Week of October 30

UAI Staff News

Volume V

Issue 10

October 30th, 2017

[School Days 37-41]

Announcements and To Dos

Quality Review.   Our School Quality Review will take place on Wednesday, November 1st and Thursday, November 2nd.  Our reviewer will be AJ Hepworth.  He is currently a Director at the Office of School Quality. He is responsible for conducting Quality Reviews, supporting the Quality Review process, and facilitating professional development for a broad range of educators throughout the city.  AJ Hepworth’s career in public education spans more than two decades as a building

principal, assistant principal, K-12 STEM instructional leader, and instructor at the elementary, secondary, and graduate level. He supports instruction while empowering students and staff through the inclusion of novel pedagogy using relevant data. His experience includes a depth of understanding in curriculum, staff development, NYS testing, budget, technology, and communication. He holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Biology from the University at Albany, a Masters in Earth Science from C.W. Post, and a Doctorate in Educational Administration, Leadership and Technology from Dowling College.  AJ is a certified School Administrator & Supervisor and School District Administrator.  Here is the tentative schedule for Wednesday and Thursday.  Classroom Visits are indicated by "CV"

Formative Feedback Visits.  Annie and I will be visiting all classrooms on Monday and Tuesday to provide you some feedback prior to the visit.  For all teachers who have already been observed and evaluated, this will be purely formative, non-evaluative feedback.  If you have not yet received an official evaluation from Val, Annie, or me, then you can expect an official observation on Monday or Tuesday.  In particular, we will be looking for three things during our visit.  So, if you see us walk in, make them happen when we are there!

Clarity of Objective.  Do the kids know what they are supposed to learn for the day and why? We'll be asking kids, but also, make an opportunity to pause the class and connect their current activity to the days' learning objective and why/how it connects to the larger unit plan.  This should not be belabored ... make it no longer than a 30sec check-in.

Student Thinking.  Are students thinking or simply doing?  Use Webb's Depth of Knowledge to assess your lessons to see what level of thinking you're demanding.  It should never be the case that for the 10-15min that we are in a class, there is only Level I or II thinking.   Make sure you are planning for thinking and not just planning for management or participation.  That said, not every struggle is equal.  Select the 1-2 places where you really want to go deep and get kids to use their brains. Create appropriate challenge (not too hard, not too easy), place in appropriate scaffolds that help strugglers overcome unproductive struggles and support all students in pushing their thinking to the next level.  This is the productive struggle that we've been talking about in PD and in observation debriefs.

Also, make sure your narrative lesson plan includes your "Look Fors".  Everything you do has a rhyme and reason.  You are trying to evoke something from your students.  What is it?  Be clear and articulate in your planning about what thinking you want them to show you.  

Check for Understanding.  After you've planned and articulated your "Look Fors", make sure you're actually looking for them from everyone!  To get a quick sense of this from your students and to improve student discourse, plan to have several quick Turn and Talks.  Ask a question or leverage a misunderstanding.  For example, "Ooh, as I was walking around, Kiri was saying <insert interestingly wrong idea> and Annie was saying <correct concept>.  I want you guys to turn to your partner and discuss who's idea is more on-target and why."  Then, go around and listen to the kids.  Try to find your look-fors or interesting misunderstandings.  Use what the kids said to start your full class conversations.

When Annie and I walk into a room, doing a quick turn and talk is the fastest, easiest way to demonstrate student thinking and demonstrate student questioning and discussion.  I'm encouraging you to do one (even if not originally planned) during the time that we are in your class!

Using your assessments.  The assessment data you get from collaborative learning groups (e.g. small groups or Turn and Talks) either written or verbal is valuable intel.  You need to use this information to further your lesson and/or make in-lesson adjustments.  If kids are not getting it, pause and say that! Don't just barrel on.  Connect to your teacher soul.  You're only teaching if your students are learning!  If your kids aren't learning, then make it your responsibility to stop the lesson and try a reboot or redirect. What really helps you do this is if you can identify the part(s) of the lesson that you're willing to sacrifice and the parts that are essential and if missed will be given more time.  The essential parts are...you guessed it...the productive struggle!

