Week of February 29th

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 24

Week of February 29th, 2016

UAI Celebrations

                                              Congratulations to our Lady Eagles!     Coach Elana and our varsity girls basketball players have

made it to the Quarter Finals.  Being the #4 seed, this is a home game for our girls!  Please help create one of those classic high school experiences for our young women.  Give high fives and congratulations to the team as you see them in class and in the hallways (Gabby Bradley, Ayanna Brown, Ashanti Stewart, and Marijah Williams).  Please do announce that spectators are welcome to the game on Tuesday at 5pm.  The doors open at 4:30 and close at 4:55.  If they aren't seated by 5PM, they will not be allowed into the game.  To help celebrate the girls, please wear your UAI gear on Tuesday and come to the game to cheer for our team!

Announcements 

Decision Making.  Friday after lunch, there was a fight in the back stairwell as the high school dismissed from the cafeteria.  The teamwork of the deans, admin, and teachers led to a rapid response and return to calm on Friday after the fact.  This is a true testament to the talent and commitment of our staff. Thank you to all.  We are still combing through the details and follow up.  As we work on the back end of discipline, I need all teachers to work proactively to maintain focus and work for everyone else in the community.  There are two key levers that we need to pull this week.  One, we need to establish urgency for learning. Two, we need to teach our girls how to make good decisions. 

• Urgency Tools:  In 10 classes, Marking Period 4 ends next Friday (11MAR16) and Student Led Conferences follow the next week (17MAR16 and 18MAR16).  Students will need to be able to show and talk about the work they do in your classes.  In 15 classes, students will take Benchmark IV (the last benchmark and predictive testing for the Middle School).  Students need to focus their efforts in class to push their growth and performance on this next litmus test.
• Decision Making:  Spring is here, the clock is ticking, and before you know it the end of the year will be fast upon us.  Students must now, more than ever, find ways to refocus their energies and redirect themselves during work time.  Click on the picture next to this post to see the skills students need to be able to do to make good decisions.  During Monday's PD, Kiri will share resources for SEL lessons that are aimed at strengthening work time.   Make plans this week to save time for Decision Making lessons and practice and for creating a poster that will create a visible reference and tool for students to use during work time.

Spring Professional Development.  We will be taking a break from Pods this month to provide time for folks to explore individual PD choices.  When someone returns from their PD experience, I will ask them to share their learning during the Monday PD time (just like Marianna did last week).  We don't yet have anyone for March, so for the time being, I have plugged in a mini-series PD on teaching SEL through the formats.  Monday's PD will focus first on Work Time and teaching into the skills students need in order to have a productive & disciplined 30 minutes of quality time during your classes.  Starting April 4th, we will relaunch Pods that will culminate in our final share for the year on Brooklyn Queens Day.

Teacher To Dos

PID (Promotion in Doubt).  Grade teams should meet with students who are failing two or more core classes (English, Math, Science, Language, Social Studies) and/or students who are at risk of failing the NYS exams (Regents or Middle School tests).  Grade teams should identify these students together (either using the PID list Val sent and/or current Skedula and benchmark data).  Teams should meet with each student to (1) inform student of promotional status (letters have been sent home, a face-to-face meeting makes it more real), (2) develop a plan to intervene and prevent failure, (3) make a follow up schedule and identify metrics that will check in on growth and progress towards the goals established in the intervention plan.  All intervention plans must be completed by SLCs.  All failing students MUST be scheduled with their GUARDIANS for SLCs.  Teachers should use PD periods (that are not being used for Pods this month) to meet with students.  Teams should establish plans & protocols for each student meeting collectively, but teachers can divide the list and meet with students individually (e.g. advisors meet with their own students).

