Monday, May 31, 2021

Week of June 1st

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII
Issue 43
June 1st, 2021

Principal's Message

Wrapping Up and Incredible Year.  This has indeed been a year like no other.  As we enter into our cumulative work activities for the next few weeks, the goal is punctuate this year of pandemic learning, providing closure and time for reflection for our students and families.  

In addition, this month of June is also taking the place of traditional summer school.  Students who need to catch up on work in order to fulfill course requirements have June to do so.  Technically, they also have through January 2022 to do so, but we want as many as possible to finish now.  Teacher programs now have increased flexibility for outreach and support of the students with current NX grades in their classes.  




EOY Important Dates
Attendance:  All advisors are responsible for logging daily attendance by 2PM.  If you have not heard from one of your advisees by 10AM, please reach out to check in, make sure they are engaging in their assigned activity for the day, and mark them present.

NX Classes:  All NX classes proceed as normal through June 17th. 

NX Students not in NX Classes:  Teachers should be reaching out daily to students who currently have an NX in their class.  Encourage students to attend in-person if they can.  Work with students and families to analyze what support is needed for student, and then provide the support required to ensure the student successfully completes the course by the end of June.  June IS summer school for your courses this year.

Recruit for Summer FUN!  This year, summer school is about exciting, re-engagement into school.  Screens have a way of taking the joy out of learning, especially for those who struggled the most with remote learning.  This summer, we want to re-engage and re-ignite the love of learning in our students (and especially the ones who suffered the most during pandemic learning).  Please encourage all of your advisees to join summer FUN at UAI this summer!
  • Week of June 1st
    • 1.  Tuesday 01JUN - ALL GRADES - Math Cumulative Activity Day
    • 2.  Wednesday 02JUN - All except 8th grade - ELA Cumulative Activity Day
      • 8th Grade Tie Die at UAI 12PM-2PM & Grad Box Pick Up
    • **  Thursday 03JUN - NO CLASSES - Full Staff PD Day (Brooklyn Queens Day)
    • 3.  Friday 04JUN - 
      • 8th Grade ELA Cumulative Activity Day
      • All other grades - Advisory Check In (Get those Surveys done) and Small grps

  • Week of June 7th
    • 4.  Monday 07JUN - All Except 8th Grade - Science Cumulative Activity Day
      • 8th Grade Cap & Face Shield Decorating via Zoom!
    • **.  Tuesday 08JUN - NO CLASSES - Grading Day for Teachers
      • 12th Grade Senior Awards Ceremony via Zoom!
    • 5.  Wednesday 09JUN - All except 8th - SOC Cumulative Activity Day
      • 8th Grade Meet Up at Brooklyn Bridge Park Roller Rink 10AM-12PM
    • 6.  Thursday 10JUN - Grade Specific Assignments
      • 6th/7th Grade - Advisory Circles @12:10PM
      • 8th - SOC Cumulative Activity Day
      • 9th Grade - PE Culminating Activity Day
      • 10th Grade - Spanish Culminating Activity Day
      • 11th Grade - Theater Culminating Activity Day
      • 12th Grade Graduation Box Pick Up & Cap/Face Shield Decorating @ UAI
    • 7.  Friday 11JUN - Grade Specific Assignments
      • 6th & 7th Grade - PE Culminating Activity Day
      • 8th Grade - Science Cumulative Activity Day
      • 9th-11th Grade - Advisory Circles at 12:10PM
      • 12th Grade:  PE/Health Culminating Activity Day

  • Week of June 14th - Vaccine CAMPAIGN WEEK
    •   8.  Monday 14JUN - Grade Specific Assignments
      • 8th-11th Grade Adv. - VACCINE INFO ZOOM SESSION w/ Ms. Kiri @1:15PM
      • 8th Grade Baby Pics Guess Who & Trivia Zoom - Time TBD
    •   9.  Tuesday 15JUN - Grade Specific Assignments

