Week of February 1st

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII

Issue 28

February 1st, 2021

Principal's Message

Black History Month kicks off on Monday!!  We at UAI should be celebrating Black History every month - not just the shortest one.  February is our chance to EXTRA celebrate Black History.  In addition to the wonderful work that our UAI Culture Committee has done (see below), please find ways within your classes and advisories to make meaningful connections to Black History and find ways to center the black experiences in your lessons and activities.  Scroll down to the announcements to see some ways you can do this!

In addition to work in your own classes, please support our Culture Committee!

The Culture Committee is super excited about our Black History Month line-up of events and activities. 

In addition to in-day and after-school programming, Suzanna and Rebecca will also be sharing slides with you that cover African American Art and Culture and Historical Figures that can be used as Intro slides and attendance questions to engage kids in conversation. 

The month will not be successful, however, if staff does not hype-up and celebrate these activities with our  students. With student engagement and morale at a low, this is a perfect opportunity to insert fun, meaningful and culturally responsive activities into our everyday school experience. 

I know the 10th grade team is going to use a point system with students to encourage participation in activities and make the month a fun competition. Other ways to encourage student engagement: Offer extra to join, Join an activity as a class, Make daily announcements in Advisory and Classes, Post events in your GC, Invite parents from advisory, Assign student ambassadors from your grade to promote events on tik tok and social media. 

Thank you!

Jen, Nina, Elana, Phillan, Rebecca F. and Suzannah 

  

 

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

There's QUITE A FEW NEW ONES this week!!!

Birthdays This Week

Happy Birthday Nadine (Today, 31JAN21)!!

Happy Birthday Pauline (Tomorrow, 01FEB21)!!

Couldn't Post Student Bdays this week

Lost the Doc when I upgrades my OS

And then ATS was down today

Next week we'll return!

                                                         

UAI Committee Updates.  Please see updated dates for Spring 2021 Staff Meetings.

Staff Circles Committee (Members: Annie, Jennifer, Juelle, Marsha, & Nakita) No updates this week.

School Restructuring Committee (Members: Annie, Courtney, Jen, Kiri, Laura, Marsha, Nadine, Nina, and SarahM).  The SRC next meet on Monday 08FEB21.  The SRC Subcommittees will begin meeting this week to begin their work on Scheduling and collecting COVID lessons learned.  We will be releasing updates to the Grading, Zoom, and Google Classroom Policies, integrating your survey feedback later this week! Thank you to all who contributed!

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).  This week the Equity Team met to plan interview questions for Friday's staff PD to gain a better understanding of how teachers implement the grading policy.   We were able to conduct interviews and find examples of how teachers grade participation, progress, and performance.  Thank you everyone for your helpful insight and information! We will be discussing this data along with readings from Fair Isn't Always Equal in our next meeting on Thursday, February 4th.  

DOE Fall Learning Survey.  Thank you to all already completed the DOE Fall Learning Survey in their advisories this week.  We had 11 teachers, 108 students, and 3 families complete the survey.  Please make it a priority to complete this survey with your advisory (you should also complete it too) AND please encourage your families to also provide us feedback!  The deadline is Friday, 05FEB21. 

NX Tracker and Final MP2 Grades.  Please complete and upload your final MP2 grades by 3PM tomorrow, 01FEB21.  In addition, please complete the NX tracker for any student receiving an NX in your course by 3PM tomorrow.

PD Agenda for Tomorrow.  Here's tomorrow's Agenda and Zoom Link (We'll use the same link all day).

• https://zoom.us/j/94000753016
  
  Meeting ID: 940 0075 3016
  Passcode: uaistaffpd

• Agenda
• Goals
• Reflect on and evaluate our fall work towards becoming and Anti-Racist School in order to inform our work for the spring and beyond.
• Revisit Co-teaching agreements and reflect on the health and function of co-teaching relationships to inform and refine agreements for increased productive work for the spring.
• Build community relationships to create stronger foundations for our work as a school community.
• Streamline Google Classrooms to remove unintentional barriers to learning for students.
• Sessions
• 8:30 - Reflecting and Refinine our Anti-Racist Work
• 9:30 - Co-Teaching Relationships
• 10:30 - Co-Planning Time
• 12:00 - Lunch
• 1:00 - Staff Circles
• 2:00 - Google Classroom Standardization
• 2:40-4:10 - Co-Planning Time

