This is post here is going to basically be my talking points for tomorrow. I've put together a brief sketch of what I want focus on tomorrow. In the AM, I will give you guys a more in-depth overview of what we've been up to this year. I'll also be bringing bagels for you, but coffee is on your own!
Please email me your lunch order from here, CAFE METRO. I'm treating to lunch, too!
InstructionalRounds Visit
8:30-9:00 - Welcome and Overview of Kiri's Questions
9:00-9:20 - Classroom Visits to Darby and Brodie
9:20-9:40 - Debrief Visits
9:40-10:10 - Classroom Visits to Danielle and Michael
10:10-10:20- Debrief Visits
10:20-10:30 - Break
10:30-11:30 - IR Visit Debrief
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Learning Cultures Work Time (11:30-3:30PM)
The PM is targeted for collaborative work time with the Principals and Cynthia. I put two topics on the docket. People should definitely feel free to add on!
Work Time Topic I - Analyzing and Addressing Student Failure (and in particular - Kids who are non-responsive or not responsive enough to multiple interventions/levels of intervention)
Work Time Topic II - Scheduling Discussion/Brainstorm/Problem Solving
Problem of Practice
How can we better develop the cycle of inquiry to build learner investment and collaborative problem solving skills? This is my question for both kids and teachers!
Theory of Action
If we engage learners in collaborative problem solving around their own questions (vs. questions posed to or for them), then they will become more actively engaged in finding their own solutions together and have a greater investment in seeing those solutions through.
Another Wonderful Assembly. Please take the time to congratulate all the girls who participated in Friday's assembly! When you stop to think about what it takes to speak publicly in front of nearly 300 peers and teachers, it gives you pause to consider their bravery, confidence and talent! So, take the time this week to give a quick high five to our creatively brilliant young performers! Also, many shouts outs and thank-yous to Ms. Abby and Carrera for supporting the girls and coordinating this poetic event! The last Friday in May will be our final assembly for the year.
Regents Conferences and Lists. Last week Colleen emailed out the latest Regents lists. Please take time this week in Advisory to make sure that your students know which exams they are taking in June. Many of you may have used the extended advisory last Friday to complete this. If you still have some more students to talk to, review Colleen's List and the June Exam Schedule with your advisees. Please note in Skedula what their schedules are are make sure to check the boxes that send a copy of the anecdotal to both parent and student (see picture at right for an example). Please complete the Regents Exam check in with all of your advisees by Friday, May 1st. Please also
Phone Calls Home. We are starting to slack off again on attendance calls home. Please don't forget. As a reminder, the end of the month is coming and I will need to write some letters to folks who missed 2 or more calls this month. Make sure that you're making your calls!
In addition, please prepare time to call home for any and all students who are fail your class for the 4th marking period. Please make sure that parents/families clearly understand why students are failing and for your class, please provide some guidance on how to best support their child's learning at home. MP5 ends on Friday.
Instructional Rounds Visit. The LC principals will be in the UAI HS house on Monday! In particular, I am focusing the visit around student inquiry during work time and at looking at the efficacy of briefs and responsibility teams in supporting that inquiry and developing student learning. We'll have time to see about 4 classes. We'll be visiting Darby, Paula, and Brodie's classes for sure because their POD has been focusing on this question in particular. You all will get to hear from them during PD on Monday. I'll also probably try to squeeze in a math or science class, too!
Learning Cultures Open House. Our amazing English team will be hosting an open house for principals and teachers across Brooklyn on Tuesday. With the support and expert coordination from Sarah D, we're opening our doors to share Learning Cultures in writing! Marianna and Ilyana wowed the superintendent and chancellor with their presentation at the district meeting. Now, we're opening our school to follow up and share our best practices more in-depth with our colleagues from other Brooklyn High Schools.
Important Dates
Monday, 27APR15 through Friday 01MAY15 - Last week of 5th Marking Period - Please DO NOT SCHEDULE any field trips this week.
Monday, 04MAY15 - MP6, the last marking period of the year, begins.
