Sunday, November 26, 2023

Week of November 27th

UAI Staff News

Volume XI

Issue 15

November 27th, 2023

Four Weeks of WOW. We are back from the Thanksgiving Recess with an opportunity of 4 weeks of instruction before the next break. There will be ebbs and flows in the instructional patterns with several field trips peppered throughout the next few weeks - but this is also an excellent opportunity to really make strides with student learning. Challenge yourself and your students to be amazing with their learning and to push for deeper undertandings and higher achievement! Expect connections, creativity, and new perspectives - push through the doldrums of compliance and just getting things done - encourage and drive students to want to reach for excellence & achievement.

Conferences & Feedback Loops. Make sure to plan to make time to talk to kids. Make time in each class period to look at the quality of what your students are saying & writing. Help them move beyond just getting it done to getting it right & good.
Limit Teacher Talk in order to Maximize Student-Student Discourse. By inserting simple Turn & Talks and pair or small group work time, you create time for your own circulation to look at student work and time for you to provide feedback & hold conferences. You need to limit the time you are talking (either lecturing or holding teacher-student discourse - or teacher moderated student discourse). Aim to keep your full-class talking to less than 10min total per period.
Practice Makes Performance. Everyone needs multiple at-bats in order to actually get good at anything. In the upcoming units, you should be providing students with opportunities to independently and without scaffolds practice new skills and knowledge (e.g. exit tickets and practice tests). In particular, you want to make sure all the practice happens PRIOR to the summative assessment and you don't rely on corrections on summative assessments. Corrections should really be happening on review or practice tests (aka if this were the real benchmark....you would have received this grade...but it's practice, so you can do corrections..). Kids do not naturally know how to study and practie - it's a skill that we all need to teach them - again and again and again.
Stay Connected with Families. You've all done some pretty amazing work keeping in touch with our families. Keep that up! For the next four weeks try to making 1 call a day. Shoot for this make-up:

2 calls to families of kids who have <75 in your class
2 calls to families of kids who are cruising and >75, but you know they could do way better
2 calls to families of kids who blowing it out of the park in your class
1 calls to families of kids who simply make teaching joyous

You can focus on these four areas to level up your own practice this month, and in so doing, you will be well on your way to creating Four Weeks of WOW!!!!

Important Upcoming dates

Monday, 27NOV23 - UAI Pacing Calendars Due & SESIS Progress Reports Due
Tuesday, 28NOV23 - Trip and Visit

8:30-2PM 6th Grade Field Trip to the Met Museum (Fatima, Mike, Phillan, Sarah R)
1:30P-2PM Deputy Chancellor Visits Kelly & Martine (APAAS) and Freida (AP Lang)
1:30PM-2:30PM - MS 915 Visits UAI

Wednesday, 29NOV2 - Dock Street Visits UAI
Thursday, 30NOV2 - 12:30-5PM PPO Visit with Fred Walsh
Friday, 01DEC23 - High School Application Due
Wednesday, 06DEC23 - Trips to AMNH and Hamilton
Thursday, 07DEC23 - Math Team Hosts CUNY QR and Stats Folks for BTCM Visit
Friday, 08DEC23 - MS Applications Due
Tuesday, 12DEC23 - MS Iceskating Trip
Thurs & Friday 14 & 15DEC23 - Doodle Piqueno Premiers!
Thursday 14DEC23 - Winterfest
Friday 15DEC23 - UAI Holiday Staff Party at Henry Street Ale House.
Tuesday, 19DEC23 - 8-12 Iceskating Trip
Friday, 22DEC23 - Rapid Dismissal at 2:15
For Future Calendar NOTES

January Benchmark Schedule

For Grades 8-12: 2nd AND 3rd period Regents Mock

Wed 17JAN23 ELA Regents
Thu 18JAN23 USH or GLO Regents
Fri 19JAN23 LIV or EARTH Regents
Mon 22JAN23 ALG 1 Regent
All other classes should give their end of MP2 benchmark at some point during the week of Tue 16JAN- Mon 22JAN - any period EXCEPT 2nd and 3rd.

For Grades 6 & 7th graders:

2nd & 3rd will be benchmark periods - lunch will be moved to 4th
Tuesday 23JAN will be the ELA benchmark
Wednesday 24JAN will be the Math benchmark

All staff will have grading time build into their Regents Week Schedules.

