Week of Nov 23

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 13

Week of Nov. 23rd, 2015

Announcements 

Congratulations Val!  It's official!!  Val is now the interim acting assistant principal at UAI.  As a committed teacher and then administrative supporter last year, Val has more than earned this title change, and I am proud to be able to formally announce her position!  Congratulations Val!!

Supervisor Assignments.   With this shift in roles (and Colleen's imminent return and also soon-to-be-shifted role), I have updated supervisor assignments. Please revisit the Teacher Evaluation Resource Page to find out who your supervisor of record will be this year.  While Colleen is on maternity leave, Val and I will cover her teachers or 1-2 observations

Reminder on Exit Slips.  When students fail to correct behaviors in the classroom and/or when they do behave in ways that require immediate classroom removal, we need your perspective to be able to fairly and accurately apply appropriate consequences.  Please copy and place copies of the exit slips next to your phones. You can find digital copies of the Exit Slips under "School Policies and Expectations" in the Staff Handbook.  As you call admin or deans to have a student removed, please complete the slip as quickly as possible.  The check off system is intended to make this step easy and quick, but we're always open to other ideas if you have them!  We will work on making sure that we continue to ask for the slips.  Working together, we'll be able to improve our capacity to provide classroom support!

Things To Do This Week
(I'm testing out a new part of the blog...)

• All teachers:  Please submit all collected parent surveys and sign-in sheets to Ms. Carol by the end of the day on Monday, 23NOV15.
• High School teachers need to update the SLC Appointment Sheet to accurately reflect completed conferences.  This sheet needs to be completely updated by Friday, 04DEC15.
• High School teachers:  Please also update the SLC results chart on the Appointment Sheet if you make changes to the document.  Our SLC goal is 80% completion of SLCs.  So, please use time this week and next to conduct conferences with families in person, via phone, or if needed with another staff member so that the majority of our students complete fall Student Led Conferences.
• All Teachers:  Benchmark Data Updates.  Please complete grading of benchmarks and have all data entered into this Benchmark Data Document prior to dismissal on Wednesday before Thanksgiving (25NOV15).
• All Teachers:  Please take a moment to complete this quick Professional Development Survey by the end of the day on Tuesday, 24NOV15.

Staff Shout Outs

Big Proud Clapping Hands go to Wendy & Marianna.  This weekend Marianna & Wendy presented at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention in Minneapolis, MN.  This presentation discussed a questioning protocol called genre probing, that help teachers turn mini-lessons into an engaging investigations of nonfiction and fiction genres that also help students master the Common Core skills of reading and writing for a variety of purposes and audiences, and succeed on high-stakes standardized tests.  Thank you Wendy & Marianna for taking our best instructional practices at UAI to a national stage!  

Making the Big Lift.  Alison, Matthew and Danielle have all been working weekly with our Urban Assembly Math instructional coach, Mackenzie to target key strategies and resources to help our middle school students develop math proficiency.  They have been meeting every week for the last three months and have developed resources, resource maps, and are rapidly developing the quality of our MS math program.  Keep up the fantastic work, our girls desperately need you and your tireless efforts are recognized and appreciated!

Thank you to Jamie, Darby, Ilyana, Elana, & Elena. Congratulations to all of these teachers for having the highest completion percentage for their advisory's student led conferences. We are all still working towards meeting the 80% goal for completing these conferences as soon as possible, but a big shout out goes to these high achievers working to make sure we reach our goals for improving Strong Family Ties and building Trust with our parents and families.

Resilient Scholars Project

Social Awareness. We are nearing the end of the 2nd marking period. After we return from Thanksgiving, we will have only two weeks remaining in this marking period. Monday after the Thanksgiving break is the perfect time to revisit Social Norms that were established at the beginning of the year. We need to be aware that when we do not address student misbehavior we are transmitting the message to the rest of the class that behaviors like that are condoned. It's incredibly tiring and non-stop, but when we allow things to pass without reminder, those students with typical or highly developed social emotional skills begin to act in ways that undermine class learning. Make time this week or next to revisit class behavior expectations. Clearly identify behaviors that get in the way of learning and highlight behaviors that promote learning. Ask students to describe the reasons why students choose to misbehave and help students develop strategies for choosing better options moving forward. With only two weeks of the marking period remaining, have strong social norms are essential to classroom and student success.

Important Dates

• Monday 23NOV15.  Full Staff PD (Prepare for Pod Share) & Grade Team Meetings
• Tuesday 24NOV15.  First Fire Drill at 9:40AM NOTE THE DATE CHANGE
• Wednesday 25NOV15. High School Assembly and All School 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
• Friday, 04DEC15, Middle School Dance NOTE THE DATE CHANGE
• 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
• Monday, 14DEC15. UAI Nets Family Night - $25 tickets - give money to Jen or Joanna
• 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.  December 4th 5:30-7:30.  So far I have Kristin and Anna as chaperones. I still need at least two more. 

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!   No one has volunteered for this, yet.  Please step up to help us!