Week of January 24th

UAI Staff News

Volume IX

Issue 21

January 24th, 2022

Principal Message

Power Up Week.  We are in the final week of MP2 and the Fall Semester - putting us halfway through the year.

These last few weeks have certainly been unsteady and overwhelming.  However, things are beginning to settle.

Since my last COVID notification email on 17JAN22, we have only had three new reported cases - for the entire week.  That is a major, major improvement.

Our attendance is improving.  The weather is still challenging, but I expect given that this is the final week of the semester, we can expect increased attendance in classes this week.

A more manageable pattern of teaching and learning is emerging, and that is good news for all!

As we enter into our second Power Up Week, this will be different than the last one.  You will undoubtedly have more than a few students with lots of missing work.  This is the opportunity to look at all of the missing work and prioritize those assignments which enable our students to have the skills and knowledge that will best benefit them in the unit to come.

Challenge yourself to adhere more closely to a mindset of Competency Based Grading.  Rather than focusing on doing the work for sake of doing the work - look at the assignments and prioritize those that best leverage learning or developing competency over key concepts and skills.  Those assignments can then be weighted to accommodate for any other missing work, and students can then spend time more effectively - concentrating on a few core skills rather than rapidly smashing through as many assignments as possible.

This is not only a Power Up for students, but also a PowerUp for staff!  Reach out to your Instructional Leads for support and definitely bounce ideas around in your planning teams!

Important dates this month.  

• Week of 24JAN21:  Power-Up Week
• 28JAN21:  End of MP2 
• 31JAN21:  Chancellor's PD Day (Remote Day)
• 01FEB21:  Lunar New Year - NO SCHOOL
• 02FEB21:  MP3 Begins

Committee Updates

Equity Team.  The Equity Team met 1/13/21 to further discuss disproportionality in classroom removal and suspension data.  The team identified two problems within the data and then discussed possible root causes of these problems.  Please see the meeting agenda and notes to review the highlights of our discussion.

Circles Committee.  Our next circle will be via zoom during staff PD pm January 31st.  The committee is meeting to plan that circle. Only a couple of folks completed the last feedback form.  To make circles optimal, we need feedback. Please COMPLETE THIS FORM to give the team many more perspectives to make this next circle great!  FYI - We will be continuing with Circles until an alternate plan is in place. The Circles Committee met last Thursday to develop a plan to engage the full staff in problem analysis and solution around this issue during our January PD day.  Please do share your input with the Circles Committee:  Nakita, Jean, or Kristina

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Consultation Committee.  This week's agenda is in the consultation committee notes.   

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, 20JAN at 3PM in rom 403.

• Expectations of Flex Time Use:  Should we revert to standard contractual programming (staying in school on Mondays and Tuesdays late)?  

• Attendance Lift & Consent Form Lift:  Should the attendance responsibilities be permanently removed from advisors plates so that staff can use outreach time to focus on academic and social emotional outreach?

• Participation in Circles and The Work we Need to Move our School Forward:  What should we do to address staff engagement in the work required to achieve our collective goal of making UAI a fully inclusive and anti-racist school?

Announcements

Advisory Lesson & Panoramic Survey.  This week in Advisory and Learning Lab, we're asking folks to help us administer the annual student feedback survey for teachers (the NYCDOE Panoramic Survey).  

• Review PowerPoint in Advisory 
• If necessary share powerpoint in Learning Lab  (for those students who missed advisory)
• Student Survey Access Codes can be found HERE

Students receive a Homework Pass or Missing Grade Eraser coupon for each survey they complete.  Students have been assigned randomly to evaluate teachers.  If students struggle to find their access codes using the Survey Access Code Lookup Tool, teachers can help them using this Alphabetically Sorted List of Access Codes

All Surveys should be completed during Advisory and/or Learning Labs.  All surveys need to be completed by Friday, 28JAN22.

January 31st PD Day.  This day will be remote for all staff.   For this meeting, all staff are expected to engage with cameras on throughout the entire day. 