Please Prepare your students for these benchmarks

They should be seeing spiral review of MP1 and MP2 topics throughout all of MP2
They should have practice with Benchmark questions for BOTH content and literacy
You should schedule some type of practice benchmark prior to the actual benchmark so students have an idea of what to study. This could be in any form you choose - but you need to provide it for them. Please see your ILT lead or Kiri or Annie if you need more support on this

Announcements & To Dos

Monday PD & RPET Work. Kiri & Annie met with La'Chelle and David from OSYD's RJ Team. They are working slowly and intentionally with us to build our schools' capacity to carry through this work on our own. They shared with us some more resources to help our community learn more about the Israel-Hamas conflict and also to gain more generalized knowledge about anti-semetism and islamaphobia.

We are having our first round of Table Talks (which are more circle like to start so that we can ramp our way up into this new kind of tool) on Monday. We'll be pulling students from the YLC and Student Government during 6th & 7th period on Monday, and we'll be working with the RPET during PD.

For the rest of staff during Monday PD, there are two options:

All SPED Teacehrs, Paras, and Counselors - Meet with Mary in Room 205F to work on Progress Report Updates for IEPs in SESIS.
All other staff report to these rooms to work on Pacing Calendars with the support of your ILT

ELA - Room 309
Math - Room 405
Science - Room 205C
Social Studies - Room 507
Language - Room 409
Theater - Room 315
PE - Room 503

NOTE:
Pacing Calendars should be uploaded into THIS FOLDER at the end of PD tomorrow.
RPET folks can turn them in on Wednesday 29NOV23.

Special Visitors. This week we have lots of visitors who are coming to see our amazing UAI!

DOE Folks: Deputry Chancellor Carolyn Quintana and Superintendent Fred Walsh

Tuesday 28NOV23: Martine & Kelly have been working hard on our newest AP class AP African American Studies, and their efforts have caught the eye of our Deputy Chancellor of Teaching and Learning - Carolyn Quintana. They are hosting the DC and AP for All folks on Tuesday, and we're excited to support their amazing work!!!
Tuesday & Wednesday 28NOV & 29NOV; Students and Counselors from MS 915 and Dock Street are coming to visit UAI as a prospective High School for next year. They'll be around to visit classes and our special spaces (gym, farm, cafe) etc. We're looking forward to showing off how awesome our school is!!
Thursday 30NOV23: Superintendent Fred Walk is coming to visit for his Fall Evaluative visit. He'll be vising SLJ in the AM and coming by UAI in the PM at 12:30. Here's the agenda for his visit

12:30-2:45 Classroom Visits [7] - Room 401

12:30 - Amanda - Algebra I - Room 407
12:45 - Danielle & Sue - Algebra I - Room 405
1:00 - Principal mini-meeting
1:15 - Kelly & Martine - AP Afr Amer St - Rm 507
1:30 - Marsha - Into Lit 89 - Room 309
1:45 - Sarah & Lia - Into Lit 89 - Room 303
2:00 - Fatima - 6th Gr Soc St - Rm B43
2:15 - Alison & Matthew - 7th Gr Math - Room B57
2:30 - Sarah - 6th Gr Science - Room B49

4:15-5:00 Evaluator Reflection & Final Principal Debrief

4:20 - Evaluator Reflection - Room 147
4:50 - Final Debrief with Kiri in Room 147

Trips. We also have a fair number of trips this month! Our AMNH Residents are each planning trips to the American Museum of Natural History, plus there's our return of our Hamilton Trip, please we have some school culture building ice-skating trips in the offing! You can see which students are going by looking at the class list tab on the UAI schedule and look for the codes (in parentheses).

MS ONLY Tuesday, 28NOV - 6th Grade Trip to the Met - Whole Day (HSNM6 - both sections)
8-9 ONLY Wednesday 29NOV - Earth Science Trip to AMNH (SEN11 - all sections)
10-12 ONLY Monday, 04DEC - APES and AP Bio Trip to AMNH (SLN11X and SBN11X - all)
8-12 ONLY Wed, 06DEC - USH & APAAS to Hamilton/Chem to AMNH (Hamilton - SCN11)
MS ONLY Tuesday, 12DEC - MS School Culture Ice-Skating Trip - Jen is Organizing
7-12 ONLY Tuesday, 19DEC - Grades 8-12 School Culture Ice-Skating Trip - Jen is Organizing
7th Grade Trip to Pfizer (SSNM7 - all sections)

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.

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! - I will be collecting final rosters on 30NOV - you have additional time to recruit!!

