Week of May 1st

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 31

Week of May 1st, 2017

This Week's Memories

UAI Takes on Columbia as Sci-Ed Innovators.  This weekend, Damon coached eight of our freshmen to present at the 7th annual Sci-Ed Innovators Expo. They showed off their efforts to implement recycling in our classrooms, and composting and recycling in the cafeteria. They also had attendees play a recycling and composting game, educating them about their choices as the played. Please give a shout out to our wonderful freshmen when you see them this week:  Tashima Richards John, Astra James, Jamora Huggins, Shakira Skinner, Savannah Kirby, Jasmine David, Aaliyah Chung, and Naimah Muhammad.  Also big thanks to Mr. Damon for coaching the team through this great opportunity!

Class of 2018 Explores College Options.  Ilyana, Kristin, and Danielle chaperoned the Class of 2018 on our annual overnight college trip.  Each spring this trip is aimed at providing tangible experiences to our students to help inform one of the biggest decisions in their lives, picking a college!   In this picture, the girls maneuver a manual elevator at Hamilton College.  Give a big shout out to Ms. Martine who finalized her first college trip plans while simultaneously meeting with the seniors to finalize their college selections.  Monday is college match day, so make it a point to congratulate our seniors on their selections!

Penultimate Assembly.  Our 2nd to last assembly was another rousing success.  Many congrats to our poets, dancers and students of the month.  Special thanks to Ms. Tracy, Ms. Sursattie, and Ms. Jen for their hard work and masterful coordination to give our young women a chance to shine! Our final College Walk assembly will be held on Friday, June 2nd.

To Do's for this Week

[Wednesday, 03MAY17] MP5 Grades are Due.  Monday is the first day of the final marking period.  MP5 grades will be due on Wednesday at 3pm.  If a student is failing your class, you need to call home to inform parents.  Please log the call into Skedula.  If you are unable to make contact by next Monday, please make the time to see Carol for assistance.  Additionally, please schedule individual conferences with failing students to establish concrete, measurable goals to reach a passing level by the end of the 6th MP in June.  Every student needs to have a path to success and achievement in your classes.  Please help your most struggling students find their way!

[Wednesday, 03MAY17] Final Per Session.  All teachers who are working recurring per session hours (e.g. coaches) will have their final hours this pay period.  After May 12th, there will be no more approved per session for recurring work as we close out the 2017 budget cycle.  There will be itinerant per session opportunities throughout the end of the year (see below).  

[Tuesday, 09MAY17] Fire Drill.  If it's not raining, we will be having our last fire drill of the year on Tuesday 09MAY at 10:15AM.  Please make sure that you review the fire drill procedures for your room, have an up-to-date evacuation folder with rosters and the green/red cards, and that if you are not teaching, you are assisting your colleagues with evacuation during the drill.

[Over the Next Month] Hiring & Demo Lessons.  Next week we will working three different hiring fairs to recruit potential candidates next year.  Next year, we are hiring in all the core subject areas (all high school).  You may be asked to host a demo lesson over the next few weeks.  We are aiming to have our demos in the mornings, so if you have a specific morning that you cannot host, please let us know ASAP!

SEL Updates

Stop Bullying.   6th graders have been working through their mini-unit on bullying and drama. Students can now distinguish bullying and drama, and can describe the power dynamics that are inherent in bullying. Students have shifted their focus from being able to identify bullying and drama to discussing "kid-approved" solutions that work. While most students will not have power group during this week of testing, please begin prompting students to articulate solutions they can try whenever they come to you with incidents of bullying and drama moving forward. 

Fighting Off Victimitis.  9th and 10th graders have been addressing academic self awareness and self management skills, from envisioning their future and articulating life goals to making sure they are adequately prepared to take tests. This week, they'll be discussing how to fight off "victimitis" (making themselves out to be the victim in a situation) and taking full responsibility over their choices and lives.

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Per Session Posting

May Dance Chaperones.  The final dance of the year will be on Friday, May12th.  We need about 10 chaperones for the evening. Email Kiri ASAP.

Regents Prep.  I'm looking for about 10 teachers to provide daily after school regent prep from May 30th through June 12th (except not on Fridays, and not on June 7th or 8th).  Teachers will be required to have a minimum attendance of 15 students to continue for the entire time. Email Kiri ASAP.

Week of April 24th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 30

Week of April 24th, 2017

This Week's Memories

Our Middle Schoolers are STEM-AZING!!  Giovanna Acosta, Alyssa Jamieson, Lorrie Mondesir, Kaila Stewart, Nicole Tlapanco, Lauren Rivere, Shantoi Saunders, Popy Halder, and Estefania Ordonez were all accepted to into NYU's STEP/BEST Pre-College Programs!  Estefania was also accepted into the BEAM program, a summer math enrichment opportunity out of Bard College.  Please give the girls a hearty congratulations when you see them and a special shout out to Ms. Lauren for supporting them throughout their application to these programs! 

