Week of September 2nd

UAI High School Staff News

Volume II

Issue 4

Week of September 2nd, 2014

Announcements

Welcome Back to the 2014-2015 School Year. It's hard to believe it, but we're about to kick off UAI's 9th year!  Many of you have already returned from your summer travels which were very broad indeed.  This summer UAI staff touched the corners of the Globe.  Hopefully, your journeys have energized and invigorated you for the year to come.  

This year will be our third year of full-scale Learning Cultures.  This is our year for refinement and attention to quality. To help us reach our goals (see below), we have new structures and new roles for some of our very own.

• Jen continues her role as Supervising Social Worker and Director of Student Activities and Student Discipline.  This year, Jen is going to located alongside Kiri in room 401 and will focus her work on the high school.
• Colleen is leaving the classroom to take over School Operations and to step up to be our Lead Learning Cultures Coach.
• Pamela also moves out of the classroom from the Middle School.  Working with Jen, Kiri, and Colleen, Pamela will be instrumental in supporting our teachers and students as High School Dean.
• Returning LC Coaches.  Last year, Darby & Marianna (along with Colleen) received training and support from Sarah Dennis to develop and hone their coaching skills.  They had the opportunity to work with several teachers last year, and in the process established an excellent model for peer coaching.  Darby and Marianna are going to continue their work this year, focusing on new coaching structures, continuing their work with teachers, and working with the new coaches.
• Rising Coaches.  At the end of last year, several teachers demonstrated great achievement in their classroom practice and demonstrated strengths in working with their peers.  As our newest wave of coaches, Jamie, Martine, Danielle, Elena, Rebecca, Sarah, Ilyana, and Brodie will also undergo the same work and training with Sarah and develop into rich network of peer support for UAI High School.
• Committee Chairs.  We will continue our work with the Learning Cultures committees from last year (Code Blue, School Culture, Curriculum, Professional Development, and Assessment).  Our new chairs are:  Martine - Code Blue, Sarah - School Culture, Rebecca - PD, and Danielle - Assessment.  In addition, to continue improving our learning environment and school climate (assemblies and school spirit), Jamie is taking on the role of Coordinator of Student Activities (COSA).
• New and Returning Team Leaders.  Martine is taking on several leadership roles this year- both as 9th grade team leader and ISS team leader.  Ilyana is taking the healm of the high school English department.  Damon, Darby, Mike, and Elena all return this year as subject team leaders.  Sarah & Brodie also return as grade team leaders.

Celebrate our UAI High School Rock Stars!

With a team of people like this, this is bound to be an amazing year!

(I really just couldn't resist the Kiss-faced/Ozzie-tongued/Leia-tattooed Yoda)

Schedule and Skedula.  The 2014-2015 Master Schedule is here for you to peruse. This shared document gives you access to student and teacher programs as well as classroom use for the school year.  New this year is the testing schedule.  We will be using the same exact testing schedule for all of our Regents Benchmarking exams (midterms, finals, etc.).  Please click on the 2nd tab to see the schedule.

To access your class roster, go to Skedula.  Enter your DOE password.  Then, click on "forgot" password to access your account.  If you cannot login, please email Colleen immediately so she can get you set up in time for our training on Tuesday at 1:30PM.  In addition, Colleen shared several Skedula training webinars via the PD Calendar for the year.

Professional Development Days.  
Here are the final agendas for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, and the draft agenda for our first Full Staff PD on Monday, after school.

      





 Tuesday 02SEP14 - All PD will be in Room 409

• 8:00-8:30 - Breakfast Snacks (Bagels, Coffee, Pastries) & Socializing [optional]

• 8:30-9:30 - Principal's Address.  Kiri will welcome everyone and set the mission for the year.  In so doing, she will go over Goals for the School Year, the Updated UAI High School Handbook, Grade and Subject Team goals for the year, new PD structures for the year, and introductions of new programs and staff resources.

