This time of year the apple trees are stunning. Delicate, paper-like pink flowers crown the crooked branches in a halo of soft color. Once the blossoms drop, it is time for farm workers to sort out the branches of the apple trees to make more room for the apples to receive the sun, and to [...]

“The Bully Effect,” a half-hour CNN documentary,  aired  Sunday night (May 5) on Cartoon Network, which helped produce the show as well. The cast of Level Up, who usually take on digital monsters, have their radar on real-life  bullies this time. Anti-bullying has now gone prime time. But even if you missed the program Sunday [...]

Fresh. Healthy. Ripe. Nutritious. This is how we want our food to be; how we envision it growing on the farms. Plump tomatoes. Juicy strawberries. Strong zucchini. We make salads and stir-fry, slice and dice, blend and boil. Chances are, we do not know the farmworkers who tend to those fruits and vegetables during the [...]

NYSUT members stood up and cheered to sing the praises of Joan Greenbaum, a health and safety activist from the Professional Staff Congress, who was given the Unsung Heroes Award Friday night at NYSUT’s Health and Safety Leadership Conference. The retired CUNY computer science professor helped create a health and safety committee on each campus to make safer, [...]

The first week of school shouldn’t be about tests. But it is, thanks to the way many districts are implementing  new requirements for Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), testified some at the Capital Region stop of NYSUT’s Listening Tour last night. Occupational therapist Tammy Boire spoke out to give teachers some solutions to the growing [...]

When I was assigned to write about National School Counseling Week (Feb. 4-8), naturally I thought of John Fitzpatrick. He changed my life. “Mr. Fitz” was the counselor at Tupper Lake High School.  I had hung out with his daughters, and had even been to their house for fondue. (The first time it was the [...]

A panel of professionals from education, mental health, law enforcement, journalism and activism provided practical suggestions for improving school safety in a discussion on “Keeping our children safe from gun violence in our schools.”

Schoharie TA members know how to return a favor. They, along with other NYSUT members from as far away as Glens Falls, boarded a bus early Saturday bound for Staten Island to help colleagues there clean up their homes after Superstorm Sandy wiped out their neighborhoods. It was a little more than a year ago [...]

That’s the beginning of pictures from Albany’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Sunday’s walk felt like homecoming. You know you’ll see people you haven’t seen in awhile. So there’s Terri Martin and Stacy Van Cott or Regina McCormack all coming up to say hi at the NYSUT booth. Click on their names to read one [...]

Every so often, a case grabs our attention of someone in dire need of an organ transplant. But even when it’s not on our radar, the need is ever-present. Lives can be saved through either live donations, or donations from deceased indicated ahead of time by a simple mark on a license. To learn why [...]