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
Students Against Racism & Bias Club - Jelissa (Rm 305) Tuesdays & Thursday 3-4PM
Muslim Student Association - Laura (Rm 404) TBD
GSA Club - Amanda - Rm 407

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.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Week of November 20th

UAI Staff News

Volume XI

Issue 14

November 20th, 2023

Gratitude. This week leads us into the Thanksgiving break. It's a natural time to make time to pause, take stock, and be gracious for what we have. The hustle and bustle of every day, the pressures of needing to do X or Y, and the anxiety of what is yet to come lead us to places where we let gratitude slide off the plate.

Let's upend that this week and take stock from the outside in

Lasting Impact of understanding Global Politics & combatting Antisemitism - These last few weeks, UAI has been thrust into the spotlight of a complex geo-political landscape intertwined with the weight and injustices of bias & hate. Our inboxes have been inundated, our school plastered across social media - none of the attention focusing on our achievements - only this failure.

Yet - I am grateful. I realize that sounds insane.. but take a minute to think about it. This is another challenge, another trial that our community is working to find a path through. Though this path was thrust upon us, I can see how the impact of the work we do towards the goals of this path will have untold benefits and amazing outcomes.
Our Staff, Students, and Families & Our UA & Affinity Friends. When things go south, you really know who your friends and family are - or so that saying goes. I am incredibly thankful to all of the staff who weathered their own stress from these last few weeks and showed up for our students, families and each other. I am particularly thankful to

Our UA and Affinity Friends - Many, many thanks to David Adams & the UA team for having our backs and supporting us in thinking about how to plan and structure the healing for our community. Thank you to La'Chelle & David from the Affinity Restorative Justice team for taking us under their wings and being at our side for the longterm work.
Jen & Annie - Many thanks to Annie & Jen for their leadership through these last few weeks. They are invaluable thought partners and ceaselessly dedicated to the well-being of each of our students - even when the mistakes loom large - and their families, and our staff!
ILT - Each of our teacher leaders were there for our staff and students as we processed the various outcomes and emotions of the last few weeks. They showed empathy & understanding and made sure to elevate concerns to leadership so that our plan could be more informed and inclusive.
RPET- The newly transformed Equity Team bravely expanded their work and mission to take on the weight of carrying our school forward - improving UAI's ability to move to

confronting our implicit and unconscious biases,
improving our own education about key issues & histories
developing our self & social awareness and respective roles & responsibilities
building systems and structures that enable our community to productively manage discourse and perspective taking - key strategies to building tolerance and understanding and dismantling the impact of bias and hate.

Student Leaders- Still our students shine. I make a point to remember this everyday, and find ways to see their brilliance each day. Here again in their own words...

The events of last week left many of us hurt, angry, and scared. As leaders of the UAI student body, we want to acknowledge the harm that was caused to our own community and to the Jewish community around the world.

We express our unwavering commitment to upholding basic human rights and promoting an environment of inclusivity and tolerance. In standing for basic human rights, we also stand against hate and discrimination, unequivocally denouncing antisemitism and all forms of oppression. Together, as student body leaders, we are committed towards building a future of mutual respect, empathy, and justice.

Moving forward, we will work with school administration and outside organizations to: increase understanding about global issues, create an environment of dialogue and open-mindedness, and uplift our diverse sisterhood. We will support students who raise their collective voices to urge governments and international organizations to halt the cycle of violence across all borders and against people of all races, religions, and ethnicities. We believe that leading with love, compassion, and empathy is our path forward. Together, as UAI student leaders, we stand for humanity.

Our Amazing Staff - Finally, I'm incredibly and everlastingly appreciative of each one of our staff. Throughout all of the challenges and emotion, each of you has found your way to make time for students to let them know they have someone in their corner, and that they are safe and loved at UAI. On top of your own stress and anxiety, you found your way to continue to create lessons and experiences to push their learning and growth. You also made the time to connect with families around common goals- particularly around the success of our children. It hasn't been easy - far from it. But yet, each of you persisted!

And that is the true secret sauce of UAI's power, rigor, equity, and joy! Joy may have been on a ebb lately, but you were each digging deep to find the power to keep up the challenge and push for what is right. Thank you - I am soooo thankful for each of you.

And because of all of this and all of you... I for one, am happily opening the door for Joy as we move from Thanksgiving to the Winter Holidays .

Important Upcoming dates

Monday, 20NOV23 - UAI Staff Holiday Snack Luck

For our PD on Monday, we'll be gathering in the farm at 3PM for a celebration of thanks and just being together in community. We'll be doing some fun activities and just enjoying time together.
Each person should bring their favorite snack to share. If you're a baker, and you feel up to it, please bake! If you're a chef - cook up something tasty. If you're neither, bring someone else's confections (purchased or family made!) - The idea is to bring whatever you can and most importantly - bring you and your fun self!

