Week of October 29th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 11

October 29th, 2018

(139 School Days Remaining)

Announcements

Spirit Week Success.  School spirit was alive and thriving at UAI this past week.  Many thanks to Ms. Jen for pushing and promoting each day to build our school spirit.  Many shout outs and many, many thanks go to Ms. Kelly for organizing the seniors into creating a fabulous and spirited assembly.  It went smoothly and truly showed how much our students appreciate one another and our school!  As per last week's staff meeting, we will continue to solicit feedback from staff regarding how to better improve our school culture and school events!  Stay tuned for our updates around next month's Advisory activities!

To Do This Week

Monday Announcements. These announcements are driven by your responses to the surveys we send out to you.  Last week, we got 12 of 50 staff responding.  This week we got that up to 15 out of 50.  All staff should feel free to respond!  There's still time so please take a minute to share your thoughts.  The more folks who respond, the more reliable the input!  CLICK HERE.  Please do answer the last question - even if it's just to share what you feel is good!  We can address good things too!

Mission and Vision Statements.  The response to our first Parent-Teacher Workshop around Implicit Bias was overwhelmingly positive.  This Mission Workshop was aimed at revisiting the schools' mission and to study and reflect on our own implicit bias on young women in STEM.   These workshops were conceived of and planned in our School Leadership Team meetings.  Originally, the goal was to bring in an outside organization to facilitate these conversations with our parents and teachers.  Ms. Doris researched Border Crossers, which are a high-quality organization with an equally high price tag.  Mr. McLean then found out through his DOE contacts that we should be able to receive this support via the DOE, but we couldn't organize them in time for our October PD, so Kiri and the Consultation Committee stepped in.   The SLT is looking for volunteers to work together to target these DOE supports and to prepare for our next Parent-Teacher Workshop on December 17th.  Our next SLT meeting is on November 19th, so interested staff should be prepared to present initial plans by then.  If interested, please email Kiri.  

Technology Support.  There have been a couple of questions regarding technology support.  To reiterate, for now, please email me or Brodie directly for any support you may need.  Phil Bertani will be our new tech support person, but the DOE process for onboarding new staff is notoriously slow and laborious.  HR told me they would reach out to me by the end of the day Friday to confirm approval for the position.  I did not hear from them and have to call them again, first thing on Monday.  Once we onboard Phil, we will then communicate with everyone the systems that will be in place to provide tech support for UAI.  In the meantime, please be patient as we transition our new technical support person onto the campus payroll.  Direct emails to me and or Brodie will be the best way you can get technical support until this process is completed.

PD Committee.  As a reminder, we have a standing PD committee that meets to plan PD for the staff all year long.  We meet on Fridays at 11:15-12:10 in room 401.  Rebecca, Marsha, and Jamie are three who have consistently attended all year.  However, the committee is always open to everyone.  In particular, the committee is focusing professional development work this year on lesson planning for student thinking and in-class coaching.  If you'd like to have input on planning PD for the staff, please join us or reach out to Rebecca, Marsha or Jamie so they can hear your ideas and bring them to the meeting!  Here's the Agenda for Monday's PD

• 3:00-4:10:  LDC in Room 305.  Teachers working with LDC meet weekly under the leadership of Marsha & Rebecca with the support of our Generation Ready Literacy Coach, Christine Del Negro.  Announcements will be delivered to LDC group at 4PM  Monday 29OCT18 Agenda.  
• 3:00-4:10  All Other Staff in Room 409.  All other staff report to room 409.  
• 3:00-3:15 Updates from The Survey followed by brief Q&A
• 3:15-3:30 School Goals and Vision for Professional Development at UAI
• 3:30-4:10 Lesson Planning Look Fors - Learning how to plan for thinking vs. planning for doing

Social Emotional Learning This Week

Social Awareness - 6th graders spent time this week focusing on social awareness.  They practiced how to talk to a friend who is disappointing them and how to respond to conflict so that everyone walks away with a "win-win".  If they're having trouble collaborating in class and need to make compromises ask them how they can turn their conflict it into a "win-win"! They also reflected on gossip and how it may impact their lives in and out of school.  They used the 4 question "gossip test" to help decide if the information they receive should be passed on.  Let's hope they use it for real! 

