Week of November 9th

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII

Issue 16

November 9th, 2020

Principal's Message

The First but Definitely Not the Last!  Congratulations to Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris (and to President Elect Joe Biden)!  VP Elect Harris is the first black, first indian, first bi-racial and first woman to hold the office of vice president in the United States of America.  VP Elect Harris smashed that ceiling and black female leaders like Stacey Abrams and LaTosha Brown helped pave that way.

Today, our own black and brown students have more than just hopes and dreams.  Today, our students are seeing the creation of a new reality in the USA.  These amazing women (and the > 90% of black women who voted Trump out) stand as role models and blueprints for what can be achieved when persistence and faith in oneself and in their own power overcome failure and oppression.  Today we celebrate for ourselves and we celebrate for our students.

Tomorrow, we recognize that the work is not done, and there are so many more glass barriers that need to be revealed, confronted, and smashed.  We are part of that work today, and our students are the future that will shape the dreams of today into tomorrow's nornew ms of equity & inclusion.  

Enjoy the relish in this victory delivered to all of us through the amazing work and magic of these (and more) incredible black and brown women.  Then, let's all honor them by digging in to do the work to provide the future black and brown female juggernauts with the education and empowerment they will need to shape a nation (and world) we will all be proud to claim as home!

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

Birthdays This Week

No Staff Bdays this week!

Sunday, 08NOV: Marwa (9), Kira (12) 

Monday, 09NOV:  Rubita (9)

        Tuesday, 10NOV20:  Celeste (7), Davana (9), Xiaa (10)

Wednesday, 11NOV20:  Jaslene (7)

Thursday, 12NOV20:  Sarah L (6), Samarra S (10), Nicole (11), Rayan (11)

Friday, 13NOV20:  Ashley P(8), Junel (8)

Surveys from Friday.  Many thanks to the SRC committee for putting together the first policy and systems engagements meeting with the staff.  We're still learning how to best make this work, and your feedback is essential in helping us do that.  In addition, there were a couple of other surveys & links that were shared. 

• Feedback Survey for Friday's Meeting
• Survey for Staff & Survey for Students - This will help us gain info on existing Zoom Policies
• Homework for Grading Policy Meeting on Tuesday at 3PM
• DOE Announcement to Families &  DOE Grading Policy
• To Think About
• What are the most important parts of this policy?
  How do we implement this to help our students?
  How should this be messaged to the students & families?

Reset Week.  This aim of this reset week is to make sure we are all in a place to start MP2 strong and ready to learn.  We have all learned so much in this first marking period.  We all want to make sure we use this time to clear the slate and have a strong start to MP2.

In "normal" learning conditions, student grades can be expected to follow a normal curve (or normal distribution).  So, in concrete terms, if you have 100 students, about 10 students would be failing.

We can argue about what "normal" actually means, but I don't think any of us would argue that whatever Remote Learning is...it is NOT normal.  We need to leverage the time we have this week to understand what is happening for our students in this new learning environment so that we can adjust instruction and instructional supports appropriately.  We may not yet have the answers to what that is, but our students and families hold key information and ideas that could help us!  So, this week, our overarching goal is to connect with families & students to find out what we can do to improve student outcomes!