• 9:30-10:00 - MOSL and MOTP Info.  To have detailed information of Advance for the 2014-2015 school year, there are a number of Advance resources available on the DOE website. In addition, please review the Educators Guide. There are several changes to Teacher Evaluation for the 2014-2015 School Year.  Here are the highlights.

             - Domains 2 & 3 will comprise 85% of the MOTP rating, with Domains 1 and 4 at 15%
             - Evaluated indicators shrink from all 22 to a selected 8.
             - Teacher artifact submission is eliminated.
             - MOTP options from last year are in place PLUS a new one for highly effective teachers.
             - 2013-2014 Final ratings are being emailed to your DOE email at the end of the day on the 2nd.

• 10:00-12:30 - Subject Team Meetings.  Subject teams will learn more about the work and theories from the Summer Learning Cultures Institutes.  In addition, teams will work on Unit Arcs.  Subject Teams will also set agenda for Subject Team Meetings on Wednesday 03SEP and Thursday 04SEP.  

• 12:30-1:30 - Lunch.  New Staff will join Kiri, Del, and coaches in room 409 for a working lunch and orientation to UAI (lunch will be provided).  All other staff is released for lunch. 

• 1:30-2:40 - Skedula Training. Meet in Library.

Wednesday 03SEP14

• 8:30-9:00 - Welcome, Overview and Expectations for the Day.  Grade Teams will meet to plan orientation activities for 04SEP and 05SEP.  In particular grade teams must be sure and plan to:  (1) Provide explicit instruction around the why's and how's of each Learning Cultures format, (2) Follow up the general assembly's social norms talk with classroom specific concrete examples of disruptive and productive behaviors, (3) Introduce the Behavioral Reminder system, and (4) plan grade-level appropriate orientation activities (e.g. tour of the building for new 9th graders, college readiness for seniors, etc.).  Establishing strong social norms is essential for the start of the school year.  Grade teams will also plan how best to provide on-call support to one another during the 1st two weeks of school.

• 9:00-11:00 Grade team meetings.  Grade teams will meet to plan achieving above listed goals.  Grade teams will also plan agenda for 1st team meeting on Monday.

• 11:00-12:00 Subject team meeting. Follow-up to agenda set from Tuesday.

• 12:00-12:40 UAI High School Staff Lunch.  Working lunch will have time for meeting and greeting old and new staff, learning about our new opportunities for our girls from our partners, and enjoying a yummy lunch provided by UAI High School.

• 12:40-2:40 Classroom Set Up.  If you still need to get your keys and your technology (don't forget the deposits are $5 for your keys, $15 for an elevator pass, and $75 for the tech cart), come to room 415 at 12:40 to go through orientation and pick everything up.  All other staff are released to ready classrooms for the first day of school.

Monday 08SEP14

• 2:50-3:30 Setting Up PD Pods and Conducting Low Inference Observations
• 3:30-4:10 Grade Team Meetings

Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, 02SEP14 and Wednesday 03SEP14, UAI High School Staff PD Days.
• Tuesday 02SEP14. All August Per Session Sheets are Due to Del by the end of the day.  If you do not submit your sheets, you will not be paid.
• Thursday, 04SEP14, First Day of School and Lori's Birthday*
• Monday, 08SEP14, First Day of Regular Classes
• Thursday, 11SEP14, Mara's Birthday
• Friday, 12SEP14, DRP testing in 3rd & 4th Period Classes
• Tuesday, 16SEP14, Per Session Sheets for 01SEP14 through 15SEP14 are due to Del.
• Thursday 18SEP14, School Safety Level 3 Dones' Birthday
• Friday 19SEP14, Ruben's Birthday
• Monday, 21SEP14, Demetris' Birthday
• Tuesday, 23SEP14 and Wednesday, 24SEP14, Benchmark I Testing (Baseline)
• Thursday, 25SEP14 and Friday, 26SEP14, Rosh Hashanah, NO SCHOOL

*I have every intention of listing all the birthdays of everyone, but if I miss someone, please just let me know and I'll add you to the list!  Also, I do not yet have the birth dates of new staff.