Wednesday, 06MAY15 - MP5 Grades are Due
Friday 15MAY15 - Annual High School Honor Roll Breakfast at 9AM
Wednesday 20MAY15 - Senior Awards Night
Monday, 25MAY15 - Memorial Day, NO SCHOOL
Thursday, 28MAY15 - Springfest, our 2nd Parent Outreach night (the 2nd of 2 that were added with the new UFT contract) - Teachers report at 6PM (Springfest is 6-7PMish)
Tuesday, 02JUN15 - Common Core Regents - NO CLASSES
Thursday, 04JUN15 - Brooklyn Queens Day at UAI - Just UAI HS at UAI HS
Wednesday, 10JUN15 - Tech Carts are due to Allan by the end of the day
Thursday 11JUN15 and Friday 12JUN15 - Final Benchmark Exams
Friday, 12JUN15 - End of the 6th Marking Period
Monday, 15JUN15 - High School Field Day (Details TBD)
Tuesday, 16JUN15 - Regents Week Begins
Wednesday, 17JUN15 - Final Grades are Due
Wednesday, 24JUN15 - Plato Training
Thursday, 25JUN15 - High School Graduation at Kumbel Theater
Friday, 26JUN15 - Last Day of School
Per Session
Learning Cultures Lead Teachers. The Urban Assembly recently put money into our DOE budgets to pay the Learning Cultures lead teachers for their work earlier in the year. Originally, I was under the impression that the UA was going to pay them directly (so no need for the per session post). But then, those plans changed a couple of weeks ago when the UA transferred the money in. So, now I need to post the position in accordance to per session rules and regs. These are the following lead positions (and teachers): Code Blue (Martine), Culture (Sarah), Curriculum (Darby), Asssessment (Danielle), PD (Rebecca). The LC leads participated in several cross-school planning and PD work with Cynthia at the beginning of the year. In addition, many are part of cabinet which met weekly in the fall and will resume this Spring.
The Last 10 Days of Marking Period 4. There are only 10 school days remaining in this 4th marking period. Throughout mini-lessons this week, it's important that students are reminded of upcoming deadlines and the importance of adding work time outside of class to compliment and deepen their work and learning in class. Please make sure you are uploading grades into Skedula regularly so that students have an accurate picture of their progress. Frequent and early reminders to complete work will go some ways to ameliorate the end-of-marking-period procrastination stress.
Year End Observations. The large majority of you have only one more official evaluation remaining for the year. There are a couple of you who I am still working on for mid-year. Over the next few weeks, you should expect to see me popping in for observations. In an effort to just get these done, I will not be announcing these final visits. I'm just going to squeeze them in where I can. The goal is to have all observations for the year completed by the end of May and to have all year-end conferences completed by June benchmarks.
Busy Friday. Please review the Important Dates below. There are a number of things happening this Friday. Firstly, the last administration of the DRP will take place Friday morning. After lunch, all teachers need to lead groups in a massive locker spring cleaning event. Then, last period, we will be having our monthly assembly. Abby from Carrera is planning an assembly centered on celebrating April as poetry month.
Instructional Rounds Visit on 4/27. Cynthia, Kerry, Julie, Kelly, and Emily will be visiting as part of our principals' Instructional Rounds visits. One of the things I really want their feedback and ideas about is how we use Responsibility Teams and the efficacy of student briefs in the learning process. We will be visiting classrooms with Responsibility Teams. Currently on the docket, we will definitely see Paula & Brodie, and Darby to see the work of their Pod in action. We will also drop in to a math and science classroom. Please reach out to me if you'd like us to visit!
Important Dates
Friday, 24APR15 - April Assembly during 8th Period
Friday, 24APR15 - Final DRP Administration in AM
Friday, 24APR15 - Spring Cleaning of Lockers
Monday, 27APR15 through Friday 01MAY15 - Last week of 5th Marking Period - Please DO NOT SCHEDULE any field trips for this week.
Monday, 04MAY15 - MP6, the last marking period of the year, begins.
