Week of February 27th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 23

Week of February 27th, 2017

This Week's Memories

 

Winterfest and Spring in The Winter!  We wrapped up the start of February with another fantastic full-school assembly.  Performers from our annual Winterfest dazzled the crowd, and Ms. Kree & Ms. Jen put together another wonderful celebration of our girls, their cultural diversity, and their talent! Following this joyous assembly, we welcomed a vacation full of spring weather a rejuvenation!  We are all well positioned as we launch this next interval of the school year.  It's a long one, but with six weeks of uninterrupted instruction, it promises to be a very productive stretch!  Let's get to it!!

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 27FEB17] Full Staff PD - Lesson Rehearsals.  One of the practices of Artisan Teaching is doing a run-through of a planned lesson with colleagues. Very often we only talk about lessons.  By actually doing them, a whole new realm of feedback and insight is made available to teachers.  During Monday's PD, please bring your lessons planned for Wednesday 01MAR17. Upload those lessons into THIS FOLDER by PD time on Monday so that your peers have access to what you've planned.  Teachers will be paired and each partner will have a chance to practice their lesson and hear feedback.

[WEDNESDAY, 01MAR17] Lady Eagles Playoffs, Round 3.  Our Lady Eagles are dedicated and play with heart!  After a tense game with #4 seeded Queens HS, our strong, smart and bold players upset the lead seed with a 52-50 victory!  Congratulations to our amazing team!  On Wednesday, they head to round 3 at the Julia Richmond Complex to hopefully continue the pattern of upset as they pursue victory over the #13 seed.  Wish them luck!

[WEDNESDAY, 01MAR17] Superintendent Walsh Visits.  Superintendent Fred Walsh will be returning to evaluate UAI on the 2nd PPO visit of the year.  We will be visiting about 7-8 classrooms. The schedule below is still tentative (I must finalize with Fred before our visit).  In particular, we are looking to see how teachers are planning to "take the pulse" (aka formative assessments) of the class and how teachers pivot to the student data they get when they conduct these assessments.  Checking in with students to see how much information they are successfully uploading is key to effective teaching.  Teachers should be planning to use formative assessment strategies throughout the lesson to check on how well your teaching is taking root.  Colleen shared a resource to give you ideas for formative assessment techniques to use in your classes.   Please make sure that your lessons include these techniques and that your lesson plans include your planned responses to predicted student outcomes in response to these techniques.

SEL Updates

SEL is Good Teaching.  <excerpted from Edutopia Article, "SEL is Good Teaching", May 2016> When working with schools, I often hear, "I don't have time to teach SEL. I have a lot on my plate right now." It is true that in order to successfully implement social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and services, teachers and schools need to invest their most precious resource: time. Teaching an SEL curriculum, creating school-wide activities, or receiving professional development also requires commitment and some strategic planning. Are you discouraged by this? Don't be! The good news is that there's another side of the story: many teachers already use teaching strategies that support students' growth in this area. Do your students reflect on their work? Do you use pair-shares in your instruction? Do you celebrate your students' accomplishments? If so, you might already be supporting students' social and emotional development!  Click Here to Read the entire article.

Add this calendar to your own!  See that little "+" sign in the bottom right hand corner?  Click on it to have it show up in your personal google calendar!

Per Session Posting

Saturday and or After School Test Prep for MS ELA.  I am looking for teachers to work with groups of 10-15 students to prepare them for the MS ELA exam at the end of the month.  Sessions can be help after school or on Saturdays (teacher preference), and teachers will be able to select students from a list of at-risk students provided.  All teachers are eligible to apply.  The focus will be on test prep - helping students understand what questions are asking, building stamina etc.  Teachers will be responsible for preparing materials.  Teachers who are interested must sign up for two 90 min sessions (and identify days) OR one 3-hours session on Saturday.  Please RSVP to Kiri no later than Friday 03MAR17 at 3pm.  Sessions will begin next week.