Per Session Opportunities

• UAI High School Kickoff Dance  6:30-10:30PM of fun time chaperoning.  Posting is filled.

UAI High School Goals for 2014-2015

2014-2015 Goals and Expectations

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update on Progress and Achievements from Last Year

Last year, we established three main goals around Environment, Progress, and Performance.  While we are still awaiting data from the DOE on the Learning Environment Survey and College Matriculation data, initial analysis of available information indicated achievement of many of last year's goals.

Last year, Learning Cultures went school-wide in the High School.  All classes and grades (except for the courses taught at NYU Poly) used the formats to structure the learning environment.  In addition, last year the UAI High School shifted from semester-based to an annualized school year.  Having 6 congruous marking periods as opposed to two separate chunks of three gave students more time to reflect on strengths and weaknesses and achieve goals.  With both of these two major shifts in place, here are the things we were able to achieve:

Preliminary Analysis of Student Progress & Performance in 2013-2014

Student Progress
Last year, we set a goal to have 80% of all student pass courses and earn credits.  For all grades, we met that goal with 80.8% of 9th graders, 82.7% of 10th graders, 90% of 11th graders and 100% of 12th graders meeting that goal.  Last year, we also set a targeted goal for 80% of students in our lowest third and/or with IEPs to pass courses and earn credit.  We achieved this goal with our 11th and 12th graders.  We did not achieve the goal with 9th and 10th graders, however, we increased passing rates over 5% in each grade.  Just like last year, we continue to improve upon Regents passing rates. This year, an average of 2 out of 3 of UAI high school students have completed the required regents for their year in high school (for 9th grade that's one math and one science; 10th is a math, a science, and Global; 11th is all 5 Regents required for graduation).

Student Performance
Our most impressive performance this year was the 13% increase in our graduation rate.  This year, as of August 2013, 90.9% of our seniors graduated college, and 97.9% of them are enrolled in college for the fall.  The Class of 2014 brought many honors to UAI.  More UAI grads were admitted into 4 year private and public universities than ever before including schools like Cornell University, Connecticut College, and Boston University.  Over 98% of our graduates are currently enrolled and/or attending college.  As our second graduating class, the Class of 2014 definitely set the bar for classes to come!

The Learning Environment
Typically, we have the Learning Environment Data back from the DOE by now, but we're still waiting...However, anecdotal evidence from a variety of informal staff surveys and in conferences with teachers, parents, and students indicate an increased satisfaction with our school this year.  Teacher teams used their targeted focus to structure peer visits and develop a network of support, and last year we introduced peer coaches to build on this success and support.  In addition to the goals that we set at the beginning of the year, two main objectives developed during the year last year:  School Culture and Student Attendance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goals for This Year

(1) The Learning Environment:  By continuing (a) our work on team function and collaboration, and (b) using research-based rubrics to provide peer and evaluative feedback, and (c) focusing feedback on key rubrics (Classroom Environment, Social Norms, Unison, and Conferences), we will continue to improve the school learning environment and increase parent, teacher, and student satisfaction on the Learning Environment Survey.

(precise increase TBD after we get this year's survey data)

(2)  Student Progress Goal:  By increasing opportunities for assessment and analysis of student performance on assessment, teachers will empower students to make more informed choices during Work Time.  Unit Arcs will be streamlined to accommodate student needs.  Conferences will be higher Quality.  Thus, course passing rates and average regents completion rate will continue rise.

For all students, at least 80% of all students will continue pass each individual course.  

For students with IEPs and/or in the lowest 3rd, at least 80% of students will pass each individual course.

(3)  Student Performance Goal:  With continued focus and development on core LC formats (Unison Reading, Conferences, and Work Time), we will continue to have strong College Readiness Metrics and Graduation Rates.

Increase graduation rate from 90.9% to at least 93%.
Increase percent attending 4-year public or private universities from 44% to 60%.
Aim for at least a 98% 6-year graduation rate*(our first metric of this sort).Increase enrollment in 4-year (public or private) universities from 44% to at least 50%, and maintain overall college matriculation at 98%

(4)  NEW GOAL - Attendance & School Culture:  With a combination of advisor contact home, attendance committee initiatives, and school culture committee work, we will create an environment in which students want to come to school everyday, and on time.