Wednesday, 06MAY15 - MP5 Grades are Due
Friday 15MAY15 - Annual High School Honor Roll Breakfast at 9AM
Wednesday 20MAY15 - Senior Awards Night
Monday, 25MAY15 - Memorial Day, NO SCHOOL
Thursday, 28MAY15 - Springfest, our 2nd Parent Outreach night (the 2nd of 2 that were added with the new UFT contract) - Teachers report at 6PM (Springfest is 6-7PMish)
Tuesday, 02JUN15 - Common Core Regents - NO CLASSES
Thursday, 04JUN15 - Brooklyn Queens Day at UAI - Just UAI HS at UAI HS
Wednesday, 10JUN15 - Tech Carts are due to Allan by the end of the day
Thursday 11JUN15 and Friday 12JUN15 - Final Benchmark Exams
Friday, 12JUN15 - End of the 6th Marking Period
Monday, 15JUN15 - High School Field Day (Details TBD)
Tuesday, 16JUN15 - Regents Week Begins
Wednesday, 17JUN15 - Final Grades are Due
Wednesday, 24JUN15 - Plato Training
Thursday, 25JUN15 - High School Graduation at Kumbel Theater
Friday, 26JUN15 - Last Day of School
Per Session
Hiring Committee. I've scrounged up some minimal hours for the Hiring Committee using excess funds from Per Diem (Great Job on Attendance this year, you guys!!) We have some extra funds in the sub bucket to use for per session activities! Current Members: Martine (chair), Darby, Kristin, Danielle, Jamie (did I miss anyone??). I need to first verify with Nicole on how many folks signed up for the next After School session and then I will be able to state how many hours are available. Session II After School for STEM electives. Darby, Paula, Marianna, and Ilyana have signed up for session II of after school!
Cabinet Per Session is relaunching. Cabinet meetings will resume on Tuesday, 21APR15 and continue through Tuesday, 09JUN15 from 2:55-3:55 in room 403. Cabinet members (which include all Learning Cultures lead teachers, grade team leaders, and subject team leaders) will be paid for the time after the extended day that ends at 3:25. Cabinet meetings are open to all who want to attend. However, only official members will earn per session.
The Last 40 Days of Classes. For the next few weeks, we have 30 days of instruction, uninterrupted by holidays or breaks. It's the perfect time to establish firm routines and ratchet up the urgency around the end of the year. For all courses, annualization provides the time needed for students to fully demonstrate their growth and achievements. As we enter into these final weeks, students need to recognize the importance of doing their best to demonstrate their proficiencies in order to earn their credits for the year. Additionally, now is the time to start buckling down and preparing for the June Regents exams. Students must be making time at home to independently study for the exams as a compliment to their in-school work. Your unit plans and mini-lessons need to be explicit and clear around this expectation.
Systems and Policies Reboot. To make the most out of the last two months of instruction (June is basically all testing), now is a good time to teach into classroom responsibilities and social norms. Additionally, for yourself, please take a moment to reread the staff handbook and policies. In preparation for next year, we are looking for your feedback on this year's systems and policies.
Please share your opinions and thoughts by CLICKING HERE.
Benchmark 4 is on Wednesday & Thursday. Your Benchmark Results are due this Friday. Enter your data by CLICKING HERE. We will be using this particular benchmark to plan for June and August Regents. For Regents courses, please enter your raw scores in the yellow columns. Please also enter the projected Regent score. Students who have a Regent score below 45 will not be signed up for June. Instead, they will be mandated to summer school and signed up for August exams. Of course, exceptions will be made. Just bring the names to my attention and we will discuss.
Next Year's Schedule. The first draft of next year's schedule is complete. Teaching assignments and program are dependent on budget and student population, but barring any drastic unforeseen budgetary shifts, this is pretty much what it will be next year. The room assignments are in green at the right. Professional periods are not yet firm because we have to SBO the options, but they are projected assignments based on what people got this year. With Michelle moving into an ELL/ICT position and Rebecca moving to 9th grade Reading, we are looking for a new 10th Grade English teacher. The hiring committee has a strong lead on a English teacher who is coming in for classroom observations next week. With Sarah moving to the middle school next year, we are on the hunt for an Earth Science teacher. Keep your ears open and let us know if you know anyone who be perfect for our school!
Next Year's Grade & Subject Team Leaders. To improve team efficacy and distributed leadership structures next year, I am asking for input from the teams on who they would want to have as their leader. Please give me your two cents by quickly answering these two questions below:
PROSE. Just before the break, I sent out an email updating you on what the UA principals discussed at our last meeting. Essentially, we have no idea why some schools were accepted and why others were rejected. There is some conjecture across the network that schools were rejected solely on the opinion of the UFT district rep to that school. However, this is solely conjecture at this point. In an effort to get concrete evidence and reasons for acceptance or rejection from PROSE, Kerry Decker (Principal of UA Green Careers) and her teacher (Brent Chamberlain) wrote letters requesting increased transparency and possibly reconsideration of the decision. Please take a moment to read Brent's Letter and Kerry's Letter.