      • 9th-11th Tech Collection Day for These Advisories
        • Brodie, Cassandra, Emma, Rebecca C, Tiffany
        • Danielle I, Nadine, Rachel
        • Damon, Joey, Suzannah
      • 12th:  Senior Picnic Meet Up and Yearbook Signing Brooklyn Bridge Park @12PM
    • 10.  Wednesday 16JUN - Grade Specific Assignments
      • 9th-11th Tech Collection Day for These Advisories
        • Christina, Marni, Nina, Rebecca F
        • Elena, Elana, Jean, Nakita
        • Danielle R, Judy, Tom
      • 12th Grade:  Final Advisory Circle
    • **.  Thursday 17JUN - NO CLASSES for 8th-12th
    • **.  Friday 18JUN - NO SCHOOL- JUNETEENTH!

  • LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL - No classes for grades 8-12th (Regents Week)
    • 11. Monday, 21JUN - 
      • 6th/7th Advisories at 12:10PM
      • Mon/Tue In Person staff - clean out classrooms, lockers, mailboxes
        • We're cleaning out ALL lockers & mailboxes & closets.  
        • Secure & Label everything you do not want tossed.
    • 12. Tuesday, 22JUN - 
      • 6th/7th Advisories - Asynch (take attendance)
      • Mon/Tue In Person teachers - 8th Graduation Assignments for All In person staff
        • See email from Kelly & Team for assignments
    • 13.  Wednesday 23JUN
      • 6th/7th Advisories at 12:10PM
      • Wed/Thu In Person staff - clean out classrooms, lockers, mailboxes
        • We're cleaning out ALL lockers & mailboxes & closets.  
        • Secure & Label everything you do not want tossed.
    • 14.  Thursday 24JUN
      • 6th/7th Advisories - Asynch (take attendance)
      • ALL In Person staff - 12th Graduation Assignments for All In person staff
        • Mon/Tue staff DO come into UAI on Thursday 25JUN for Graduation
        • See email from Kelly & Team for assignments
        • Optional Staff Celebration at Randolph Bar
          • Details TBD - but come and celebrate the end of the year after graduation ceremonies - purely voluntary!
    • 15.  Friday 25JUN
      • Last day of school
      • Remote ONLY
      • Final Staff Meeting at 9AM
      • Final Advisory Circles for All students at 11AM
      • Then - ENJOY YOUR SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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

Birthdays This Week

Brodie, Tuesday 02JUN


Student Birthdays
Monday, 31MAY21: Giovanna (11), Jayla (8)
Tuesday, 01JUN21: Fatehia (11), Omaima (11), Kayla R(6)
Wednesday, 02JUN21: Jade (11), Sukanya (9), Shazia (6)
              Thursday,03JUN21: Ceceily (12), 
Friday, 04JUN21: Kaya (10)
Saturday, 05JUN21: Destiny (12), Shaniah (8), Zipporah (6)


Committee Updates


Staff Circles Committee  (Members: Annie, Jennifer, Juelle, Marsha, & Nakita) See agenda/minutes here. No updates this week

School Restructuring Committee (Members: Annie, Courtney, Jen, Kiri, Laura, Marsha, Nadine, Nina, and SarahM).  The SRC agendas & minutes are always open for staff access.  No Updates this week

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 with the principal from Williamsburg High School of Arts and Technology to gain insight on their journey towards mastery-based learning.  Also, we are excited about our last two teach-ins this year:  Tuesday, June 1st will be about the massacre in Tulsa on its 100th anniversary and on Thursday, June 17th we are hosting a teach-in for Juneteenth.  Lastly, we have been planning our final PD for the entire staff on June 3rd.  


Announcements and To Do



NYC School Survey.  We are still short of our goal to meet uur Fall 2020 survey numbers (which were 305 students,  85 families,  and 29 staff).  Take a look at this SHEET to see which of your students & families have completed the survey.  Please reach out this week to get at least 3 more students and families to complete by Friday.  



