UAI Staff News
Volume V
Issue 15
December 11th, 2017
[School Days 64-68]
Announcements
This Week's To Dos
Advisory Clarification. This year, we are using Tuesday family outreach time to build connections and strengthen our ties with families. Consistent and regular contact that includes both positive and negative updates on student progress is critical to cementing partnerships with our families. The UFT and the DOE contracted time for this type of contact to be on Tuesdays after school. For us, that time is from 3:00-3:40 after school each Tuesday. We'll be checking in on progress during midyear reviews. Here are the expectations for Tuesday outreach time
- Meet with all advisees at least once per marking period. Either you'll meet in person (if the parent can come) or you'll be calling home. You'll want students to be at the meeting with you either way so that they can hear the updates, too. If they aren't there, don't let that stop you. Go on with the meeting! You should be meeting with 3-4 advisees' families per week (this builds in flexibility to have longer sessions with students who need it). During these 10-20min meetings, advisors should be updating families with both academic and social-emotional progress and development using grades and anecdotes posted in Skedula.
- How often? We have just finished the 2nd marking period. You should have met with each of your advisees' parents/guardians in person at least once (1st MP, SLCs, or 2nd MP), and you should have logged at least three successful contacts with parents/guardians for each advisee.
- What to talk about? Are parents logging into Skedula to track attendance, grades, and behavior anecdotes? If not, get them signed up. Review grades and anecdotes. What are the strengths/areas of growth? What can parents do to help the student? What is the student's goal(s) and how does she plan to achieve them and by when?
- DESSA Data. Lauren completed an analysis of the DESSA. You can access your individual advisee reports at the same site that Lauren directed you to go to complete the DESSA. From the latest DESSA, Lauren reports that the vast majority of our student struggle with Goal-Oriented Behavior. She created this sheet to help you and your students develop this skill.
- Log all contact home in Skedula. At the end of the meeting, you should be summarizing the gist of the conversation and the outcome(s) of the meetings in Skedula. That way, you, the student, and the parent all have access to a record of the goals set and can return to Skedula for follow up.
- Contact Home. During SLCs as we checked in families, the large majority of parents reported having been contacted by the school only once, with some families reporting happily consistent conversations since the start of the year. To further improve contact, the main office is starting to schedule meetings for advisors using this sheet. This is still a new system, so some kinks are being worked out, but we are aiming at improving contact information and more face-to-face meetings for the upcoming marking period.
[REMINDER] Prepare for Upcoming Midyear Reviews. Reviews will begin next week! As a reminder, please reflect on the following. Please bring the blue items with you for the review.
- Focus School Goal. Our main priority goal this year is to increase instructional rigor and student intellectual engagement [Rigorous Instruction & Collaborative Teachers]. To achieve this, we have focused on through improved planning & assessment. Between now, and your midyear review, reflect on your progress with the following:
- Improvement in Planning (e.g. UAI Pacing Calendar, Narrative Lesson Plans, Backwards-Designed Unit Plans)
- Impact on Student Learning (e.g. samples of Student Work with your feedback, Student achievement (analysis of student grades in course or performance on tests/benchmarks), Student Academic Growth)
- Growth in Co-planning with Peer Teachers/Coaches (e.g. quality of planning, quality of lesson execution (Advance Observations) impact on student learning, outcomes of co-planning survey - please click the link to take it now)
- Second School Goal. The second goal that we will discuss during midyears is our school goal around increasing Strong Family Ties. Our goal is to increase strong family community ties by increasing both quantity and quality of in-person and phone interactions between teachers and families. This year, each student in your advisory should have had at least 4 interactions and at least 1 in person, all documented in Skedula: 1 welcome to UAI phone call in September; at least 1 in-person visit during MP1, MP2, or SLCs; and at least 2 10-15 minute phone calls for MP1, MP2, or SLC. Specifically, review and reflect on the following data points:
- Number of successful contacts (in person and phone) per advisee (as evidenced by Skedula anecdotals)
- Growth Advisee attendance rates from September (you can see this in Skedula)
- Academic Performance of Advisees from MP1 to MP2 (again Skedula)
- Midyear Reflection and Refocus. The Midyear is your opportunity to stop, review your various data points, and reflect on your growth and development. As teachers, we often get too wrapped up in keeping students doing and busy and we don't make the time to step back and evaluate longer-term progress as shown through student thinking and achievement. This is one of the big times in the year to take stock of our work thus far. Where we are strong, we will continue. Where we struggle, we will analyze and refocus spring goals for growth. Here are some logistical things to keep in mind
- First Year at UAI? Teachers who are in their first year at UAI or are up for tenure can expect to be scheduled first for their reviews (schedule will be released next week). More explicit details on the Midyear will come in next week's blog. For this week, look back at your planning documents and reflect on your student outcomes (Do your lesson plans result in positive student outcomes? How do you know? Why or why not?)
- Are you up for Tenure this year? Teachers who are coming up for tenure are required to submit a formal portfolio of any of the documents or data points listed above. These will become part of their final portfolio of work to be submitted for tenure recommendation. The portfolio consists of three parts (1) a letter explaining why you merit tenure and how the documents you submit are illustrative of your growth and achievement (THIS YEAR - we will add more later); (2) samples of student work (with feedback that shows how students used your feedback to improve performance; (3) complete UAI Pacing Calendar with linked samples of Narrative Lesson Plans and all Units are Linked.
- Everyone else? You will have the same reflection question: Do your lesson plans result in positive student outcomes? How do you know? Why or why not? - most importantly, how do you plan to show Kiri/Annie your progress through planning documents and student work?
NOTE: Please do not wait to prepare. Begin gathering your planning documents and reviewing your student work, exam achievements, & growth. Review and think about what these all say about your growth as an educator and pedagogue. Jot your thoughts down as you reflect. Talk to your planning partners to hash it out!
SEL Update
In SEL this week, 6th and 9th graders delved into their unit on bullying and drama by discussing experiences they have had with bullying and drama, as well as experiences that have taken place at other schools. This week, students will learn to distinguish bullying from drama by examining the type of harassment taking place, how repetitive the harassment is, and the power dynamics present in the situation. Students will also learn to identify bullying and harassment on social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and positive ways to respond to social media harassment.
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