Week of March 13th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 25

Week of March 13th, 2017

This Week's Memories

Lady Eagles Show Grit! In a riveting quarterfinal game at John Jay High School, the Lady Eagles played their hearts out.  They may have lost the game, but they won incredible experience and growth points! Many shout outs go to Coach Elana and Asst. Coach Damon for bringing our young women through another playoff season.  Many of our players are in 9th & 10th grades this year, so we look forward to yet another amazing year next year!  Go Eagles!

It's a long march to spring break (get it...March...har, har, har).  In the past few weeks, there has been a bit of an uptick in the number of requests staff have been making to have consecutive days off. I know it's hard to control when family schedule life events.  Whenever possible, please minimize the number of days you are requesting, and please remember to receive approval for days off before making your plans concrete.

I know you understand that school staff play a pivotal role in the lives of our students. When you are not here, you are missed by colleagues and students alike.  We all have to pick it up a little to fill the void.  As a result, our school is less effective and efficient whenever you are gone.  We do not get that many days with you each year. Only 180 of the 365 days in a year are school days.  That's less than half the year!  This is exactly why each day requested is so dear and valuable!  

I will be meeting with Val next week to review staff requests for days off. We only have 54 instructional days left before June Regents and MS Field Trip Season begins!  Let's try finish the year strong!

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 13MAR17] Full Staff PD - Lesson Rehearsals & Student-Student Discourse.  On Monday, you will be reviewing the video that you shot of your partner's collaborative reasoning (CR). Please make sure your CR video and plans are uploaded to THIS FOLDER.  The following staff will be using PD time to prepare for the progressive dinner:  Alison & Damon, Jamie, Matthew & Cherry, Lauren & Jennifer, Sursattie, Natalie, Phillan, and Elena.  If you usual partner is planning for the dinner, please continue to work on your CR plans for this week, independently.

[MONDAY, 13MAR17] Progressive Dinner.  Thank you to all of you called parents to invite them to the progressive dinner. We have nearly 100 parents coming!  Staff are welcome to join.  Staff that are planning should meet in the conference room during PD on Monday to finalize plans.

[THURSDAY, 23MAR17 & FRIDAY 24MAR17].  Student Led Conferences. SLCs are just around the corner.  We're changing up the SLC structures a little bit in an effort to increase parent attendance in preparation for completion of our annual accountability survey.  The lovely ladies in the main office will be scheduling all SLCs for teachers.  SLCs will be from 5-8PM on Thursday and from 11:50-2:50 on Friday.  You can expect to receive your schedules next week.  Teachers should prepare students to discuss.  Advisors will still need to print student report cards for advisees. 10th-12th grade Advisors will also receive transcripts 

• Course Progress (current grades, biggest achievements, greatest area of growth)
• Attendance (click to see Heat Map and pull up-to-date data on your advisees)
• Assessment Readiness (what is the student doing at home and in school to prepare for state assessments)
• Progress towards Graduation (For students in grades 10-12, you'll want to review transcripts and progress towards graduation. Here are the graduation requirements and individual student progress)

Upon arrival, parents will be directed to a common area to receive handouts (e.g. information about high school or college application process, summer school opportunities).  They will also receive their survey to complete prior to attending your SLC.  

SEL Updates

Just in time for SLCs, students in grades 6, 9, and 10 last week discussed how goal setting and friendships can influence their paths as adolescents. Students learned how to set SMART goals for fictional characters in anticipation of being able to set SMART goals for themselves in their classes. Students also explored what types of friends are best for them, and what skills they need to better develop in order to build and maintain high quality relationships.  

This week, students in all 3 grades will be delving deeper into empathy. Students will practice taking one another's perspective and will explore situations where they might or might not have empathy for what someone else may be going through. Students will also review how to listen actively using the EARS strategy (Eye contact, Ask & answer questions, Reflect feelings, and Say it in your own words), demonstrating empathy as they do so.

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

No New Posts for this week