<<REPOST>> Summer Rising.  We have the opportunity to return to school better, and that first opportunity is with our summer programming.   It will be a long path back for our students to return to remembering what in-person school was really like, and we want summer to be the first taste of remembering that school can be fun and yes, it's cool to love learning!  

Please also announce in Advisory and Talk it Up as an opportunity for students!   

For now, all programs are in-person.  We really want kids to come into the building and re-experience how much fun in-person learning can be.  We may have remote options...but that is still very much TBD.  In Person learning is the priority.  It will be safe (all existing protocols in place AND have weekly testing).  

We have three summer offerings for students.

Octavia Project:  A summer STEAM camp for Middle School students (female/female-identified/non-binary) focused on developing their creative inquiry through STEM projects with creative lenses.   In addition the Octavia Project incorporates near-peer leadership opportunities, guest speakers, and leadership development throughout the summer program. This program is open to all current 6th-8th graders and incoming 5th graders.  Visit the Octavia Project to Learn more
PLEASE CONTACT MARSHA for directions on how to apply.




Girls Inc Summer Camp:  A summer empowerment camp for Middle School Students (female/female-identified/non-binary) focused on developing our young people to become Strong, Smart and Bold!  This summer's programs will be "Girl Boss" focusing on financial literacy, "Wellness Lounge" focusing on developing SEL skills, and "Summer Sports" which will be an exploration in various outdoors activities.  In addition, Girls Inc is planning a wide variety of trips, speakers, and career exposure activities. This program is open to all current 6th-8th graders and incoming 5th graders.  
PLEASE CONTACT MARSHA for directions on how to apply.



Schools for Kids by Kids:  This homegrown summer seminar program was developed and will be taught by UAI staff.  In this program, students will be invited to research and study how schools are currently structured, rethink how schools should be structured, abolish the structures that should no longer be there, and create an action project to make the changes they would like to see. You can talk to Rachel, Judy, Joey, or Nakita to learn more about the work!  This program is open to any current 8th (or incoming 9th) through 12th grades
SIGN UP.  https://forms.gle/ERx4r8F9RucKMZyA7




MP4 Log of Support. Continue working on the MP4 Log of Support.  For ALL students who have an currently NX in your class, please log your daily outreach and intervention efforts for the month of June.  If you are unable to reach or connect with a family or student, all staff are expected to reach out to Annie/Kiri/Jen for additional support.  We will work to connect you with the families or students.



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.  

Per Session Posting  There are several curriculum development opportunities for summer per session.  Please submit your interest via the Per Session Interest form and email Kiri. ELA & Other course offerings will be made available based on budget availability. FY 2021-22 budgets release in about two weeks.


  1. NEW POST: English. I want to finalize course scope and sequencing - work that we began touching upon PRE covid this July. Primarily, I want to finalize course text titles, benchmark expectations, and materials lists by July 15th. All ELA and SPED/ENL ELA folks are invited to apply. This would be about 10 hours of work, all zoom, with a mix of meeting time and work time as determined by team. There is also an additional five hours for up to three team leaders of this work that will be selected based on their experience in the classroom, demonstrated expertise in a range of works, and depth of understanding or requirements for global assessments like the NYS Middle School exams, HS ELA Regents, and AP Lang, and Lit.