Important Dates

• Monday, 29FEB16. PD Topic:  Decision Making During Work Time [Grade Team Time follows]
• Thursday, 03MAR16.  Soft Lock Down Drill at 9:30AM
• Monday, 07MAR16. PD Topic:  Staff Share OR Using Unison to Teach Collaborative Talk [Grade Team Time follows]
• Friday, 11MAR16.  4th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 14MAR16.  5th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 16MAR16. MP4 Grades are Due at 3PM
• Monday, 14MAR16. PD Topic:  Staff Share OR Developing Goal Directed Behavior thru the Conference [Grade Team Time follows]
• Thursday, 17MAR16 and Friday, 18MAR15.  Benchmark 3 (This will be MS Predictive)
• Monday, 21MAR16. PD Topic:  Staff Share OR Using Active Listening Skills during the Lesson [Grade Team Time follows]
• Thursday, 24MAR16.  Women's History Month Full School Assembly (1:45-2:30PM) followed by rapid dismissal
• Friday, 25MAR16.  Good Friday, NO SCHOOL
• Monday, 28MAR16.  PD Topic:  Staff Share OR Disagreeing without being Disagreeable during Shares [Grade Team Time follows]

• Monday, 04APR16. Pod Cycle IV Launch [Grade Team Time moved to Tuesday]
• Tuesday, 05APR16 thru Thursday, 07APR15.  Middle School NYS ELA Exam
• Wednesday, 13APR16 thru Friday, 15APR15.  Middle School NYS Math Exam
• Friday, 15APR16.  5th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 11APR16. Pod Share 1 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 18APR16. Pod Share 2 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 18APR16.  6th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 20APR16.  5th Marking Period Grades Due at 3PM
• Friday, 22APR16.  5th MP Progress Report Distributed 8th Period
• Friday, 22APR16.  Poetry Slam Full School Assembly 1:45-2:30PM
• Monday, 25APR16 thru Friday 29APR15 - Spring Recess, NO SCHOOL

• Monday, 02MAY16. Pod Share 3 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 09MAY16. Pod Reflection - Grade Team Meetings moved to Tuesday
• Monday, 16MAY16. Pod Share 4 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 23MAY16. Pod Share 5 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Tuesday, 24MAY16.  Grade Teams meet Tuesday
• Monday, 06JUN16. Pod Share 6 of 6 and Pod Share Prep - Grade Teams meet Tuesday

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

Per Session Posting

NO new postings

Week of February 22nd

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 23

Week of February 22nd, 2016

UAI Celebrations

Successful Black History Month Assembly.  Many, many thanks and shout outs go to three amazing women who organized our first 6-12 assembly of the year.  The girls were amazingly supportive of one another, and each performance and artistic share was beautiful and celebratory of both Black History Month and the talents and individuality of our young girls.  Thank you so much Tracy, Sursattie, and Kelly for all of your hard work with the girls. Big applause for all the performers and artists.  Next Month, our Carrera and Girls Inc partners are working together to plan a series of workshops and activities to celebrate Women's History Month on Thursday, March 24th.  Save the date (12-2:30PM)!!

February Staff Thank You Posters.  We're still in February, the month of love and thanks!   Each floor has a poster and thank you cards can be retrieved from admin offices on each floor students and staff to appreciate UAI teachers and staff.   There is undeniably positive benefits for expressing gratitude - both for the thank-er and the thank-ee.  Make some time this week in your classes to discuss how being grateful impacts the healthy brain (check out this blog post on a site called "The Happier Human" - I mean, how could one pass up a site reference like this?!).  If you prefer the more academic reference - check out this article from Clinical Psychology).  Bottom line, people love being thanked and thanking people improves our mental health.  So, this week, make a big push to get all of our kids to find someone they want to thank at UAI.

Field Trip and External Learning Opportunities.  Just before break the 10th Grade took a trip to the Natural History Museum, and Monday when we return, some of the 6th grade will have the opportunity to the Center for Fiction and a meet the author event.   The Math Team is taking kids from each grade (6-12) to our 10th annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day at Barnard College this Friday.  With the weather turning better, it's important to make sure that we are balancing classroom based experiences with external learning experiences for our girls.  Balance is the operative word.  The experiences that our young women have outside of school can be healthy compliments or enrichments to their classroom work and activities.  Grade teams should work together to plan at least 1 trip for March and 1 trip for April for their students.