Monday, 27NOV23 - UAI Pacing Calendars Due
Thu&Fri 23/24NOV - Thanksgiving Recess (Rapid Dismissal 22NOV)
For Future Calendar NOTES

January Benchmark Schedule

For Grades 8-12: 2nd AND 3rd period Regents Mock

Wed 17JAN23 ELA Regents
Thu 18JAN23 USH or GLO Regents
Fri 19JAN23 LIV or EARTH Regents
Mon 22JAN23 ALG 1 Regent
All other classes should give their end of MP2 benchmark at some point during the week of Tue 16JAN- Mon 22JAN - any period EXCEPT 2nd and 3rd.

For Grades 6 & 7th graders:

2nd & 3rd will be benchmark periods - lunch will be moved to 4th
Tuesday 23JAN will be the ELA benchmark
Wednesday 24JAN will be the Math benchmark

All staff will have grading time build into their Regents Week Schedules.

Please Prepare your students for these benchmarks

They should be seeing spiral review of MP1 and MP2 topics throughout all of MP2
They should have practice with Benchmark questions for BOTH content and literacy
You should schedule some type of practice benchmark prior to the actual benchmark so students have an idea of what to study. This could be in any form you choose - but you need to provide it for them. Please see your ILT lead or Kiri or Annie if you need more support on this

Announcements & To Dos

Restorative Practices Equity Team (RPET). Our RPET met last week to review responses to the survey. 1/3 of staff members responded (you can still reply here!). While the team has collected resources from a variety of mediums, we ultimately decided it’s best to share the DOE vetted resource list as we are still being cautious in what we distribute given the polarization of the Israel-Hamas conflict. We also recognize the inherent opinion that’s being suggested if member of the RPET curate and distribute our own list and while we can do that (as there is a lot of misinformation out there), the DOE list is a starting place. This is a first step to sharing resources to help us all become more informed on Anti-Semitism and the war between Israel and Hamas. Here are those DOE Resources:

General social studies/current events guidance: NYCPS Social Studies webpage
Resources specific to the conflict: Israel-Hamas War Resource Guide
Facing History educator guidance: Processing Attacks in Israel and the Outbreak of War in the Region | Facing History & Ourselves

As mentioned in last week's blog, Kiri and Annie will be meeting with La'Chelle and David from OSYD to begin planning our first table top. This planning meeting is scheduled for 21 NOV and the table top to first occur will be with RPET on 27 NOV. The first pilot student table top will also be on 27NOV and students from the YLC, Student Government, and the leadership of the protest have been selected to join . As we learn from these Table Tops and if it works, we aim to expand this practice so that the whole community can experience this type of discourse and develop their individual capacity to productively engage in conversations with staff and students.

Lastly, we will soon be creating an action plan which will include the RPET's current work on educating our community and build up our restorative practices for the long term.

Snack Luck. Next Monday it's time to make space for an important UAI core value - JOY. We have weathered much in the last few weeks, and as we near Thanksgiving, it's time for us to come together as a community to find the joy that persists in our school. We do have joy, still, and for that I am most grateful! For Monday (20NOV23), please bring a snack that brings you joy. It could be something that you used to have as a child or something that is your go-to munchie whenever you're feelings stressed or blue. Be ready to share your snack and snack story in PD on the 20th. We'll be meeting in the farm at 3PM

Conferences and Outreach Log. I'm working on reviewing outreach for MP1. As a reminder, one of our main goals is to work to make sure all of our students have >75 in their classes. One of the core pieces of the action plan is leverage Outreach and Office hours to intervene on students who are not yet reaching the goal of having >75.

To that end, outreach and office hours for MP2 will center on following up on students who are not yet achieving the goal of >75. Clear communication with homes (outreach) and direct instructional support (office hours) are two critical levers for helping our students thrive.

MP2 Grades and Google Classroom Conundrum. Also in line with the CEP, we are separating the Marking Periods to support student capacity to strive for course competency and grades that are >75. So, grades should start fresh for MP2.

HOWEVER - There's a conundrum.....

SyncGrades will automatically populate MP2 with any graded work that happens after MP1 closed (so after November 10th). So, you can continue entering grades in Google Classrooms BUT.... Google will make MP1 and MP2 cumulative - whereas SyncGrades will separate them. So, kids will see one grade in Google and another in SyncGrades.

Keep communications clear - the best practice is to ONLY enter MP2 grades in SYNCGRADES.

NOTE - if you are insistent on keeping grades in Google classrooms, you can. BUT then it is your job to tell the students that the real grade is in SyncGrades, and it will be your job to continually remind kids about that throughout the entire marking period and for all remaining marking period.

