Week of April 11th

UAI Staff News

Volume IX

Issue 28

April 11th, 2022

Ramadan.  This month many of our Muslim students are observing ritual and cultural practices associated with Ramadan. 

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam.  Similar to fasting periods in Christianity and Judaism, this period for our muslim students and families is a time for self-restraint that leads to reflection, piety, and generosity - in many different ways.

During the month of Ramadan, observant muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, eating and drinking nothing for that entire time.  Additionally, the five daily prayers of Islam are also performed during Ramadan.  

To be fully inclusive and supportive of our muslim students' needs during Ramadan, we have provided students with a space for their midday prayer and access to elevators for the month of Ramadan.  It has been a few years since we supported students in observing Ramadan in person.  So, we do need to work out a few kinks in the prayer spaces and elevators.   Your patience on this is truly appreciated!

Despite the bumps, our students and families have been extremely appreciative of the efforts we have put forth during this month, and I am super appreciative to all staff who make UAI a welcome and supportive environment for all, but also especially for our muslim students this month.

Please continue to support our students in their observances this month!  Additionally, show them you value their cultural and religious practices by showing curiosity and desire to learn more about customs that may be outside of your own immediate experience or world view.

NOTE:  Last week, a few students told me that their teachers were marking them late or absent to class while they went to pray.  For these students, they perceived these as punitive measures.  Please do not mark students late or absent, and please show them all that we embrace and support all of our students with love, understanding, and honor.

 

Important dates this month.  

• Monday, 11APR:  Full staff meeting in the Library at 3PM
• Monday 11-14APR:  UAI Spirit Week
• Tuesday, 12APR @ 4PM-6PM:  UAI Hiring Fair
• Thursday, 14APR @ 2:50PM:  Rapid Dismissal - all students and staff must leave building
• Friday 15APR:  Spring Break Begins - NO SCHOOL
• Monday 25APR:  Full Staff Meeting - Equity Team
• Monday, 02MAY:  Eid Al-Fitr - No School
• Monday, 09MAY:  Full Staff Meeting in the Library at 3PM
• Monday, 16MAY:  Full Staff Meeting in the Library at 3PM
• Monday, 25MAY:  Full Staff Meeting in the Library at 3PM

Committee Updates

Scheduling Committee. The scheduling committee will meet Wednesday to review course selections and establish a process of student course selections for the fall.  You can see the agenda and notes here.  

The Hiring Committee.  Our next fair is On March 12, 2022.  Please SHARE OUT THIS FLIER to anyone you know who may be looking for a job in teaching next year!   

• You can always view our notes and decisions on THIS DOC. 
  
  

Equity Team.  The Equity Team read another passage from Pushout this week to start thinking about which specific policies are causing disproportionality in our discipline data and how we might revise these policies.  The team will reconvene to discuss the reading this week.  Agenda

Circles Committee.  No Updates this week

Consultation Committee.  Next meeting is on Thursday 07APR22 at 3PM in room 403.  See consultation committee notes.   Goals for this committee are still TBD

Instructional Leadership Team. All teams completed course catalog components.

Announcements

Monday Full Staff Meetings for Spring.  We will have a full staff meeting each week for the remainder of the Mondays this spring.  These meetings will always begin and end with community building activities to build up our interpersonal relationships among staff at UAI. One critical component undermining our collective work is that we do not know one another well enough outside of the folks with whom we work each day.  To bolster this relationship building, we will be adding in community connections at the start and end of each PD meeting on Monday.  Please do not be late to the meetings. They will all being in the library and then move to different spaces as needed.  The upcoming topics for the remaining meetings in April will be: 

• 11APR - Scheduling Committee Launches Student Course Selection Process
• 25APR - Equity Team presents work on Student Discipline

Small Group Instruction Outreach.  Small groups are relaunching after the Spring Break.  Any student who failed a core class (Math, Science, English, or Social Studies) have been assigned to a small group to receive academic intervention and support from the core class teacher.  Please review  the small group assignments HERE.  These small group teachers should reach out to families during Tuesday outreach time and inform families that:

• Their child has failed your class
• Small group instruction will begin when we return from April break (schedules will be finalized by Thursday - grades finalized on Friday - so still working on scheduling the groups now).
• Explain to families what the student needs to do to successfully earn credit for the course
• Explain that if the student is not yet satisfactorily performing in your course by May 30, the student will be assigned to come into school during all student non-attendance days in June to work with you.  These are the HS Regents days and non-instructional days (e.g. June PD day and June Clerical day) to receive intervention and support instruction.  UAI summer school will solely be enrichment activities.  These small groups and June instruction are remediation and credit recovery time that used to be in the summer.
• Once outreach has been made, please update the document with Y/N to indicate whether outreach is complete.