Relationship Building - 9th grade continued to work on relationship building skills. We took an in-depth look at different relationship builders and damagers and how they affect our connections with the people around us. We then began to connect the different damagers we identified to our independent study novel Thirteen Reasons Why. Reading the book alongside our unit on building better relationships has helped us ground our work in the real world!

Week of 10/22

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 10

October 22nd, 2018

[144 School Days Remaining]

Announcements

Spirit Week.  This week is our first spirit week of the year.  Activities like this create a common feeling of belonging for our community and our kids.  So, don't be shy and jump in to the full spirit of the week.  We will be culminating this week with an assembly last period and celebrating all of our seniors who took their first step towards applying to college.  [Full disclosure, I myself am dressed as my favorite character - school principal - because I totally forgot about today - BUT I will be in full force for the rest of the week!] 

To Do This Week

Monday PD.  Today's PD will be split with our LDC teachers joining Rebecca and Marsha in room 305 and the rest of the staff will join us in room 409.  LDC teachers will begin work as an English team to vertically align their standards and expectations with the goal of creating common expectations that prepare students for advanced level courses later in high school and beyond in college.  This work will begin with other teams as we move through the year.  

New Art History Course.   Many shout-outs go to Ms. Natalie who has stepped up to fill in for the Art vacancy created when Tracy stepped in for Dance.  This course will explore art of the world and looks to pair with the history courses of the grade. Thank Ms. Natalie, this is bound to be a wonderful opportunity for our students.

Tuesday Outreach.  Report cards went out on Friday to students.  Please call home to make sure your advisee's families received them.  For all teachers who have students who failed your class, please call your students' families so they have an understanding of what needs to be done to correct their current trajectory

SEL This Week

Review & Relationships. This week 6th graders showed how much they have learned in SEL class thus far by participating in a family feud style review game.  Not only did they get really into it but they proved that they are retaining important information about why we have SEL and how developing the skills are useful and important!  They also spent time being thoughtful about friendship and made "friend wanted" ads stating the type of friend they would want and how they themselves would make a good friend to others.  Their ads were full of depth, honesty and even humor.  We are going to try to display them in the hall by 304 if you want to take a look! 

Per Session Opportunities

Student Government Teacher. Students have always wanted to participate in student government.  At UAI, we've struggled to find someone to help build the program and create a sustainable system for our students.  We're looking for a teacher to run a 6-12 student government that would meet after schools from 1-2 hours of per session per week.  Responsibilities would include managing elections and then holding regular meetings to conduct and complete government duties - which will also need to be articulated with the group.

Week of 10/15

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 9

October 15th, 2018

[149 School Days Remaining]

Announcements

Student Recruitment.  Our student recruitment is in full swing this weekend with staff and students working hard in Brooklyn and Manhattan.  We are looking to maximize our incoming classes next year to grow our school size.  UAI is a special and exciting school for young women, and more young girls should have the opportunity to join us!  Many thanks to the staff and students who gave their time this weekend, and many thanks to Ms. Jen who has been spearheading this hard and intense work!

To Do This Week

Grades due on Wednesday by 3PM.  The first marking period ended on Friday, 12OCT18.  As with all marking periods, you should communicate with students that at UAI our grades are cumulative.  That means that marking period report cards are like snapshots of progress, and students continue their work and development through each marking period until the final one in June.  For Dance and Ms. Giselle's Spanish classes, all grades will be "NG" or no-grade and student work will pick back up for the 2nd marking period.  Please remind students and families, that marking period grades are progress reports and the only grade that goes onto transcripts is the final grade in June.

