As we look ahead to September, when students and educators will be back together in school buildings, we must focus as strongly on social-emotional wellness as on academics.

High school members from across the city joined forces with the union’s academic high school team in five safe spaces to talk about what works and what obstructs, to uncover better practices, and to find solutions to our challenges.

Nearly a year after the pandemic began, New York City hospitals are once again at full capacity, but this time our own ranks have been thinned by illness. But Federation of Nurses/UFT members continue to demonstrate courage, compassion and relentless dedication while caring for patients in battlefield conditions.

No matter what is going on around us, we tune out the noise and we plug away, fulfilling our responsibilities to our students, whether in person and/or remotely.

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.

UFT Vice President for Special Education MaryJo Ginese writes about how special education teachers and related service providers are figuring out how best to serve their students with disabilities amid the challenges presented by the pandemic.

When the coronavirus crisis forced city public schools to make the transition to remote learning, career and technical education teachers faced an additional hurdle: how to recreate the hands-on learning that is so important for getting students career ready.

We teach — and our students live and learn — in a world of rapid change, with new technological tools for navigating that world at our fingertips. For academic high school educators, it’s an exciting and challenging time. Do we have a role in creating innovative teaching environments for our students and professional learning settings for ourselves? I say yes.

When the UFT negotiated its 2018 contract with the city Department of Education, it followed the strategy used by the Federation of Nurses/UFT, which I lead, because of our past success at the bargaining table.The workforce can have a voice, not only in hospitals or schools, but in contract negotiations as well.

The UFT Middle School Division’s annual Thanksgiving Holiday Feast and Winter Clothing Drive for homeless students demonstrates what Thanksgiving is all about.