UAI Staff News
Volume XI
Issue 10
October 23rd, 2023
AND it is that same natural instinct to rely on prior experience that tends to get us into hot water as we engage in social interactions in our classrooms. As we enter into the end of Marking Period 1, the honeymoon of the beginning of the year is waning, and teenage behavior is reacting the stresses of evaluation - and boy, nobody knows how to push buttons quite like teenagers!
So, naturally, we all fall into .... well our own experiences and beliefs of what should be...
This is where I ask us all to dig deep and pull out from our instinctual reaction and challenge ourselves to be more reflective and meta (another evolutionary advantage for humans).
Social Emotional Skills, like self and social awareness, perspective taking, and decision making are learned skills - Just like using figurative language, being precise in metric measurement, inferring historical influences from primary documents, or solving a system of linear equations.
We do not expect our students to naturally know the steps to any of the academic skills I just listed. Yet, too often our teenagers are expected to naturally display these social emotional skills, with a seeming assumption that "they should just know"....
And that's where our instincts overtake our rationale. We assume kids should just know...because "when we were their age, we just".. or "my mother would never let me"... or if "I did that when I was there age..." or whatever prior experience we have.
There are three weeks left in the marking period, and this marking period will end with major performance assessments (benchmarks) that will measure their progress and give them an evaluation of their learning thus far. As we near the end, the stress of their bad choices (because they're not very good at making decisions) will come to a head, and their ability to regulate their emotions and demonstrate self and social awareness will be challenged. Their ability to respond well to stress is directly correlative to their capacity to reflect on their choices and on their actiions' impact on both themselves and those around them.
Now more than ever, we need to seek to understand and redirect behaviors so that student social emotional development is explicitly addressed - much in the way we would explicitly teach a student a skill they need to succeed on an academic task.
Conferencing is the perfect tool to provide this feedback. Also, there isn't a secret sauce to how to do this. Students who are making poor decisions in their behavior, attendance, or actions in class need to be able to connect that behavior to their learning outcomes. Help them see and reflect on choices and how they led to where they are today. Coach them into how to make better choices (and in the process become more self-aware).
When we leverage our rationality to seek to understand (vs. seeking to control), we find solutions to help our students thrive.
If a student isn't doing something they need to do (putting away phones, getting to class on time, submitting homework), there's a reason. No student chooses to fail.
They simply are missing a skill - in this case - self-awareness. And as their teachers and educators, our role is to teach them that skill - be it academic or social emotional.
So as we wrap up the marking period, in the moment of most intense teenage button pushing, take a deep breath. Seek to understand how to help them bridge the skill gap (that they are furiously trying to hide with these behaviors). Once you understand and help students bridge their social emotional and/or academic gaps, you'll rapidly see that you don't need to control student behavior, because they will end up doing that for themselves.
Important Upcoming dates
- Monday, 23OCT23 - SyncGrades Workshop
- Wednesday, 25OCT23 - Girls Volleyball Home Game
- Tuesday, 31OCT23 - Halloween - Wear your best costume - themed outfits are the best!
- Wednesday, 01NOV23 - Monday, 06NOV23 - MP1 Benchmarks
- First Marking Period Benchmarks are coming the first week of NOVEMBER
- Wed, NOV 1st - ELA & Theater Benchmarks
- Thu, NOV 2nd - Science & Spanish Benchmarks
- Fri, NOV 3rd - Social Studies & Computer Science Benchmarks
- Mon, NOV 6th - Math & PE Benchmarks
Announcements & To Dos
AP African American History Showcase. Congratulations to Kelly & Martine who were chosen to showcase their student-centered, discussion approach to the AP curriculum. Their relentless support of high-quality student discourse around primary documents leads to equitable access and participation for ALL students. When the folks from AP for All came to visit, they were incredibly impressed with their practice and how they couldn’t tell who was a general education student, a student with learning differences or an English language learning student in the room because of how they structure their lessons. The AP for All folks shared also “that’s how it should be” and they shared that Martine & Kelly are an example of how the ideals of AP for All can actually work in practice. I am super impressed with their hard work as they are an exemplar in practice for not only UAI, but now also for all schools running the new AP African American History Course! Thank you Kelly & Martine for all your efforts, and good luck at the showcase. We know you'll be amazing - because you already are!!!
Equity Team. Thanks to all who expressed interest in joining this year's Equity Team! We had lots of folks volunteer for this very important endeavor so we needed to cap the team at 7 (I selected the first 6 who responded to my email). A special thank you to Sue, Jelissa and Joanna who have volunteered to be our fearless leaders! Team members - be on the lookout for more info from Annie next week regarding our first meeting.
- Team Leads: Sue, Jelissa, Joanna, Annie
- Team Members: Alaisha, Elena, Dru
SyncGrades. Several folks have been asking for SyncGrades to come in and do a professional development with staff. They don't have that. I asked explicitly. They just don't have that as part of their business model. Instead, they rely on their Wiki and their help functions to bring users up to speed on the platform.
We have very industrious and smart folks on staff and everyone has resolved issues. So, the best professional development we could offer around SyncGrades is to bring folks together into the same room, and to share questions and answers among the group.
Here's the things that MUST be happening in SyncGrades consistently by now
- All grades must be synching from Google Classroom - INCLUDING the final averages
- All students must be showing in your Sync Grades and Google Classroom
- Students who are NOT in your class should NOT be showing in your rosters (attendance or grades)
If they are not happening, there ARE folks who have figured things out. Please come ready to ask your questions in PD. If they ARE happening, please come prepared to share your amazing wisdom!