Increase average daily attendance from 88.5% to 95%.
Hold monthly student assemblies to build school spirit and celebrate student achievement.
Increase communications home via advisors' calls home, parent newsletters, and increased parent conferences.
Increase communications both at home and within the school community using a regularly scheduled (monthly for community, weekly for UAI staff) newsletter.

(5)  NEW GOAL - College and Career Readiness:  Better integrate the network of partner services to prepare students and their families for the academic, socio-emotional, financial and in some cases legal (with respect to immigration status) of college enrollment and college success.

Job Club and Girls Inc daytime classes will introduce College and Career awareness activities at each grade levelHold monthly lunch with Leaders (sponsored by Girls Inc) to build student career awareness and interest in STEM fieldsTrain Job Club and Social Workers in Options Training Institute to be able to counsel and run parent workshops on college, financial aid, immigration status and resources, and other needs parents express with respect to the college preparation process.

UAI Staff Handbook

High School Staff Handbook

2014-2015

ALL STAFF CLICK HERE to indicate that you have read and understand this handbook.

Table of Contents
------------------------------------------------------

• School Table of Organization and Contact Numbers
• General Code of Conduct & Responsibility

                 - Community Values

                 - Accountability

                 - Individual Choices

                 - Communal Interdependance and Positive Social Interactions

                 - Clear Expectations through Routines and Norms

• School Rules

                 - Dress Code

                 - Technology

                 - Food

                 - Student Responsibilities

• School Policies & Expectations

                 - Hallway Presence

                 - Locker Policy

                 - Students Leaving the Classroom

                 - Cutting Class

                 - Discipline and Student Behavior

                 - Principal Referrals and The Citywide Standards of Intervention & Discipline
                 - Outside Lunch Privileges 
                 - Grading Policy

• Attendance & Lateness

                 - Staff Attendance

                 - Student Attendance

                         * Lateness to School

                         * Lateness to Class

                         * Absence & Eligibility for Participation in School Events

                         * Chronic Absenteeism

                         * Resources to Support Student Attendance 
                  - Attendance Procedures and Expectations

• Social Emotional Supports & Procedures

                 - Social Emotional Support Staff

                 - Mandated Reporting

                 - Procedures for Reporting Child Abuse or Maltreatment

                 - Suspected suicidal/self-harming actions

Week of August 25th

UAI High School Staff News

Volume II

Issue 3

Week of August 25, 2014

Announcements

Calendar Updates. Once again, I do apologize for the inbox inundation.  However, via your UAI Gmail and Google Calendar, you have access to all the important dates for the year (marking periods, assessments, meetings, dances, etc.).  If you're new to Google Calendars, ask one of your team mates for assistance (Brodie is particularly well-versed on the app) or enjoy this wonderful tutorial video that I googled for you. 

Moving forward, I'll continue to invite you to important upcoming school events so that they get added to your uainstitute.org calendars.  So, make sure you get your calendars up and running if you haven't done so already!

Meet our New High School Staff.  Please join me in welcoming (and welcoming back) some wonderful people who are joining our staff this year.

Former Student Teachers...Both Kerry Smith and Anna Avino were former student teachers at UAI. We are happy to welcome Kerry (student taught with Colleen & Rebecca and filled in for Rebecca during her leave!) back to the high school as our 9th grade ISS teacher.  After several years away, Anna (former student teacher of Senior Andres and Ms. Liz) returns to teach our 11th graders in their 3rd year of Spanish.

Seasoned professionals... Both Kristin Negele and Paula Collins join us from Open Market.  Both have extensive experience at other DOE public schools and have developed a pedagogy and philosophy that fit perfectly with Learning Cultures at UAI.  Both Kristin and Paula join our 10th and 11th/12th grade teams, respectively as our newest ISS teachers.

