Week of October 6th

UAI High School Staff News

Volume II

Issue 9

Week of October 6th, 2014

Announcements

Attendance Taking and Skedula Push Notifications.  We've been doing really great on making calls home.  Really great!  This is one of those things that doesn't take too much time, but it can really fall off the grid if we don't give it the attention it needs.  So keep up the good work.  One of the hiccups that we are encountering is inaccurate attendance in Skedula.  Parents have been calling about inaccuracies in attendance.  Remember, parents get immediate notification when you upload attendance data. So, please be sure you are doing this accurately.  Also, some advisors are choosing to make calls during the day (which is totally fine).  However, when attendance is inaccurate or missing, it puts the advisor in a bad place when the parent asks if the student has made it to school.  Please work on completing accurate attendance within the 1st 5 minutes of class.  Use transition time into the class as a tool for completing the attendance.    Goals for this week - let's get better at timely attendance taking and accuracy.  Additionally (and more to come in future posts, here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions to support your outreach efforts.)

Skedula Transparency and Making time for Positive Comments.  In addition to push notifications, parents also have access to anecdotal records shared with them.  In our daily work with students, we provide balanced feedback - both positive and constructive - to students.  When we write things in formats like Skedula, we strongly trend to only write up the negatives.  So, to counterbalance this trend, I'm asking that each advisor write something positive for at least one of their advisees each week.  In addition, I'm asking classroom teachers to find a positive comment to document for at least one of their most behaviorally challenging students each week.  Sharing these comments with our families will also provide parents with models of the behaviors and actions that we value and give parents more of a capacity to support learning at home.

Tutoring by Grade.  Grade teams need to finalize and launch their tutoring sessions this week.  Please reach out to Kiri with questions or supports needed.  Also, Carrera Academic support tutors are available for integration into your tutoring.  Please keep the tutoring room consistent so that students only have to remember 1 location for their tutoring help each day.

Behavior Reminders and Consistency Across Classrooms.  At cabinet last week, we decided to ask the grade teams to keep working on developing consistency and follow through with use of the Behavior Reminders.   Teenagers are learning how to self-regulate and deal with negative emotions and maladaptive behaviors.  Similarly, kids with low literacy and/or numeracy struggle with successfully completing and comprehending grade level work.  We use academic interventions to address lagging background abilities.  The behavior reminders are our first tool to intervene on low social-emotional negotiations.  Remember, the behavior reminders are an instructional tool and not a system of consequences.  The only consequences we have are those listed in the DOE disciplinary code. Those are only given by deans and admin. This is a huge shift for everyone.  So we need the grade teams to really put their brilliance to this dilemma and deliver best practices for using the reminder system consistently, as a teaching tool.



Changing Face of Accountability.  This week the UA Principals have a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the changing face of the High School report cards.  If you missed my email, you can see some Frequently Asked Questions and/or CLICK HERE to see samples of what the report cards will look like.  Once I learn more about the new formats, we'll discuss as a staff.  I'm definitely interested in your questions and comments. So please do share with me and I'll take them with me on Wednesday to the principal's meeting. 


Benchmark Data and Unit Arcs are Due on tomorrow Monday, 06OCT14.    Please CLICK HERE to upload your 1st Benchmark outcomes.  Please CLICK HERE to upload your 1st Unit Arcs. Remember to use the following nomenclature to help me keep things organized:  Course_Teacher Name_Unit Name.  Thanks everyone!


October is Spooktacular!  This blog is already too long...so this will be short.  We'll be launching our monthly assemblies the last Friday of each month.  Stay tuned for more info about October in next week's blog.  Just know that October is Spooktacular (and no, I really don't know what that means, yet...I'm giving it to the Seniors and the Culture committee!)

Important Dates

• Monday, 06OCT14. Kiri out of the Building at the Code Blue Leads day at Unison
• Tuesday, 07OCT14. Assessment Leads Day with Cynthia at UAI
• Wednesday, 08OCT14. Kiri out of the building at UA Principal's meeting.
• Thursday, 09OCT14. First Lock Down drill - time TBD.
• Monday, 13OCT14. Columbus Day - NO SCHOOL
• Wednesday, 15OCT14.  Code Blue Leads Day with Cynthia at UAI 
• Wednesday, 15OCT14.  PSAT in AM or Grades 10 and 11 only.
• Thursday, 16OCT14. PER SESSION SHEETS DUE

• Friday, 17OCT14. End of First Marking Period
• Wednesday, 22OCT14. 1st MP Grades Due by 2:40PM 
• Wednesday, 22OCT14. Professional Development Leads Day with Cynthia at UAI
• Friday, 24OCT14. Report Cards backpacked home
• Friday, 24OCT14. First High School Dance and Haunted House
• Wednesday 29OCT14. UAI High School Open House
• Monday, 03NOV14. PER SESSION SHEETS DUE

• Tuesday 04NOV14. Election Day PD at Green Careers
• Wednesday 05NOV14. Student Led Conferences 5-8PM
• Friday 07NOV14. Student Led Conferences 12:00-2:40PM
• Monday, 17NOV14. PER SESSION SHEETS DUE

Per Session Postings

No new postings at this time...