Announcements 

MidYear Reviews - Mid Year Reviews begin this week.  You will receive an email directly from your supervising admin (Kiri, Colleen, or Val) detailing when you are scheduled to have your review.  Colleen and Val will be shadowing me in the beginning to norm the reviews, so if they are your supervisor, your midyear reviews will likely happen next week.  If you are mine, all but three will be completed this week and the remaining three will be held on Monday.

Monday PD - Marianna attended a Google Educator Certification PD earlier this month and will be sharing some of the amazing things she learned through the process at Monday's PD (Thank you Marianna!).  This will be a brief 30-40 min presentation followed by usual team meetings.

March PD Pod Break and Choose Your Own PD Adventure.  We will be taking a brief break from Pods for the month of March.  We will return to Pods on April 4th and the next Pod will be our last pod for the year.  PD time for March is still a little bit in flux.  We are waiting to hear back from Ilyana/Damon/Darby/Wendy who are working to find an organization to work with us to deep our understanding and sensitivity to diversity issues.  Once we get concrete dates, we will share immediately. In the meantime, I am offering all teachers a PD of choice day.  If you find a PD that you want to attend, I will pay for your sub and release you for the day to attend.  I will be asking to share back what you've learned (and this could be whole staff or in teams - depending on what you chose).  Unfortunately, I will not be able to fund individual workshops.  Additionally, I will not be able to sustain more than 2 teachers out per day (and no more than 1 per grade).  Requests will be filled at a first-come first-serve basis.   Here's two sites to get you started:

• The DOE's Teacher Resource Page
• The UFT PD Resource Page
• Come see me in 401 for a list of the UA PD offerings

Cabinet is for Team Leaders (Grade & Subject) this week.  We will begin reviewing the issues raised during our Open Space Protocol (Feb PD day) during Cabinet this week.  This week, only Grade and Subject team leaders need attend for the issues on the table.  However, all are invited as cabinet is always open to folks!

Teacher To Dos

Kiri's Mid Year Conf Schedule

Mid Year Review and February Observations.  Please review what is required for your midyear reviews and come to the meetings completely prepared.   I first posted these details on the January 11th blog post.  







Shopping Time!  Subject team leaders were given their teams' allocations for spending this semester a few weeks ago in cabinet.  All subject teams should try to get complete orders to me (via shopdoe.org) and cc Del by this FRIDAY 26FEB16.   Budget deadlines are nigh, and it will take Del some time to process them all.  So, please prioritize this week's subject team meetings to complete the orders.

Important Dates

• Monday, 22FEB15.  Full Staff Meeting (20 min); Grade Team Meetings (60min)
• Monday, 29FEB15.  UAI Celebration of Student Work - Building our Bulletin Boards

• Thursday, 03MAR15.  Soft Lockdown Drill at 9:30AM
• Friday, 04MAR15.  10th Annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day
• Friday, 11MAR15.  4th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 14MAR15.  5th Marking Period Begins
• Monday, 14MAR15.  Pi Day
• Wednesday, 16MAR15. MP4 Grades are Due at 3PM
• Monday, 14MAR15. Staff PD and Grade Team Meetings
• Thursday, 17MAR15 and Friday, 18MAR15.  Benchmark 3 (This will be MS Predictive)
• Monday, 21MAR15. Staff PD and Grade Team Meetings
• Thursday, 24MAR15.  Women's History Month Full School Assembly (12:00-2:30PM)
• Friday, 25MAR15.  Good Friday, NO SCHOOL
• Monday, 28MAR15. Staff PD and Grade Team Meetings

• Monday, 04APR15. Pod Relaunch and Grade Team Meetings
• Tuesday, 05APR15 thru Thursday, 07APR15.  Middle School NYS ELA Exam
• Wednesday, 13APR15 thru Friday, 15APR15.  Middle School NYS Math Exam
• Friday, 15APR15.  5th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 11APR15. Pods and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 18APR15. Pods and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 18APR15.  6th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 20APR15.  5th Marking Period Grades Due at 3PM
• Friday, 22APR15.  5th MP Progress Report Distributed 8th Period
• Friday, 22APR15.  Poetry Slam Full School Assembly 1:45-2:30PM
• Monday, 25APR15 thru Friday 29APR15 - Spring Recess, NO SCHOOL

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

Per Session Posting

NO new postings

Week of February 9th

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 22

Week of February 8th, 2016

UAI Celebration

Happy Lunar New Year!

