Students and staff from an elementary school in Mahopac in Putnam County arrived at PS 39 on Staten Island on Jan. 31 to donate 4,000 books to students from that school and nearby PS 38 and PS 41, whose neighborhoods bore the brunt of the flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Although the fiscal cliff was averted, it’s too early to celebrate. Republican legislators continue to take aim at working people’s retirement security in order to address the federal government’s ongoing financial needs.

More than 500 educators, the vast majority Career and Technical Education teachers, joined the Advisory Council for Technical Education, the principals' union and staff from the Department of Education for an all-day conference at UFT headquarters. The conference addressed the next steps for CTE, including creating internships and other college- and workplace-readiness opportunities for every public high-school student, including those with special needs; improving technology retraining for CTE teachers; and expanding school partnerships with employers.

Several hundred educators from UFT-represented charter schools across the city turned out for a Jan. 25 Mid-Winter Social with UFT President Michael Mulgrew at the union’s lower Manhattan headquarters. Mulgrew welcomed the educators, telling them that “this is your union hall.” “Tonight we’re here to celebrate our struggles and our successes” which are “so meaningful to the lives of so many,” he said.

Outside schools and at transportation hubs across the city on Jan. 24, UFT members handed out leaflets blasting the mayor for torpedoing an agreement on an evaluation system that helps teachers help kids.

The UFT won a big victory on the Special Education Student Information System (SESIS) when an arbitrator ruled on Jan. 3 that our members should be paid for the time outside the regular workday that they spent logged onto SESIS between September 2011...

The adoption of the Common Core Learning Standards provides social studies teachers with an opportunity to rethink day-to-day practices that have the potential to dramatically transform how students read, write and think about the subject.

With the Jan. 17 deadline to have a teacher evaluation agreement in place missed after Mayor Bloomberg blew up the one that had been reached on the deadline date, a steadfast UFT President Michael Mulgrew assured the largest Teacher Union Day gathering ever, “We will stand together, fight together and we will win.”

The UFT on Jan. 3 prevailed in its grievance charging that the Department of Education’s implementation of the Special Education Student Information System required members to work beyond their regular workday. The independent arbitrator ordered that...

Murals, in all their variety, decorate outside walls, hallways, auditoriums and even stairwells in schools throughout the city. They celebrate diversity, capture characters in favorite stories, reflect the communities where students live and the subjects they are studying, and illustrate important events and even important ideas.