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

• • 2:40-4:20 Distributive Leadership & Capacity Building
  • 2:40 - Youth Leadership Council & Student Government
  • 3:10 - Instructional Leadership Team & Restorative Practices Equity Team
  • 3:40 - Student Support Team
  • 4:00 - School Leadership Team
    
    
• 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.