UA Institute: December 2015

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Recruitment Resources

2015-2016 Recruitment Strategy

Public Relations

Wendy to Update
Inside Schools
Great Schools
Google Review
Put Together Recruitment Video - Girls Inc, Soul Cycle, Oprah Blog

Targeted Elementary Schools

Key (Black Star is UAI)
Green - >10 students applied Star - Great Schools Rank Green
Orange - > 5 students applied Diamond - Great Schools Rank Orange
Red - <5 students applied Circle - Great Schools Rank Red
Blue - 0 applicants

Targeted Middle Schools
Goal - Cultivate at least 10 elementary schools into feeder schools providing us with at least 10 guaranteed students each year.

Year one - cultivate 10 schools to guarantee at least 5 students (20 applicants)
Year two - cultivate 10 schools to guarantee at least 7 students (30 applicants)
Year three - cultivate 10 schools to guarantee at least 10 students (40 applicants)

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Week of December 21st

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 16

Week of Dec. 14th, 2015

Announcements

Last Blog Post of 2015. This will be the last blog post of 2015! It seems like this school year has really flown by. You have all worked so hard and dedicated so much of yourselves and your energy to our needy girls. Please do make the time to do nothing but rest and recharge over the holiday break. The holiday break is also a great time to pause and reflect over the semester's progress. As a reminder, we are rapidly dismissing everyone out of the building on Wednesday so that you can get started on your holiday recharging. The building will not be open over the holiday break. Please make sure students have all that they need at the START of 7th period. They will not be able to use bathrooms or access lockers when rapid dismissal begins.

Middle School - Rapid Dismissal at 1:47. Staff, Teacher, and Students ALL DISMISS together.
High School - Rapid Dismissal at 1:56. Staff, Teachers, and Students ALL DISMISS together.

<<REMINDER FROM LAST POST>> School Rules Relaunch. Starting Monday 21DEC, we're asking all staff to pitch in and help relaunch school rules with all students in their classes. By all of us doing a little bit, we collectively create a consistent environment for our girls who need that most! Here's the key areas

Bathroom Use and passes out of class. Bathrooms will be locked for the 1st and last 10 minutes of class. Students should only use the bathroom during work time. Only one student can be out of the room at a time. Teachers should hold onto the pass so that students must come to them to ask. Teachers should also track bathroom use (e.g. like Marsha does using an index card taped to the back of the pass) or some other method. Grade teams should analyze pass use to identify students who are using the pass to avoid work or other academic struggles.
The Exit Slip and Class Removals. Please do not send a student out of the classroom (unless it is an emergency). When you need a student removed, please call the admin office closest to you (B31 = 83121; 301 = 30111; 302 = 30221; 401 = 40111; 508=50811). If you can't get someone in the closest office, call any of the other offices to help you. (You should take a moment to write down these extensions in your call box). A dean or admin will come to your room to collect the student. Please have the exit slip completed prior to dean/admin arrival. We will not be able to remove the student without it. Also, please remember that class removal happens after the 3rd reminder.
Lockers. Please announce to advisees that students are not allowed to share lockers. Tell your advisees that we will begin looking at locker use this week and for those students who are sharing, all students will lose locker privileges. (In reality, I'm relying on you guys to talk to your advisees so they can fix the sharing problem before we really start checking next week). Finally, students will be able to access their lockers at any time but they cannot be late to class. Note - This is a change from last year's policy of using lockers before and after school and before and after lunch.

Staff Shout Outs

Kristin & Darby. Sensing the need to boost staff morale, Kristin and Darby put together Staff Superlative Awards for all. They began distributing some at the impromptu cocktail party Friday afternoon, and we hope to celebrate the remaining awards in PD on Monday. So, for their social awareness and willingness to step up and address a need, let's give a big shout out to these two wonderful women!

Joanna. Last week Joanna masterfully took on the DRP and coordinated both paper and computer administrations. As our schoolwide testing coordinator, Joanna did an excellent job communicating and supporting staff in our 2nd administration of the DRP this year. Congrats Joanna, and we're looking forward to seeing you in action for Regents week in January!

Important Dates

Monday, 21DEC15. First Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings

Monday, 21DEC15. Advisors call home to verify report card receipt.

