New York TeacherJune 4, 2015
Volume LVI, Number 10
Cover Stories
Cuomo, Wall Streeters seek charter cap boost, ed tax credit
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Please WATCH & SHARE our new video RIGHT NOW! Under the Governor’s latest backdoor voucher tax credit scheme, hundreds of millions of dollars that should go to public schools and services would be siphoned off…and that money would go to fund a shady private school tax credit that would benefit the privileged elite! Posted by NYSUT Action Center on Monday, May 18, 2015
New York State United Teachers posted a video on its website illustrating the governor’s tax credi…
Restore Teacher’s Choice
A high school English teacher in Queens builds a library of graphic novels for his struggling readers. A pre-K teacher in the East Village helps her students care for their own caterpillars as they transform into butterflies. And a 3rd-grade teacher in an impoverished section of the Bronx makes sure every student goes home with a notebook and pencil — because, she says, “It’s a little thing for us to give them those supplies, but for them it’s like the biggest thing in the world.”
New standards to reduce paperwork
The UFT and the DOE reached agreement on May 19 on a broader set of enforceable paperwork standards in the union’s ongoing effort to reduce and eliminate the excessive paper and electronic demands that is taking educators' time away from their students.
Latest News
Illinois Supreme Court strikes down pension law
The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously struck down a state pension law that would have rolled back government workers’ benefits to cover the pension system’s enormous $105 billion deficit.
Los Angeles teachers ratify contract
Los Angeles teachers voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Education boosted in mayor’s budget proposal
City schools are set to get an additional 4 percent, or $845.7 million all told, under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2015-16 spending plan. Now the stage is set for a fight to restore Teacher’s Choice in the final spending plan, which must be approved by the mayor and the City Council by July 1.
Harsh discipline at some charters comes under scrutiny
Charter schools have far higher suspension rates than public schools and are exempt from the DOE discipline code.
Los Angeles raises minimum wage to $15 per hour
The Los Angeles City Council on May 19 voted 14–1 to increase the city’s minimum wage from $9 to $15 per hour by 2020.
More in News Stories
Feature Stories
It's time to restore Teacher's Choice!
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As educators, teachers know best what supplies they need for their classrooms. The Teacher’s Choice program, which reimburses educators for the purchase of classroom supplies of their choice, is a direct investment in classroom learning. Teacher’s Choice funding was eliminated four years ago and last year, teachers received $77, down from a pre-recession high of $220. Teachers spend an average of $500 above the Teacher’s Choice allotment on classroom supplies, according to the UFT’s inaugural teachers’ survey last spring.
That’s why the UFT has mounted a campaign to restore the funding in the city budget. We asked teachers to tell their stories about the essential work they have been able to do with Teacher’s Choice. The teachers featured on this page were among the more than 500 who shared their experiences with us.
Please go to action.uft.org/restore-teachers-choice to share these stories with…
Michelle Rand: Reading, writing and algebra tiles
With Teacher’s Choice, I purchased Didax algebra tiles to use as manipulatives during my 7th-grade expressions-and-equations unit. The tiles are squares and rectangles of different colors and sizes. The way I used them was to represent variables, which kids typically have a hard time with, because it’s a representation of something that changes.
Rachel Tully: Just the basics
When I first came to my school, I felt the same way a lot of people do — that students should bring their own supplies. But when you work in an impoverished area, you find that more and more children come to school with nothing — not even a pencil to write with. A lot of these parents are on a month-to-month income, trying to pay the bills; they can’t afford to do school-supply shopping.
Member Spotlight
What I Do
What I Do: Nancy Miller, registered nurse
Nancy Miller, a member of the Federation of Nurses/UFT, has worked at Staten Island University Hospital for 34 years, the last six in the post-anesthesia care unit at the hospital’s South site.
Around the UFT
UFT co-sponsors Prom Mania
Six schools and 130 students participated in Prom Mania, an event co-sponsored by the UFT where students could select prom dresses and suits for free.
Shooting for success
The excitement that the District 25 Basketball League generates was on display on May 12, when the co-ed league staged its All Star Basketball Showcase at Martin Van Buren HS in Queens Village.
Friends of District 75 awards ceremony
More than 200 UFT members, their family members and friends gathered at the Astoria Manor in Queens on May 14 for the 10th annual Friends of District 75 awards ceremony.
Nurse Recognition Day celebration: Federation of Nurses/UFT
More than 250 members of the Federation of Nurses/UFT gathered at UFT headquarters in Manhattan on May 6 to celebrate National Nurses Recognition Day, the kickoff to National Nurses Week, at the union’s second annual Nurse Recognition Day Celebration.
Day of Unity at DeWitt Clinton HS, the Bronx
Bronx families flocked to DeWitt Clinton HS in the Kingsbridge section on April 25 for flag football, volleyball, basketball clinics, face painting and other amusements as part of the school’s Day of Unity.
More in Around the UFT
You Should Know
Secure Your Future
Marking the birth of two programs that changed the nation
June 2015 marks the 80th birthday of Social Security and the 50th birthday of Medicare. Instead of “Happy Birthday,” the song verse that comes to mind is by the well-known labor troubadour Joe Glazer.
Opinions
President's Perspective
Our three priorities
Although the end is in sight, we still have much to do before the end of the school year and of the legislative session in Albany and the adoption of the final city budget for the next fiscal year.
VPerspective
Two models of innovation and excellence
Our city’s academic high schools are full of creative and innovative teachers committed to providing a varied and rich learning exchange to their students. I was delighted to have the opportunity to recently visit the classrooms of two such teachers.
Opinion
Cuomo’s gift to his hedge-fund allies
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has found a new way to help his ultra-wealthy campaign contributors while at the same time hurting public schools. He is proposing an education tax credit that would richly reward his campaign donors by giving individuals and businesses tax credits equal to 75 percent of their donations to the private school of their choice.
Editorial Cartoons
Teaching Resources
Research shows
Teaching a different grade has impact
New research suggests that teaching a new grade is challenging and reduces a teacher’s effectiveness in the short term for most teachers.
Teacher to Teacher
Embrace technology
Your first foray into technology and online units can be a toe dip. Use the resources and skills you already have to create something that will work for your students.
Building Your Career
Building Your Career
New Teacher Profiles
Sneakers provide foot in door for Chelsea teacher
Tyler Spielberg, a wellness teacher and basketball coach at Quest to Learn, a new middle and high school in Chelsea, uses his fashion sense and common sense to teach and reach that prickly population known as middle schoolers.
Retired Teachers News
Presidential campaign 2016!
Already the 2016 campaign for the White House is upon us and the American Federation of Teachers is starting to prepare for it by asking for input from union members like us.