Week of January 28th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 22

January 28th, 2019

(85 instructional days remaining)

Announcements

Fall Semester is Complete!  On Tuesday we will launch the Spring semester.  It's hard to believe that the Fall is already complete.  As they say, when you're busy and thoroughly engaged, the time does fly!  The start of a new term is the perfect time to re-establish norms and reshape our high expectations with students, their performance, and the classroom environment.  This spring, MP 4 will be short with our March conferences occurring early this year (on March 6th & 7th).  The 5th and 6th Marking periods will be longer.  All marking period dates are posted in the UAI school calendar.


SEO Resumes on Tuesday!  SEO resumes their after school program on Tuesday.  Those teachers who share classrooms with SEO should prepare!

We can't do this right without your feedback!   Many thanks the the THREE people who shared their feedback on the last Implicit Bias workshop that we had on January 14th.  Our next and final one is being organized by Mr. McLean.  We want to make these workshops as good as possible.  To better inform our planning, please take a minute to provide feedback using THIS FORM.  

To Do This Week

Joanna's First Solo Regents Run.  This past Regents week went incredibly smoothly and it was Joanna's first time running the whole shebang from soup to nuts sola!  From her initial planning, to her clear communication, Joanna made Regents week smooth for all involved.  Please do share any feedback with her so that we can continue to grow and get even better!  Thank you Joanna!! 

Report Cards Distributed Last Period on Tuesday 29JAN.  MP 3 is complete.  As per our grading policy, any student who earned a passing grade retains their credits, regardless of their performance in June.  Report cards will be distributed during last period classes, however, regents scores will not be on them (they were not all yet in as of Friday afternoon).  Students will be able to see grades in Skedula, however.  As they come in, we will continue to refresh.  All scores should be in no later than Wednesday.



Chancellor's PD on 28JAN19.  Here's the agenda for tomorrow:

• 8:00-8:30AM Breakfast (optional)

• 8:30-9:30AM State of The School Address (All staff report to 409)

• 9:30-9:40AM Break

• 9:40-11:20AM Workshops
• LDC Teachers Work with Marsha & Rebecca on Aligning Expectations in Student Work
• All other staff join Joey & Tiffany on Effective Circulation and Using Strategic Feedback to Maximize Student Learning Throughout the Lesson

• 11:20-11:30AM Break and then meet back in 409

• 11:30-12:00PM The Spring Sneak Peak on Supportive Environment Work

• 12:00-1:00PM Lunch Provided for All by LDC [Thank you Jamie Rice and the LDC Crew!]

• 1:00-2:30PM PM Workshops
• LDC Teachers continue AM work
• All other staff have Independent Work Time on Lessons & Units
  (Plus scheduled Mid Year Review Conferences with Annie or Kiri)

• 2:30-2:50PM Closure for the Day in Room 409
• Key Take-Aways for the Day
• Feedback Forms

[Repeat Post] Preparing for Mid-Year Conferences.  In the afternoon of Monday, 28JAN19, Annie and I will begin holding our Mid-Year Conferences.  This year the conferences will focus on your planning and lesson execution.  In particular, please bring a copy of a lesson and unit plan from the Fall and that you've done this year that you are most proud of.  Also, bring a copy of a lesson (and it's unit plan) for the Spring that you would like to be observed.  Be prepared to discuss 

• Intellectual Engagement:  What do you do to maximize the time students spend engaging in high levels of thinking throughout the lesson.
• Formative Assessment:  How do you make student thinking visible to you and what do you do to assess student thinking throughout the lesson
• Using Student Work to Inform Instructional Moves:  How do you to respond to student thinking throughout the lesson and how does your feedback impact student achievement both throughout the lesson and unit.
• New Question that you'll be working on during PD: How do you connect to the mission of UAI in your daily work?  What is your personal vision for your role in achieving UAI's mission?