If for whatever reason, you cannot successfully have your camera on throughout the entirety of all PD and planning sessions, please do plan to come in and work from school so that you can use school WiFi and facilities to work with cameras on.

Here's the Agenda

• 8:30-9:20 - AM Staff Meeting and State of The School Review
• 9:20-9:30 - Break
• 9:30-10:15 - Equity Team Presentation on Equity Work & Discipline
• 10:15-10:30 - Break
• 10:30-11:30 - Staff Circle
• 11:30-12:10 - Lunch
• 12:10-4:10PM - Team Planning Session
• Please complete this form to indicate who you are meeting with and when. 
  ILT leads will be using this information to support and plan with folks.
• You do not need to use the full time for meeting.  This time can be split between meeting and independent work time.  We just need to know when you plan to meet so ILT leads can coordinate their support efforts.

To Do This Week

PAY ATTENTION TO THE YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS
This is the stuff that requires your attention AND it's stuff you need to do!

<<REPOST>> Feedback & Improvement.  Now that the outreach team is picking up on attendance outreach, please use this new time to make contact with homes about academic progress for students in your classes. Please use your programmed feedback time to make sure students are receiving timely verbal and written feedback to improve academic performance and social emotional skills in your classes.

• All students should have feedback from you about how to improve their performance in your class.   HOWEVER - All students who are failing MUST have had a conversation with you about what they need to do in order to pass by the end of MP2 by the end of this week.  If you cannot get in touch with a student, please email Kiri directly, and she will provide support.  Please document these conversations in Skedula. 

<<REPOST>> Grades.  With the change in course codes, cumulating MP1 with MP2 is not happening automatically across the board.  The best way to make sure MP1 is reflected in MP2 is to use the final MP1 grade as a performance grade in MP2.  It will be the teacher's discretion on how much to weight MP1.  Is this a method you would like to continue for the year? Share your opinion here.

MP3 ends 28JAN22.  MP3 will end on Friday, 28JAN22.  Grades will be due at 3PM on 03FEB22.  Report cards will distributed digitally to advisors on Friday, 04FEB22.  Advisors can print or email report cards home on 04FEB22.

Per Session Postings

Please complete THS PER SESSION INTEREST FORM and email Kiri to let her know that you are applying for a per session position.

• Office Hours and Zoom Tutoring.  As a reminder, all staff can receive per session hours for tutoring and office hours help to students who are learning at home.  Teachers can earn up to 10 hours per week, and can work from home.  To receive per session, you must write in your hours and submit the time card along with a screen shot (with date and time) or zoom attendance log of the office hours.
  
  
• Scheduling Committee (POSTING CLOSES 18JAN).  We will begin programming for next year.  This committee will review & refine processes used this year for course selection.  Committee members must commit to time outside of school hours to train in STARS programming and they will be responsible for actually programming the school in STARS for next year.  Committee members will also be charged with integrated constituency voices (students, staff, families, partners) and aligning NYCDOE academic & union requirements to constituency requests.   Committee members can expect to meet weekly for 1 hour and put in at least 2-3 hours independently (remote work ok) on work products related to programming and scheduling.  Committee members will work in conjunction with Instructional Leadership Team and School Leadership to finalize program options and implement programmatic needs. 
• Required Skills - Facility with MS Excel required
• Preferred Skills - Strong communication skills, someone who likes solving puzzles with multiple variables with multiple outcomes, willing to learn DOE systems and academic/union requirements for programming and scheduling
  
  
• Staffing up to 5 members to begin meeting after posting closes on 17JAN21
• Applied:  Brodie, Liza, Jelissa, Marsha
• Staffed:  Brodie, Liza, Jelissa, Marsha

• Hiring Committee (Posting EXTENDED to 24JAN).  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:
  
  Applied - Kelly, Judy
  Staffed - Kelly, Judy

  • 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

• Candidate Recruitment

• Staffing up to 5 members to begin meeting after posting closes on 24JAN22