Week of January 6

UAI Staff News

Volume VII

Issue 20

January 6th,  2020

Announcements

Staff Birthdays This Week.  

Happy Birthday to Juelle on Saturday (11JAN).  Enjoy your day!!

Root for the Home Team.  This Monday (06JAN) is the next home game for our undefeated Lady Eagles.  Coach Elana and Asst. Coach Damon have worked hard with the team who has played hard to have a series of strong games this season.  This Monday is the next of only four remaining home games.  With PD ending at 4:10PM, the game start is only 20minutes later.  When our girls see their teachers in the stands, they feel all sorts of pride and excitement.  Come and root (root root) for the home team!!

Important Dates

• MP3 ends next Friday (10 more instructional days).  As per UAI grading policy, high school students who have >65 earn credit for the fall.  All grades must be either  >65 or =55.  No grades between 55 and 65 are allowed for this marking period.  Teachers must take into account wholistic traits (performance over the course of the semester, growth, or extenuating circumstances) when making the final judgment for the Fall term grades. 
  
• MP4 will start on Tuesday 21JAN for the Middle School and on Tuesday 28JAN for the High School (after Regents Week).  We will be implementing programmatic shifts on these dates.  Specifically, 6th grade sections will be shrunk from 3 to 2, we'll be creating another ICT section in 9th grade, and we will be changing elective & small group formats for the spring term.  Also 3/2 courses (like PE) will flip to 2/3.  

• Regents Week begins on 21JAN.  Joanna is still finalizing teacher programs, but she got the lists out last week.  Please reach out to your advisees to review their regent assignments and the Regent Schedule.

To-Do This Week

<<REMINDER>>  Continue to Prepare for Mid-Year Reflection Meetings.  Using your journal reflections, classroom data (e.g. student work or assessment performance), and your lesson plans, prepare to meet with Annie, Val, or Kiri for your mid-year reflection meeting.  In particular, you will be prepared to discuss your goals (how they have progressed or changed), and how your goals will adapt for the spring to explicitly include the resolutions (listed above) towards achieving the schools' goals.  You will be receiving calendar invites for mid-year reflection meetings starting next week.  Start working on preparing for the meetings now.  To give you an example or model of how to prepare, you can refer to the reflection I prepared for our Deputy Superintendent to report on our progress towards the schools' goals

Monday Professional Development.  This Monday, we're going to continue the 3-part series aimed at supporting teachers in planning and executing high quality turn and talks in their classes.  Before the break, the first of these three parts used the protocol of teacher consultancies to help the presenting teachers improve lesson plan for the turn and talk.  This upcoming Monday, subject teams will help the presenting teachers rehearse the lesson, paying particular attention to teacher moves and execution.  The final part on January 13th, will be a review and reflection of the lesson.  Teachers will have the opportunity to watch a video recording of the planned turn and talk and then provide feedback for the presenting teacher.

Teacher Core Subject Teams -Note:  For this round of subject teams, we're going to focus on core subject turn and talks and integrate breadth & elective subjects into the core teams.  This is strictly for planning and preparation logistics in running these consultancies

• (8) MS ELA - Sarah M (Presenting), Marsha (Facilitating), 
• Phillan, Kristina, Christina, Cassandra, Laura, Pauline
• (8) HS ELA - Joey (Presenting) Rebecca C (Facilitating) 
• Tiffany, Rebecca F, Damon, Elana, Jessica, Juelle
• (9) MATH - Jamie (Presenting), Kiri (Facilitating) 
• Alison, Cherry, Matthew, Danielle Ro, Joanna, Nina, Judy
• (9) SCIENCE - Amanda (Presenting), Rachel (Facilitating)  
• Sarah R, Amy, Emma, Nick, Tom, Elena, Jelissa
• (9) SOCIAL STUDIES - Brodie (Presenting); Annie (Facilitating)
• Jake, Natalie, Kelly, Suzannah, Nadine, Giselle, Brenda

Monday Agenda

• 3:00-3:05 - Blog Announcements
• 3:05-3:10 - Setting Our Intention - What is the focus of the Rehearsal? What feedback is needed?
• 3:10-4:05 - Lesson Rehearsal
• 4:05-4:10 - Staff Journal & Reflection - What about today's PD will I use in my own practice? 

Tuesday Family Outreach.  High school advisors must begin reaching out to advisees to advise families of Regents Week programming.  Joanna will share schedule and lists this week.  All advisors, should share that the end of the MP3 ends on Friday, 17JAN20.  The Spring Term and MP4 begins the next class day (21JAN for middle school; 28JAN20 for the high school).  There is no school on Monday, 20JAN20 (MLK, Jr. Day) and no school for students on Monday 27JAN20 (Chancellor's PD Day).

<<REMINDER>> Gradebook Audits Continue.  Because MP 3 is credit bearing if students pass, we need to make sure all gradebooks follow school grading policy, which is submitted to the NYCDOE and Superintendency each year.  We will be randomly checking grade books throughout this month and January to ensure all gradebooks are in alignment.  As a reminder,

• Grades are cumulative - Grades are a reflection of work students have been doing since September.
• The Lowest grade for anything is a 50.  So, in other words, we do not use zeros or any grade less than 50.  
• The Only failing grade on report cards is 55.  If a student's overall average is between 55 and 65, teachers must choose to give the student a 55 OR a 65.  

Social-Emotional Learning Updates

Per Session Opportunities

High School Dance on Friday 07FEB.  The seniors are coordinating their first dance for Friday 07JAN20.  If you are interested in chaperoning, please see Jen.  We're hiring for up to 10 chaperones (depending on student attendance) from 5:30-10:30.