To Do's for this Week

[Monday, 24APR17] PD Work Time for Organization & Uploads.  The staff retreat at Tarrytown will be focused on preparing for next year.  For teachers, the work with be targeted on curriculum development.  That work will be a review of what we've done this year, and a revisiting/reworking of those units in preparation for next year.  To best plan, we need to gather your units and pacing plans for the year.  We will review your units and taylor the PDs for May to best prepare the work in June. In preparation for the May Monday PDs leading up to our retreat in Tarrytown, we will be dedicating Monday's PD time to work time to accomplish two things:

• Submit this year's actual pacing calendar for your units.  Please do not submit an unedited pacing calendar.  Our best laid plans often hit some bumps along the road.  It's important to know what actually happened.  Please submit the one that you actually ended up using this year. (Submit your calendar into the course folder- see below).
• Submit all of your Units for the year in this shared folder.  Click HERE.  In order to make your PD experience worthwhile, we need your work to inform us.  Use the time on Monday to upload your units. Please do not worry about format, or editing.  Time will come for that later.  This Monday is solely about gathering your work.  Everyone should bring a laptop to room 409 with access to your units for the year.  We will be working out of 409 for the afternoon. Once you have finished uploading, teachers will be released to have planning time for the rest of PD.
• If you have created a google classroom for your class, please share the link HERE, and add Colleen and myself as co-instructors so that we can access the class page.  
• Finally, if you have not already submitted your gradebooks for the year (MP1 through MP4), you need to do that by the end of the day on Monday.  Please click HERE to upload.

[Tuesday, 25APR17] Fire Drill.  We will be having our last fire drill of the year on Tuesday at 10:15AM.  Please make sure that you review the fire drill procedures for your room, have an up-to-date evacuation folder with rosters and the green/red cards, and that if you are not teaching, you are assisting your colleagues with evacuation during the drill.

[Over the Next Month] Minimum Observation Requirements.  Very soon, Colleen and I will have completed all of the minimum number of observations required for teacher evaluations.  That said, it's important that you still receive feedback!  Even if you have received all of your minimum number of observations, please expect that we may be dropping in to provide more feedback for your growth. These observations will be added into the ratings that you have already received for the year.  As a school rooted in a growth mindset, feedback is essential to sustaining growth and development.  We need to keep our practice sharp to have a strong finish to an already wonderful year!

[Over the Next Month] Hiring & Demo Lessons.  Next week we will working three different hiring fairs to recruit potential candidates next year.  Next year, we are hiring in all the core subject areas (all high school).  You may be asked to host a demo lesson over the next few weeks.  We are aiming to have our demos in the mornings, so if you have a specific morning that you cannot host, please let us know ASAP!

SEL Updates

No updates this week!

Add this calendar to your own!  See that little "+" sign in the bottom right hand corner?  Click on it to have it show up in your personal google calendar!

Per Session Posting

No New Posts for this week

Week of April 19th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 29

Week of April 19th, 2017

This Week's Memories

Spring has Sprung!  Now that we have spring break behind us, the weather is turning warmer (despite what today is like), and the sun is rising earlier and setting later.  Ah...vacations always have a way of getting you to see the good things!  Here are some more factoids to keep in mind

• There are only 23 school days until the final benchmarks for the year (May 18th & 19th). These will be predictive regents exams for the High School and they will be the MOSL exams for the middle school.  Stay tuned for more detailed information in Sunday's blog.
• After benchmarks, there are only 11 school days until our first annual full staff retreat and for the high school to high school final exams (9JUN and 12JUN) and Regents week (13JUN-23JUN). For the middle school we return to our last 8 instructional days until Middle School Final exams.

We are truly in the final lap of the year!  Let's make these last weeks the best ones yet!

To Do's for this Week

[Week of 16APR17] Ready To Learn.  Now that we've laid the expectations once more, we all need to step up to make sure students are following school rules and expectations. No hats, food, or electronics should be on, out, or in use in classrooms or hallways.  Deans will be making classroom and hallway sweeps, but we also need teachers to help enforce the rules.  Students must also be in dress code.  No midriffs, spaghetti straps, or short shorts/skirts.  The key to making this easy is if we all say the same thing and enforce the same expectations.  Students will find the wiggle room and exploit it.  It's just what teenagers do!  Our job as the adults is to work together to close those gaps. So, help each other out by consistently following through.

[02MAY17-04MAY17] MS Math Exams.  In two weeks, the middle school will begin their annual math exams.  The ELA exams went smoothly, and we're looking forward to the great growth our youngest students made in math this year.

SEL Updates

No updates this week!