Wednesday, 23DEC15. Early Dismissal at 2:00PM. All students and staff MUST leave the building at 2:00 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

Resilient Scholars PLC. Jamie, Rebecca, Kerry, and Martine are doing a Teacher SEL PLC after school.

Other PLC Ideas. If other teachers are interested in running/participating in another PLC, please let me know and we can fund it too!

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Week of December 14th

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 16

Week of Dec. 14th, 2015

Announcements

Marking Period 3 Begins. Monday marks the start of the 3rd marking period. Marking Period 2 grades are due by 3PM. As you finish your grades, please pay attention to your grade distribution. To the left is a picture of a normal curve, if you have too many grades of the same kind, please double check your grades to make sure there are no errors. Report cards will be distributed last period on Friday. Advisors, please make calls home to verify that parents received the report cards and please check to see if parents are registered on Pupilpath. It's hard to believe that we're already almost halfway through the year. The time is flying quickly by! So, let's make sure our kids and their families are staying informed and on top of student progress.

UAI Nets Night. Monday night is the UAI night at the Nets! There is still some time to get tickets. If you still want to come and celebrate with UAI families, staff, and students, please see Jen or Joanna by noon on Monday to secure your ticket (s). It promises to be a super fun evening for all.

School Rules Relaunch. Starting Monday, we're asking all staff to pitch in and help relaunch school rules with all students in their classes. By all of us doing a little bit, we collectively create a consistent environment for our girls who need that most! Here's the key areas

Bathroom Use and passes out of class. Bathrooms will be locked for the 1st and last 10 minutes of class. Students should only use the bathroom during worktime. Only one student can be out of the room at a time. Teachers should hold onto the pass so that students must come to them to ask. Teachers should also track bathroom use (e.g. like Marsha does using an index card taped to the back of the pass) or some other method. Grade teams should analyze pass use to identify students who are using the pass to avoid work or other academic struggles.
The Exit Slip and Class Removals. Please do not send a student out of the classroom (unless it is an emergency). When you need a student removed, please call the admin office closest to you (B31 = 83121; 301 = 30111; 302 = 30221; 401 = 40111; 508=50811). If you can't get someone in the closest office, call any of the other offices to help you. (You should take a moment to write down these extensions in your call box). A dean or admin will come to your room to collect the student. Please have the exit slip completed prior to dean/admin arrival. We will not be able to remove the student without it. Also, please remember that class removal happens after the 3rd reminder.
Lockers. Please announce to advisees that students are not allowed to share lockers. Tell your advisees that we will begin looking at locker use this week and for those students who are sharing, all students will lose locker privileges. (In reality, I'm relying on you guys to talk to your advisees so they can fix the sharing problem before we really start checking next week). Finally, students will be able to access their lockers at any time but they cannot be late to class. Note - This is a change from last year's policy of using lockers before and after school and before and after lunch.

Staff Shout Outs

Tracy, Sursattie, and Kelly. A HUGE shout out goes to Tracy, Sursattie, and Kelly who put together an excellent assembly celebrating music, dance, and art from a wide array of cultures. We celebrated both the talents and hard work of our middle school girls on Thursday. Thank you Tracy, Sursattie, and Kelly for your hard work and dedication in supporting our young women to shine! As a FYI, we'll have to pause on assemblies for January, but I am looking forward to some amazing team work as we prepare for Black History month in February!

Kim and NYU Poly Presentations. Congratulations to Kim and Group X!! As a first year teacher, she is juggling her first year of teaching, being new to Learning Cultures, and teaching TWO very rigorous programs (Chemistry and NYU Poly). It's pretty impressive! This past Wednesday, Group X presented their end-term projects at NYU Poly. This particularly group had some of the strongest and most professional presentations in the history of our partnership with Poly (which stretches back four years now!). Thank you Kim for stepping up and hitting it out of the park!

Resilient Scholars Project

Optimistic Thinking. The holiday season affects many people in different ways. It can be a warm, fuzzy, feeling with friends and family. However, it can also be a high stress time with friends and family. The holidays, for some, can be lonely and bring on sadness. In any event, the emotions of the season are tricky to navigate at this time of year, and it's important that we remember that our girls have not yet learned the emotional tools required to persist through the pitfalls of the holiday break. Please take a moment to think about how the ability to think optimistically impacts your efforts to develop a growth mindset in students. What time will you plan to give to teaching concrete strategies for developing this super significant Social Emotional Learning skill?