Here's the schedule for the afternoon

• 1:00-1:15 Alison (Kiri), Megan (Annie)
• 1:15-1:30 Cherry (Kiri), Damon (Annie)
• 1:30-1:45 Matthew (Kiri),  Tom (Annie)
• 1:45-2:00 Nina (Kiri), Meaghan (Annie)
• 2:00-2:15 Danielle (Kiri), Tracy (Annie)
• 2:15-2:30 Judy (Kiri), Elana (Annie)

We'll finish up the rest of the staff the week following (stay tuned for the calendar invite)

• Tuesday 29JAN19:  
• With Kiri in 401:  Matthew, Sarah, Phillan, Kristina, Christina, Cassandra, Tiffany, Joey,
• With Annie in 201:  Jake, Natalie, Zack, Suzannah, Kelly, Nadine, Elena, Giselle
• Wednesday 30JAN19:
• With Kiri in 401:  Marsha, Rebecca C., Amanda, Kristi
• With Annie in 201: Rebecca F., Freida, Laura

 

Week of January 21st

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 21

January 21st, 2019

(85 instructional days remaining)

Announcements

College Alumnae Day!  This may be a little late, but it's still worth it to celebrate!  Big shout outs to our wonderful college counseling team (Ms. Danielle I. and Ms. Doris) for coordinating a series of panels of UAI Alumnae on Friday 11JAN19.  Students from almost all of our former classes visited with our current students to discuss their journeys through high school and how they navigated and/or are navigating their post-secondary experiences.  It was amazing to see students like Cheyenne Watson and Cassandra McCray speak so eloquently of how they navigated their HS struggles and not-always well-thought-out choices as rich learning experiences for their current success in college.  Their stories resonated with our seniors, many of whom face similar paths, and inspired them to see a powerful future for themselves!  Well done Danielle and Doris!!

Perception Institute Feedback.  Many thanks to Ms. Doris, Mr. Damon, and to Rachel and Krishawna from the perception institute for last week's session on understanding implicit bias.  It was an informative beginning to a much larger and longer conversation . We are currently working on following up on the workshop as we plan our work for January 28th. To better inform our planning, please take a minute to provide feedback using THIS FORM.  Our next and final extended PD of the year will be on MON February 4th.  Mr. McLean is coordinating this event with Paul Forbes from the DOE, who has done much of this work with other schools in the DOE.  Please save the date.  As we move forward with planning, we will get you more detailed information.  Any staff who is interested in helping with the planning should reach out to me ASAP!

To Do This Week

Tuesday Family Outreach.  There is no HS family outreach this week because of Regents week.  MS advisors, please reach out to let families know that we have a school-wide Chancellor's PD day on Monday 28JAN19. 

Intervisitation Sign Up.  Many thanks to Jamie & Danielle for hosting an amazing visit to Alison's classroom to look at instructional practice around look-fors and teacher circulation.  We'll be continuing this work in our January PD, particularly incorporating meaningful feedback (or as Rachel put it, Wise Feedback) during our circulation to leverage up student learning.  Kelly's visit will be rescheduled for when Annie returns from jury duty!!

Chancellor's PD on 28JAN19.  Here's the agenda for Monday's PD on 28JAN19

• 8:00-8:30AM Breakfast (optional)

• 8:30-9:30AM State of The School Address (All staff report to 409)

• 9:30-12:00PM AM Workshops
• LDC Teachers Work with Marsha & Rebecca on Aligning Expectations in Student Work
• All other staff join Joey & Tiffany on Effective Circulation and Using Strategic Feedback to Maximize Student Learning Throughout the Lesson

• 12:00-1:00PM Lunch on your own

• 1:00-2:30PM PM Workshops
• LDC Teachers continue AM work
• All other staff have Independent Work Time on Lessons & Units
  (Plus scheduled Mid Year Review Conferences with Annie or Kiri)

• 2:30-2:50PM Closure for the Day in Room 409
• Key Take-Aways for the Day
• Feedback Forms

Preparing for Mid-Year Conferences.  In the afternoon of Monday, 28JAN19, Annie and I will begin holding our Mid-Year Conferences.  This year the conferences will focus on your planning and lesson execution.  In particular, please bring a copy of a lesson and unit plan from the Fall and that you've done this year that you are most proud of.  Also, bring a copy of a lesson (and it's unit plan) for the Spring that you would like to be observed.  Be prepared to discuss 

• Intellectual Engagement:  What do you do to maximize the time students spend engaging in high levels of thinking throughout the lesson.
• Formative Assessment:  How do you make student thinking visible to you and what do you do to assess student thinking throughout the lesson
• Using Student Work to Inform Instructional Moves:  How do you to respond to student thinking throughout the lesson and how does your feedback impact student achievement both throughout the lesson and unit.