Add this calendar to your own!  See that little "+" sign in the bottom right hand corner?  Click on it to have it show up in your personal google calendar!

Per Session Posting

No New Posts for this week

Week of April 3rd

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 28

Week of April 3rd, 2017

This Week's Memories

Middle School ELA Testing is Done! Congratulations to our resilient middle schoolers and their teachers!  The middle school completed 3 long days of testing.  Joanna and Val launched another smooth administration of the exam, and all of our girls were happy that it was over, and proud they they worked through each of the days with grit and determination!

Five Day Countdown To Spring Break.  The stretch between February and Spring break is always the longest of the year, and we are finally here at the last week before the break.  This week is an excellent time to prepare students with break work to prepare them for the end of the year assessments and to begin doing the intervention work that will lead them to passing their classes by the end of June.  For the high school, there are only 38 instructional days remaining before final exams.  For the middle school, there are only 48 days left before end of the year final exams.  Once we return from break, the year will zip by, so please do ask students to use Spring Break time to study and prepare for end of the year (both exams and coursework).

To Do's for this Week

[Monday, 03APR17] Inside Schools.  Inside Schools is an online resource that provides independent reviews of New York City Public Schools.  We haven't had a full review for over 5 years, so we're due!  Thousands of parents use Inside Schools to research possible matches for their children.  From a recruiting perspective, this is our opportunity to really put our strongest foot out there to really encourage families to join our UAI community!  We'll need all teachers to step up for Monday. Please make sure you are in the halls to facilitate transitions.  In particular, we are looking at positive school culture.  Teachers welcoming students to class is a excellent example of that! Here's the schedule:

• 9:00-9:15 Welcome and Overview of UAI (Val, Kiri & Colleen) - Room 301
• 9:15-9:30 SEL & School Community (Jen & Lauren) - Room 301
• 9:30-9:45 School Academics and College Achievement (Kiri & Colleen) - Room 301
• 9:45-11:00 Classroom Visits (Kiri & Colleen)
• 9:40-9:55(G) Marsha, 8th Grade Reading - 305
• 9:55-10:10 (A) Alison, 6h Grade Science - 309
• 10:10-10:25 (Q) Danielle, 10th Grade Geometry - 511
• 10:30-10:45 (N) Jamie, 9th Grade Algebra - 405
• 10:45-11:00 (U) Ilyana, 11th Grade English - B57
• 11:00-11:15 Meeting with Girls Inc - Room 301 (Jen, Kree, Kiri & Colleen)
• 11:15-11:30 Lauren SEL Classroom Visit - Room ??
• 11:30-12:00 Enrollment & Recruitment and Wrap Up (Val, Kiri & Colleen) - Room 301

[Week of 03APR17] Ready To Learn.  Last week, deans made the rounds with students both at entry and in classes to refresh everyone on school rules.  Deans are available to provide classroom support for you to make sure students are following school rules.  Deans and admin are the first wave of preparing students to follow school rules, teachers are critical agents in continuing to support student compliance throughout the day.  Please reach out to deans for support in your classrooms. Additionally, we will continue to make classroom sweeps to further support staff implementation of school rules.

[MP5 and Failing Students].  Conferences & Action Plans.  SECOND POSTING.  Please make sure you complete these conferences by Friday.  For all students who are failing your class and/or who have less than 90% attendance to your class, you will need to make a plan, with check-in points,  for her to turn failure around and end the year on a positive note.  Please schedule conferences with students and work with the students to establish clear, measurable goals that include specific dates for follow-up.  Also, make sure to call home of ALL failing students to let parents know what kids should be working on during the Spring Break.  Here are some example student goals, 

• By April 7th, I will be on time to class at least 90% of the time (i.e. not late or absent more than once). 
• For next 10 days of class, I will complete at least 9 out of 10 classwork assignments in class.
• For the next summative assessment, I will score at least a 65%

In addition to the goal, you will need to create an action plan.  First, understand what is getting in the way of the student achieving her goal.  Is it social, is it organization?  What is the plan to address the hurdle (moving seat, setting up reminders in their phone)?  And how will she monitor progress (daily trackers, weekly trackers, peer or parent check ins)...

We don't teach students lessons through failure.  Rather, we help students learn how to be successful by overcoming failure.  This marking period is the last real marking period that students can explore and learn to master this lesson.  To help them do this, frequent check-ups with the student and her home will be necessary.  Please log calls and outcomes into Skedula as these will also serve as your record of intervention (AIS) for failing students.  Without Skedula documentation, there is no evidence of your intervention work.  So please make sure to follow through on this very important step!

SEL Updates

No updates this week!

Add this calendar to your own!  See that little "+" sign in the bottom right hand corner?  Click on it to have it show up in your personal google calendar!

Per Session Posting

No New Posts for this week