Skills such as communication, collaboration, problem-solving and emotional intelligence are crucial and in-demand and helping students acquire them is much needed, but where should teachers begin?

The DOE-UFT contract gives educators an expedited process for addressing many workplace problems: the operational issues resolution process. In the 2023 contract, the paperwork and operational issues process was expanded to address even more...

Did you know there’s a place to turn for support — both at and away from your work site — when tragedy strikes? It’s the Victim Support Program, co-sponsored by the UFT’s Safety and Health Department and the city Department of Education. 


There is a room at IS 391 in the Bronx with color-changing lights, soft bean-bag chairs, a gurgling fountain, books and fidget toys.
“We needed a calming place where students could come for counseling, and students and staff could just sit and self...

Some 30 educators, academics, activists and representatives from community-based organizations gathered together on Nov. 29 for a Summit to Support Newcomers to discuss how to best assist educators confronted with the thousands of asylum-seeking...

The UFT is launching a Fix Tier Six campaign in an effort to improve the pension benefits of its more than 50,000 members who have joined the New York City pension system since April 2012.

As we enter the coldest months of the year, many asylum-seeking families who endured great hardship to reach New York City are facing additional trauma as Mayor Eric Adams’ administration prepares to evict them from emergency shelters.

It is simply not acceptable that one person has blanket authority over the country’s largest school system.

The UFT and other education advocates are applying pressure on the Adams administration to have a viable plan for implementing the state’s class-size reduction law. The mayor’s midyear budget cuts and his comments about how he doesn’t believe the...

The UFT’s COPE — Committee on Public Education — program is one of the benchmarks of Sonja Hill’s chapter leadership.
Hill, a 5th-grade teacher in her 31st year at PS 41 in Brownsville, Brooklyn — and the school’s chapter leader for more than half of...

It is possible to finance classroom projects with grants, donations and other money-saving strategies. Here are some avenues.

Louis Pichardo brings his twin passions for teaching and electrical work to his job teaching electrical installation to career and technical education students at Queens Technical HS in Sunnyside. Pichardo, a third-year teacher, asks his students to...

ENL/ELA teacher Eva Dejesus divides her library, which has books in both English and Spanish, by genre. "Students start in their native language, because we know that development of the first language supports development of the second," she says.

School communities have pulled together to care for and educate tens of thousands of newcomer students, many of whom have arrived in New York City with little more than the clothes on their backs. The UFT hosted a listening session on Oct. 25 to...

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.

Members of the UFT Veterans Committee appreciated the opportunity to reconnnect at a meet and greet at union headquarters on Nov. 8 — the committee’s first in-person event since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

UFT members had the rare opportunity to hear a first-hand account of the creation of the Paraprofessionals Chapter more than 50 years ago from Velma Murphy Hill, the chapter’s founder and first chair, and her husband Norman Hill.


For Cedric Hawkins, a school counselor at Wings Academy HS in the Bronx, the UFT’s college fair at Borough of Manhattan Community College on Nov. 3 was an opportunity for his students not only to meet recruiters from more than 80 colleges and other...

In presenting the Cogen Award to UFT Treasurer Debra Penny, UFT President Michael Mulgrew spoke of her compassion. “It’s the humanity she brings to her job at all times,” he said. “She’s just a person who never stops caring.”

UFT members celebrated past, present and future union leaders on Teacher Union Day by mourning founder George Altomare on the anniversary of the union’s first strike and honoring the new school-based Contract Action Teams and others who carry on his...

Some 160 students living in temporary housing attended the UFT Middle Schools Division’s Thanksgiving Luncheon on Nov. 18 at UFT headquarters. At the end of the event, the children left with brand-new winter coats and accessories donated by UFT...

More than four hundred UFT members attended the annual Psychologists Appreciation Day professional development on Nov. 10 at union headquarters. “The sense of unity and community that the union brings is really valuable," said one school psychologist...

The three UFT parent conferences offered in the fall shared an organizing aim: to make sure parents are aware of the state law to lower class size and the importance of getting the Department of Education to comply with it.


As they learned about the latest treatment protocols and other workplace issues at their annual union conference, Federation of Nurses/UFT members vowed they would continue fighting to make the state enforce the landmark 2022 safe staffing law and...

AFT President Randi Weingarten and Manhattan City Council Member Julie Menin were honored at the UFT Jewish Heritage Committee's inaugural awards dinner.

UFT founder George Altomare and longtime Bronx district representative Patricia Filomena -- both former chairs of the UFT Italian-American Heritage Committee -- were honored at the committee's first in-person event since before the pandemic.

If you have been a UFT union member for 50, 60 or 70 years including child care leave, you might be eligible for the UFT 50-, 60- or 70-Year Membership and Service Award.

More than 500 newly minted retirees gathered to celebrate at the union's New Retiree Luncheon at the New York Hilton Midtown on Nov. 21.

The United Federation of Teachers, joined by individual teachers, filed suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court to stop the Adams administration from cutting as much as $2 billion from city schools.

Just coal this year?

Anne Goldman, UFT Vice President for Non-DOE Members, delivered testimony before the Assembly Committees on Health, Mental Health, People with Disabilities, Higher Education & Labor on the health care workforce

An independent arbitrator has held NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn financially responsible when the hospital short-staffed one of its units. Arbitrator Howard Edelman ruled that for each missing nurse, the hospital must split the average nurse’s shift...

Mary Vaccaro, UFT Vice President for Education, submitted testimony before the oversight hearing of the New York City Council Education Committee jointly with the Committee on State and Federal Legislation on the new phonics-based curriculum and...

The UFT Climate & Environmental Justice Committee is dedicated to advocating for effective policies and actions both inside and outside the UFT.

The UFT Physical Education Committee is dedicated to advancing the well-being of educators and students alike.

The UFT calls on the Panel for Educational Policy to end high-stakes standardized testing in grades 3-5 so schools and teachers can focus on curriculum that promotes students’ academic performance as well as their well-being.