>>REPOST<< Planning Ahead.  As you prepare to plan for the Spring Term, remember to be the light!  You are sanctioned to take a break from the "typical" curriculum path.  On Friday Pedro Noguera tweeted a quote that perfectly encapsulates the why this is so important now.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine the world anew. This one is is a portal between one world and the next. We can walk through dragging our prejudice and hatred, or we can walk through ready to imagine a new world.- Arundhati Roy (author of The God of Small Things)

No one is mandated to work collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects, but all are actively encouraged to find ways to take advantage of the current state of the world.  Whether is it within your discipline or alongside a peer, reach through the world's current events to maximize the relevance of the historical moment we are all living through to hook the excitement and engagement of our students.  Here are some ideas that Annie & I have had the opportunity to discuss with teachers during check-ins in the last couple of weeks.

• How do vaccines work and how is the COVID vaccine a huge scientific leap forward (and very different) from traditional vaccines?  How can I educate my community to better understand and thus feel safer about taking the vaccine when it becomes available? 
• Center The Black Experience now - how has COVID impacted black communities? Why?  What needs to happen now in order for this to be corrected?
  
  
• What is the "Point of No Return" when it comes to climate change?  Why do they describe it so and how close are we really?  How do we know? What can I as a young person do to help reverse our trajectory towards this point?
• Center Communities of Color - How does climate change disproportionately impact communities of color?  Why is that happening, and what needs to change?
  
  
• How have the structures and laws put in place by America's "Founding Fathers" created the institutionalized racism that exists today? What changes need to happen today to demolish these structures and rebuild a more equitable and just nation?
  
  
• What impact does social isolation have on mental health?  In particular, what is the impact of social isolation on the mental health of student of color? What are the symptoms of these impacts and what can I do to support myself and my community in rectifying these negative impacts? 
  
  
• What is the socio-economic impact of a college education for black and brown students living in poverty?  How can I know if college is a good investment for me and my family?

There's a bajillion other things to do.  Reach out to Kiri, Annie or Jen if you have an idea (or need ideas) and/or need help with developing activities, lessons or units!

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.  

Peer Mentoring Program.  In a dual effort to provide students with academic support AND opportunities for leadership, we are launching a peer-mentoring program.  We are looking for 1-3 staff members to develop & lead this program that will be able to provide students with academic support from peers as well as provide students with leadership and mentoring experience.  In addition to building academic and mentoring skills, the goal of this program is to build student relationships and school community.  Please complete the per session form and email Annie with your interest.  Hours will range from 1-3 hours per week per staff member. Posting closes 01FEB.

Hiring Committee.  We are forming our hiring committee.  During hiring season, members selected to the committee should be ready to spend 1-5 hours per week doing the following activities:

• Candidate Recruitment
• Outreach to colleges and universities - Including NYS & NYC, and also HBCUs, 
• Researching and finding and attending hiring fairs for people of color
• Present at hiring fairs and actively recruit attendees to UAI Interviews
• Outreach to communities and community organizations
• Leverage Social Media, and current UAI Community Connections to find staff
• Develop creative approaches for reaching and maximizing the number of candidates of color applying to work at UAI.
• 
  
• Create a strong presentation of who we are (visual and verbal)
• Leverage what makes us special!
• Highlight anti-racist work, creative programming, Juneteenth, all-girls, college and career focused, mission as a whole, teacher growth focus, teacher-centered/planned PD’s
• Provide content on UAI Website around hiring, staffing, and UAI community to provide a public facing sense of what it is like to be part of our community
• Facilitate interviews and demo lessons/debriefs
• Conduct panel and individual interviews
• Review demo lesson plans, and independently learn any new content to be prepared to conduct comprehensive debrief of demo lessons
  
  

Candidates for this Position will be Selected using the following criteria:
Ability to present the school well - focusing on things to highlight
Capacity to remain open and intentionally weigh many factors, and refrain from making quick judgements
Commitment to criteria and the the UAI hiring process
Commitment to anti-racist work and mission of UAI
Effective teachers with a solid understanding of instruction and discipline

8 positions available (representing all positions in HS & MS) Posting closes 22FEB21.  Please complete the per session interest form and email Kiri & Annie.

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