Here's the schedule for the afternoon

• 1:00-1:15 Alison (Kiri), Megan (Annie)
• 1:15-1:30 Cherry (Kiri), Damon (Annie)
• 1:30-1:45 Matthew (Kiri),  Tom (Annie)
• 1:45-2:00 Nina (Kiri), Meaghan (Annie)
• 2:00-2:15 Danielle (Kiri), Tracy (Annie)
• 2:15-2:30 Judy (Kiri), Elana (Annie)

We'll finish up the rest of the staff the week following (stay tuned for the calendar invite)

• Tuesday 29JAN19:  
• With Kiri in 401:  Matthew, Sarah, Phillan, Kristina, Christina, Cassandra, Tiffany, Joey,
• With Annie in 201:  Jake, Natalie, Zack, Suzannah, Kelly, Nadine, Elena, Giselle
• Wednesday 30JAN19:
• With Kiri in 401:  Marsha, Rebecca C., Amanda, Kristi
• With Annie in 201: Rebecca F., Freida, Laura

 

Week of January 14th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 20

January 14th, 2019

(90 instructional days remaining)

Announcements

Mr. Tom, the Green Team, and NY Sun Works Launch UAI's first Hydroponic Farm!  This past Saturday, Mr. Tom's classroom in B49 transformed into a living classroom.  With the help from a grant and labor from the folks at NY Sun Works, Mr. Tom and the UAI Green Team installed a variety of indoor systems to cultivate crops and teach methods of sustainability.  Many thanks to Tom for working so hard to coordinate and follow through on this amazing opportunity for our girls.

Perception Institute.  As a reminder, we will be continuing our work around Implicit Bias on Monday, January 14th.  This is the workshop that was originally planned for December.  We will be working with Rachel Godsil from the Perception Institute to investigate how bias evolves and how we can learn to develop our own awareness and thus our capacity to guard against the negative impact that implicit bias can often incur.  As a reminder, we will not have family outreach time on Tuesday the 15th.  Instead, we will combine that time with Monday PD time so that on Monday, January 14th, we will meet in the Library from 3-5:25PM

To Do This Week

Tuesday Family Outreach.  Because Monday is one of the three extended sessions we have for our Implicit Bias work, we will not have extended time on Tuesday.  If you have not called home regarding students who are failing your classes, yet, please make time this week to reach out to families to let them know the status of students who are currently failing your class.  The last day for Marking Period 3 (for both MS and HS) will be this Friday, January 18th.  MS classes will continue, but those days will be included in the 4th MP.  Grades will be due on Wednesday, 23JAN at 3PM so that we have time to prepare report cards for distribution on the first day of the Spring Term.

Intervisitation Sign Up.  We are hosting another round of classroom intervisitation to see how planning robust look-fors in your lesson planning lead to higher levels of student intellectual engagement throughout the lesson.  This week Kelly and Alison are hosting visits:  16JAN19 Kelly in US History and 18JAN19 Alison in 6th grade math.  Please email Kiri and Annie directly if you want to join the visit!  Sarah & Phillan and Meaghan and Megan will be hosting visits in the next round!

Chancellor's PD on 28JAN19.  The PD committee is still finalizing the agenda for that day with LDC and teacher leaders.  We will be publishing the final agenda in next week's blog.  The day will be focused on teacher feedback and effectively assessing student thinking and crafting effective feedback to further push student thinking and achievment.

