Week of Feb 4th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 23

February 4th, 2019

(80 instructional days remaining)

Announcements

Chimamanda Adichie.  Our 3rd extended day of the year on Monday will continue our work around uncovering and beginning to understand implicit bias.  Paul Forbes is the Director of Equity, Anti-Bias, and Diversity from the NYCDOE's Office of Educational Equity.  He will be leading our workshop on Monday, and has asked that we watch and be ready to discuss Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk, "The Danger of a Single Story".  Tomorrow's session will be from 3:00PM-5:00PM in the library

Your feedback matters!   Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts from our last workshop on bias.  One resonating theme was the issue around time.  Almost unanimously, everyone found the information to be useful and learned from Rachel's presentation.  However, it was also so much in such a short amount of time.  It was overwhelming.   Folks wanted more time to digest, discuss, and understand.

This is long, hard work, and we are only barely scratching the surface.  Ultimately, our goal as a community is to build our understanding and develop strategies to avoid the negative impact that implicit bias can have on our community and our students.  This is the long-term goal of what will likely be a multi-year process. The goal by the end of this year through these series of workshops is to increase our own awareness around issues of equity and bias.   Before we can fix anything, we first have to understand.

We are at the start of a long journey, and with the help and direction of experts like Rachel and Paul, we will stay the path as we improve our own understanding and reflection on these issues.

As for Monday, your feedback was heard!  The workshop we are getting is originally designed as a 5 hours workshop.  Paul has agreed to give us two sessions so that we have the time needed to digest the work.  We have 2.5 hours on this Monday, but we need to find another extended day time between now and April to continue the work.  The UFT consultation committee is meeting on Monday so please reach out to the members (Kelly, Sarah, Jake, Danielle, Suzannah, Elena, Nina, Damon, or Matthew) to let them know your thoughts so we can have your ideas represented during the meeting.  

To Do This Week

Year of the Pig.  Tuesday is Chinese Lunar New Year,  Like Rosh Hashanah, the Chinese New Year is not based on the Gregorian Calendar and the date varies slightly each year.  Like all New Year celebrations, Chinese Lunar New marks the beginning of a fresh year, and the start of a new zodiac sign to govern that year.  This year is The Year of the Pig!  There is NO School on Tuesday.  School Messenger calls have been sent out, and it has been announced on Social Media.  Please also announce in classes with your students.  

Black History Month.  Last Friday marked the start of our celebrations of Black History Month. In addition to the school-wide activities (posters, announcements, Girls' Inc. Black History Month Performances, and the schoolwide Assembly on 15FEB19), please make it a point to integrate black history month into your lessons during February.  Part of the way all of us connect to the mission to the school is by finding a means to empower all of our students.  One way to do that is to help them see themselves and make connections to our curriculum.  Through highlighting role models to introducing engaging activities and texts, there are many pathways to inspire our young women.  This is our daily work, but February is an opportunity to emphasize that work to connect to Black History!


[Repeat Post] Preparing for Mid-Year Conferences.  Now that Annie is back from jury duty, we can fully resume our meetings with folks.  We do apologize for the delay!

• 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?

• Annie:  Megan, Damon, Tom, Meaghan, Tracy, Elana, Jake, Natalie, Zack, Suzannah, Kelly, Nadine, Elena, Giselle, Rebecca F., Freida, Laura
• Kiri:  Matthew, Danielle, Jamie, Joey, Marsha, Rebecca, Amanda, Kristi

SEL Weekly Update

SEL Update:  6th graders have spent the last few weeks learning the differences between bullying and drama.  Through role play, scenarios, videos, and deep discussions they know what it means to be an upstander and the best ways to help someone who is being bullied in person and online.  They are armed with concrete steps they can take to address cyber bullying and almost all of them have either witnessed or experienced it on various social media platforms. Soon we will dive into how to be a good digital citizen.