Welcome to the Year of the Monkey! In Chinese astrology, Monkeys are known for their brilliance and perseverance.  They are highly adaptable to ever-changing environments.   Here's looking forward to a wonderful Year of the Monkey at UAI!

Successful Middle School Recruitment Day!  Many shout outs and thanks to Jen & Doris for coordinating a beautiful middle school recruitment day.   Growing the size of the middle school with students who really want to be at UAI is crucial to the long-term success of our school.  Over 50 young girls were dazzled by the process and their families were excited to meet our students, learn about our partners, and meet our staff.  Thank you to Alison, Martine, Jamie, Danielle, Elena, Jen, Doris, Nancy, and Ilyana for taking time out of their 3-day weekend to work this incredibly important event.  Thank you to the over 20 high school students who helped interview, coordinate, and answer the questions from our prospective students and their families.





Announcements 

Hiring Committee.  The hiring committee will begin the huge task of bringing on our future team of teachers.  The committee is in charge of finding and vetting resumes, attending hiring fairs, conducting Level I interviews, observing and evaluating format demonstration, and scheduling Level II interviews with Kiri.   If you are interested in joining the committee please email Kiri by the end of the day on Wednesday.

Grade Teams Meet on Tuesday.  Because of the holiday, we will not have a Monday meeting until after the break.  Grade Teams should use Tuesday time to meet.

Please Prepare for MidYear Reviews.  Midyear reviews will begin after the midwinter recess.  Please CLICK HERE to review my expectations that I posted last month.  Fred, our new superintendent, asks that all tenuring teachers prepare a binder to demonstrate their qualifications for tenure.  Tenuring teachers should bring this binder to the midyear check in for review.

Black History Month Assembly.  This Friday, Kelly, Tracy, and Sursattie have been working hard for the past few weeks to prepare an amazing assembly in celebration of Black History Month.   We will be calling students up starting at 1:30PM.  Please make sure that all students bring all of their things with them to the assembly.  We will be doing a rapid dismissal at the end of the assembly.  Here are the seating assignments

Cabinet Meeting Minutes.  Last meeting we discussed budget and team allocations.  We also discussed ideas for spending for the future.  This week's meeting will be postponed to make space for grade team meetings on Tuesday.  The cabinet will next meet on Tuesday 23FEB16 to review the issues raised during last week's Open Space Protocol HERE.

Teacher To Dos

Please complete this short survey.  I understand that plans change or that you may not have a clear idea of what you plan to do next year.  That said, we do need to take stock of our needs (and potential needs) for next year's staffing.  Please complete this brief survey by the end of the day on Tuesday 09FEB16.  If your plans change, please do let us know as soon as you can!

Resilient Scholars Project

Social Emotional Skills are the Bedrock of Academic Achievement.  As we continue to launch the new semester we need to strategically plan for explicit instruction around these skills.  The formats implicitly establish the expectations (e.g. being promotive (Self and Social Awareness), planning work time activities (Goal Directed Behavior), following class rules (Self-Management), and collaborative work time (Relationship Skills)).  Here's a brief video to remind us all about the significance of SEL in our classrooms.  It's easy for us to brush these to the side as we ramp up to testing season.  It's important that we resist that urge, and reserve the spot for this essential component of learning.

