Week of Sept 8th

UAI High School Staff News

Volume III

Issue 2

Week of Sept 8, 2015

Announcements

Welcome Back!  It's hard to believe that the summer has flown by and we begin our 10th year tomorrow!  It's a landmark year for UAI.  Not only are we completing our first decade of existence, but this year's graduating class is the first class to have attended UAI as a complete school.  It is exciting to take our school's initiatives and work on filling in the holes and refining our practices as we continue to establish our school.  You can read more by clicking on the links in tomorrow's agenda below, and we will also be delving deeper into this year's goals and initiatives tomorrow.  In the mean time, here are the key ideas

• The School Survey now takes center stage as the key accountability tool that parents, families, and the public in general use to evaluate and measure our school.  You can see how we did by Clicking HERE.
• Using this paradigm of evaluation as a platform, here are our four goals for the year (to read about each of the goals in detail, please read our CEP, Comprehensive Education Plan)
• Rigorous Instruction:  Develop an explicit system of Social Emotional Learning supports to build student capacity to effectively interact with one another and provide support that will increase student achievement on state assessments.
• Supportive Environment:  Improve home-school communication frequency and clarity, with particular attention to Peer support for academic work and Peer interactions.
• Collaborative Teachers: Build Teacher Leadership Capacity in order to strengthen teams and their capacity to carry out school goals.
• Strong Family-Community Ties.  Increase the quality and clarity of communication between home and school, specifically through building a Parent-Advocacy committee. 

Tuesday's PD Agenda.  Tuesday's Agenda is posted on the blog HERE.  At the end of the day, you will be given keys to your classrooms and tech carts provided that you submit your deposits for the year.  If you are a returning teacher who taught summer school, your deposits ($5 for a key, $15 for an elevator pass, and $75 for your tech cart) are already on the books!  Please review the agenda frequently.  I will be updating links throughout this afternoon.

UAI Teacher's Choice.  Each year, UAI HS teachers receive $250 reimbursements for supplies of their choice.  I am happy to be able to provide this again!  Please feel free to purchase any supplies or materials you wish for your classroom.  As a reminder, all supplies and materials are officially the property of UAI High School and belong in your classroom.  As such, we cannot reimburse for materials or supplies used at home.  Allan and Del will be able to provide you with your initial paper allocation on Tuesday.  We will be ordering more shortly.

Skedula is Up To Date.  The program has been loaded and updated with Skedula.  Skedula has handily provided a Back to School checklist for teachers.  We will not be holding a specific Skedula training on Tuesday, but if you need help, please reach out to your Grade or Subject team leaders or your mentors (if you're new) for support.  Additionally, Skedula has a calendar of webinars that will help you get started for the year.  If you are having login problems, please email Colleen at colleend@uainstitute.org.

First Days' Schedules.  The First Day of School will largely be a normal day with some key changes. Please see the schedule below.  All other days in September will be normal schedule with grade assemblies being the only shift (see the assembly schedule below, too).

• 8:00-8:30 Students gather in Cafeteria (where they can have breakfast)

• 8:30-8:50 Extended Advisory for All (Everyday for the 1st week of school)
• On Wed 09SEP15, 9th Grade Team needs to meet in cafe at 8:30.  9th Graders will have brief welcoming assembly with Kiri & then advisors will take classes to advisory for extended advisory 10th-12th graders will be sent to advisory from cafeteria at 8:28
• For Thu 10SEP15 and Fri 11SEP15, all students report directly to advisory.
• During these extended advisories, please 
• Please review checklist below with students
• Go through Folders (Blue Cards, Lunch Forms, Photo Release, Dress Code, Locker/Electronics Forms, etc.).  Collect all forms before submitting to Jen.
• Sign up Student for Pupil Path
• Locker Distribution
• Review Schedules 

• 8:52-9:32 Slightly Abbreviated First Period
• 9:34 - Regular Schedule Resumes.
• On Wed 16SEP15 on - Regular Schedule (no extended advisory)

• LUNCH - For the first three weeks, all students EXCEPT 9th graders will be let out for lunch.  We need to keep the 9th graders in the cafe so we can get their Student IDs completed.  Because of all the September holidays, we'll need three weeks to complete this.  Starting Monday, 28SEP15, any student who did not submit a completed advisory folder, including a lunch permission slip will NOT be allowed out of the building.

Important Dates

• Tuesday, 08SEP15.  First Day of School for Staff 8:30AM-2:50PM
• Wednesday, 09SEP15.  First Day of School for Students
• Monday & Tuesday 14SEP-15SEP15.  Rosh Hashanah, NO SCHOOL.
• Wednesday 23SEP15. Yom Kippur, NO SCHOOL.
• Thursday, 24SEP15. Eid Al-Adha, NO SCHOOL.
• Friday, 25SEP15. DRP and DESSA Administration, Special AM schedules
• Monday, 28SEP15.  Open Lunch Rules go into Place
• Wednesday, 30SEP15.  Curriculum Night, 5PM-8PM

For All High School Important Dates, please add "UAI High School" calendar to your google calendars.

Per Session Posting

First School Dance Chaperones.  The first school dance will be on Friday, October 2nd from 6-10PM.  We are looking for a maximum of 10 chaperones.  Please email Kiri directly if you are interested.

SAT Prep Teacher. Ilyana and Mike have graciously agreed to provide our seniors with SAT prep prior to the official start of after school.  They will be receiving per session for this quick start program.  If you are also interested, please let Kiri know ASAP.