction for high school students.
Teacher to Teacher
Developing community through classroom circles
Classroom circles serve as a way to build relationships and resolve conflicts in classroom communities.
Building Your Career
Building Your Career
Power up and organize
Here is an organizational chart I use to give my students ownership of the space from the first day of school.
New Teacher Profiles
She brings the world to her classroom
It’s all about “kids having access to experiences, whether I do it through being a teacher or being a program director at a museum or being a Girl Scout leader,” says Leslie Martinez, who is starting her third year as a teacher at Manhattan’s Humanities Prep Academy.
Retired Teachers News
Constitutional convention could harm our pensions
The possibility of a New York State constitutional convention is a threat to our basic rights and benefits because it would allow delegates to tinker with any part of the document including our pension guarantees. The UFT Delegate Assembly has voted to urge a decisive NO vote on the proposal in the Nov. 7, 2017, election. UFT President Michael Mulgrew recently sent this flier to retirees so I am reinforcing his message by making that flier my first column for the new school year.
Automatic COLA increase – September 2017
In 2000, after many frustrating years, the UFT, NYSUT and the rest of the state’s labor movement convinced New York State to provide an annual, permanent cost-of-living adjustment to our pensions.