OR - if there's another solution - please let me know!

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

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! - I will be collecting final rosters on 30NOV - you have additional time to recruit!!

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
Students Against Racism & Bias Club - Jelissa (Rm 305) Tuesdays & Thursday 3-4PM
Muslim Student Association - Laura (Rm 404) TBD
GSA Club - Amanda - Rm 407

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

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Week of November 13th

UAI Staff News

Volume XI

Issue 13

November 13th, 2023

Kintsugi. Our shared goal at UAI is to work to create a community and space where all members feel seen and included and where we collectively work to mitigate our individual implicit biases to become an anti-racist and fully inclusive school. In so doing, we will reach our goals and genuinely feel a shared sense of belonging.

Our work towards this goal has not been perfect, and we have much to do to move the needle towards our ultimate objectives, but we do have a pathway there.

Ultimately, we will only be able to rectify the harm and the spread of hate and antisemitism if we are able to effectively listen & communicate, educate ourselves and our students around the issues and perspectives, and leverage restorative justice and SEL practices to help structure community expectations and share common goals. To that end, here are the goals of our work:

Deepen Communication Skills. We all need to develop the skills to productively (not politically) communicate. Our work moving forward will leverage our existing work with SEL and Restorative Justice to build community and develop shared practices that provide UAI community members with tools to engage in perspective taking complex discourse. We need to become more skilled at listening, communicating to others that we are actively listening, and seeking to understand perspectives that are different than our own.
Educate Ourselves and Our Community. We also need to educate ourselves and our community about antisemitism and about the history and current situation between Palestine and Israel. We all need to learn more about what antisemitism is, how it shows up, and how our own implicit biases can unintentionally harm. Along with that learning, we need to better understand all the perspectives around the conflict between Hamas and Israel, and the history of the region leading up to today. We need to equip ourselves with accurate information in order to be ready to be ready to fully understand student and adult perspectives around the conflict.
Expand Restorative Justice Training & Practice. It is time to deepen our work with RJ. We have kept it small, sending select folks to trainings and engaging them in supporting our deans and counselors who engage in this work daily. Our next step is to broaden RJ to the whole school. RJ practices along our SEL skills will become the infrastructure our school needs to realize our overarching goal of becoming actively anti-racist and fully inclusive.
Integrate Social Emotional Skills in Teaching & Learning. Core adult and student SEL skills will be critical to supporting the many difficult conversations and learning experiences there are to come. Perspective taking, self and social awareness are key skills that we will be working to cultivate across our community, and we'll be leaning into the CLASS rubrics (which I had been introducing prior to this event) as a tool for helping us elevate our classroom practices while using these skills.

Here's the plan...

Focus Group Table Tops. La'Chelle (Gaillard) & David (Barone) have suggested that we use structured table top conversations to help folks learn to understand how to manage the necessary conversations around antisemitism and centering our understanding of the conflict in the middle east through the lens of anti-racism and humanity. Because this topic is so complex, we are starting with small groups (6 folks) - 1 group of students (a mix of YLC and Student Governement) and 1 group of staff. We're planning these with La'Chelle & David on 21NOV and they will run on 27NOV. As we learn from these Table Tops and if it works, we aim to expand this practice so that the whole community can experience this type of discourse and develop their individual capacity to productively engage in conversations with staff and students.

Launching our RPET - Restorative Practices and Equity Team. We are trying to be intentional about our human resources and structures. Too often, new committees, new teams are formed to address a need, but without proper support and guidance, that team will flail. So, we wanted to make sure that we chose a team that made sense for this work, and also had administrative support to help facilitate and guide the team.

So, our Current Equity Team will expand to include a few more members to become our Restorative Practices and Equity Team (RPET). The first meeting of the team will be on Tuesday, and the first piece of work will be to create an action plan which will include the Equity Team's current work on educating our community and build up our restorative practices for the long term. This team will be working to develop the long term components of our action plan.

CLASS Rubric Return. Students and teachers primary interactions are in the classroom, and hence, our work around healing and learning will happen - in our classrooms. This work is in conjunction with the action steps the RPET will develop & implement.

The Quality of Emotional Support we are able to cultivate in our classrooms will be the social investment we need to rebuild our community. A classroom with strong emotional support requires us to attend to: creating a positive climate, heightening teacher sensitivity and develop teacher regard for adolescent perspectives.

Already UA taught us some key strategies to do this by using Accountable Talk and Active Listening (EARS). We will continue to strengthen staff capacity to develop a strong emotional support domain in each of our classrooms through Instructional Rounds (where we will be looking at Quality of Feedback and Regard for Adolescent Perspectives - 1st round is on Thursday 16NOV).

