UAI Staff News
Learning for Growth & Purpose. Over the last month, we've had two groups of UAI staff visit our classrooms looking at the Quality of Feedback and its impact on student learning and achievement. These visits can feel overwhelming - particularly if you're hosting the visit. That's a lot of folks coming into your room all at once!
However, in order for us all to bring the quality of teaching and learning to the next level at UAI, we all have to step into that vulnerability and share our work so we can all learn and become stronger, together. These visits are purely for learning - not evaluation. Our goal is to be able to pull new understandings to shift instructional practice for the better in all of our classrooms.
To that end, two big ideas have already percolated up from the visits.
- Feedback Loops push student learning and serve as tools for formative feedback.
- Back and forth exchanges between students and between students & teachers are key ways for student understanding and skill mastery to develop AND key ways for teachers to gauge how well students are acquiring new knowledge (formative assessment tools). Feedback loops aren't just for learning - but they can also be used for assessment. Making time for these critical exchanges is key for successful learning throughout the lesson - not just at the end!
- Explicit expectations around quality & purpose of the process is just as important
- In planning, folks are doing excellent work in anticipating student responses - in terms of content and skill targets. However, students are still stopping short of getting to deeper and more complex levels of discourse and work. Prior to sending students off to turn and talks or group work time, it's important to set clear expectations not only about the task (or question) itself, but also challenge students to level the quality of their work. Keep it simply by using ready tools like mentor texts to model the quality of responses students could push to attain. OR, make tools like accountable talk stems available to kids if they need some extra support in deepening or extending their conversations with one another.
Important Upcoming dates
- 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
RPET Work. We have begun the work of healing and addressing the harm caused by one of our community spreading antisemitism during a student protest. First and foremost we are centered are righting the wrong and healing the hurt without causing more pain. To that end, we are being intentional in building up our tools and structures that strengthen our capacity to have productive, informative, and educational exchanges that improve our own understandings of others and our ability to root out racism, combat our implicit biases, and work collectively to create a fully inclusive community. There are many levers in development to build those tools. Annie's email on Friday shared what those were. In case you missed it, here they are again:
Peer Mediation Training. With Sue's leadership (and support by RJ specialists) we now have 13 students from our student government trained as peer mediators. Creating a safe, stable school environment promotes higher academic achievement and well-being for all students and builds greater student connectedness and investment in the school community. As a result of this work student will play a key role in the following:
- Resolving disagreements and conflicts
- Creating a peaceful environment to learn
- Developing conflict resolution skills
- Encouraging students to work together
- Improving student-staff relationships
- Reducing tension among staff and students
- Decreasing the pressure on teachers to serve as constant disciplinarians
- Helping parties involved feel heard and understood
- Helping parties involved develop a mutual understanding and respect for each other, regardless of differing identities
- Students involved in the process of peer mediation can improve their own conflict resolution skills, give peer feedback, feel listened to, and feel a sense of empowerment
COOP Hired Students. OSYD (Office of Safety and Youth Development) agreed to fund the salary of 5 students (yet to be selected) to work in supporting Restorative Practices at our school. These students will be paid $15 an hour for 200 hours each to do this work. Since this is a brand new initiative to us, more information is to come regarding the selection of students and their scope of work - stay tuned.
Updates on completed work within RPET. The RPET (Freida, Jelissa, Joanna, Sue, Elena, Sarah R, Jean, Annie & Kiri) have been hard at work, meeting weekly, to establish next steps for our community in our work to heal and become more inclusive of folx from all backgrounds and identities. In the last few weeks we've worked on the following:
- Facilitated (by La'Chelle from OSYD) a Table Talk Circle with students where we asked questions to understand more about their fears, concerns and hopes in light of the anti-semitic incident
- Engaged in our own staff Circle (by La'Chelle from OSYD) with the same prompts and goals as the student Circle
- Debriefed the Circles as a team to establish next steps for the work
- Established key takeaways which mirrored what was shared by students
- Co-created a Mission/Vision for RPET which will drive the work for this year
- Mission: The Restorative Practices Equity Team (RPET) is responsible for providing an inclusive, culturally aware, and equitable environment for all students/staff. Our mission is to educate our community on how we can foster an environment where different perspectives and cultures are accepted and respected despite differences. Our three main objectives are:
- 1) Create structures and systems of support that empower our community to continue to become one where all stakeholders of all backgrounds feel that they belong and are valued.
- 2) Educate all students and staff about our diverse backgrounds and learn how to respect and accept all who are different from us
- 3) We will work actively towards becoming an anti-racist, fully inclusive, caring community that proactively builds community and education to reduce instances of all types of identity-based bias.
- Vision: By the end of this year all staff will have a deep understanding of Restorative Practices so that community building happens everywhere. The RPET will serve as a proactive body to which the school community is able to rely on for resources and support in our work to create a wider community centering radical love and acceptance of people of all identities. The RPET will lead the school (both student and staff) education where we learn about identity biases like antisemitism, islamophobia, and racism, etc.
- RPET Next Steps
- The team is working to create a scope and sequence in alignment with our stated mission and vision. This will be shared out once completed
Trainings for Staff. Since we know that our way to healing and strengthening our community is through Restorative Practices, we've begun sending staff to Restorative Practices trainings
- All counselors and advisors have either attended or are attending TIER 1 Restorative Practices Training
- Jelissa, Sarah R, Mike, Phillan and Fatima have completed TIER 1 & 2 Restorative Practices Training
- Five additional staff have signed up to attend the Socio-Emotional Learning and Trauma-Informed Approaches (this is open to all staff for training rate persession)
Monday PD. We have about 5 weeks remaining in MP2, and so now is the time to take stock of how students are doing and to step in now for folks who may be missing the mark. For PD this week and next Monday, you'll have time to meet with your co-teachers and with student paras to
- First - find the root causes of why students are struggling
- Then - develop an intervention plan to address student needs and support them towards reaching the goal of having a 75 or better by the end of MP2
Trips.
- Friday, 15DEC - Civics Trip - Details to come
- 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"
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
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