Monday PD and Student Work.   Please bring at least 5 samples of student work to Monday PD. Use this protocol on your own to help you select and think about the work before Monday.  Along with the student work, please bring the task description and grading rubric.  Be prepared to articulate to a partner what you learned about student thinking from work and using the rubric.  You'll be sharing your feedback for the student with a partner and you'll be describing how you expect your students to use this feedback to improve learning.  Finally, be prepared to share how and when you plan to communicate with the student about your feedback and her next learning steps.  

Tuesday Outreach.  For Tuesday, please remind all Advisees that we will not have school next Tuesday (November 7th - Election Day PD).  Also, please remind them that our first benchmark assessments will be on Thursday 08NOV and Friday 09NOV.  On Tuesday, you should schedule parents for Student Led Conferences.  Please make sure to schedule all of your advisees by the end of the day on Friday, 03NOV18.

If you are having trouble connecting with a family member, please reach out to our counselors (Jennifer JR, Marni, Lauren, Haelinn in room 304, Martine or Danielle in B35, or Jen in 301) for assistance.  They frequently are able to connect with homes when teachers cannot.  All SLCs appointments must be scheduled in THIS DOCUMENT.  This year, conferences can ONLY be scheduled between 5-8PM on Thursday and from dismissal on Friday through 2:50PM.  If you need to schedule outside of these times, please see Mr. Brodie.  When scheduling SLCs, please address the following

• Welcome!  Make parents feel welcome and necessary partners in their child's learning.  We need them there to help us help their children!
• Email.  Get parent email addresses.  We'll be sending out email invites to remind parents of the appointments.
• Skedula. Check to see if they have access to Skedula.  If no, make a point to set them up during your SLC.

Grades.  Remember, Grades are due on November 6th.  Please remind students about our schoolwide grading policy.  From our Staff Handbook:

Grading Policy

At UAI, grades are numeric and based on a scale of 50-100.  For all course work and assessments, the lowest grade students can receive is a 50 and the highest grade is 100.  The 50-100 scale is a mathematically aligned scale to the traditional letter grades of A, B, C, D and F. Marking Period Grades are cumulative.

For Progress Report and final Report Card Grading in particular:

• The ONLY failing grade we use on report cards and transcripts is 55. If a student has another actual grade (e.g. 57, 63, 51), only 55 may be entered for failing. There is ONE exception to this rule. If the grades being entered are for marking periods two or four, then teachers may elect to use the grade of 60. This grade indicates that the student is currently failing, but will likely pass for the semester. Administratively, we differentiate failing grades of 60 and 55 for Promotion In Doubt letters and Summer School programming.
• All Passing Grades are integers > 65 but < 99. We do not use the final grade of 100. The minimum passing grade is 65. The maximum passing grade is 99.
• A student's overall course grade is 50% Performance activities, 30% Progress, and 20% Participation. In the units, teachers must specify which activities and assessments fall into each category so that students have a clear understanding of how they are being graded.
• All courses are annualized (except for NYU Poly courses). Students officially receive their final grade and credit in June of the school year. Students will receive a progress report for 5 marking periods, and the final (6th) report card will issue the grade for the course. If passing at the 3rd marking period (end of the fall term), at least 1 credit is guaranteed. If passing at the end of the 6th marking period (end of the spring term), then the students will earn both credit.

SEL Update

In SEL this week, students are wrapping up October's unit on friendship and conflict resolution by practicing true active listening. To be able to demonstrate good listening when talking to a friend, the acronym we teach the girls is EARS:

Eye contact
Ask and answer questions
Reflect feelings
Say it in your own words

For the month of November, students are shifting into a unit on responsible decision making in the face of pressure. We'll begin the unit by delving into a discussion on our personal core values and our future goals.

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

High School Dance on Friday, 27OCT17.  Chaperones are needed for the dance this Friday.  Please email Jen to volunteer.  Per Session is offered from 5:45PM-10PM.  Chaperones need to meet Jen in the main office at 5:45PM for an orientation.