Please take a moment to complete this survey so that we can put together a quick FAQ for UAI on SyncGrades.
By the end of Monday PD, you will have the answers you need OR you will have submitted the issue to SyncGrades for support!
PD Calendar Update. Here are the updates to the PD schedule for the rest of MP1
- 23OCT23 - SyncGrades Team Work
- 30OCT23 - Equity Team Circles
- 06NOV23 - Benchmark Grading
- 07NOV23 - Election Day PD (Circles, Benchmark Analysis, Progress Monitoring on Goals)
Quality of Feedback. This week we are launching our first round of Instructional Rounds. This round will focus on feedback loops and the quality of feedback students are receiving and using to improve their performance. Feedback can take multiple forms, but for this visit, we will be looking at the feedback that happens within class periods. This can be things like
- Conferences with students
- Individual or small group feedback teachers give while circulating during work time
- Global Feedback to the class, based on information gathered while circulating.
In order to give feedback, you need to have a way to assess how students are learning the new content and skills. There needs to be discourse and student writing so you can see/hear student thinking and assess what they need to improve.
Outreach Log. Please make sure you are inviting all students who have <75 in your class to attend your Monday Office Hours. Please document that you have informed families that the Office Hours are support for students and document that in the outreach log by midnight on Sunday nights.
NOTE: At the end of MP1, I will be checking that any student who received <75 in your class ALSO had record of successful outreach. If you are not able to successfully connect with families by the end of this week, you MUST reach out to Tracey to get help in connecting with families.
Academic Conferences and Office Hours. Please continue to make sure that you have entered Grades into SyncGrades this week. Students should have at least 1 progress grade in SyncGrades, and more importantly, please make sure you are conferencing with students and communicating home about student progress this week. If you have students who have less than a 75 in your class, please make sure you are asking them to attend your Office Hours on Mondays from 2:50-3:30. Please use your outreach time to let families know that you have time to work with students after school on Mondays.
Finalize After School Rosters. Please continue to help promote your after school clubs. Please make sure you are getting a reliable group of at least 10 students. Help our after school classes get off the ground!
- Black Student Union - Joanna & Pauline (Rm 411) - Tuesdays & Thursdays 3-4:30
- Arts & Crafts Club - Tiffany & Jennifer (Rm 311) - Mon/Tue/Weds - 3-4:15PM
- Theater Production Club - Noelle (Rm 315) - Tues/Thurs/Fri - 3-5:30PM
- Student Government - Sue, Marsha, Phillan, and Girls' Inc's Kassi (Rm 309) - Tuesdays - 3-4PM
- Youth Leadership Council - Kelly (Rm 307) - Tuesdays 3-4PM
- Photo Club - Tom(Rm 205F) - Wednesdays 3-4:30
- Cheer - Mary & Lia - Various days depending on Game Days
- Anime & Art Club - Adelle & Francis (Rm 409) - Tuesdays & Thursdays 3-5PM
- Running Club with Camryn (starts after the marathon is over)
- Dance Club - Girls Inc - Room 503
We're still looking for folks to advise the following clubs. Please email Kiri ASAP so we can get these clubs up and running, too!
- GSA Club
- Muslim Student Association
Per Session Postings
For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"
After School Clubs. If you are interested in running an after school club, please complete THIS form by EOD TUESDAY 26SEP23 AND submit the Per Session Application Form. Clubs are slated to start next week. Clubs must have a steady roster of at least 8-10 students per week in order to NOT be cancelled. Rosters & Attendance lists MUST be submitted with per session time cards. If your club goes three consecutive weeks with less than 8 students, your club will need to be cancelled (so that we can optimize funds for other uses - so sorry...wish we could fund everything all the time, but unfortunately, we don't have endless sums of funds). After school sessions can be 3-4PM or 3-4:30PM or 3-5:30PM (teacher's choice)up to three days per week. So per session hours can range from 1-7.5hrs per week). Posting Expires 10OCT23.
PSAL Supervision. Posting Expires 10OCT23. PSAL Games are starting up soon. Please submit the Per Session Application Form if you are interested in supervising student spectators. Hours vary depending on games. Each game (basketball or volleyball) is usually 4-6pm (is) so each supervision session is about 2hours. Staff are welcome to sign up for as many games as they'd like. Please see UAI calendar or PSAL website for game dates. Duties include making sure
- students remain safe and orderly during games
- only eligible students are admitted to games
- all students fully dismiss from the building at the conclusion of the games
CSI Planning & Supervision. Posting Expires 10OCT23. This posting if for supervision per session to plan, supervise, monitor and coordinate extra improvement efforts to address UAI achievement gaps and improve student performance in target metrics. Activities include analyzing and reviewing data, planning and executing professional development experiences to improve staff performance, analyzing and editing video footage to improve teacher lesson execution and lesson implementation, and supervising out of school activities - including recruitment, staff planning, and after school activities. Hours vary per week depending on task and work completed. Hours range 1-7.5 hours per week.
Classroom SetUp. All classroom staff are invited to come in to set up and plan for up to 10 hours all together any day this week Monday-Friday 9AM-2PM. Staff must clock in AND out each day, and cannot be in the building after 2PM. Please adhere to guidelines set out in the blog post above. All Staff MUST also apply to this position by completing the "Per Session Application From" - see link above. [Posted 27AUG23] - Posting CLOSED and JOB is over.
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