Ninety-nine-year-old Thomas Naegele retired from teaching industrial art at the HS of Art & Design in Manhattan 32 years ago, but his legacy lives on in two generations of art teachers that he inspired in his wake.

Helping students rebound from the pandemic, both academically and emotionally, is a union priority as all students return in September for in-person learning.

Each year, RoseAnn Victoria and LeeAnne Thristino, art teachers at IS 34 on Staten Island, team up to present an art show, which includes works from about 300 students who selected art as their minor.

It started with a bag of used clothing that Bambi Falvo meant to donate. Now Falvo, who retired in 2019 after 32 years of teaching, is an online entrepreneur who specializes in reselling new and used clothing.

Erica Boyce, a 4th-grade special education teacher at PS 677 in Brooklyn, turned to the UFT Peer Intervention Program (PIP) to help her adjust to her integrated co-teaching classroom. Since 1988, PIP has helped educators reexamine, refresh and...

Queens middle school teacher Laeticia Charles offers a sense of emotional connection and safety to the students she teaches in her second year at MS 137, elevating her students' academics in the process.

New teacher Gabrielle Vega was drawn to her 8th-grade social studies teacher's flair for the dramatic, and her affinity for theatrics is serving her well as she teaches that subject at MS 936 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a District 20 middle school...

As the psychologist at Gotham Collaborative HS in the Bronx, Nadhilis Rojas assesses students’ needs, refers them for services and tracks their progress. As a fluent English and Spanish speaker, she can more effectively serve her diverse school...

Former paraprofessional Sherwin Persaud made the transition to teacher last school year, finding his niche working with autistic children and those with behavioral issues in the early grades at P233 in Forest Hills, Queens.

This Brooklyn teacher uses immersive, engaging lessons and storytelling techniques to bring the past to life for his middle school students.

It’s essential for parents of children with disabilities to understand the process of obtaining an Individualized Education Program that meets their child’s needs. That’s why Thomas Rosa, the chapter leader at PS 751, the Manhattan School for Career...

The school-based special education committee — created as part of the 2023 DOE-UFT contract — gave Naing the tool she needed to fight to ensure special education students in her school receive the services they are entitled to.

The arrival of vaccines against the coronavirus is the news we have been waiting for — the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. But we can’t let that good news lead the city to abandon a careful approach to getting and keeping our schools open.

Paraprofessionals at P256 in Queens, a District 75 school for high-school-age boys, pooled their Teacher's Choice funds to refresh a key space used by their students to calm themselves and reflect on their emotions. They celebrated the grand opening...

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...

UFT President Michael Mulgrew is calling on the city to fill vacant school-related professional positions in order to fulfill the special education requirements of at least 9,000 students across the city.

Central Park East II, which has participated in PROSE for all 10 years of its existence, has used the freedom that the program affords to embrace project-based learning, change its teacher evaluation system and more.

That success depends on your community is something I only truly understood after my first year of teaching. When I was a para, I was committed to supporting my students and my teachers. When I first became a teacher, I forgot that I needed to ask...

The UFT shall educate its members about the significant implications of the Paraprofessionals and Education Support Staff Bill of Rights and the Preparing and Retaining All (PARA) Educators Act, emphasizing the potential benefits for...

Third-year special education teacher Britni Maddocks takes a strengths-based approach to assessing her students’ needs in her NEST classroom at PS 59 on Staten Island to help build students’ confidence and assure them that the classroom is a safe...

Eleven busloads of UFT members and school community members were among the tens of thousands of demonstrators who gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, Aug. 26, to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom...

Jenna Marrazzo, a second-year teacher at PS 42 on Staten Island, stepped up in her first year on the job to support and advise the school's newly invigorated student council, which had gone dormant during the pandemic.

Dayniah Manderson’s favorite genre to teach in her 8th-grade English classes at Mott Haven Community School is dystopian fiction because, as a wheelchair user with muscular dystrophy, she relates to the struggle to break free from oppressive systems.

Teacher Jacqueline Armento's development and coordination of the Law Institute at John Bowne HS in Queens earned her recognition at this year’s UFT Career and Technical Education Awards night, where she received a UFT CTE Educators Award.

The UFT is pushing back against the DOE's use of part-time therapists from private agencies rather than operationalizing the ninth session negotiated in the 2023 DOE-UFT contract to enable full-time therapists to do this work.

On Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, all staff in school buildings will have received at least one dose of the vaccine, which marks a major step to keeping our school communities safe for the duration of this pandemic. We are proud that 97% of our membership has...

When students ask John Isaza why he teaches — despite the higher salary he could earn as an electrician — his answer is simple. “I love my job,” he tells them. “When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.” Isaza, a UFT Career and Technical...

Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship HS's commitment to student well-being is why Sylwia Nosowicz, a first-year teacher whose first career was as a clinical mental health counselor, feels comfortable calling the school “a perfect match”...

As much as you might want to toss all your materials in a box and sprint out the door on the last day of school, consider doing your future self a favor by strategically preparing for September in June, thoughtfully packing up your classroom and...

Among the many meaningful contractual rights UFT members have is time carved out for teachers to do unassigned professional work. Whether they teach elementary, middle or high school, teachers are generally entitled to five preparation periods per...

Member organizing paid off at the Brooklyn campus of Boerum Hill School for International Studies and two other public schools. The city Department of Education moved to alleviate overcrowding by transferring unused Success Academy Charter School...

What will the next four years under President Donald Trump mean for public education in New York City? UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the Delegate Assembly on Jan. 15 that many parents are fearful of the ramifications.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew submitted testimony before the New York City Council Education Committee’s oversight hearing on the DOE's provision of special education services.

The city’s superintendents gathered at UFT headquarters in early October. UFT Vice President for Special Education MaryJo Ginese said the union made it clear to them at this introductory meeting that when special education compliance issues are...

Thanks to the efforts of Chapter Leader Debbie Strack Cregan, the members of PS 69 in Jackson Heights found their voice and their collective power in their successful organizing effort to push back against a new and overbearing principal.

Second-year teacher Taylor Rettig of IS 93 in Ridgewood, Queens, has found pedagogical success by building inclusive curricular units for her 6th grade ENL science students. Her tactics encourage students of all language proficiencies to participate...