Carrera Partners...Our Carrera staff remains consistent for the high school with some new configurations.  Some middle school staff join the high school this year, as well.  Our Carrera team this year is as follows:
9th Grade:  Bree Aitore (Social Worker); Rebecca Bunten (FLSE); Demetris Iannou (Job Club); Heather Bezdecheck (Academic)
10th Grade: Sara Monsonis (Social Worker); Jen Batson (FLSE); Demetris Iannou (Job Club);  Heather Bezdecheck (Academic)
11th Grade:  Lori Lindenbaum(Social Worker); Wazina Zondon (FLSE): Ruben Rivera (Job Club): Jillian Crowther (Academic)
12th Grade: Shannon Riley & Marni Brand (Social Workers); Jen Batson & Wazina Zondon (FLSE); Ruben Rivera (Job Club); Tyasia Harvey (Academic)

Chris Maestro (Carrera Director); and Haelin Seu (Medical Support) are also with Carrera again this year.  Carrera has moved to room 201 (with FLSE in Room 404 and the Academic Team in 402).

Girls Inc. Partners... Girls Inc is also returning with a wide variety of opportunities for our young women.  Nicole Souvenir will be coordinating Girls Inc Day Time and After school programs.  Tiffani Credle and Rhonda Remy return to provide Girls Inc Programming both in the day and after school to our young women.  This year, GIrls Inc High School will be in B35.




2nd Annual UAI Teacher' Choice.  All high school teachers will be reimbursed up to $250 for supplies spent for the classroom.  All receipts are due to Del no later than October 31st.  Classrooms will be equipped with basic supplies (dry erase markers, chalk, staplers, tape, and 1 box of paper.  Grade teams will be given time to develop grade-wide supplies lists for students to be distributed on the first day of school.   The lists must be limited to no more than $40 per student and must include:  1 ream of paper; a red hand-in folder, and pens/pencils.  The grade team must agree on one universal list of supplies. 

Upcoming Events

• Monday, 25AUG14:  First Day School Building is Open for School Year 2014-2015.  10:00AM-12:30PM, UAI Cabinet Meeting (Room 403); 12:30-2:30PM (UAI PD Committee Meeting (Room 401)

• Tuesday, 26AUG14:  Coaches Day at UAI.  9:00AM-12:00PM, New Coaches Training (403); 1:00Pm-2:30PM, Returning Coaches Meeting (Room 401)

• Wednesday, 27AUG14:  All Staff Invited!!  9:00AM-10:30AM, Introduction to LC eCourse (403); 10:30-1:30PM, Classroom Barnraising; 1:30-2:30, Technology, Class Lists, Room Key, etc. Distribution

• Thursday, 28AUG14:  8:30-3:30, Learning Cultures Cross-School Symposium I.  

• Tuesday, 02SEP14:  Staff PD, Day 1.  8:30-9:30, Kiri's Welcome; 9:30-10:00 MOSL Options; 10:00-12:30 PD Committee TBD; 12:30-1:30, New Teacher Orientation/Classroom Set Up; 1:30-2:40 Schedula Training.

• Wednesday, 03SEP14:  Staff PD Day 2.  8:30-9:00, Welcome and Day's Overview; 9:00-10:30AM, Grade Team Meeting; 10:30-12:30 PD Committee TBD; 12:30-1:30 UAI HS Staff Lunch; 1:30-2:40 Classroom Set up, schedule, keys, class lists tech distribution.

• Thursday, 04SEP14:  First Day of Classes.

• Friday, 12SEP14 - DRP Testing in ALL 2nd & 3rd Period classes for grades 9-11. 12th Grade has regular schedule.

Per Session Opportunities

• UAI Cabinet Meeting, Open to Team Leaders and Committee Chairs - Training Rate Per Session (2.5 hrs on 25AUG14).  Starting Thursday 11SEP14, Cabinet will meet weekly for per session from 3-4PM in room 403.

