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.

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