  2. Social Studies.  We need to build a course on African Studies - centering the cultures & histories of Africa in the study of Global History.  This will be a Global History Course for students, leveraging the NYS Global History standards involving the study of African cultures, histories, and achievements on the world stage.  Teachers selected for this Social Studies Course Planning will receive 40 hours to study & develop teacher mastery of African history and to plan and create

    1. A Course Overview & Syllabus, with Course and Unit Objectives

    2. Detailed Overview of first two units - with daily objectives, rubrics, and assessments.

    3. Narrative Lesson Plans for all of of the first unit


  1. Math & Science.  Posting Closed Applied: Nina, Nakita, Jamie, Rebecca F Staffed: Nina, Nakita, Jamie, Rebecca F




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Monday, May 24, 2021

Week of May 24th

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII
Issue 42
May 24th, 2021

Principal's Message

Last week of New Instruction.  A year+ of lesson planning for virtual learning is finally in it's last full week.  This week, we will wrap up new instruction to prepare students for teacher-selected and teacher-designed culminating activities that begin next week.  As you plan these final lessons, take a moment for yourself to look back at how much you, personally have grown alongside the growth and achievements of your students.  In your final lessons this week, make time for students to do the same personal reflection in your academic classes so that they, too, can reflect on the amount of growth and achievement they gained in a year of incredible barriers and odds.  

It is true that not one class covered all of the content that learning standards dictate, but that is true of the entire world.  What is also true, is there was a wealth of learning that standards do not name, and it's time to use our new understandings of what schooling should be and it's time to find ways to punch up and make a call on those in power to shift standards & school regulations to reflect true student and larger cultural needs.

End your year of learning proud of what you have all done in collaboration with one another and with your students and families.  Without this unity, we would not have pulled through this pandemic, and as a result of all of our remarkable work, we have the foundations of building a stronger, better UAI for our students, our staff & partners, and our families!



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

Birthdays This Week

Marni, Tuesday 25MAY


Student Birthdays
Sunday, 23MAY21: Nusrat (9) Zunara (11)
Monday, 24MAY21: Kameryn (12) Ariana R(10) Victoria (10)
Wednesday, 26MAY21: Hanin (10) Janaye (10)
              Thursday, 27MAY21: Jamilah (11) Krystal (6)
Friday, 28MAY21: Ashley (10) Teanna (11) Kai (11) Phoebe (7)
Saturday, 29MAY21: Cassandra (12) Sylvanna (6)



Staff Circles Committee  (Members: Annie, Jennifer, Juelle, Marsha, & Nakita) See agenda/minutes here. No updates this week

School Restructuring Committee (Members: Annie, Courtney, Jen, Kiri, Laura, Marsha, Nadine, Nina, and SarahM).  The SRC agendas & minutes are always open for staff access.  No Updates this week

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




NYC School Survey.  Above are our current school survey results.  Our goal is to complete survey efforts by Friday, but we will have to keep pushing through June 11 (the official deadline) if we don't have enough respondents.  Our Fall 2020 survey numbers were 305 students,  85 families,  and 29 staff.  We have far exceeded staff response rates, and we are well on our way for student responses, but we need family input.  This week, please make a final push to gather family input on those surveys.  Aim to have at least 5 families confirm with you that they completed the survey.  Please refer to these directions for support!


<<REPOST>> Summer Rising.  We have the opportunity to return to school better, and that first opportunity is with our summer programming.   It will be a long path back for our students to return to remembering what in-person school was really like, and we want summer to be the first taste of remembering that school can be fun and yes, it's cool to love learning!  

Please also announce in Advisory and Talk it Up as an opportunity for students!   

For now, all programs are in-person.  We really want kids to come into the building and re-experience how much fun in-person learning can be.  We may have remote options...but that is still very much TBD.  In Person learning is the priority.  It will be safe (all existing protocols in place AND have weekly testing).  

We have three summer offerings for students.

Octavia Project:  A summer STEAM camp for Middle School students (female/female-identified/non-binary) focused on developing their creative inquiry through STEM projects with creative lenses.   In addition the Octavia Project incorporates near-peer leadership opportunities, guest speakers, and leadership development throughout the summer program. This program is open to all current 6th-8th graders and incoming 5th graders.  Visit the Octavia Project to Learn more
PLEASE CONTACT MARSHA for directions on how to apply.