REPOST:  Start Summer Vacation Early.  If you have not already used up your allotted vacation days, I am giving the blanket approval to any and all staff who wish to use any or all of their vacation days for the last 7 days of June.  This means that if you haven't used any of your days yet, your last day of school this year could be June 17th (instead of June 28th).    Please email Kiri by the end of next week (April 8th) if you are interested!

Pulling Small Groups from PE/Dance.  Not all teacher programs allow for small groups to occur during Learning Lab.  So, some small groups will need to be pulled from PE/Dance last period.  Students will only be pulled from the class once per week and should be excused.

 

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!

FINAL SURVEY PUSH.  In Learning Labs this week, please encourage students to complete their Learning Environment Survey.  If you have not already completed your survey, please do so, too.  Aisha is working on outreach to families to encourage family completion of the surveys.

Do Small Group Outreach on Tuesday.  All teachers with small groups must call families on Tuesday to let them know that small groups will launch after break.  Please update the form  HERE once outreach is complete.  If you have any issues or problems with outreach, please contact Kiri directly!  This form needs to be completed by the end of outreach time on Tuesday 12APR21.

Per Session Postings

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

After School Small Groups.   If you do not have enough space in your in-day small groups (they are limited to 10 students per group) and/or  you wish to hold additional small groups after school, please complete the above per session interested form and email Kiri with the days and hours you would like to work.

Applied:  Shana

Staffed:  Shana

Curriculum Organization.  All teachers are eligible to earn up to 50 hours of per session to organize and submit their current curricula by the end of June 2022.  Curricula will be submitting using UAI pacing templates with sharable links to lesson plans, assessments, and associated materials.  Please complete the per session interest form above and email Kiri if you are interested!

Applied:  Nakita, Jamie, Nina, Kelly

Staffed:  Nakita (Earth Science), Jamie (Algebra I), Nina (Geometry), Kelly (African History

Position is still open if you are interested!

2022 UAI SUMMER Camp.  <STILL OPEN> This summer will build on what we started last summer in our effort to create highly engaging and challenging summer programming for our students.  Mandatory make-up programs have been moved into June and we are replacing the punitive form of summer school with programming that is aimed at enriching, exciting, and getting kids thrilled to be in school again!

We are looking for summer school teachers to offer programming this summer.  We will offer elective credit to the courses.  The courses can be anything that interests you, and classes will be limited no more than 15 students per class.  

We are looking for teachers to teach elective classes in:

• Arts:  Creative Writing, Art (visual, performing, or movement), Poetry, Storytelling, Photography etc.
• Social Justice:  Community Organizing, Protest Art, Social Media Campaigns, Etc.
• STEM:  Finance, Engineering, Drones, Rockets, 
• EntrepreneurialMedia:  Podcasting, YouTubing, Social Media Management, Documentary Film Making
• Open Call:  Have an Idea?  Submit it!!
  
  
  

Days:  11JUL-29JUL , Mondays-Thursdays ONLY

Hours (Max) 5 hrs per day 

    (90 min classes with an hour prep for each class up to two classes a day)

    Total possible hours = 60 hours    Minimum possible hours = 30 hours

(Applied)/ Staffed: 

1. Jenetta (Summer School Coordinator, Social Justice Course) - Staffed - Social Justice Course
2. Kelly (Summer School Coordinator, Regents Prep Coordinator) - Staffed (Summer/Regents Coordinator)
3. Jelissa (SYEP, Student Recruitment) - Staffed - SYEP coordinator, Student Recruitment
4. Adelle (Student Recruitment) - Student Recruitment
5. Freida (Summer Arts Elective) = Staffed Summer Arts Elective
6. Nina (Regents Prep) - Staffed - Regents Prep
7. Nicole (SYEP, Student Recruitment)- Staffed - SYEP Support,Student Recruitment
8. Juelle (Student Recruitment) - Staff Student Recruitment
9. Brodie (Summer School Administrator) - Staffed - Summer School Admin
10. Shana (STEAM Summer Elective) - Staffed - STEAM Summer Elective
11. Rebecca (Pottery with a Wheel)- Staffed - Pottery