• PD Committee Meeting, Open to Coaches and PD Chair - Training Rate Per Session (2.5 hrs on 25AUG14).  After this meeting, the committee will meet twice a month to plan each monthly PD session (for per session).  Dates TBD by committee.

• New Coach Training - Open to New Coaches only - Training Rate Per Session (3 hours on 26AUG14).

• Returning Coach Meeting - Open to returning coaches only - Training Rate Per Session (1.5 hrs on 26AUG14).

• PD Opportunity - LC eCourse - Open to all staff - Training Rate Per Session (1.5 hrs).  This is the only per session available for this day

Week of August 18th

UAI High School Staff News

Volume II

Issue 2

Week of August, 2014

Announcements

The Weekly Newsletter is Back! After a brief summer hiatus, the UAI staff newsletter is back in action.  This year's issues will be separated into separate Middle and High School letters.  This letter is specifically for High School news.  Like last year, you can expect this letter to be issued weekly on Sunday afternoons to prep you for the week ahead.  This particular issue will be longer than usual because it's been a while and we have some catching up to do!

(ignore the 2013)

Summer School is Over! Another session of summer school wraps up tomorrow as we finish grading the high school regents exams.  Many thanks to our summer school troupers Mike, Michael, Jamie, Doris, and Damon who stepped up to help our young women have a second chance at regents and grade promotion. Also many thanks to our returning coaches Marianna & Darby who worked with summer school teachers during summer residencies to deepen their learning of this type of PD support while providing aid and support to the summer school staff.  Martine and Danielle, two of our new rising coaches, also stepped up to support the Learning Cultures Institutes in creating lab spaces for our newest LC teachers to learn the formats.  It was a fruitful and busy summer! Please enjoy these remaining days of summer. You deserve every minute!

3rd Annual Learning Cultures Institutes.  Each year, the Learning Cultures schools come together to have two series of professional development institutes.  The first being for returning LC teachers and school leaders to hone and deepen practice.  The second being to introduce teacher new to LC to the formats and theories underlying the model.  This summer, the first 2 weeks of August had over 40 teachers, school leaders, and coaches from four different schools participating and networking.  Many thanks to Sarah Dennis and Sabina (of the Unison School) for coordinating and planning these wonderful experiences and perspective shifting discourse!

Gearing up for Next Year.  Understandably, many of you are looking forward to getting into your classrooms.  Officially, you will have some time on both the 2nd and 3rd of September to set up your rooms.  Coaches and leads will meet on August 25th & 26th to finalize agendas, but you will have some time to do room set up. However, if you're interested in getting in sooner, the building will be officially open to you from 8:30-4PM starting on Monday 25AUG through Friday 29AUG.  The building will also be open on Saturday, 30AUG for you.  I will be in the building Monday through Friday of that week, and classrooms will be open.  Additionally, elevators will be open so you won't need your passes.  Like last year, you will receive your DOE teacher's choice ($77 this year) plus $250 from UAI High School to spend on whatever you'd like for your classrooms.  For the UAI $250, you will be reimbursed up to $250 for any supply for which you submit receipts.  ALL RECEIPTS for the UAI teacher's choice MUST BE SUBMITTED TO DEL NO LATER THAN 31OCT14.

Next week - Look forward to the brand new and super fancy UAI Staff handbook!  This digitized reference will serve as an excellent resource for all policies and logistics that you need to know at UAI.  

Looking for Last Year's Blog.  CLICK HERE

Upcoming Events (and Per Session Opportunities)

• Monday 25AUG14:   Training Rate Per Session will be offered for both sessions.
  10AM-12:30PM - Cabinet Meeting (UAI Leads & Chairs).  This meeting will be for Grade & Subject Team leaders as well as LC Committee Leaders.  This meeting will launch the vision and goals for the school year and the objectives of the teams & committees for the year.
  
  12:30 - 3:00PM - Professional Development Committee Meeting.  This will be a working meeting to plan and finalize PD for 02SEP and 03SEP and articulate PD offerings for the year. Lunch will be provided for the committee.

