In June and September each year, classroom temperatures spike when the city experiences a heat wave. It is outrageous to expect students to learn and teachers to teach in these circumstances.



Dial-A-Teacher, the UFT’s free homework helpline, is back with a new focus for its 43rd year: helping asylum-seeking students.
The helpline, which fields about 40,000 calls a year, offers K-12 students and their parents live homework support from...

When record rainfall caused serious flooding in New York City on Sept. 29, city officials were caught off guard and then botched communication with schools about how to deal with it. There are much better ways to deal with a significant weather event...

At the first Delegate Assembly of the school year on Oct. 11, UFT President Michael Mulgrew stressed the importance of making sure all parts of the new DOE-UFT contract get implemented.


I would like to thank the UFT for the tribute to my late husband, Barry Spielvogel, on the UFT Honors website.

Response to the UFT giving out 40,000 books at PS 154 in Harlem on Sept. 23: In a world where so many places are trying to ban books, it’s beautiful to see us giving them away.

As a retiree (still can’t believe I’m saying that — I sang at a nursing home and was older than a few there), I just wanted to congratulate the union on its well-deserved contract gains. We are all a part of a big family of educators and dedicated...

Responses to the Learning Curve column on reimagining homework assignments in the June 15 issue of the New York Teacher.

I attended the UFT’s Future in Focus career fair on Oct. 17 with 30 students from Beacon HS. At the fair, there was a wide array of unions represented at different tables. The students were able to ask questions about different unionized career paths...

The class trip for 1st-graders at PS 234 in Manhattan to Battery Urban Farm in lower Manhattan was a feast for the senses. The Battery Conservancy created Battery Urban Farm to teach students, residents and visitors about sustainable farming and...

Art teacher Dan Wever said he ran for chapter leader at Sunset Park HS in Brooklyn in 2021 knowing that at some point the union chapter would have to organize to demand the removal of the school’s longtime principal, Victoria Antonini.
 Less than two...

About half of New York City’s 3rd- to 8th-grade students are proficient in math and reading, according to the scores on the spring 2023 state tests.

New teachers may erroneously believe that effective classroom management comes from being stern and no-nonsense. But veteran educators know that there are better ways to establish a calm classroom. Here are some tips.

Evdokia Gasparis, a 1st-grade teacher at PS 70 in Queens created a calming corner in his classroom for when students need a little break. 
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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...

UFT members in all five boroughs and on Long Island participated in this year’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks on two separate Sundays in October. “We’re here to honor the survivors in our building and to call attention to this disease...

On Oct. 11 — the second Wednesday in October — UFT members across the city wore pink to work to celebrate survivors, pay tribute to loved ones and colleagues they have lost, and emphasize the importance of early detection and treatment.


The UFT’s Invitational Golf Outing on Oct. 9 raised close to $110,000 for the UFT Disaster Relief Fund and victims of the August wildfires in Hawaii.

The students at the fair had the chance to speak with representatives from 25 unions about the advantages of pursuing a career in which workers are unionized.

About 300 students from 18 middle schools came together at UFT headquarters to watch plays, role-play and discuss their experiences with bullying.

Gratefulness is an awareness practice: a way of deepening and directing our attention. Gratefulness can make us more resilient and flexible in the face of life’s challenges and can deepen our appreciation of life’s joys.

If you are planning to create lesson plans related to the Climate Action Days or want to integrate climate change more regularly in your classroom, there are many high-quality materials online.

Are you preparing to welcome a new child into your life? If you are a UFT member employed by the Department of Education, you are eligible for paid parental leave. In this special episode of the Brewing Wellness podcast, Tanisha Franks, member representative, and Emily James, special projects coordinator, discuss the details. Birth parents, partners of birth parents, and foster and adoptive parents are all entitled to paid parental leave. To register for a workshop or to learn more about the paid parental leave benefit, visit UFT.org/parental-leave; for questions, call the UFT at 212-331-6311.

It’s been over 13 years since Tier 6 was added to the New York state pension system. Since then, over 50,000 UFT members in Tier 6 have earned a reduced pension compared to earlier tiers. That’s why we’re fighting to fix Tier 6 in ‘26.

About 1,500 UFT members, family and friends gathered at the New York Hilton Midtown on Oct. 29 to honor the brave educators who put everything on the line in the 1960 strike that forged the union and the UFT activists who follow in their footsteps. This year, Teacher Union Day was dedicated to the Contract Action Teams.

In its first in-person event since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFT Italian-American Heritage Committee staged its annual dinner on Oct. 26 at Mario’s Restaurant in the Bronx and honored two recently deceased members: UFT founder George Altomare and former committee chair Patricia Filomena.

The new class-size law and the importance of getting the DOE to abide by it was on the minds of parents and caregivers who attended the union’s parent conferences in Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens in October and November.

UFT members in all five boroughs and on Long Island raised thousands of dollars by participating in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks in October.

The following notification was emailed to all members as part of the UFT Update on October 12, 2023.

The UFT Delegate Assembly condemned the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and resolved to work with those willing to make any and all efforts to end the cycle of violence and to bring peace to the region for Palestinians and Israelis.

UFT members across the city wore pink on Oct. 11, 2023, to raise awareness about breast cancer.

The UFT Provider Professional Education Program is dedicated to advancing the knowledge of family childcare workforce and all early childhood professionals.

Do you have questions about any of our trainings? Are you interested in receiving program improvement coaching and support? Complete our form and a PPEP team member will connect with you.

Whatever your age, whatever your life stage, it’s never too late to take stock of your life, identify what you would like to be different and work toward making those changes, one day at a time.

Be sure to check this page for the latest news and updates regarding certification.