• Classroom Teachers.  On Monday and Tuesday, your targeted outcomes are:
• For Failing Students (~10 kids).  Create plans to intervene and prevent failure for MP2.
  At minimum, have conversations (zoom or phone) with students & their families.  These conversations need to identify the reason(s) for student failure and construct a plan for intervening on this failure.  All plans need to include a system for regular feedback and updates with families, and an explanation of what families can expect if the interventions fail and/or if the students fail to respond (aka show up or just not grow) to those interventions.
• For Students Who Could be Doing Better (most students).  Provide feedback on improvement
  At minimum, email families. "Just passing" is just not good enough!  We need to continually celebrate their achievements while at the same time pushing them to be even better.  Imagine if Kamala settled for senator?  What would the world be like if Stacey Abrams just gave up after losing the race for Governor of Georgia?  Leverage the real world stories (also find more than just these - the kids can't hear the same story from five different teachers!).  Email students and cc parents on what they can be doing better for the marking periods to come.
• For Excelling Students (~10 kids). Direct them to enrichment activities
  At minimum, email or text families.  Celebrate their awesomeness and name what they are doing so that families and students better understand the roots of their success!  Share digital resources to push their learning and interests!  Encourage the learning for the sake of learning and growth.  These high achievers should be pushed to pursue learning as an end in itself and not chase after the number grades!
• Suggested Schedule.  You are most welcome to use your time flexibly on Monday and Tuesday to achieve the above goals.  If you have a plan, go ahead and ignore this.  However, if you like suggestions, here is a suggested schedule to help structure your time should you need it!
  
  
• Monday & Tuesday:
• 8:30-9:30 - Send out Advisory attendance check in and share this survey.  Then,  email half Excelling students & families and post links to enrichment resources and activities.  Examples can include virtual. visits to museums, recommended books, exercises on Khan academy, etc.  These things can be made available to all, but really pushed on for kids who are ready to take on the extra challenge.  Send a group text (via remind) for these families to check their emails and upload or synch Google Classroom grades into Skedula.
• 9:30-10:30 - Make Five Successful phone calls with students who are on currently failing.  Record the intervention plan in Skedula and cc the advisor and upload grades into Skedula
• 10:30-11:00 - Take a break, walk around, have a healthy snack, and drink lots of water!
• 11:00-12:00 - Email "Just Passing" students (e.g. 65-94) and families from 1 sectiona to celebrate their achievements and provide feedback on how to improve for the upcoming marking period upload grades into Skedula
• 12:00-1:00 - Have some lunch, do some stretching, drink some more water!
• 1:00-2:00 - Make Five Successful phone calls with students who are on currently failing.  Record the intervention plan in Skedula and cc the advisor and upload grades into Skedula
• 2:00-2:30 - Check Advisory attendance and call any students who haven't responded upload grades into Skedula
• 2:30-3:00 - Take a break, walk around, have a healthy snack, and drink lots of water!
• 3:00-4:10 on Monday - Co-Planning Meetings; on Tuesday - SRC Mtg (to 4:05)
  
  
• Wednesday is Veteran's Day - NO SCHOOL
  
  
• Advisors. Thursday & Friday
• Advisors should have been scheduling appointments for family conferences since last Tuesday.  Each conferences should be about 20-30 minutes.  Here's a checklist to help guide the conversation and touch on necessary points.
• Here's a suggested schedule
• Thursday 8:30AM-8:00PM:
• 8:30-10:30 - Complete 4 conferences
• 10:30-11:00 - Break
• 11:00-11:30 - Complete Survey Info for 8:30-10:30 conferences (see checklist)
• 11:30-1:30 - Complete 4 conferences
• 1:30-2:30 - Lunch
• 2:30-5:00 - Break
• 5:00-5:30 - Complete Survey Info for 11:30-1:30 conferences
• 5:30-7:30 - Complete 4 conferences
• 7:30-8:00 - Complete Survey Info for 5:30-7:30 Conferences
• Friday 8:30AM-2:50PM
• 8:30-11:00 - Independent Work time (plan, grade, meetings)
• 11:00-1:30 - Complete remaining conferences
• 1:30-2:30 - Lunch
• 2:30-2:50 - Complete Survey Info for remaining conferences

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.  

Student Attendance and Academic Intervention Committee.  We are looking for at least one representative from each grade-team to meet help innovate and provide Tier 3 supports for students who are non-responsive to Tier 1 and 2 interventions provided to classroom staff.  Posting will close on November 9th.  To apply, email Kiri directly AND COMPLETE THIS FORM.

Student Newspaper Advisors.  
Applied:  Cassandra, Rebecca F, Phillan, Rachel

Staffed:   Cassandra, Rebecca F, Phillan, Rachel

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