Girls Inc Summer Camp:  A summer empowerment camp for Middle School Students (female/female-identified/non-binary) focused on developing our young people to become Strong, Smart and Bold!  This summer's programs will be "Girl Boss" focusing on financial literacy, "Wellness Lounge" focusing on developing SEL skills, and "Summer Sports" which will be an exploration in various outdoors activities.  In addition, Girls Inc is planning a wide variety of trips, speakers, and career exposure activities. This program is open to all current 6th-8th graders and incoming 5th graders.  
PLEASE CONTACT MARSHA for directions on how to apply.



Schools for Kids by Kids:  This homegrown summer seminar program was developed and will be taught by UAI staff.  In this program, students will be invited to research and study how schools are currently structured, rethink how schools should be structured, abolish the structures that should no longer be there, and create an action project to make the changes they would like to see. You can talk to Rachel, Judy, Joey, or Nakita to learn more about the work!  This program is open to any current 8th (or incoming 9th) through 12th grades
SIGN UP.  https://forms.gle/ERx4r8F9RucKMZyA7





Home & School Visits.  Jen & Kiri are beginning home visits for our students who are most non-responsive to our outreach.  We're hoping that these visits push kids back into school or into your zooms.  We'll share a list with whom we successfully made contact to the grade team with follow up.  Once you receive follow up notes from Kiri or Jen, please make sure you and/or your co-teachers pull the student into a one-on-one conference (in person or in a breakout room on zoom) to FIRST welcome and reconnect and THEN find out what they need to re-engage successfully and FINALLY list concrete things to do (1-2 max per day - and due that same day or the next day...not a week or long view).  We want their first experiences back in class to feel warm, welcoming, and we want them to get the feeling of success and accomplishment.  That way, we'll keep them coming!

MP4 Log of Support. Continue working on the MP4 Log of Support.  



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.  

Per Session Posting  There are several curriculum development opportunities for summer per session.  Please submit your interest via the Per Session Interest form and email Kiri. ELA & Other course offerings will be made available based on budget availability. FY 2021-22 budgets release in about two weeks.


  1. NEW POST: English. I want to finalize course scope and sequencing - work that we began touching upon PRE covid this July. Primarily, I want to finalize course text titles, benchmark expectations, and materials lists by July 15th. All ELA and SPED/ENL ELA folks are invited to apply. This would be about 10 hours of work, all zoom, with a mix of meeting time and work time as determined by team. There is also an additional five hours for up to three team leaders of this work that will be selected based on their experience in the classroom, demonstrated expertise in a range of works, and depth of understanding or requirements for global assessments like the NYS Middle School exams, HS ELA Regents, and AP Lang, and Lit.

  2. Social Studies.  We need to build a course on African Studies - centering the cultures & histories of Africa in the study of Global History.  This will be a Global History Course for students, leveraging the NYS Global History standards involving the study of African cultures, histories, and achievements on the world stage.  Teachers selected for this Social Studies Course Planning will receive 40 hours to study & develop teacher mastery of African history and to plan and create

    1. A Course Overview & Syllabus, with Course and Unit Objectives

    2. Detailed Overview of first two units - with daily objectives, rubrics, and assessments.

    3. Narrative Lesson Plans for all of of the first unit


  1. Math & Science.  Posting Closed Applied: Nina, Nakita, Jamie, Rebecca F Staffed: Nina, Nakita, Jamie, Rebecca F




Please CLICK HERE to indicate that you’ve read all the blogpost for this week.

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Sunday, May 16, 2021

Week of May 17th

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII
Issue 41
May 17th, 2021

Principal's Message

EOY Reflections on one Extremely Hard, and Challenging Year.  We are in the final laps!  Most of our AP classes have successfully finished their exams and they are now complete.  This week and next week are the final new live lessons of the year, and we are two weeks away from our culminating activities week!