[Final Repost] Summer School Planning.  As we close out the fall, we will begin to plan for the summer.  UAI hosts summer school for several other UA schools in the summer.  We have not finalized programming (because we still need to know who will need what).  However, please complete this brief form to share your interest and availability for working summer school this year. 

 

Week of January 7th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 19

January 7th, 2019

(95 instructional days remaining)

Announcements

Victory for the Lady Eagles!  Playing one of their chief rivals, the Adams Campus Lady Eagles triumphed ending the game 10 points over John Jay!  Class of 2019 Ayanna Brown scored 10 of the Lady Eagles' 39 points.  Many congrats go out to Coaches Elana and Damon and the entire team for well-earned win leading the team to a record of 8-0!!   Their next home game is on Monday, 07JAN19 at 4:30 PM.  If you can't make that one, click here to see the full schedule.  

Perception Institute.  We will be continuing our work around Implicit Bias on Monday, January 14th.  This is the workshop that was originally planned for December.  We will be working with Rachel Godsil from the Perception Institute to investigate how bias evolves and how we can learn to develop our own awareness and thus our capacity to guard against the negative impact that implicit bias can often incur.  As a reminder, we will not have family outreach time on Tuesday the 15th.  Instead, we will combine that time with Monday PD time so that on Monday, January 14th, we will meet in the Library from 3-5:25PM

To Do This Week

Tuesday Family Outreach.  Please reach out to all advisees who are failing any classes on Tuesday to help families understand what they can do at home to intervene and prevent failure.  In addition, please call home to let HS families know their schedule for Regents week.

Monday PD.  It's the first Monday of the month - which means Grade Team Meeting time!!  

Special Notes:  

• Because the 8th-grade team is not going to meet this month, if you teach Kimora or Zekiah, please complete PLOPs for them by the end of the week. 
• All 8th and 12th-grade teachers must call home for any student that is currently failing your course this week.  Outreach must be recorded in Skedula.  For 8th and 12th graders in particular failure to promote means no participation in ceremonies or activities.  We need to communicate well with families and document our communications for this reason.

• Room 309:  6th Grade Agenda with Jen
• Complete PLOP for Jamyra McCray
• Review 6th Grade Behavior and Evaluate Intervention Impact
• Review Students who are Promotion In Doubt
• Make a list of students who are currently failing
• Advisors must call the home of all advisees who are failing 2 or more classes
• Classroom teachers must call the home of all students who are currently failing.

• Room 407:  7th Grade Agenda with Kiri
• No PLOPs this month
• Review Word Generation Implementation & Impact and Plan for Spring
• Review Students who are Promotion In Doubt
• Make a list of students who are currently failing
• Advisors must call the home of all advisees who are failing 2 or more classes
• Classroom teachers must call the home of all students who are currently failing.

High School Teams will all meet in 409 first to review Regents Week details.  All HS teachers must read and review this proctoring manual prior to tomorrow's PD so you can sign off on understanding what is expected of exam proctors.

•  9th Grade Agenda
• Complete PLOP for Dalia Ali
• Review Students who are Promotion In Doubt
• Make a list of students who are currently failing
• Advisors must call the home of all advisees who are failing 2 or more classes
• Classroom teachers must call the home of all students who are currently failing.
• 10th Grade Agenda
• Complete PLOP for Dalia Ali
• Review Students who are Promotion In Doubt
• Make a list of students who are currently failing
• Advisors must call the home of all advisees who are failing 2 or more classes
• Classroom teachers must call the home of all students who are currently failing.
• 11th Grade Agenda with Annie
• Complete PLOP for Deasia Davis
• Review Expectations for Hallway Passing
• All teachers are at the door at start and end of every period
• All teachers actively work to get students into and out of classes on time
• Review Students who are Promotion In Doubt
• Make a list of students who are currently failing
• Advisors must call the home of all advisees who are failing 2 or more classes
• Classroom teachers must call the home of all students who are currently failing.
• Prepare for College Applications and Letters of Recommendations
• Danielle and Doris will provide overview
• Letters are due no later than May 31st

[Repost] Summer School Planning.  As we close out the fall, we will begin to plan for the summer.  UAI hosts summer school for several other UA schools in the summer.  We have not finalized programming (because we still need to know who will need what).  However, please complete this brief form to share your interest and availability for working summer school this year. 

