Week of February 8th

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII

Issue 29

February 8th, 2021

Principal's Message

Today I want to celebrate the amazing work that nearly all of our staff have done this week.  Nearly every single teacher found meaningful and important ways to center and celebrate black history and individual black achievements in math, science, politics, and art.  Throughout multiple subjects and multiple grades, our students are learning about their rich histories and in so doing, we are beginning to build and nurture within them the strength and self-love that knowing themselves and their cultural histories & achievements brings.

New York State Standards (and related exams) and College Board Exams center the white American and European histories & achievements.  This year of global transformation has not allowed the time for these standards to catch up to the world that we are now inhabiting.  As we begin to re-open our buildings, we must remember that this is not an invitation to return to "normal".  Our old "normal" did not center the culture and history of our black and brown students.  That "normal" is now done.  Our return needs to bring with it a transformation - not only in our school policies, but also in our school curriculum and pedagogical practices.  We have begun the work to transform our school from a global perspective with policy shifts.  Now, we are beginning the work of making ideas and thoughts into real change my creating changes within classrooms - which is precisely where our students and their families will benefit most.

Without a doubt, this is an amazingly huge lift at the same time that you are all feeling incredibly overwhelmed and stretched thin.  However, it is a true testament to your own strength & incredibly commitment to our students and our school community that so many of you have dug deep  (and in many cases first taught yourselves about the histories & culture).  As a result of your incredible work, our students have these experiences happening in almost every grade and every discipline! Here's some samples that I pulled from just surfing through Google Classrooms as a student:

Social Studies:  The social studies team is using a variety of resources (both externally and internally created) to help students understand the systems & development of American Systemic Racism and the modern day impact it has on communities of color.  Here are some of the things they have done (and are continuing to work on) so far this month.

• Using curriculum designed to go along with Ibrahim X. Kendi's Stamped, middle schools students are studying the roots of racism and what it means to be Anti-Racist.
• US History students are currently studying the Post-Civil War Era including Sharecropping & Jim Crow Laws and connecting how these foundations of systemic racism are still in action today as described by Childish Gambino's This is America, 
• AP Seminar students are completing research papers studying the Disproportionality & Inequity in the COVID Pandemic 

Science:  Like the social studies team, UAI science teacher teams are using a variety of self-created and external resources to learn about and teach about issues impacting our black and brown students.

• Middle School & Living Environment students are studying COVID 19, the vaccines, and the impact on black and brown communities in particular through a Health Equity unit 
• In both Middle and High School Science Classes, students are learning about the Black Women Scientists behind the vaccine and Learning about many other black scientists contributing to both Biology and Earth Science.
• APES and 11th Grade Environmental Justice students have been and will continue to examine the impact of Environmental Racism on marginalized communities and communities of color.

English:  In their English classes, students are learning about a wide variety of black culture. Here are some highlights:

• Middle schools students are studying Langston Hughes and The Great Migration.
• In high school the 10th and 11th graders are starting their unit on Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me
• Seniors in LINCT ELA are in the midst of their psychology unit, in particular learning about Cognitive Bias.

Math - Most math classes are continuing along their current syllabi.  Ms. Nina incorporates Highlights of UAI's Black History Month activities, and Mini Lessons on how Black Americans have contributed to the social, political, and cultural mosaic of America in addition to her usual math instruction.  I encourage all of the math team to do the same AND to check out this week's UAI Black History Month activity with Ms. Phillan & Jaeda Lacey as they interview the hosts of the podcast, Abolition Science.

There are many other activities and electives, like Ms. Elena's senior elective on the Afro-Latina culture and her 10th graders sharing their own personal identities while learning basic adjectives and familial nouns.  Overall, as a community, we have come together to leverage the spark of Black History month to shift our instruction to create a learning environment where our students and our families feel seen, valued, and loved.  

I am so proud of the work that each of you have done this week.  I am so impressed by your commitment and grit it required to pull this through in your own personal exhaustion and whelm.  I thank you, our families thank you, and most of all, our students thank you (or will one day, when they look back and see the impact that your work and curricular choices made on their own lives)

Thank you UAI - Let's keep it going throughout this entire month, for sure, and throughout the remainder of the year and into next.  Curricular change is the beginning of what real change towards becoming an Anti-Racist school looks like, and it is one of the most significant levers we can pull to move our school forward in attaining our goal of being an Anti-Racist and fully inclusive school.

  

 

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 Kelly (Next Week, 16FEB21)!!

Happy Birthday Elana (Next Week, 19FEB21)!!

Student Birthdays

Monday, 08FEB21:  Danae W(6)

Tuesday, 09FEB21: Kyra F (8), Jamie S (8), Daniela SD(8), Saniyah (10)

Wednesday 10FEB21: Jovana (12), Mariam C (10)

Thursday, 11FEB21: Fahima A(12), Gaboul (7)

                                                         

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).  No updates this week

UAI Black History Month Activities.  Many thanks to all who joined in on the activities this week.  It definitely sends a strong message to our students that we are there with them!  Participating in these activities that our School Culture Committee worked hard to organize also shows our support and respect for the teams' work!  So, please join in and encourage your students to also join when they can!

SPOTLIGHT on The Importance of Outreach. Calling homes and remaining in constant contact with families is a big lift, and sometimes can feel futile.  However, persistence always pays off.  I want to highlight Ms. Cherry's success with family outreach this marking period.  Like many teachers, Ms. Cherry had an inordinate amount of students who were not turning in assignments and/or not attending live zooms.  Continually, Ms. Cherry reached out to families and listened to frustrated parents and guardians and unmotivated teens.  Countless hours and non-stop efforts finally paid off when students began to turn around.  They began completing the work and coming to class, and Ms. Cherry's constant contact with her students and their families helped everyone better understand what needed to be done to achieve standards and what support existed to help them get there!  As a result, more than half of her students who were not meeting standards in December managed to work hard, get support, and turn those grades into passing grades.  Excellent work Ms. Cherry!  We appreciate all your efforts and hard work and our students and their families do too!

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.  Posting Closed

Applied:  Phillan, Jelissa, Damon, Nina, Kristina, Emma
Staffed:  Damon (lead), Phillan, Jelissa, Nina, Emma, Kristina

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.
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• 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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