Most, certainly, this year has been like no other.  As you think about and plan out you culminating lessons, assessments, and activities, keep in mind how much the learning landscape has shifted, and make space with your students to reflect on the gains of this past year.  

There are endless accounts of where each of our students and each one of us missed the mark or fell short.  Failure is most useful when we focus on the lessons and growth woven into the failing.  Make time over the next few weeks to provide the support and guidance to your students to not only celebrate the successes but also to help them to author their own growth narrative out of a year of incredibly obstacles and inevitable missteps.

Make time over the next several weeks to listen to your students' experiences in learning with you this year.  This could take whatever form works for you and your students - e.g. conferences (individual or small group), journals (with teacher response), circles, creative piece, performance piece...etc. The goal is to hear back from your students about what they experienced and what they learned with you throughout the year (in advisory and in your classes) AND to help them reflect and harness any shortfalls in performance into lessons they will take into next year as they continue to grow as learners. 

Just as importantly, this is feedback from students that you also need to hear.  When students articulate the successes in their own learning stories, they are really giving you feedback on your impact.  So, as we wrap this year up, take stock of your own work.  Listen and reflect on your own successes that show up through your students' stories of struggling, learning, surviving and thriving through one heck of a school year!




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

Birthdays This Week

Damon, Tuesday 18MAY
Jake, Thursday 20MAY

Student Birthdays
Sunday, 16MAY21: Alaa (7), Aniyah S (6)
Monday, 17MAY21: Fatoumata S (12)
Tuesday, 18MAY21:  Lucia (6)
Wednesday, 19MAY21: Christelle M(6)
              Thursday, 20MAY21: Adrianna M (11), Rana A (9)
Friday, 21MAY21: Dominique M (12)
Saturday, 22MAY21: Danae S (9)



Staff Circles Committee  (Members: Annie, Jennifer, Juelle, Marsha, & Nakita) See agenda/minutes here. Last Friday, we held our last formal Circle of the year. The purpose of the Circle was to do one more inward reflection of our individual ABAR work. We looked at the three biased-based beliefs of color blindness, deficit thinking, and poverty disciplining and investigated how each of the biases show up in our practice (see slides). Our next and final Circle will be June 11th. This will be a more fun, light-hearted staff Circle to commemorate our year doing this work together. 

School Restructuring Committee (Members: Annie, Courtney, Jen, Kiri, Laura, Marsha, Nadine, Nina, and SarahM).  The SRC agendas & minutes are always open for staff access.  The team is working on evaluating the progress of our collective work on moving UAI towards becoming an anti-racist school.  Currently, we have catalogued and evaluated the work of all three steering committees (Circles, Equity, and SRC), and now we are planning engagement activities for staff on May 21st.

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 planned for their next meeting on May 20th where we will meet with a principal from Williamsburg HS of the Arts to discuss how her school transitioned to mastery-based grading.  Also, we are developing a calendar to plan out the professional development that will support the staff in the transition towards mastery-based grading.



NYC School Survey.  Above are our current school survey results.  About one-quarter of our students have taken the survey and only 15 families have finished.  Thank you to all the staff who completed the survey on Friday!  For those that were absent, I shared survey codes and directions with you directly this weekend.  So please check your inbox!

This week please make it a priority to have students take the survey during advisory.  If students are absent please call home to have them take the survey and please reach out to families to make sure they also take the survey.  We are trying to get at least 75% of students and families to complete the survey by next Friday, 28MAY.  


Summer Rising.  We have the opportunity to return to school better, and that first opportunity is with our summer programming.   It will be a long path back for our students to return to remembering what in-person school was really like, and we want summer to be the first taste of remembering that school can be fun and yes, it's cool to love learning!

Please share THIS LINK and encourage ALL families to join our first info session this TUESDAY MAY 18th at 5:30PM.  
                 Meeting ID:  883 3049 0046
                 Password:   751131

Please also announce in Advisory and Talk it Up as an opportunity for students! 