Important Upcoming dates

Monday, 13NOV23 - Looking at Student Work PD
Thursday, 16NOV23 - Evening Parent Conferences 5PM-8PM - REMOTE
Friday, 17NOV23 - Afternoon Parent Conferences 12PM-2:50PM - REMOTE
(early Dismissal at 11:10AM)
Monday, 20NOV23 - UAI Staff Holiday Snack Luck
Monday, 27NOV23 - UAI Pacing Calendars Due
Thu&Fri 23/24NOV - Thanksgiving Recess (Rapid Dismissal 22NOV)
For Future Calendar NOTES

January Benchmark Schedule

For Grades 8-12: 2nd AND 3rd period Regents Mock

Wed 17JAN23 ELA Regents
Thu 18JAN23 USH or GLO Regents
Fri 19JAN23 LIV or EARTH Regents
Mon 22JAN23 ALG 1 Regent
All other classes should give their end of MP2 benchmark at some point during the week of Tue 16JAN- Mon 22JAN - any period EXCEPT 2nd and 3rd.

For Grades 6 & 7th graders:

2nd & 3rd will be benchmark periods - lunch will be moved to 4th
Tuesday 23JAN will be the ELA benchmark
Wednesday 24JAN will be the Math benchmark

All staff will have grading time build into their Regents Week Schedules.

Please Prepare your students for these benchmarks

They should be seeing spiral review of MP1 and MP2 topics throughout all of MP2
They should have practice with Benchmark questions for BOTH content and literacy
You should schedule some type of practice benchmark prior to the actual benchmark so students have an idea of what to study. This could be in any form you choose - but you need to provide it for them. Please see your ILT lead or Kiri or Annie if you need more support on this

Announcements & To Dos

Equity Team. The Equity Team sent an email on Friday with a link to a Google Form that will help collect information about what our community needs in order to address Antisemitism and learn more about the conflict in the Middle East. It is anonymous. Please take a few moments to complete this as it will help support their work and ultimately the work we need to do as a community. You can complete the form here.

Monday PD. For Monday's PD, we'll be taking a look at student work on the Regents benchmarks. As a community, we are collectively judged by how all of our students do on the regents, so we need our UAI hive minds to look at students work and provide insight and feedback to colleagues on how best to support our students' performance.

We're asking paras to join to develop concrete understandings of how to academically support students throughout the day. Sub paras will be paid overtime.

Please report to these rooms at 3:30 on Monday 13NOV23 where we be using THIS PROTOCOL to learn from student work and improve our instructional support for all students.

Rm507: Soc. Studies: Kelly, Shan, JRob, Jake, Martine, Yasmeen, Elena, Tom M, Zenita
Rm309: English Regents: Marsha, Sarah M, Lia, Patricia, Freida, Patti, Roger, Noelle, Denyea
Rm415: Science Regents: Liza, Tom, Mary, Cam, Thomas, Quinn, Steven, Marianna, Junior
Rm405: Math Regents: Judy, Alexi, Amanda, Danielle, Sue, Crystal, Kaitlyn, Adelle, Ms. M

Grades are Due. Please take the time to watch this video to upload your grades. Folks do have until 3PM on Wednesday to get grades in, but please work to get them done early. This is the first time putting grades into SyncGrades. So, we are on a learning curve and do not have as much of a cushion for folks who are late with their grades. If you complete your grades after 3PM on Wednesday, they will not be included in report cards, and you will have to individually communicate grades to all your students' families. That would be a big pain. SO... don't be late!

Snack Luck. Next Monday it's time to make space for an important UAI core value - JOY. We have weathered much in the last few weeks, and as we near Thanksgiving, it's time for us to come together as a community to find the joy that persists in our school. We do have joy, still, and for that I am most grateful! For next Monday (20NOV23), please bring a snack that brings you joy. It could be something that you used to have as a child or something that is your go-to munchie whenever you're feelings stressed or blue. Be ready to share your snack and snack story in PD on the 20th.

Conferences and Outreach Log. Please make sure you are inviting all students who have <75 in your class to meet with you during family conferences. Please make sure to update this DOCUMENT with your conference appointments.

Also please check your outreach for the last two weeks. I am going to do an audit next Saturday 18NOV23). Please make sure you have fully documents your 55 minutes 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.

<Repost>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.

<Repost>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! - I will be collecting final rosters on 30NOV - you have additional time to recruit!!