• Tuesday 26AUG14:  Training Rate Per Session will be offered for both sessions.
  9:00-12:00:  New Coaches Training with Sarah Dennis.  This will be a refresher and extension of training offered to coaches at the end of last year.  New rising coaches are Martine, Jamie, Danielle, Sarah, Elena, Rebecca, Brodie, and Ilyana
  
  1:00-2:30: Coaches Meeting  This will be the first of weekly coaches meeting to establish expectations, evaluate school needs, and share and norm best practices.  Coaches will be asked to provide set-up support for teachers on Wednesday.

• Wednesday 27AUG14:  Training Rate will be offered ONLY for sessions I & 2
  9:00-10:30:  Introduction to Cynthia's eCourse on Learning Cultures.  We will be viewing the new eCourse on Learning Cultures that Cynthia created and recently published.  In particular, we will be looking at the Foundations of Learning Cultures, Unison & Learning Conferences.  This course is an excellent resource for you to access and refer back to while developing your LC practice.
  
  10:30-1:30:  Classroom Barn Raising. All classrooms will be open and ready for set up (and in fact will be from Monday 25AUG on).  Teams of Teachers will work together to set up classrooms and Coaches will be available to provide support in helping you problem solve and think about set up to optimally launch your class for the year.  Motivational snacks (Yup..Motivational Snacks which are still yet to be definied..) will be provided!
  
  1:30-2:30:  Get your Tech, Schedules, Classlists, Keys, Elevator Passes EARLY.  If you can make it to school on this day at 10:30, you'll be able to pick up everything you'll need to set up your classrooms early.  In addition, you'll get trained on the new Nexus 7s; Lenovo or Chromebook laptops, and get a brief introduction to how to use Google Apps in your classroom.  Once the training is completed, you'll be issued your technology.  Can't make it?  No worries, you'll have another chance at all of these in the afternoon on Wed 03SEP.  Per Session isn't everlasting.  So, the incentive for this workshop is all of these goodies you'll get!

• Thursday 28AUG14: Training Rate will be offered for whole day
  8:30-3:30PM: Cross School Learning Cultures Symposium. All learning cultures teachers throughout the city will gather at UA School for Green Careers to work collaboratively in discipline teams to collectively problem solve around key formats, Unison, Conferences, and delve more deeply into the theory underlying the model.

• Tuesday 02SEP11:  First Day for all Staff
  8:30-2:40:  First Day of PD.  This agenda will be finalized with the PD committee on 25AUG.  On the agenda for sure are:  Breakfast snacks will be available from 8:00-8:30
  8:30-9:30 Kiri's Welcome, Introductions, New Policies & Procedures, and Review of Year's Goals and Expectations
  9:30-10:30 MOSL Introduction and Review of Options (Follow Up on PD Monday 09SEP)
  10:30-12:30 PD Committee TBD (Classroom Ladders & Social Norms)12:30-1:30 New Teacher Working Lunch Orientation (Lunch will be provided)1:30-2:40 Schedula (our new schoolwide grading software) training.  12:00-1:30 Classroom Set Up.
• Wednesday 03SEP11:  2nd Day for all Staff
  8:30-2:40 Second Day of PD.  Again, this agenda is just a draft...final agendas will be available to staff on Wed 27AUG.  Draft Ideas
  8:30-10:30 Grade Team Meeting - Orientation Activities Planning
  10:30-12:30 PD Committee TBD (
  12:30-1:30 Lunch Provided for ALL teachers & partners
  1:30-2:40 - Classroom Set Up (Tech, keys, and program distribution)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blog Appendix - This is the part that tells you who is doing what next year.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teams and Committees for 2014-2015.  Here are the teams and committees for the upcoming school year.   All team and committee leaders are part of the High School cabinet which will meet on a weekly basis on Wednesdays from 2:45-3:45 in room 409.  All cabinet meetings are open to anyone who would like to join.  The cabinet is the primary decision making body of the school.

