Week of November 23rd

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII

Issue 18

November 23rd, 2020

Principal's Message

As we kick off the holiday season with Thanksgiving, I want to make the time to appreciate the things we have all accomplished this year and to thank each of you for what you have achieved with our students!

Closing the Digital Divide.  At the end of last year and the start of this year, advisors, deans and school support staff all worked together seamlessly to get technology and access to WiFi for our students and families.  While we are still working on the challenged that the DOE iPad updates posed, over 97% of our students have either their own computers, DOE iPads and/or UAI Chromebooks in their hands, and nearly 2/3 of our students have access to reliable WiFi.  Through more work, advisors & school support staff will raise the percent of students who have access to reliable WiFi will raise to 90% too!  Given how many of our students began this pandemic with no tech other than a phone and no reliable access to WiFi, this has been an enormous achievement.  I am thankful to all of you for all of your efforts, and I am truly in awe about how our collective efforts significantly closed the digital divide for our students and their families.  Excellent work and Thank you to all!

Engagement & Achievement.  Throughout the entire first marking period, advisors and out-of-classroom staff & our partner staff at Girls Inc. have worked tirelessly to create and recreate lessons that engage our students minds and hearts.  Together, we have all tried (and retried) to find methods and avenues that provide our students with the experiences they need to grow academically and develop social emotionally.   We have spent many, many hours in our efforts, and it has been extremely frustrating to experience so many of them falling short.  However, through our collective persistence and commitment to our students' growth and development, nearly 2/3 of our students have 90% average daily attendance or better AND over 2/3 of our students successfully passed all of their classes.  Given the added challenges that learning at home and strictly through computer screens, the majority of our students thrive because of how we persisted and evolved through each failure and success!  Keep at it, even when it doesn't pan out.  The work you do matters, even when it doesn't work.  In failure we learn and improve.  Through that improvement, our students thrive and achieve.  Thank you to all for all that you do!!

Care and Support.  This year, our advisory system and support of our counselors, deans, and paraprofessionals have created a strong network of support for our students and families.  They know we care, and time and again, they share their appreciation and feedback through our meetings and through their resounding approval in our surveys.  2020 provided no shortage of challenges for our students and families.... and ourselves.  Your strength and commitment to be their for our students and families is so appreciated because it comes through in the time of your own need, too.  Thank you for all that you give, even when your own tanks run low.

As we head into this short week and long weekend, make time to reflect on your own achievements and individual success.  Make space to recognize what you have achieved and value what you do have (and have achieved).  You may not always hear the appreciation or see it.  But please know, it is always there, and your students, our families, and I, Annie, & Jen fully appreciate all that you have made real for our UAI family.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!

Don't Forget To Scroll To the Bottom to See This Week's Per Session Postings

Birthdays This Week

No Staff Bdays this week!
DO EMAIL ME if this is incorrect!

Sunday, 22NOV:  Nyllah (6), Tralena (7)     

Monday, 23NOV:  Jaelynn (8), Lamya (11)

Tuesday, 24NOV:  Nodira (9)

Friday, 27NOV:  Shamaya (8), Yasmin (10)

Saturday, 28NOV:  Taspia (8)

UAI Committee Updates.  

Staff Circles Committee (Members: Annie, Jennifer, Juelle, Marsha, & Nakita) The Circle Committee hosted Staff Circles on Friday, 20NOV.  

School Restructuring Committee (Members: Annie, Courtney, Jen, Kiri, Laura, Marsha, Nadine, Nina, and SarahM).  The SRC rolled out three new policies for feedback (UAI Grading Policy, UAI Google Classroom Policy, UAI Zoom Policy). We will meet on Monday 23NOV to integrate staff feedback into final policies for release before Thanksgiving. If you haven't had a chance yet to submit feedback, please click on any of the links (in blue above) or reach out to anyone on the committee with your input!

The Equity Team (Suzannah, Nina, Elana, Kelly, Phillan, Annie, Nakita, Rebecca C, Damon, Ms. King (Kianna’s mom), Ms. Barnes (Alyssa’s mom), Ms. Martuscello (Veronica’s mom), Kianna King, Emily Payamps, Jerlai Tyner, Jamilah Alshawish, Salia Naschel).  The Equity Team met this past Thursday to analyze GPA and SAT data by race.  We were able to draw conclusions about disproportionality that provoked questions to drive our work in developing more equitable grading practices.  Check out our jamboards to see the work we did this week.  Our next meeting will be December 2, 2020, and will be co-facilitated by Cassie Magesis, Director of Post-Secondary Access at the Urban Assembly.