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
Students Against Racism & Bias Club - Jelissa (Rm 305) Tuesdays & Thursday 3-4PM
Muslim Student Association - Laura (Rm 404) TBD
GSA Club - Amanda - Rm 407

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

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

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Week of November 6th

UAI Staff News

Volume XI

Issue 12

November 6th, 2023

Moving Forward. We are in our planning phases of addressing the events of the student walkout from last week. I will speak more about this in detail when we meet for PD (please read details below) on Tuesday's zoom. Because we are pairing internal efforts with external supports, coordination and planning will take time. Some actions move faster than others, but all pieces must work together in tandem.

I know there is a strong desire in our community (kids, staff, families, and outside of our of UAI) to address issues quickly. I also know there is an equally strong desire in this community to do the best job we can. To that end we are working hard to meet both!

We also need to think of this work in different, interacting layers of the people in our community - from the individuals to our larger student body to our staff to our families, to our community outside of UAI. Different work will be required with each of these layers - some of it overlapping, much of it separate & distinct to address specific audiences.

Regardless of the form of the work we need to do, it all collectively needs to accomplish these goals

Restore & Heal the harm done to our UAI community & beyond
Reaffirm and Develop our Commitment & Work to Being & Anti-Racist & Fully Inclusive School
Educate & deepen understanding around antisemitism and islamaphobia in particular as well as other forms of oppression & experiences of oppressed peoples (e.g. Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, AAPI, ) in our country and the world - a key requirement to achieving our goal to being an anti-racist & fully inclusive school.
Cultivate & Develop staff, student, family & community capacity to employ key SEL skills like perspective taking, and social & self awareness to engage in productive discourse & thinking around charged discussion like the conflict in the Middle East or similar conflicts involving frequently oppressed groups.
Communicate Clear Expectations & Dispel misconceptions.

Urban Assembly Support - Immediate Action

Since last week, I've been working closely with UA folks to plan circles & PD for Tuesday in response to some of the priority issues raised up in circles. We've had to navigate some scheduling conflicts, but David Adams came through, and we have settled on circles and PD for Tuesday AM that will

Provide time and support for staff to process their own individual responses to last week's events
Develop staff capacity to responsibly and effectively respond to and support student questions and concerns about the student walkout and the conflict in the Middle East in general - respond productively to support student critical thinking and perspective taking.

UA has offered to provide ongoing support as needed. We'll see where we land at the end of Tuesday and how feedback from staff turns out to move forward in next steps.

Here are some of the steps that are currently ready to launch (or have launched into the planning phase):

UAI & The UAI Community - Near Term

The Equity team leadership met to discuss what our work will look like moving forward as we continue the work begun by Equity teams in previous school years and also specifically work to address the most recent instances of bias in our community. We will be working together to gather resources from an array of outside organizations that can support our school community in learning about anti-semitism and the historical context of the War in Israel and Gaza.

Several of our elected officials like Jumaane Williams and Lincoln Restler have reached out to us directly to offer resources and support, as have members of our surrounding community in Brooklyn, and NYC in general.

Equity team leadership is currently reaching out to multiple New York based Jewish education organizations for support and potential resources or trainings for educating both staff and students on anti-semitism. We are also creating a resource list to help staff learn about anti-semitism in America as well as the historical and cultural context in which the current war in Israel and Gaza is taking place.

Affinity Support - Long Term

Superintendent Fred Walsh and NYCDOE Legal council have made the decision that we will not hold our Town Hall meeting with families. I am still awaiting feedback from them as to how we should communicate with families. I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

We are still working with the district team and NYCDOE central support to plan next steps for families and students. We are currently waiting for their team to provide us with next steps and coordinated support.

Important Upcoming dates

Monday, 06NOV23 - Benchmark Grading
Tuesday, 07NOV23 - Remote PD - Election Day PD
Friday, 10NOV23 - MP1 Ends
Thursday, 16NOV23 - Evening Parent Conferences 5PM-8PM - REMOTE
Friday, 17NOV23 - Afternoon Parent Conferences 12PM-2:50PM - REMOTE
(early Dismissal at 11:10AM)
Thu&Fri 23/24NOV - Thanksgiving Recess (Rapid Dismissal 22NOV)
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

End of MP 1 & Power Up Days. Benchmarks must be entered into MP1 Grades as a performance grade. In an ideal competency grading school where we are all fluent in the strategies to support learning towards fluency with skills & content, students would have had multiple opportunities to practice & we would have had multiple opportunities to guide, correct, and tutor so that they would be ready to perform on this benchmark - AND their teachers would have a pretty good idea of how they would do prior to taking the exams.

