Week of 09NOV15

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 11

Week of Nov. 9th, 2015

Announcements

(Sorry it's late this week.  Between being away all weekend at a Leadership retreat, getting sick and not having a working computer at home, it's been a challenge!  Thank you Veteran's Day for letting me catch up!)

Student Led Conferences and Parent Conference Night/Afternoon. Next Thursday and Friday are designated Parent Conference Time.  For this fall, Middle School teachers will have traditional Parent Conferences.  Students will pick up report cards from a central location and teachers will have sign ups for parent meetings.  Next Spring, we will move MS students to SLCs so that UAI can have one system of conference.  

For the Middle School teachers:

• (1) Please check in and support new teachers around Parent Conference structures and expectations
• (2) Please print out and use this form (coming soon) to help parents sign up for meeting with you.  Please make sure to try to stay within the 10 minute limit if you have parents waiting.
• (3) Assigned conference times are Thursday from 5-8PM and Friday from 12-2:40PM.  You are only required to stay for these contractual hours.

For the High School teachers: 

• (1) Please check in and support new teachers around SLC structures and expectations, and
• (2) Please complete your appointment list by Wednseday, 18NOV15
• (3) High School teachers, you have 30 minutes per student.  5.5hrs are flex time.  You need to complete conferences for all advisees.  This year's advisories are larger than last year because our enrollment is higher.  For those advisors with more than 11 advisees, when you complete more than 11 conferences, you will receive per session for the extra conferences.  Flex time can be applied any time between now and November 24th.  ALL conferences must be completed by 24NOV and except for 19NOV (where we stay until 8PM), all conferences must be completed before 5:30PM.

First Benchmarks.   The first benchmark exams are happening NEXT week (19NOV and 20NOV).  For high school teachers, you should use your same benchmarks as last year, and/or there are extra regents exams that you can use in the storage closet across from the main office.  For middle school teachers, your benchmarks are being made for you, based on the PARCC assessments (which are the common core assessments of the future).  These will be done by Monday, 16NOV.   Everyone, 

• Please CLICK HERE to see the schedule.  Click on the "Benchmark" tab
• All teachers must get copies of benchmark exams by to special ed teachers so they can be prepared to test in testing mod rooms.  In order to provide accommodations within the time frame, students will test on fewer questions in the same time frame as gen-ed students (in place of having extended time for the same amount of questions, they'll have fewer questions in the same amount of time).
• Finally, grading time is built into your schedules during benchmark week.  Please use this time to grade and upload scores into THIS document by the end of the day on Wednesday 25NOV15.

Here are some important things to TEACH into this week in preparing students for the benchmarks

• A benchmark is an exam that measures growth.  In order to do this, we need to know where they are starting.  These tests are DIFFERENT than the performance tests they take for the state (NYS ELA and Math in April and Regents Exams in Jan/Jun/Aug).   They will be taking these exams several times throughout the year.  They need to take these exams seriously so that we can best see how to help them.  If they don't try their hardest, we won't know where they are in their growth, and we won't be able to adequately support them.  So, please reassure them that this test is important because it helps us help them - not because it grades them.

• The first benchmark is a baseline - where we start.  Tell your students that because of this, they will NOT likely know much of the material that is on the test.  Tell your students this is expected and that's ok.  Tell them, that you will be observing HOW they deal with frustration when they encounter a question they think they don't know.   When they take this test, actively note how they are acting, what they are doing, and give them a means to show you the types of thinking (what questions/breaches do they have), etc.  This first benchmark will not only give you a baseline of their content/skill knowledge but also of their testing capacity.  You will need to address both with your students as we progress through the year.

Common Preps.  As a reminder, prep periods are intended to be used for professional work. You can use these unassigned periods to write lessons, research & create classroom resources, grade papers, analyze student data, meet with parents and/or other professional responsibilities.  You can also elect to meet with colleagues during this time.  This includes planning with a co-teacher.

At UAI, we prioritize working together. So, all staff have the flexibility to move around  lunch and preps to optimize this type of collaboration.  Here's a schedule (click on "Teacher Free Periods") that lists the free periods folks have.  Remember that MS people start 10 minutes earlier than HS people, so please allow that time lapse when trying to set up meetings.

Staff Highlights

(This new section is so that we all have a reason to give out some high fives the next time we pass a colleague in the hallway!)

First Assemblies.  Big shout outs to Tracy & Sursattie for all of their work in planning and executing a wonderful Girl Empowerment assembly for the middle school.  Also big shout outs to Jen & Damon for all of their work with the girls in launching an exciting assembly for the high school that ended in a surprise visit and fancy dance from our new mascot.  Both assemblies were great opportunities for our girls to come together and celebrate one another as a larger community.  By the end of the year, we'll have a whole school assembly.  In the mean time, we all look forward to the ideas and work that these dedicated teachers will put into play for our next community building assemblies on November 25th (HS) and December 4th (MS).