Grade Teams:

9th Grade:  Martine Mercier (ISS teacher & team leader); Kerry Smith (ISS Teacher); Darby Masland (Global 1); Marianna Wiles (Writing); Michelle Babick (Reading); Damon Noland (Living Environment); Jamie Ross (Algebra); Rebecca Bunten (Carrera FLSE); Bree Aitore (Carrera Social Worker); Demetris Ioannou (Carrera Job Club)

10th Grade: Sarah Cooley (Earth Science & team leader); Danielle Romano (Geometry); Michael Stuart (Global 2); Rebecca Candela (English); Elena Brollo (Spanish 1); Kristin Negele (ISS Teacher); Jen Batson (Carrera FLSE); Sara Monsonis (Carrera Social Worker); Demetris Ioanou (Carrera Job Club)

11th Grade: Brodie Crawford (US History and team leader); Ilyana Contreras (English); Hassan Mojtabaeezamani (Physics & NYU Poly Engineering); Mike Somersel (Algebra 2 & NYU Poly pre-calculus); Anna Avino (Spanish 2); Paula Collins (ISS teacher); Wazina Zondon (Carrera FLSE); Lori LIndenbaum (Carrera Social Worker); Ruben Rivera (Carrera Job Club)

12th Grade: Brodie Crawford (Government/Econ and team leader); Ilyana Contreras (English); Noam Pillischer (Math & Science); Doris Twine (Govt/Econ and English and Senior Advisor); Paula Collins (ISS teacher); Elana Green (PE); Wazina Zondon & Jen Batson (Carrera FLSE); Shannon Riley & Marni Brand (Carrera Social Workers); Ruben Rivera (Carrera Job Club)

Subject Teams:

Social Studies: Darby Masland (Global 1 and team leader); Brodie Crawford (11th & 12th Soc Studies); Michael Stuart (Global 2); Doris Twine (12th English & Govt/Econ); Tyasia Harvey (Carrera Academic Support)

English Team:  Ilyana Contreras (11th & 12th Grade English and team leader); Marianna Wiles (9th Gr. Writing); Michelle Babick (9th Gr. Reading); Rebecca Candela (10th Gr. English); Jillian Crowther (Carrera Academic Support)

Language Team:  Elena Brollo (Spanish 1 and team leader); Anna Avino (Spanish 2)

Math Team: Mike Somersel (Algebra 2 and team leader), Jamie Ross (Algebra I); Danielle Romano (Geometry); Noam Pillischer (12th Math): Heather Bezdecheck (Carrera Academic Support)

Science Team: Damon Noland (Living Environment and team leader); Sarah Cooley (Earth Science); Hassan Mojtabaeezamani (Physics & Poly); Noam (12th Gr Science)

Instructional Support Specialist (ISS) Team:  Martine Mercier (9th ISS and team leader); Kerry Smith (9th ISS); Kristin Negele (10th ISS); Paula Collins (11th & 12th ISS)

Committees: Committees are open to any staff member wishing to join.  Members listed below are pre-selected by position (e.g. Grade/Subject team leader) or expressed interest.

• Assessment Committee: Danielle Romano (Chair); Noam Pilischer, Hassan Mojtabaeezamani
• Professional Development Committee: Rebecca Candela (Chair); Marianna Wiles, Darby Masland, Colleen DiGuiseppe
• School Culture & Discipline: Sarah Cooley and Jen Cusa (co-Chairs); Jamie Ross; Elana Green
• Code Blue Committee: Martine Mercier (Chair): Brodie Crawford; Colleen DiGuiseppe
• Curriculum Committee: Darby Masland (Chair); Ilyana Contreras; Elena Brollo; Damon Noland; Mike Somersel

Peer Coaches: At UAI, we believe in collaborative learning and problem solving. To that end, we have invested in our teachers to provide them with the skills necessary to effectively share their talents and support you.  Next year, our coaches are:

• Returning Coaches (have experience supporting teachers in LC):  Darby, Marianna, and Colleen
• Rising Coaches (have strengths in LC and are learning to become coaches):  Martine, Rebecca, Sarah, Elena, Danielle, Brodie, and Ilyana