Week of 10MAY

UAI Staff News

Volume VIII

Issue 40

May 10th, 2021

Principal's Message

Mother's Day.  Today is mother's day and I do hope all of you who are mothers are being pampered, catered to, and celebrated.  For those of us with mothers (or aunty-moms, grandmoms, mother-figures), I hope you are celebrating them with love and light and joy.  And for those of us whose mothers/mother-figures are no longer with us, I hope that today is a day that shines brightly in the joy of their memories and love.

Last week was a celebration of all of the amazing work and tireless commitment each of you have displayed over this very hard year.  To punctuate the end of that week, I encourage you to take some time to reflect on your individual achievements and successes, and appreciate your own work and achievements.  Then, turn to those in your sphere - partners, mothers/mother-figures, friends, family, etc. and take a moment to name and appreciate their role in empowering you to deliver the amazing work you were able to produce this year!

One clear lesson I've learned through the last 14 months was that we could not have survived this year and given the best experience possible to our students and families had we not done so with the support and encouragement of our UAI family & community.  In addition, the support and encouragement of our relationships in our personal lives are also part of the engine that drove our year.  So, today, make it a point to celebrate and/or remember your moms (or mom-figures),  AND then, make it a point to celebrate yourself and those who had your back as you did amazing work to hold, care and push our students to their next levels!

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

Birthdays This Week

No Staff Birthdays this Week

Student Birthdays

Sunday, 09MAY21: Abigail G (9), Starasia (9),
Sarra K (9), Rmani (7)

Monday, 10MAY21:  Jasmine J (9)
              Thursday, 12MAY21: Monique S (10)

Friday, 13MAY21: Mamadou (

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. See agenda/minutes here.

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).    No Updates this week.

Eid al-Fitr.  Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, and a time of celebration and festivities for many of our students and their families.  This year, we observe Eid al-Fitr on Thursday, May 13th.  There is no school that day and staff should also not assign asynchronous lessons that day.  

NYC School Survey.  Our Annual School survey opens tomorrow.  There have been some changes to the survey to reflect our year in COVID learning, but for the most part, it is the same survey as in years past.   This year, the DOE has streamlined access for parents and students.  They will simply need the student's OSIS number to access.  Once the survey site officially opens, I'll post up explicit directions in the daily announcements, so look for them there.  The survey window opens on 10MAY and our goal is to have all advisors complete the survey by 28MAY!  Advisors should plan to complete the survey in advisory this week or next week, and advisors should reach out to families to support them in the online completion of the survey over the next few weeks.  Staff will select their survey codes on Friday during Grade Teams and will have time to complete the surveys in that meeting, too.

Grading Policy Reminder.  As a reminder, for MP4, the Equity Team made updates to the Grading Policy

• Floor Grade of 50.  The floor grade of 50 will remain in place.  
  
  
• No More Participation Grades.  Please do not assign participation grades for MP4.

MP4 Log of Support. Continue working on the MP4 Log of Support.  If you keep getting the same results, try working on understanding the why.  If they aren't coming to class or if they aren't turning in work, schedule a one-on-one when they do come to class or call home to talk about the situation and better understand what barriers may be in play.   Yes, kids may be avoiding and simply not wanting to join...that action in and of itself tells you something - only talking to them or their parents will reveal what that something actually is.

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. 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

2. Math & Science.  Working with the Leadership Academy, Math & Science teachers are invited to join summer work to conduct a curriculum audit of HS Math & Science courses for Cultural Responsiveness & Relevancy.  Moving from the audit, teachers will work collaboratively to make adjustments to course units & pedagogical approaches to increase and create culturally responsive STEM courses for our students.  Teachers should apply with planning partners (from this year) and will receive up to 40 hours to work collaboratively with team members to

1. Audit current course(s) for cultural responsiveness (2-5 hours)

2. Meet individually (and/or in planning teams) to develop capacity in planning culturally responsive lessons & units (5-10hrs)

3. Meet in planning teams to rework first two units of selected course (10-15 hrs)

1. Produce a Course Overview & Syllabus withe Course & Unit Objectives

2. Produce detailed overview of first Unit with daily objectives, rubrics, and assessments

3. Narrative lesson plans for all unit objectives of the first unit.

4. Meet regularly with Leadership Academy team to review work and receive professional development around cultural responsibility (10 hrs)

Summer School Per Session Post.

We are still looking for teachers, but here are the postings so far.

Please complete the per session interest form and email Kiri 

• 2 Administrators (Must have Admin certification) - Marsha & Brodie

• 1 Teacher Coordinator of Summer School - Kelly

• 4-7 Teachers (subject to student enrollment): Suzannah, Nadine, Cherry, Joey, Kristina

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