New PR Role.  Wendy has been hard at work in her new role as UAI Public Relations person!  Through her efforts, our social media sites have new life with pictures of our girls and their achievements throughout the year so far.  Making a more public profile will get the word out about the awesome work we do at the school.  Help Wendy by sharing stories about what you're most excited and proud about in your classes or after school!  Also, help Wendy celebrate us with any photos you want to share!  Finally, share our social media sites with your friends and family to spread the word and up our school pride! Visit our Facebook and Instagram pages.  Also, if you have any connections to local papers or other news organizations, please let Wendy know.  We're trying to develop connections with folks to start talking about the amazing things we do!

Recruitment Success.  Jennifer JR and Carol hit the pavement this month to really bring our school to the attention of elementary schools around the district.  Doris also pitched in to spread the news about our awesome middle school to the local community.  Their efforts really panned out in an great showing at Monday's open house.   Jennifer has done an amazing job in developing a solid recruitment lifeline for our school!  

Resilient Scholars

Goal-Directed Behavior.  I've had the opportunity to see and share some great work coming out of PODS this cycle.  In particular, Wendy, Micheal, and Meredith's Pod around building intentionality in our students resulted in some great mini-lessons and organizers to help students better use their work time.  I go to see the lesson in action and shared this with Kerry & Rebecca, and now they are developing some great structures to help their 9th grade students.  This work around building student intentions is another approach to instilling our girls with goal-directed behavior.  If you're struggling with students making smart choices and following-through on those decisions, reach out to these guys.  There is no one perfect solution, but these guys have some really good ideas to support you!

Optimistic Thinking.  Now that many students have their progress reports, those who did not do so well (and even those who did ok) may enter into a phase of thinking that this is all they can do.  Even for our highest fliers, this is a danger.  We need to make the opportunity to teach into the Growth Mindset in the next few weeks, particularly as we prepare students for the first benchmark.  Lessons around growth mindset directly influence students' capacity to think optimistically, particularly about their own academic growth.  For our students who are significantly behind in foundational skills, the ability to believe that they can and will grown is critical for their development and achievement in your class.

Important Dates

• Wednesday, 11NOV15.  Veteran's Day, NO SCHOOL
• Friday, 13NOV15.  First Middle School Dance!
• Tuesday, 17NOV15.  Full Cabinet Meeting in Room 403 3-4PM
• Tuesday 17NOV15.  First Fire Drill at 9:40AM
• Thursday 19NOV15 (5-8PM) and Friday 20NOV15 (Lunch Dismissal to End of School Day).  Fall Parent Conferences (Updates to come on SLCs and MS Parent Conference in next Blog)
• Wednesday 25NOV15. High School Assembly and Early Dismissal at 2:30PM
• Wednesday, 25NOV15. 8th Grade Ice-Skating Trip
• Thursday 26NOV15 & Friday 27NOV15.  Thanksgiving Recess
• Monday 30NOV15. First Pod Share
• Tuesday 01DEC15.  Grade Teams Moved to Tuesday this week.
• Friday, 04DEC15. Middle School Assembly
• Monday, 07DEC15. Pod Cycle 2 Begins (07DEC15 Through 18JAN15) - Pod Share on 02FEB16
• Friday, 11DEC15, SAVE THE DATE for UAI Staff Party
• Friday, 11DEC15.  MP2 ENds
• Wednesday 16DEC15.  MP Grades Due
• Wednesday, 23DEC15.  Early Dismissal at 2:30PM.  All students and staff MUST leave the building at 2:30 for the Winter Recess.
• Thursday, 24DEC15 through 03JAN16 Winter Recess.

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

Per Session Posting

Middle School Dance Chaperones.  ON HOLD - Moving the Dance Date due to LOW ticket sales. Stay tuned.

9th Grade Transition Planning. This work team will be collaborating to develop strategies and plans for developing stronger transition practices for students matriculating from 8th to 9th grade.  First meeting is THIS Thursday at 3PM.

Recruitment Team.  This team will be working alongside Jen & Jennifer to plan and create deeper relationships during the Spring Term to build feeder-school relationships with Elementary and Middle Schools. Activities will include but are not limited to, planning mentor activities between our students and outside middle/elementary school students, planning community service events at local elementary schools (e.g. gardening, book reading, etc.).  Essentially, we need to show the schools how awesome our girls, our staff, and our school are so that we can create stronger relationships with these schools and UP our  enrollment!  

The goal for next year is to have FOUR 6th grade sections so that we can work on bringing our MS enrollment back from where we are today (at 173 to what we're supposed to be (81 per grade for a total of 243))!  For the high school, the goal is to find 100 girls who choose us first! If we can get 10 elementary and 10 middle schools to each send 10 girls to us, we will hit the mark.  So join the team who will make this happen!!  Hours start in December.  To start it will be at least one meeting per week, but hours will fluctuate with group needs.