Important Dates

Monday, 14DEC15. Full staff PD (Pod Selection)

POD Topics

1.     How do we engage students with different learning styles and needs using Technology use/UDL/teaching to different learning styles "best practices"

2.     How do we convert study strategies into study habits?

3.     What are the most effective (both for teachers and students) tools/methods to evaluate growth in SEL in our classrooms?

4.     How do we check for understanding throughout each of the LC formats? Redefining Assessment – it’s not just the big tests…it can be UR records, CBMs, the levels of questions/breaches, essays, etc. how are we defining checks for understanding?

5.     How do students use their own data to measure and track progress? Redefining Assessment – it’s not just the big tests…it can be UR records, CBMs, the levels of questions/breaches, essays, etc. how are we defining checks for understanding? Both understanding in the moment and growth over time?

6.     What are the best ways to differentiate for all students, especially our high level students, to make sure that each student is challenged at her appropriate level (e.g. creative use of workout plans, differentiating tasks, charting growth on assessments)

7.     Subject Team Pod – How do we create standards-aligned assessments that accurately measure student achievement against NYS standards?

8.     Grade Team Pod – Group Y Pod and Q Pod – How do we improve the social norms in these groups?

Monday, 14DEC15. UAI Nets Family Night - $25 tickets - give money to Jen or Joanna

Tuesday, 15DEC15. Kiri is out at UA Instructional Rounds visit to UA Criminal Justice

Wednesday 16DEC15. MP Grades Due at 3PM

Friday, 18DEC15. Progress Reports Distributed 8th Period.

Monday, 21DEC15. Advisors call home to verify report card receipt.

Wednesday, 23DEC15. Early Dismissal at 2:00PM. All students and staff MUST leave the building at 2:00 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

No new posts

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Week of December 7th

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 15

Week of Dec. 7th, 2015

Announcements

Calls Home. Let's make a goal this week to make it a point to make and log all of our calls home - that's calling any advisee who doesn't make it to 2nd period on time AND sprinkling a few positive calls (they are good for the teaching soul) in this week. We are all gearing up for the winter break, so let's help our kiddos launch into the recess with some positive reviews and improved attendance!

PTA Dinner. This Tuesday (08DEC) the PTA is hosting a family dinner for the UAI community. Please come join the festivities and help us build stronger family bonds while we have delicious food! It will be a wonderful evening with family and staff. So, please make an effort to attend.

Subject Team leaders have been asked to develop some quick ideas around what to do during the winter recess. Help your leaders out! We're really looking for simple things that parents can do to help their students develop academic and social emotional skills at home.

Intervention. As we prepare for the 2nd Marking period to end, it is clear that students need some extra help and in some cases, extra challenge. To check in, please make sure that you are using all of our interventions

Tier I: Double Unison Reading and Double Conferences (Assessment = UR or Conference Record). Students with IEPs and/or who have a DRP lower the the 25th percentile should automatically be scheduled for twice the amount of Unison and double the conferences.

Tier II: Workout Plans, Learning Groups, Lunch Time Tutoring (Assessment = CBMs, Self-Check Quizzes, etc.) Students who are lagging on classroom assessments and/or need to build basic background abilities in math and English need to be equipped with Remediation workout plans, scheduled for learning groups, or mandated to Lunch or after school tutoring.

Tier III: Parent-Teacher conference to create intervention plan (Specific Goals and Scheduled Follow Up Meeting to Check on Goals TBD by meeting). Students who are unresponsive to Tier I or Tier II interventions and are persistently failing need to have an intervention scheduled with teachers and parents. Grade teams should review Tier I and Tier II data to help inform goal-setting during the meeting. Goals need to be SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, relevant, and timely).

Tier IV: Full Intervention Meeting (hour+ long meeting with Admin/Teachers with specific goals and follow up scheduled in Conference time with teachers) This full length intervention will use strategies to shift student mindset and self-concept. Students who continue to fail despite multiple attempts to intervene often have deep-seated issues with self-concept and require a mindset shift. This intervention uses the LC intervention protocol.

Things To Do This Week

ALL STAFF. Please take a minute to RSVP to the staff party so that we can get an accurate head count for the catering order. Please bring your $20 to room 401 by Wednesday this week.