At the present time, it is not clear what it means to not be part of PROSE with the rest of the UA network. As an individual school, we will not suffer greatly, however, for me, I am greatly disturbed by the idea that our school is being treated unfairly. I believe that our school's proposal (which, btw, was used by another Learning Cultures school (Unison) and they got in!) should be judged on it's merits and the published expectations. I believe that our school's proposal, in actuality, is not being judged at all, but rather by something else. I believe that we have a right to be told what that something else is, because if we are to have a successful re-application we have to know what we have to fix. I need your help to get this message out. So, I am asking you to sign on to help us figure out what happened with our proposal and if the reasons seem unjust, then I am asking you to sign on to ask the PROSE committee for reconsideration.
Please email me directly if you are willing to put your name on these letters to ask for clarity and fair treatment for our school.
Partnership Shout Outs
Our Partners provide our school and our young women with so many resources, supports and opportunities! In addition to celebrating our girls, take a moment to thank a partner for their work and support of our school and our girls.
Take a look at what happened this week alone!
Belle, Mariam, and Tiara are three of our strongest, smartest and boldest high schoolers who joined Oprah as they filmed an inspiring commercial for Girls Inc. We are so proud of them. Show them how proud you are this week when you see them in class and in the halls! Celebrate how well they model being an empowered young woman of color!!!
Here's some of the behind the scenes footage:
Our Carrera Partners supported senior Toddara in winning the Children's Aid Society/Madison Square Garden college scholarship for $10,000 which is renewable for each of her college years. We are so proud of Toddara!! Be sure to give her the celebratory shout out when you see her in class and in the halls.
Important Dates
Monday 13APR15 - First day be from spring break
Friday, 17APR15 - Benchmark IV Results are due
Friday, 24APR15 - April Assembly during 8th Period - Details TBD
Friday, 24APR15 - Final DRP Administration in AM
Monday, 27APR15 through Friday 01MAY15 - Last week of 5th Marking Period - Please DO NOT SCHEDULE any field trips for this week.
Monday, 04MAY15 - MP6, the last marking period of the year, begins.
Wednesday, 06MAY15 - MP5 Grades are Due
Friday 15MAY15 - Annual High School Honor Roll Breakfast at 9AM
Wednesday 20MAY15 - Senior Awards Night
Monday, 25MAY15 - Memorial Day, NO SCHOOL
Thursday, 28MAY15 - Springfest, our 2nd Parent Outreach night (the 2nd of 2 that were added with the new UFT contract)
Tuesday, 02JUN15 - Common Core Regents - NO CLASSES
Thursday, 04JUN15 - Brooklyn Queens Day at UAI - Just UAI HS at UAI HS
Wednesday, 10JUN15 - Tech Carts are due to Allan by the end of the day
Thursday 11JUN15 and Friday 12JUN15 - Final Benchmark Exams
Friday, 12JUN15 - End of the 6th Marking Period
Monday, 15JUN15 - High School Field Day (Details TBD)
Tuesday, 16JUN15 - Regents Week Begins
Wednesday, 17JUN15 - Final Grades are Due
Wednesday, 24JUN15 - Plato Training
Thursday, 25JUN15 - High School Graduation at Kumbel Theater
Friday, 26JUN15 - Last Day of School
Per Session
Hiring Committee. I've scrounged up some minimal hours for the Hiring Committee using excess funds from Per Diem (Great Job on Attendance this year, you guys!!) We have some extra funds in the sub bucket to use for per session activities! Current Members: Martine (chair), Darby, Kristin, Danielle, Jamie (did I miss anyone??). I need to first verify with Nicole on how many folks signed up for the next After School session and then I will be able to state how many hours are available. Session II After School for STEM electives. Using these same excess per diem funds, I can now open up After School to non-STEM electives (and pay our volunteers from Session I Paula, Marianna, and Ilyana - thank you for volunteering! and Congrats - I ended up finding a way to pay you!). Please email me your ideas for an after school program that would meet at least once a week for 1 hour. Email me by the end of the day on Monday, April 13th with your sketch of an idea. The After School fair is on April 15th, so this is a QUICK turnaround.
Cabinet Per Session is relaunching. Stay tuned to next week's blog post for details. Depending on how many hours I can liberate from per diem and how many are still available after hiring and after school hours are distributed, I will be able to have paid meetings starting next week Wednesday after school throughout all of April and May.
