Week of May 9th

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 30

Week of May 9th, 2016

UAI Celebrations

Kiri & Her Mom. Omaha, NE ca. 1972

Happy Mother's Day!  These May showers will one day lead to May flowers, hopefully.  Despite the rain and gloom, I do hope you all find ways to celebrate motherhood today.  Whether it is your own mom (or mom figure) or if it is being a mom, motherhood isn't always easy, but it is always worth it.  Mothers are another form of teacher.  Like teachers, they want us to thrive on our own, the sacrifice much so that we can grow, they feel our pain as if it is their own.  Like teachers, mothers make us sometimes learn the hard way because we're too hard-headed to learn otherwise.  Like teachers, mothers are always there, no matter how many times we mess up.  Like teachers, mothers find ways to be proud and celebrate their children.  So, today, celebrate moms!  They are our first and often best teachers!

Announcements and To Dos

MP 5 Failures.  If a student is currently failing your course, please make sure that you have complete the following steps by THIS Friday 13MAY16.

• Schedule a conference with the student to set up specific, measurable and achievable steps to move the student towards growth (and perhaps actually passing) by the end of the marking period in June.  With 6-7 weeks of school remaining, failing students need specific work plans to continue to remain engaged in your class.  You need to set specific goals (e.g. do XYZ), work plans (by doing this or this) and dates (by this time).   Failing students must have clear SMART goals. 
• Enter the date and SMART goals of this conference into Skedula.
• Call home and have a person-to-person conversation with the parents to make sure they are aware of student failure in your class and that they understand the goals that were established in the emergency conference.  The easiest way to do this is to call the parent together with the student.  If you are comfortable, you can call the parents together at the end of the conference.  Or, you can reach out to admin or Carol to support you making the call.  Once complete, enter this call and the outcomes of the conversation with parents into Skedula.  

When students fail, they don't learn.  When students don't learn, we aren't educating.  As high quality educators, we take all the steps we can to make sure students have every opportunity to learn.  The steps I listed above are the steps we will need to take with our girls who struggle the most!  Let's keep trying to find her path to success!

NOTE:  In a normal distribution, no more than 10% of your class should be failing.  So, if you have 100 students, you should have to make no more than 10 calls this week (or 2 calls per day this week).  If you have more than that number failing, there is something wrong.  Reach out to admin or peer coaches for support to get support and/or fresh eyes to find solutions that can work.

Spring Units.  Only a few of you have uploaded your Spring Unit Arcs.  Please upload your spring unit arcs to THIS FOLDER by tomorrow 10MAY16 at 3PM.  Be sure to include your current unit arc, too.   When saving, please use this nomenclature: Course Name_YOUR NAME_Unit Name. We are gathering units for preparation for June PD planning.  

New Lesson Planning Tool.  If you haven't yet had a chance to play around with the new planning tool, you can download the template here.  Once you've used it, please share your lesson HERE and share your comments on the template.  I've heard from a couple of you already, and am always looking for more voices.  Please try to use the tool for any single lesson by this Friday 13MAY16.  This (or an iteration of it) will likely be the tool we all use for planning next year.  All staff will be expected to apply this tool (or incorporate each component of the tool into a planning template of their choice). So, please use the tool and express your voice in the comments if you would like to have a say in how this tool should be used/edited.  I'm asking for your input now. Please share it!

Springfest.  This Wednesday, 11MAY16,  is our annual Springfest.  It is our celebration of student arts and activities in after school.  Last year, we asked staff attend Springfest in fulfillment of the new contractual evening conference time in May.  It was wonderful for our students and families to see so many staff supporting & celebrating our girls.  This year, we are following the Middle School calendar date of May 11th for this assigned time this year, again.  At UAI, we turn these two additional parent nights into celebrations of UAI.  The first in September is our annual Curriculum Night.  This second, will always be Springfest.  I look forward to seeing everyone there on Wednesday night!

Important Dates

• Monday, 09MAY16. Pod Share 3 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Wednesday, 11MAY16.  Springfest 2016 5-8PM (This will satisfy the 2nd Parent-Outreach night of the year for teachers.  The first was Curriculum Night in September)
• Friday, 13MAY16.  Honor Roll Breakfast.

• Monday, 16MAY16. Pod Share 4 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Tuesday, 17MAY16.  Superintendent's Visit.
• Wednesday, 18MAY16.  UA Principals' Instructional Rounds Visit to UAI.
• Thursday, 19MAY16 and 20MAY16.  HS Final Benchmark (Full Mock Regent Exams)

• Monday, 23MAY16. Pod Share 5 of 6 and Grade Team Meetings
• Wednesday, 25MAY16.  Senior Awards Night

• Monday, 30MAY16. Memorial Day- NO SCHOOL
• Wednesday, 01JUN16.  Algebra II Common Core Regent Exam
• Thursday & Friday 02JUN-03JUN16. 8th Grade Science Test

• Monday, 06JUN16.  8th Grade Science Written Test
• Monday, 06JUN16.  Pod Share 6 of 6 and Prep for Staff Share
• Tuesday, 07JUN16.  Night of Stars (6th & 9th Grade teams are invited to welcome our new and incoming students)
• Wednesday, 08JUN16 and Friday 10JUN16.  High School Final Exams
• Thursday, 09JUN16. Brooklyn Queens PD Day
• Friday, 10JUN16.  Annual Staff Party (location TBD)

• Monday, 13JUN16.  Last High School Day of Classes. End of HS MP 6
• Tuesday, 14JUN16.      AM Regent: Global    PM Regents: CC ELA
• Wednesday, 15JUN16. AM Regent: Liv.Env.  PM Regent: US History
• Thursday, 16JUN16.    AM Regent: CC Alg.  PM Regent: ELA - HS Grades Due at 3PM. 8th Grade Failures Due
• Friday, 17JUN16.  AM Regent: Trig & Earth Sci  PM Regent: Geometry

• Monday, 20JUN16 and Tuesday 21JUN16.  Middle School Final Exams
• Tuesday, 21JUN16.  AM Regent: Chemistry
• Friday, 24JUN16.  8th Grade Stepping Up
• Monday, 27JUN16.  High School Graduation, MS early dismissal at 10AM.
• Tuesday, 28JUN16.  Last day of school.  Students dismissed early.

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

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