 

Week of January 1st, 2019

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 18

January 1st, 2019

(98 instructional days remaining)

Announcements

Happy New Year!  Welcome back everyone, and I hope that your break was restful and rejuvenating.  Also, I hope you were all able to connect with friends and families to celebrate the holidays and/or ring in the new year!

As we start the brand new year, we have less than 100 instructional days left in the school year.  Already this fall zoomed by and the spring will likely be similar.  As we jump straight back into the flow of school, let's challenge ourselves to push the quality and integrity of our planning and lesson execution to even higher heights of quality.  In so doing, our students will end this year with the best instruction UAI can provide!

To Do This Week

Summer School Planning.  As we close out the fall, we will begin to plan for the summer.  UAI hosts summer school for several other UA schools in the summer.  We have not finalized programming (because we still need to know who will need what).  However, please complete this brief form to share your interest and availability for working summer school this year. 

Family Outreach.  The 3rd marking period is coming to an end with only 13 instructional days for the high school (followed by 4 days of Regents week), and 17 days for the middle school.  This is a critical time for all students to make a strong push to get work in and study to increase performance on class and state exams.  

All Classroom Teachers:  If a student is currently failing your class, please make contact with the home (and log into Skedula) to help families understand what can be done to intervene and avert failure either by the end of this marking period or by the end of the school year.  Please make sure you are adhering to the school grading policy.  You can review that policy that was provided to you in the Staff Handbook at the beginning of the year.

All Advisors:  If any of your advisees are failing 1 or more classes, please contact home to make sure families understand that failing 1 or more classes jeopardizes promotion and that the student fails to turn it around, she will end up in either summer school or repeating the grade.  

HS Advisors:  Please call home to review your advisee's regents schedules (you can pull them up on Skedula - click Schedule and then HS Exam Schedule).  You can find the specific dates and times of the schedule by CLICKING HERE.


Reposted from last entry:

Lessons from Visits, Observations, and Intervisitations.  We will be resuming lesson observations this week.  As a reminder, before the break, the biggest trend we were seeing was around how we are working with our Lesson Look Fors.  We are improving significantly as a group in articulating quality look-fors that demand higher order thinking from our students in our lesson plans.  As a result, our students across grades and classrooms are definitely being pushed to think beyond "identifying", "matching", or copying.  More of our students are posing questions, sharing their ideas, and putting their thinking into writing as a means to consolidate their learning.

One common stumble that we are seeing through our intervisitations and observations is in teacher circulation.  In pursuit of finding the look-fors, teachers are pausing too long with turn and talk pairs to elicit them from students.  This means that many teachers are spending 2-3 minutes with a single pair, while the remaining talking pairs are either finished with their discourse and/or making the same conceptual mistakes without prompts or guidance.

This week is a great one for taking stock of your own practice by looking at thinking and circulation:

Planning for Student Thinking
Continue working on your lesson look-fors.  Evaluate them using Webb's DOK (what level of thinking are you demanding).  Look at your lesson time allotment.  How much time are students spending at Level 3 or 4 for the duration of your lesson (students should be thinking at Levels 3 or 4 for a minimum of 30 or more min during the period)?   Suggestion:  About every 5 minutes, students need to be asked to be doing something (writing/talking/engaging in an activity to figure something out).  At the end of a piece of instruction, create a quick turn and talk (or stop and jot) to help students engage in thinking.


Pay attention to your timing and circulation.  How long are you spending with each pair?  Are you picking up trends across multiple pairs?  What are you doing with the trends and patterns that you find? Suggestion:  During student discourse or work, use the first 1-2 minutes to get a lay of the land - visit every pair or group and take stock of what you hear first.  THEN, make a decision with what to do with it - what hints can you drop to put pairs on the right track to think independently without you?  Do those hints work for the class as a whole - if so then pause the talk and give it to everyone!