Dance Position Filled.  During Consultation Committee, several people brought up concerns about rumors that students were spreading regarding Sursattie's sudden absence.  Whenever students bring up rumors, we always need to counter with consistency and safety - even if we don't know the whole story.  Students need to feel that they are in a safe, secure, and healthy school - always.  With respect to Sursattie, her departure was uncertain for a while, and it was not clear what the final decision was going to be.  Ultimately, she decided to resign due to personal and health reasons.  The final decision came on September 28th.  We have been trying to find a replacement since the start of September, but at this time of year, there are no quality DOE certified dance teachers who are able to fill the position.  Ms. Tracy has a dance license and will be taking over the position starting on Monday.  We still have two ATR staff (Ms. Pamela and Mr. J) who will be on staff to help cover Ms. Tracy's classes until we find a solution there (which is in the works and should be finalized this week).  Mr. Matthew (our regular sub) will be covering the rest of Ms. Giselle's maternity leave until November 2nd.   

First PTA-Staff Workshop.  Tomorrow will be our first Staff-Parent workshop with two more to follow in December and April.  Please meet in the Library and please arrive on time at 3PM.  On Thursday, the Consultation Committee met to help plan the workshop and came up with the following goals and agenda:

Goal:  By the end of the workshop Parents and Staff will build stronger community tie by collaboratively revising the mission of UAI.  In so doing, parent and staff members of our community will have a shared understanding of the mission of our school and how best to promote the mission for our students.  

• 3:00 Welcome and Overview of the Afternoon
• 3:15 Storytelling IceBreaker
• 3:30 Taking at Look at UAI's Mission
• UAI's Story - in your own words
• Sharing - What did we all have in common?
• What does the Mission Say?
• 4:00 Understanding our Glows and Grows
• What parts of our mission come through strongest and why?
• What parts of our mission are less visible and why?
• 4:30 Making the Mission Real
• In what ways do we realize the mission in our actions with students?
• In what ways can we improve?
• 5:00 Taking a look at the UA Mission and NYCDOE Mission 
• How do we fit in?  Why is it important to see UAI in this work?
• Write another mission statement
• 5:20 End of Workshop

We are trying to create groups for this workshop.  If you have not filled out THIS SHEET please do so now.  Even if you have zero parents confirmed, please fill out your name and enter "no parents confirmed" so that we know and can group accordingly.  If you have parents and have yet to enter them, please do so now! Thank you!!

SEL This Week

Review & Relationships. This week 6th graders showed how much they have learned in SEL class thus far by participating in a family feud style review game.  Not only did they get really into it but they proved that they are retaining important information about why we have SEL and how developing the skills are useful and important!  They also spent time being thoughtful about friendship and made "friend wanted" ads stating the type of friend they would want and how they themselves would make a good friend to others.  Their ads were full of depth, honesty and even humor.  We are going to try to display them in the hall by 304 if you want to take a look! 

Per Session Opportunities

Student Government Teacher. Students have always wanted to participate in student government.  At UAI, we've struggled to find someone to help build the program and create a sustainable system for our students.  We're looking for a teacher to run a 6-12 student government that would meet after schools from 1-2 hours of per session per week.  Responsibilities would include managing elections and then holding regular meetings to conduct and complete government duties - which will also need to be articulated with the group.

Week of October 8th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 8

October 9th, 2018

[154 School Days Remaining]

Announcements

College Visits.  Last week Ms. Danielle took a group of seniors to visit LIU Brooklyn's Nursing school today where they were able to sit in on a Skills Assessment Lab and shadow nursing students, watch students use a simulation lab with life-like dummies, and meet with the Deans of Admission.  Visits like this and those from college admissions representatives are key activities for our seniors as they and their families make one of the most important decisions of their future - where they want to go to college after they graduate from UAI.  We do appreciate our teachers who support our students when they miss classes for experiences like these!

To Do This Week

Tuesday Outreach.  Next Monday is our first of three parent-outreach workshops.  During this workshop we will be revisiting and revising the mission and vision of UAI.  The goal of these workshops is to build stronger relationships between our families and our staff.  This first workshop seeks to do that my co-creating a common mission and vision for our school!  As a reminder for staff, this was an SBO voted into place to combine Monday and Tuesday extended day time into one three times a year (October, December and April).  Please reach out to your families today to invite them to the event on Monday, 15OCT18 from 3-5:20PM.   Enter your RSVPs here today.  The goal is to get at least three families per advisory.  Each advisor will be working with their own advisory parents. 