Upload Grades.  By now, you should be using the Turn In function on Google Classrooms, and you should know how to transfer your grades from Google Classrooms into Skedula.   For Marking Period 2, you should be uploading your grades into Skedula each week.    If you are finding that you cannot keep up with the grading load, then it's time to consider what needs to change.  At minimum for this week, you should upload 1 participation and 1 progress grade for all students.  Students who have not yet submitted any work should have a "50" uploaded to indicate missing work.

As a reminder, assignments can have varying levels of grading & feedback.  

• Participation (MIN- 1 grade per week):  These can be done/not done, non-quality based assignments.  For example, did the students participation in the chat (yes/no)?  Did she ask/answer a question or add to the discussion in some way (yes/no)?  These "signs of life" challenges should occur through the live zooms at least 2-3 times, and then your yes/no measure can be quantitative based on how many times out of total challenges the students participated.  For asynch days, participation grades could simply be did they turn in the asynch work (yes/no)?  Over the course of the week, you can upload a single participation grade for the week.   If you're tech fancy, you can also use google forms or excel sheets to help you.   If you tend to lower tech, if you keep a roster next to you, you can check off names as you "challenge" the students through the zooms and week.  Either way, you can enter a grade each week as a point or percentage (# of yeses divided by # of total challenges).  All of this is suggested if you need it - NOT MANDATED.  If you have a working system, and you're able to easily upload weekly Participation grades, great and keep it going! 
  
  
• Progress (MIN - 1 grade per week):  There is a wide variety of what can count for a progress grade.  These can be practice assignments (self graded with a key or peer graded with a rubric).  These can be assignments for feedback.  Feedback assignments require intensive teacher time and these assignments should be give with intentionality and include teachers scheduling time for providing feedback to students within 1-2 days of assignment submission.  Feedback assignments could be first drafts, exit tickets, test corrections, debates, discussions, work in breakout rooms, other class activities or asynch work, etc.   If you're trying to get student to upload information practice assignments that are autograded (e.g. google form autogrades) or self/peer assessed is a way to hold students accountable for information upload.  If you are trying to assess the quality of student learning and mastery, you need to include feedback assignments so that you can correct/refine/support their learning.  Make time for both and be intentional about planning time for giving feedback.
  
  
• Performance (MIN- 1 grade per 2 weeks).   These are summative assessments that students do independently and after teachers have had the opportunity to provide feedback.  They can be things like exit tickets if the exit tickets follows teachers providing full class, small group, or individual feedback in the live zoom (or in writing).  These can be quizzes, small writing assignments, or labs.  These happen after practice and feedback from peers/teachers.   These can also be major assessments like unit tests, essays, research papers, debates, socratic seminars, projects, etc.  All of the major assessments should occur after several minor assessments and many opportunities for feedback and student implementation of that feedback.  

Grade Team Meetings.  Thank you to all three folks who stopped by Office Hours to discuss their ideas/concerns/questions about Grade Team Meetings.  I hear from Damon and Nina, that many still have concerns.  Please feel free to put those in the Parking Lot or if you prefer, please raise them up to any committee member, and we will address those concerns in committees!  There are many avenues for your voice to be heard, but if you don't use your voice, we won't be able to hear it!  So please share your concerns, ideas, and questions.

Per Session Postings

To Apply for any of the following per session opportunities, please COMPLETE THIS FORM and email the appropriate point person listed in this posting.  

The 8th Grade Yearbook Club Supervisor:  Please apply directly to Jen via email AND complete the form linked above.  For this position, you will receive 1 hour of persession each week to lead the 8th Grade Yearbook Club. Your responsibilities include recruiting students for the club, collecting pictures from staff and students from the last three years for the class of 2021 and assisting students in the formatting of the yearbook on our purchased software. Kelly will handle the logistics of purchasing and contact with the company - your role is to guide and support students through the construction of their senior yearbook while simultaneously building their digital literacy skills.   This position requires someone who has contact and relationships with the current 8th graders, who can successfully motivate students to participate in creating a digital yearbook, and who has strong organizational and technical skills to use software, coordinate student meetings, and meet deadlines.  (one position available)

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