For now, all programs are in-person.  We really want kids to come into the building and re-experience how much fun in-person learning can be.  We may have remote options...but that is still very much TBD.  In Person learning is the priority.  It will be safe (all existing protocols in place AND have weekly testing).  

We have three summer offerings for students.

Octavia Project:  A summer STEAM camp for Middle School students (female/female-identified/non-binary) focused on developing their creative inquiry through STEM projects with creative lenses.   In addition the Octavia Project incorporates near-peer leadership opportunities, guest speakers, and leadership development throughout the summer program. This program is open to all current 6th-8th graders and incoming 5th graders.  Visit the Octavia Project to Learn more




Girls Inc Summer Camp:  A summer empowerment camp for Middle School Students (female/female-identified/non-binary) focused on developing our young people to become Strong, Smart and Bold!  This summer's programs will be "Girl Boss" focusing on financial literacy, "Wellness Lounge" focusing on developing SEL skills, and "Summer Sports" which will be an exploration in various outdoors activities.  In addition, Girls Inc is planning a wide variety of trips, speakers, and career exposure activities. This program is open to all current 6th-8th graders and incoming 5th graders.  



Schools for Kids by Kids:  This homegrown summer seminar program was developed and will be taught by UAI staff.  In this program, students will be invited to research and study how schools are currently structured, rethink how schools should be structured, abolish the structures that should no longer be there, and create an action project to make the changes they would like to see. You can talk to Rachel, Judy, Joey, or Nakita to learn more about the work!  This program is open to any current 8th (or incoming 9th) through 12th graders.





Home & School Visits.  Jen & Kiri are beginning home visits for our students who are most non-responsive to our outreach.  We're hoping that these visits push kids back into school or into your zooms.  We'll share a list with whom we successfully made contact to the grade team with follow up.  Once you receive follow up notes from Kiri or Jen, please make sure you and/or your co-teachers pull the student into a one-on-one conference (in person or in a breakout room on zoom) to FIRST welcome and reconnect and THEN find out what they need to re-engage successfully and FINALLY list concrete things to do (1-2 max per day - and due that same day or the next day...not a week or long view).  We want their first experiences back in class to feel warm, welcoming, and we want them to get the feeling of success and accomplishment.  That way, we'll keep them coming!

MP4 Log of Support. Continue working on the MP4 Log of Support.  



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.  

Per Session Posting  There are several curriculum development opportunities for summer per session.  Please submit your interest via the Per Session Interest form and email Kiri. ELA & Other course offerings will be made available based on budget availability. FY 2021-22 budgets release in about two weeks.


  1. NEW POST: English. I want to finalize course scope and sequencing - work that we began touching upon PRE covid this July. Primarily, I want to finalize course text titles, benchmark expectations, and materials lists by July 15th. All ELA and SPED/ENL ELA folks are invited to apply. This would be about 10 hours of work, all zoom, with a mix of meeting time and work time as determined by team. There is also an additional five hours for up to three team leaders of this work that will be selected based on their experience in the classroom, demonstrated expertise in a range of works, and depth of understanding or requirements for global assessments like the NYS Middle School exams, HS ELA Regents, and AP Lang, and Lit.

  2. Social Studies.  We need to build a course on African Studies - centering the cultures & histories of Africa in the study of Global History.  This will be a Global History Course for students, leveraging the NYS Global History standards involving the study of African cultures, histories, and achievements on the world stage.  Teachers selected for this Social Studies Course Planning will receive 40 hours to study & develop teacher mastery of African history and to plan and create

    1. A Course Overview & Syllabus, with Course and Unit Objectives

    2. Detailed Overview of first two units - with daily objectives, rubrics, and assessments.

    3. Narrative Lesson Plans for all of of the first unit


  1. Math & Science.  Posting Closed Applied: Nina, Nakita, Jamie, Rebecca F Staffed: Nina, Nakita, Jamie, Rebecca F




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