Week of Oct 2nd

UAI Staff News

Volume VII

Issue 7

October 2nd, 2019

Announcements

October 1st.  Coming from two months of vacation into three straight weeks of work is a hard transition for staff and students alike!  But we did it smoothly and successfully.  Inevitably, there are some things to improve and we are endeavoring constantly do so, but overall, the launch of the 2019-20 school year has been amazing!  That is due to all of your hard work.  In the first 19 days of school:

• Overall Student Attendance is at 88.71 (down from 89.4 from last September and short of our 90% goal for the year).  Our newly minted attendance team worked through September to understand our systems, analyze problems and create an action plan which you will learn about at next Monday's PD.  While we fell short of the attendance goal, there were some positive gains around attendance this mone.  This year, we are more efficiently discharging students who chose not to attend UAI (outcomes of this work will reflect next month).  Also, more UAI staff are regularly taking period attendance in Skedula, allowing our main office team more effective use of their time to follow up on absent students.  We still need to work towards 90%.  One key effort in this work isn't just the stats and figure - it's the classroom teachers.  When a student is absent, make sure she feels missed when she returns to class.  The relationships we build and the instruction we offer are our two most potent tools in improving attendance.  The attendance team will work on the logistics, but we need everyone to help our students feel that they belong in school every day!
• Too Early for Other Benchmarks.  Our other main goal this year is instructional improvement, specifically in student performance on state exams (Regents and MS exams).  MP1 ends on October 8th.  That will be the first indicator in our progress towards our goals this year.

October has 20 instructional days broken up by Yom Kippur, Columbus Day, and Halloween (which has historically low attendance).  These first 17 days of school were a strong start to the academic year.  These next 20 days will be the ones that concretize all of that hard work to set up for a fantastic rest of the year!

Happy Belated Birthdays!  It took a minute to get our birthday calendar up and running, and we missed a couple of key birthdays!  Happy Belated Birthday to: Jennifer (10SEP); Laura (21SEP); Tiffany (22SEP); and Judy (29SEP).  Hopefully, you all had fantastics days.  Moving forward, Nancy is now ready to send out regular b-day wishes as your special days come up!





Schedule Changes & Grades.  All schedule requests have been updated (except for two students who will be completed tomorrow AM).  If your students have questions about why they have been moved, it is because either the student requested or a teacher requested.  Please use THIS DOCUMENT to help student understand how the changes were made.  If you entered grades, they will need to be transferred to the new course section.  Nina will walk through how to do that during PD on Monday. As a reminder, you should be updating Skedula at minimum of twice per month.

To-Do This Week

Tightening Up Some Structures.  When we provide super tight and seamless structures & routines for students, we create a predictable and safe environment for them.  There is comfort in routine and there is safety when systems run as they should.  One thing we need to work on is our passing periods.  If all teachers followed this two simple moves, that would do an enormous amount towards creating a safe and orderly school for our students.

• Stick to the Bell Schedule.   As a reminder, teachers are expected to start and end classes on time as per the bell schedule (see below).  Schools are a very carefully choreographed and at UAI, we do not have bells that govern our classes.  We respect our teachers to have the agency to say when classes begin and eng.  However, when classes start or end late/early, students are released to the halls.  If you release too early or too late, you are not releasing in synch with the other teachers and thus, no one is at their doors to help usher students in.  Please track your time and follow the bell schedule.

• 1.  8:30-9:23
• 2.  9:25-10:18
• 3.  10:20-11:13
• 4.  11:15-12:08
• 5.  12:10-1:03
• 6.  1:05-1:58
• 7.  2:00-2:50

• Increase Hallway Presence.  UAI is spread out over 7 separate floors.  It is impossible to staff deans, hallway monitors, or admin on every floor for every passing.  We need all teachers to be at their doors to rapidly usher students into and out of classrooms.  Please do not remain in your classroom during passing.  If you need time to reset between classes, please make it a part of your lesson plan to reset during the Do-Now or during the Exit Ticket.  If you need to talk to students at the end of class, please do so at the doorway.  

Marking Period 1 is Ending.  Next Tuesday 08OCT19 is the last day of the first marking period.  Teacher grades are due on 15OCT19 at 3PM.  Please see Ms. Jennifer and/or a member on your grade team for help with submitting grades via PADs.

Monday PD.  October 7th is the first Monday of the Month, which is our traditional Grade Team Meetings which will have PLOP writing and Attendance Team Updates as fixtures on the Agenda.

• 3:00-3:05 Announcements
• Congratulations Cassandra! - You've been selected to review the blog this week!

• 3:05-3:15 Skedula Grade Transfer

• 3:15-3:50 - Attendance Team Update

• 3:50-4:10 October PLOPs

Per Session Opportunities

No New Postings This Week