Lesson Plans and Observations.  We will be finishing up our first round of unannounced observations this week.  Please upload your lessons and units to your pacing guide or have them ready for pick up when we walk into your classroom.

SEL This Week

Working Together. In SEL 6th graders have continued to learn the best ways for productive and peaceful collaboration. They especially enjoyed doing skits that helped them learn how it feels to assume others mean well and how to disagree without being disagreeable. They will begin the week with a fun review game of what they’ve learned and practiced so far.

Relationships. Last week in SEL, 9th grade reflected on the great and not-so-great academic and personal relationships we’ve made over the years. We thought about adults and friends at school/home that we have a positive relationship with and examined why they fell under this category. We also identified different qualities we look for in a friend, and began to work on ways that we can build stronger, healthier relationships with peers or adults at school we have yet to connect with.

Per Session Opportunities

None this week

Week of October 1

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 7

October, 2018

[159 School Days Remaining]

Announcements

Fantastic Advisory Trip Success! UAI was all over the city on Friday.  From the Bushwick Art Collective to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to Dave and Busters in Times Square - advisory groups and teachers had a fun-filled day of learning experiencing our beautiful city and getting to know one another better.  I'll be sending out the annual UAI iPhoto sharing album for 2018-2019 later today.  Please do upload your 

To Do This Week

Monday PD.  This Monday is the first Monday of the month.  As such, we will be having grade team meetings to work on the upcoming PLOPs and to complete a quick survey to check in on how we're doing at UAI.  Please bring a computer to PD in room 409 today.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.  As we are in the height of recruitment season, we are trying to build up our followers in social media.  Please promote our Instagram and Facebook pages and encourage students and families to follow us.  Currently we have 155 followers on Instagram and we're trying to get that number up to at least 500 before the end of the month.  Please promote our pages with your family outreach and encourage students and families to follow, share, and get the word out about our fantastic, unique, and powerful school.  Given the current climate we are all living through, empowering young women in fields of power (like STEM) current be more important!  Let's get our name out there and connect to more young girls like ours!

Lesson Plans and Observations.  In a couple of observations last week, we weren't able to immediately pick up a lesson plan from the teacher nor was the plan readily available through the pacing guide.  If you are not planning on using your pacing guides, please have the lesson ready when we walk into the classroom.  All teachers should have their lesson plans on hand.  You don't need to make extra copies, I can scan it with my phone when I'm in the classroom.  In fact, the more your edit and make revisions to your plan throughout the day, the more you show how you are adapting to the assessment data you are getting from your students (3D).  So, don't feel shy about annotating and changing your plans!

SEL This Week

Collaboration.  6th graders have been learning how to collaborate in SEL. They’re working on sharing the work load and giving everyone a chance to contribute, assuming their group members mean well, being open minded to the opinions of others and how to disagree without being disagreeable. The activities their doing to learn how collaboration improves relationships and productivity are interactive and fun and hopefully will help in class on group projects and beyond!

Girls Inc Middle School has started afterschool stronger, smarter, and bolder than ever!  Our girls have had two weeks of exciting fun and games getting to know each other and our new staff!  Today we joined Free People in their Moving Together event as they partner with Girls Inc. to share a day of mind and body self care.  The girls enjoyed meditation, dancing and delicious food that fuels our bodies.  They also received a fanny pack filled with natural skin care products and a free app for meditation and mental health care.  Be sure to ask our middle schoolers about how much they are enjoying after school!

Girls Inc High School has also started stronger than ever!  This year Ms. Kimberly put together a fantastic offering of clubs for our HS girls!  Such clubs include our partnership with Girls Who Code, Mural, Cybergirls, Love your Selfie, Guitar, Japanese Anime, Cooking, and Girl Activism.  Participating in extracurricular activities is an essential part of a strong college resume.  Please encourage families and our students to join Girls Inc. to round out their UAI experience, make friends in the UAI community and best prepare themselves for college.   

Per Session Opportunities

First High School Dance The first high school dance will be on Friday, November 2nd from 6-10PM. We are looking for chaperones to work for these four hours.  We're looking for at least 10 chaperones.  Please email Ms. Jen if you are interested or would like more information.