Week of Sept. 12th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 4

September 12th, 2018

[172 School Days Remaining]

Announcements

First Week of School!   As I circulated through classes and halls last week, I had an opportunity to connect with many of you, our students, and even some of our families.  By all accounts, we had one of the smoothest and most successful school launches in the history of UAI!  Despite having had only one full day of NYCDOE PD to prepare, our staff, classrooms, and offices were ready and welcoming for our young women and their families.  When our superintendent Fred Walsh visited classes with me on the second day, he was particularly impressed with how in every classroom we passed, he saw our students fully attentive, raising their hands to engage in class discussions, and thoughtfully asking (and answering) interesting questions.  Strong planning and practice is key to keeping this excellent first start going!  Make sure to connect with your co-planning partners this week to start the work and habits of healthy planning for the year.

Advisory Field Trips.  Originally, next Tuesday was going to be set aside for Advisory Field Trips as an effort to build stronger relationships early in the year and give more time for advisors to get to know their advisories.  With only the one day for PD this year, we did not have enough time to cover expectations during our opening day PDs and with Rosh Hashanah falling on this Monday and Tuesday, the next time we'll have to discuss this is the Monday before the trip.  Therefore, we will be rescheduling this day for a later date.  Please tell us which day you prefer by entering your preference here.  Once we hear from staff, we'll send out the new date along with expectations for the trip.

To Dos This Week

Skedula and Attendance.  Now that we are in our second week of school, we need to focus in on establishing good habits around taking attendance and entering grades.  Taking accurate and timely attendance and uploading grades and communicating about student performance with families is part of the professional responsibility of teachers.  It can be hard to juggle, but you must find a method that works so that this gets done.  It's important and it's required.

• Daily attendance should be taken in Skedula for each and every class you teach.  This needs to be done within the first 10 minutes of class.  Make a plan to do this why students are working on their Do Now.   In addition, each morning, all 2nd-period teachers must collect their official attendance sheets (the blue sheets found above the water cooler in the main office), and complete those sheets.  By 10AM, those sheets must be ready for collection in the folders located outside your classroom doors.  
• Share your Skedula with your Co-Teachers.  For now, until we can adjust the systems in STARS, Skedula only sees one teacher for each course.  If you cannot see your student rosters, please ask your co-teachers to share their Skedula with you.  

New Staff Orientation (also open to Returning Staff in Need of Refreshers).  After school at 3pm on Thursday 13SEP in rm 403, we will be holding an orientation for new staff to field any outstanding questions or concerns you may have as you onboard to UAI.   All questions are welcome!  In particular, we will be discussing protocols around school discipline, grading, and school logistics (ordering, staff attendance, professional duties, etc.).  All New Staff and any returning staff who want a refresher or have questions are welcome!  This is a volunteer opportunity, please RSVP to let us know you're coming.
Staff Bios and Missions.  This is the first draft of the UAI directory for the year.  Please review and edit what you submitted.  It's also a good chance to read what others have submitted.  If you don't see your entry, please go ahead and add it right into the document!  I had to put this together from a variety of sources and I could have missed something. This will be published in next week's blog, and we will be giving this out to families during curriculum night.  As a public school, this directory also gets shared with a number of public organizations such as our partners like Girls Inc and Urban Assembly and also throughout various DOE organizations like our for All Partners and our Affinity Superintendency.  

Per Session Opportunities

Recruitment Committee.  Bolstering enrollment and finding students and families to vest in our school and our mission is pivotal to the success of UAI.  We are looking for staff who are deeply committed to joining this committee and working closely with Lauren and Jen to build out a system and model that will be UAI's long-standing method of student recruitment.  Jen and Lauren are leading this committee.  Please submit your interest to them.   Available hours and positions will depend on committee outcomes (e.g. how many people submit interest) and needs (i.e. depending on what the committee develops as a strategy/model).  The first committee meeting will be on Thursday after school in Jen's office, room 301.