Important Dates

• Wednesday, 12FEB15.  Black History Month Assembly Full School (1:45-2:30PM)
• Monday, 15FEB15 thru Friday 19FEB15.  Midwinter Recess, NO SCHOOL
• Monday, 22FEB15.  POD Cycle Launch and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 29FEB15.  1st Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings

• Monday, 07MAR15. 2nd Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Friday, 11MAR15.  4th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 14MAR15.  5th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 16MAR15. MP4 Grades are Due at 3PM
• Monday, 14MAR15. 3rd Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Thursday, 17MAR15 and Friday, 18MAR15.  Benchmark 3 (This will be MS Predictive)
• Monday, 21MAR15. 4th Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Thursday, 24MAR15.  Women's History Month Full School Assembly (1:45-2:30PM)
• Friday, 25MAR15.  Good Friday, NO SCHOOL
• Monday, 28MAR15. 5th Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings

• Monday, 04APR15. 6th Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Tuesday, 05APR15 thru Thursday, 07APR15.  Middle School NYS ELA Exam
• Wednesday, 13APR15 thru Friday, 15APR15.  Middle School NYS Math Exam
• Friday, 15APR15.  5th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 11APR15. Pod Prep and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 18APR15. Pod Share - Grade Team Meetings moved to Tuesday
• Monday, 18APR15.  6th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 20APR15.  5th Marking Period Grades Due at 3PM
• Friday, 22APR15.  5th MP Progress Report Distributed 8th Period
• Friday, 22APR15.  Poetry Slam Full School Assembly 1:45-2:30PM
• Monday, 25APR15 thru Friday 29APR15 - Spring Recess, NO SCHOOL

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

Per Session Posting

No new postings

Midyear State of the School 2015-2016

Data

• Teacher Survey Responses (n=21)
• Student Survey Responses (n=318)
• Parent Survey Responses (n=39)
• Framework Check In
• Five Dysfunctions Slideshow
• 
  

Progress towards CEP Goals  (CLICK to see full CEP)

Rigorous Instruction.  Instruction is customized, inclusive, motivating, and aligned to Common Core.  High standards are set in every classroom.  Students are actively engaged in ambitious intellectual activity and developing critical thinking skills.

Overall Aim – 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.

Measurable Goals

• Attendance improve 3% from 2014, 
• OORs Incidences will decrease 25% 
• Using the Devereaux Students Strengths Assessment (DESSA), we expect growth in key areas of SEL – particularly self-awareness, social-awareness, goal-directed behavior, and decision making.  Over the course of the year we aim to decrease the number of students who quantify as “High Need” by 25%. 
• Finally, with increased time in class and higher levels of Social Emotional Skills, we expect to see at least a maintenance in Course Pass rates given the switch of our grading policy to emphasize performance over growth.  This maintenance will lead to increased performance on state assessments (see specific goals in the action plan below). TBD

Support Environment. The school establishes a classroom and school culture where students feel safe, supported and challenged by their teachers and peers.

Overall Aim – Improve home-school communication frequency and clarity, with particular attention to Peer support for academic work and Peer interactions.

Measurable Goals 

• Maintain policy of advisory attendance phone calls with 100% of advisors making at least 98% of required phone calls on time – i.e. calling home when an advisee is late or absent to school that day. 
• Maintain policy of advisory update calls (calling at least 2 advisees per week so that all students receive updates at least twice per marking period) to update on SEL and academic progress.  
• Increase overall positive average in Peer Interactions from 74% positive to 80% (6 percentage points better than peer group average) or better.  Increase Peer support for academic work from overall positive average of 73% to 80% (6 percentage points better than peer group average). 
• Maintain attendance growth and increase ADA from 90% to 92%

Strong Family-Community Ties: School leadership brings resources from the community into the school building by welcoming, encouraging, and developing partnerships with families, businesses, and community-based organizations. 

Overall Aim – Increase the quality and clarity of communication between home and school

Measurable Goals

• Increase the quantity of contact home (both via phone calls and text) – Advisors already call/email home 2 students per week.  We will add 1 email/call home for each subject teacher so that every student in the grade gets a call/email home from a teacher in addition to their advisor calls each marking period.  
• Survey parents on communication expectations and set goals to achieve based on results (these measures are TBD and will be developed further during PTA and SLT meeting in September and October with measurable goals set for November, March, and May).  
• Articulate opportunities for parents to volunteer in school (e.g. existing celebrations, but also in-class tutoring, lunch monitoring, other in-school related volunteer opportunities).  
• Advertise these opportunities in monthly newsletter and aim to have at minimum 5 new parents volunteering at each event/activity (for a minimum total of at least 30% of the parent body volunteering in at least one activity at school.