Camille Ratteray-Vann has high hopes for mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who won a decisive victory on Nov. 5. She’s an English and dance teacher at IS 126 in Long Island City and the chapter leader for Alternative Learning Centers in Queens for suspended students. De Blasio’s criticism of high-stakes testing resonated with her.
“I’m a proponent of portfolio assessment,” she said. “We’re not one thing. Testing is necessary, but now we teach to the test.”
Ratteray-Vann is just one of many UFT members who hopes de Blasio, the first Democrat to win the office in 20 years, lives up to his campaign promises on education and sets a different tone at City Hall, especially…
The popular myth is that New York City has fully come back from the 2007–08 recession. But the reality is that only the very rich have come roaring back. The rest of us, the 99 percent who are the middle or lower income, actually lost ground. Here is how the “recovery” shaped up between 2008 and 2012.
Walk through the hallways at PS/MS 105 in Far Rockaway and you would never suspect that anything terrible had happened here. Yet just one year ago, this large K-8 school was among the hardest-hit by Hurricane Sandy and is still, in fact, in the process of rebuilding from the storm.
It isn’t every day that ghouls, witches and the Bride of Frankenstein come together at the UFT, but they did on Sunday, Oct. 27, when UFT members and staff in the Bronx transformed their borough office for the ninth straight year into a Halloween horror show for the enjoyment of kids and parents alike.
More than 1,300 merrymakers — the most ever — braved the scary space, alternating between fright and delight as they took advantage of all the Halloween Family Fright Fest had to offer. The haunted house, which boasted cobwebs, bats and big red devils, was plenty scary, but there were lots of young Power Rangers on hand to tackle the monsters within. Superman and Spider-Man — in miniature version, of course — were on hand, too, as were pint-size clones of singers Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars.
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Shari Rothfeld, a District 75 high school at In-Tech Academy in the Bronx, was only 31 years when she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in October, 2012. When Rothfeld’s colleagues found out that she would need to miss many days of work for treatment, they stepped up to donate their sick days.
It could be a scene from any one of countless neighborhood delis or lunch counters across the city, but the employees here are 12 students in the culinary arts program located at PS 177 in Fresh Meadows, Queens, a K-12 school in District 75 for special-needs students.
Danielle O’Connell has been a Hearing Education Services teacher for eight years, the last seven in a self-contained classroom of 12 children in grades 3-5 at P4 at PS 109 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
"They were trying to close you, but you’ve weathered the storm and DeWitt Clinton will not close,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew defiantly told the staff of the Bronx high school during an Oct. 30 visit.
The New York City Association of Foreign Language Teachers/UFT held its 16th annual professional conference on Oct. 26, with more than 300 teachers of Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Greek, German, Latin and other languages in attendance.
The UFT and the Albert Shanker Institute hosted career and technical education experts from around the country at a two-day conference at UFT headquarters on Oct. 10-11.
Flowers bloomed and spirits brightened on Oct. 26 at PS 197 in Far Rockaway, where students, families and staff teamed up with Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to breathe much-needed life back into the school grounds after Hurricane Sandy tore through the neighborhood last year.
More than 200 UFT art teachers took part in for-credit professional development at the New York City Art Teachers Association/UFT Artworks ’13 education conference.
Read on for some advice on how best to maximize your prescription drug benefit, whether you’re at a doctor’s visit or the pharmacy, or determining how best to order your maintenance medications.
See our list of current opportunities for educators to receive funds and recognition for their hard work and dedication.
The country's senior population has for decades had one of the lowest poverty rates. But poverty among seniors is now rising slightly due to the combination of longer life expectancy and the decline of traditional pensions.
Bloomberg-style “drill-and-kill” standardized test prep has sadly become the norm for our students, and attaching high stakes to the tests has all but forced real teaching and learning out of our classrooms.
With the encouragement and full support of President Mulgrew, I approached the Department of Education and Cornell University with a proposal to create a consortium to provide schools with a systemic and research-based approach to understanding, assessing and supporting positive student behavior.
Pat yourselves on the back, UFT members. There is reason for pride and celebration. On Nov. 5, the people were heard. We have a new mayor, comptroller, public advocate and many new City Council members who support our schools and respect UFT members.
The gap in language skills between children from low-income families and those from affluent homes becomes evident when children are as young as 18 months old, new research shows.
After discussions with many students and teachers, I have come to believe that what often ends up being left out of writing instruction and yet is at the heart of teaching students how to write is guided practice – specifically guided practice in the form of interactive writing.
Michael Cestaro's advocacy as a chapter leader at Rockway Park HS for Environmental Sustainability took on greater meaning after Hurricane Sandy devastated his school building and the homes of his students and colleagues.
The so-called “Grand Bargain” is back in play. And in Republican hands that always means going after the Affordable Health Care Act, “Obamacare,” and/or entitlements. As the AFL-CIO warns, “for America’s working families, the Grand Bargain is a Grand Bamboozle.”
