Week of 17OCT22

UAI Staff News

Volume X

Issue 8

October 17th, 2022

Choosing Happiness.  Life is short.  Childhood is even shorter.  It is super important to continually challenge and push our students to achieve and grow.  It is equally important to raise up happiness and joy, and to remind our students (and ourselves) that happiness, like everything we do in life, is a choice, and we need to make it a priority to make that choice daily.

Sometimes it is far too easy to focus solely on the things that seem unfair or things that are not right or stuff that just hasn't gone well.  As a species, natural selection has left us with an extremely developed capacity to identify, analyze, and think deeply about problems.  It may have started with something basic as - how do I find food or how do I not become food - but in our modern human form, this same skill has us sometimes over-focusing on the negative.

BUT - as humans, we also have the ability to shift our focus and reconsider our perspectives.  We simply have to make that choice, and push ourselves and our students to choose happiness - choose joy.

Over the last few weeks, I have been pushing on getting grades into Google Classrooms and on getting folks to contact home of those kiddos who are not yet passing.  This has probably led to undo focus on the things that don't seem to be working (in our own instruction and/or in our students choices & work).

In the upcoming weeks, choose also to find ways to change or correct the current path and/or to celebrate the success of those who are doing well.

When school staff actively work to choose joy and to help their students find ways to do the same, we help our students discover their own capacity and power to shift their narratives from characters in plays that happen TO them to authors of their own pathways and decisions.

So, this week, work on finding your joy and leading others to finding their own, too. When you do, you will be creating so many different pathways to power!

Important dates. 

• Week of 17OCT22.  UAI Spirit Week
• Monday, 17OCT22.  Pajama Day
• Tuesday, 18OCT22. Color War Between Grades
• Wednesday, 19OCT22.  90s Day
• Thursday, 20OCT22. Rep Your Flag Day
• Friday, 21OCT22.  Twin Day

• Monday, 24OCT22. Diwali Celebration After School

• Monday, 31OCT22.  Halloween - Costume Parade

Announcements & To Dos

Principal Performance Observation (PPO) Visit.  Superintendent Fred Walsh and Deputy Superintendent Alison Breedy will be visiting UAI and UAI classrooms on Tuesday afternoon.  During this visit, Fred & Alison will be coming to see the quality of instruction and to evaluate the structures and systems we have in place to elevate & grown our instructional practice & ultimately students achievement.   None of us are perfect, and all of us are continually striving to get there.  We have focused this year on our structures to get them started.  I am thoroughly excited to share our narrative and our work this year so far.  

• 12:30 - Arrival and Opening Meeting with Annie & Kiri
• 12:50 - 1^st Classroom Visit - African History (grade 8/9) with Ms. Shan 
• 1:05 - 2^nd Classroom Visit - ICT MS Social Studies (6^th gr) with Ms. Fatima 
• 1:20- 3^rd Classroom Visit - AP English Lit with Mr. Joey 
• 1:35 - 4^th Classroom Visit - ICT Algebra 2 with Ms. Joanna & Ms. Christina 
• 1:50 - 5^th Classroom Visit - Earth Science with Mr. Thomas
• 2:00 - Final Meeting and Debrief with ILT (Instructional Leadership Team), Annie & Kiri

Many thanks to those who are opening up their classrooms to the visit.  I wish I we had time to see you all!  However, the timing of the visit and tight schedule limit our options.  Thank you to those lucky teachers who are in the zone of visitation!  Your ILT lead will be on hand to provide direct support for the visit.

Interim Assessments Begin.  This week we will be starting our interim assessments for students in grades 6-11.   We use the DRP (Degrees of Reading Power) to track student reading capacity, the MAP Math exam to see how our students math skills are developing, and the DESSA let's us know how students are developing social-emotionally.  Each of these assessments are given three times a year (Fall, Winter, and Spring).   This week begins the Fall testing period.

• Week of Oct 17.  The DRP will be launching this week for grades 6-11 in learning labs starting on Tuesday.  Marsha is our testing coordinator for the DRP and will be reviewing how we will do this during Monday PD.
• Week of Oct 24.  The MAP Math test will be launching for grades 6-11.  As with the DRP, students will take this exam during Learning Lab.  Amanda is our testing coordinator for the MAP Math exam and will be reviewing how we will administer the test in Monday 24OCT22's PD.
• Monday Oct 31.  The DESSA is a social-emotional skills inventory that teachers complete about students.  We will use PD time on 31OCT to complete this inventory.  Jen is our testing coordinator for the DESSA and will lead staff through what it is and how to complete it during PD.

UAI After School.  UAI After School starts this week.  Please share this updated flyer with your advisory this week and encourage them to sign up!  If you are still interested in running a club, it's not too late.  Just email Kiri!   All after school club teachers must submit student sign-in sheets with their per session sheets.  There needs to be at least 8-10 consistent students for a club to persist.  If a club fall below 8 students, it will, unfortunately, have to be cancelled.

We're still looking for someone to lead the following clubs - please email Kiri if you're interested

• Black Student Union
• Muslim Student Alliance
• Student Council
• Stoked

<<Repost>> Student Password Reset.  Any UAI staff member can reset a student's email and look up their DOE email account.  With your DOE credentials, you should have access to reset a student's DOE password (you don't need the email - just a student's OSIS - which you can find on their schedule)

1. Go to https://idmapps.nycenet.edu/passwordreset/(Open external link) and sign in with your DOE credentials. If you don’t have access, scroll down to the bottom of the page for instructions.
2. Enter the student’s OSIS ID number.
3. Enter a password for the student.
4. Provide the password to the student. 
5. When you give the password to the student, tell them to sign into the Student Password and Account Management tool(Open external link) and reset their password to something unique (if you gave them a generic password).
6. Once they reset their own password and set up their account, they are all set and can begin accessing DOE digital learning platforms.

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities (view all 2022-23 postings here),
please complete Per Session Application For

11OCT22 Posting

UAI After School Supervisor.  This position would be the person supervising UAI after school courses on Wednesday & Thursdays from 3-5PM.  The role would be to manage any communications with home around pick up making sure parents kids who need pick up are picked up, and managing any issues that may arise during after school (mediating any conflicts, assisting teachers with needed resources, monitoring student movement throughout the after school spaces).  This position would operate out of the deans office and would be in charge of managing all UAI after school activities on these two days.  Two positions available for the year.

Per Session Postings Now Closed