We're not all the way there. That's why these power up days exist. They exist as a bandaid bridge for kids as their teachers develop their capacity to effectively manage feedback & assessment in a competency based school.

Throughout MP1, students and families should have been made constantly aware of their progress - using your weekly outreach. That was our first step - communication. As we move forward, our next step towards cultivating our own capacity with competency based learning will focus on tools to support assessment & quality of feedback (e.g. conferencing and other in-class feedback loops).

Use the Power Up Days (after Election Day) to review student performance on the benchmarks and provide students the opportunity to study errors, explain what went wrong, and correct the mistakes- all in the pursuit of growing their skills & learning.

Teachers should make the call on how to integrate these reviews & corrections. To be clear - this is NOT how competency grading works (using test corrections to boost test scores). This is a bandaid to the fact that we as a faculty are still learning how to capably implement a competency based grading system.

End of MP1. The 1st Marking Period ends on Friday, 10NOV23. All grades will be due IN SyncGrades. We will be pulling them from there. Stay tuned for explicit directions. This will be our first time pulling it, so we're learning too! Please make sure your gradebooks are up to date in SyncGrades by Wedensday, 15NOV23.

Benchmark Grading in PD on Monday. We will be cancelling Monday Office Hours and meeting in the following rooms with ILT leads to grade Course Benchmarks - Regents Style. The reason we want to grade regent style is to create a place where other eyes can look at the work our students generate. The goal is to give feedback on student work and collectively help all of us reach the goals we share as a single school community.

Please meet in these rooms promptly at 3PM to grade collectively from 3-4:30PM. ILT leads will coordinate grading rooms.

Judy with HS Math Team in Room 405

Grade Algebra I: Danielle, Sue, Amanda, Alexis, Crystal, Judy

Kelly with 2 Social Studies Teams in Room 507

Grade USH: Jake, Shan, Martine, Annie
Grade GLO: JRob, Yasmeen, Kelly, Fatima

Liza with 2 Science Teams in Room 415

Grade Living: Camryn, Sarah R, Tom, Marianna, Mateo
Grade Earth: Thomas, Mary, Quinn, Steven, Liza

Marsha with HS ELA Teamsin Room 309

Grade ELA Regents: Marsha, Sarah M, Lia, Patricia, Freida, Pauline

Phillan with MS ELA Teams in Room B49

Grade MS ELA: Mike, Phillan, Laura, Juelle, Adelle, Junior
Grade MS Math: Matthew, Dru, Alison, Kaitlyn, Joanna

Independent Grading

Tom, Elena, Noelle, Roger, Patti

For all other exams, teachers will have time to grade independently during work time provided during remote PD on Tuesday.

Tuesday 07NOV23 Election Day PD. Tuesday is our first Chancellor PD Day of the year. This PD will be remote (at home). Please make sure that you have reliable internet so that you are able to remain connected and have your cameras on. Cameras will be required to be on throughout the entire PD that we are on zoom. Please be prepared. If you are unable to have your cameras on for whatever reason, please plan to be at school for the day to zoom. Here's the zoom information

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81765931467

Meeting ID: 817 6593 1467

Passcode: UAIZOOM

I've had to make a few adjustment to the agenda on Tuesday based on UA folk availability. Here's the agenda now:

8:30 AM- Welcome and Principal Address from Kiri
9:00 AM- UA Facilitated Circles & PD
11:00AM- Lunch
12:00PM- Full Staff Meeting and Overview of the PM
12:30PM- Planning Meetings & Independent Work Time

Submit Yearlong Pacing Guides
Grade Benchmarks
Update SyncGrades

3:20 PM- End of the PD Day

PD Calendar Update. Here are the updates to the PD schedule for the rest of MP1

06NOV23 - Benchmark Grading
07NOV23 - Election Day PD (Circles, Benchmark Analysis, Progress Monitoring on Goals)
13NOV23 - Looking at Student Work - we've moved our LASW to this PD
20NOV23 - Equity Team
27NOV23 - TBD- Holding Space for UA or Affinity Full Staff Work with Full Staff.

<Repost>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.

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
Students Against Racism & Bias Club - Jelissa (Rm 305) Tuesdays & Thursday 3-4PM
Muslim Student Association - Laura (Rm 404) TBD

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

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

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

UA Institute

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Week of November 27th

UAI Staff News

Important Upcoming dates

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Week of November 20th

UAI Staff News

Important Upcoming dates

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Week of November 13th

UAI Staff News

Important Upcoming dates

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Week of November 6th

UAI Staff News

Important Upcoming dates

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

About Me