ALL STAFF. In grade and subject teams, for the next few weeks, please take the time to use the Data Driven protocol to review these data points (DRP, Benchmark Data, and Classroom Grade Data) to identify students in need of intervention (see above for the Tiers)
ALL STAFF: Please take a moment to review the DRP testing schedule for this week (click the tab "DRP Digital Testing") . Ultimately, we will be moving to a 100% digital platform for these exams. For this period, only the 6th and 9th grade will be using the computers. However, this will be the schedule that we use for the next two administrations in the Spring. So please follow this schedule for next week.

Staff Shout Outs

Perfect Attendance. Val, Elena, Steve, Kim, Meredith, Natalie, and Tom have all been to school every single school day in September, October and November. Congratulate them on their 3 month streak! Let's see how many of us can join this perfection over the next 3-month span of December, January, and February!

Parent Outreach is on the Rise. Natalie, Tracy, Marsha and Carol are all working together to build up parent involvement in our Middle School. In addition, Carol is hard at work generating monthly newsletters to connect our families to UAI. Bit by bit we are working to build bridges to our girls' families and these four amazing women are pivotal players in making that happen!

College Applications are In (or mostly in)! This week, Mara and Lori pulled out all the stops to work with the Class of 2016 in completing their college applications. It was a long week, but the majority of the girls have either fully completed or are well on their way! Great work you two!

Resilient Scholars Project

Relationship Skills. Our students are a third of the way through the year, and some are persisting in showing defiant, rude, and other maladaptive social behaviors. As we work, it's important to be aware of how perspectives shift in reaction to these behaviors. Take a moment to do this activity to reflect on your relationships with students. Making time to reflect provides perspective on situations that seem unsolvable. Finding a different vantage point will often lead to the ideas and revelations that result in excellent strategies!

Important Dates

Monday, 07DEC15. Pod Cycle 2 Begins (07DEC15 Through 18JAN15) - Pod Share on 02FEB16

Monday & Tuesday 07DEC and 08DEC, 9th Grade DRP

Wednesday, 09DEC15. 10th Grade DRP

Wednesday and Thursday, 10DEC15 and 11DEC15. 11th Grade DRP

Friday, 11DEC15, UAI Staff Party 4-6PM

Friday, 11DEC15. MP2 Ends

Friday, 11DEC15. Middle School DRP

Monday, 14DEC15. UAI Nets Family Night - $25 tickets - give money to Jen or Joanna

Wednesday 16DEC15. MP Grades Due

Friday, 18DEC15. Progress Reports Distributed 8th Period.

Monday, 21DEC15. Advisors call home to verify report card receipt.

Wednesday, 23DEC15. Early Dismissal at 2:00PM. All students and staff MUST leave the building at 2:00 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

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!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

PPO Resources 03DEC15

PPO Visit 03DEC15

The Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women is designed to encourage and foster the achievement of young women in math, science, and technology. Our college-preparatory curriculum uses interdisciplinary, inquiry-based models of learning that actively engage all students in both their advanced work in math, science, and technology a well as their other classes. As a commitment to developing life-long learners and strong leaders, our young women will have mentors, internships, and access to college level classes at partnership universities. Graduates of the UA Institute will possess the skills needed to be successful in college and to make choices that positively impact their lives. Visit us at www.uainstitute.org.

PPO Agenda

Initial Meeting 8:00-8:50 - Meet with Kiri in Room 401

Orientation to UAI and Learning Cultures
Review of Artifacts, PD Plan, School Goals, Etc.

Classroom Visits

[1] 8:50-9:10 - (H) Alison & Matthew - 8th Grade Math in Room 403
[2] 9:10-9:30 (R) Danielle - 10th Grade Math (Tenuring Teacher) in Room 511
9:30-9:34 -Debrief with Kiri
[3] 9:34-9:54 (Z) lyana 12th Grade English in Romo B57
[4] 9:54-10:15 (M) Jamie & Kerry 9th Grade ICT Math (Jamie is Tenuring) in Rm 409
10:15-10:45 Debrief with Kiri
[6] 10:45-11:10 (N) Michael & Michelle 9th Gr. Global (Tenuring Teachers) Rm 509
[7] 11:10-11:30 (H) Christina & Phillan 8th Gr. Reading (Christina is Tenuring) Rm 405