Week of 23Jan23

UAI Staff News

Volume X

Issue 18

January 23rd, 2023

Packing up the Fall and Remembering to Celebrate the Wins.  This week is the last week of the fall term.  And just like that, we are half way through the school year!

At the start of this year, we leaned into our core values of Joy, Power, Equity, and Rigor to frame our work with our students and families.  In those opening PD days of September, we also leveraged the power of community and relationships to make these values come alive in the daily work that we do.

Through natural talent, experience, and commitment, each of you have done herculean work to create warm and inviting learning environments that both welcome and challenge our students.  Your continued care and commitment to our students' success is evident in your classroom interactions and in the work you put into crafting lesson plans and reflecting & reworking your teacher moves that push our students to do the lion share of the the thinking.

Through our instructional rounds, we found patterns through all of our classrooms that was getting in the way of our goals for student growth.  Across grades and classrooms, scaffolds providing questions and designed to support student progress towards thinking may be actually been doing too much of the thinking for our kids.  From there, I have seen many, many folks adapt instructional strategies to continually refine practice to shift the cognitive load from the worksheets and to the students.  As we take a look at benchmark data this week, we will se the outcomes of that work.  Like Instructional Rounds, looking at student work is yet another learning tool that will help us better understand how our work is landing and what we may need to shift.

This week, you will have a lot of time to work in teams and with co-planning partners to reflect on the fall and prepare for the spring term.  You will be working on several tasks (see below).  As you do, 

• Celebrate the Win - Make the time to find the places of success.  Studiously look for the best win, and take the time to examine and understand why it was such a success.
• From Good to Great - After you pick the best win(s), sift back through the good.  What would need to happen to make the pretty good things really great?
• Marie Kondo That - There are bound to be things that just didn't work or didn't work well enough.  As you wrap up the good reflections, think about the things you did that didn't lead to the win you expected.  All of us have that favorite ancient t-shirt that no longer fits us or those pants we'll never wear again or even that box we haven't opened in 5 or more different moves.  Our lives naturally attract clutter (entropy in action).  Our school lives and instructional practices are no different.  Take a look at the successes and wins and trace back to the practices that won.  Then look turn around and look at the practices that you love.  Do they trace back to the win in the students' work?  If not, not matter how much you love that practice (or t-shirt, jeans, or mystery box), it may be time to Marie Kondo that!

We're at the halfway mark!  If you think that went fast, just wait- June will be here in a blink of an eye!

We've done amazing work, and we can do even better for the Spring! Because it's true - we are in fact that amazing ;-)

Important dates. 

• Monday, 23JAN23.  
• Last Day of January Benchmark week  Ends
• 6/7/12th Grader Tubing Trip
• Grading for Learning PD with Amanda in Room 205L at 3pm
• Tuesday, 24JAN23.  HS Regents Week Begins (See Announcements below)
• Thursday, 26JAN23.  MP2 Grades Due at 3PM
• Monday, 30JAN23.  Chancellors's PD day - no students in school Final Agenda coming out this week
• Tuesday, 31JAN23.  First day of the Spring Term

Announcements & To Dos

Grading for Learning.  For Monday's PD, Ms. Amanda will be presenting her long-time work around competency-based grading.  She'll be sharing that work with all of us and showing some simple tweaks that folks can easily make to move us further along our journey towards Competency Based Grading.  PD will be in the farm at 3PM on Monday!

Regents Week.  The schedule is complete and students have been notified (Kiri emailed them directly).  The list will be posted tomorrow, and if students are not on the list, they can still sign up.  If any student wants to sign up, please tell them to email Kiri and we'll get them added to the lists.

Teachers will have time to

• Complete MP2 Grades (see below)
• Grade MP2 Benchmarks and Look at Student Work (see below)
• Catalog Fall Lessons and Units (see below)
• Plan for First Two Weeks of February (see below)

Complete MP2 Grades.  In tomorrow's announcements, you'll receive the link to the spreadsheets for official MP2 Report Cards.  For MP2, 

• All passing grades are > 65 and 55 is the only failing grade.
• Do not use grades from 56-64.  

• FYI - as per grading policy, students who are passing as of MP2 will have earned at least half the credits of the year-long course.  (So, in June if they fail, but are passing now, they will have at least 1 credit of a 2 credit course).
• All MP2 grades are due at 3PM on Thursday, 26JAN23

MP2 Benchmarks and Looking at Student Work.  One of the most common points of feedback we receive on surveys is around vertical planning and alignment.  Many folks think of vertical alignment from the planning side.  If this course does this, then that course should do that.  However, even if we plan and actually teach something, it doesn't guarantee that students are necessarily developing competency.  So, looking at the outcome of our work is a much more reliable method of vertical alignment and planning.  Looking at what the students are actually doing and producing empowers us to more capably build from their strengths and center their needs. 

This week, you will be grading the benchmarks and campus regent exams to get a global sense of how UAI students are progressing towards state standards and how the regents expect our students to demonstrate their skill on the exams. 

You'll also have an opportunity to dive deeper into student work using qualitative protocols to gain another perspective on how students are doing in response to our instruction and what we need to shift in that work to make our students performance even better. 

With both of these experiences, the goal is to learn, reflect and adjust our practices to best meet student learning needs and amplify their success.

Catalog Fall Lessons, Units, and Assessments.  One of the best things about working in schools is the calendar.  With regularity, we get to reset and reinvest.  It's like having a new year's rest every semester!  BUT... it can also lead to a dip in efficiency.  We get so wrapped up in the new and better, that we sometimes forget about the work we put in.   In the frenzy of the year, entropy always wins, and our Google Drives and Lesson Plans are all over the place.  This week, take a moment to get organized.  Make the time this week to catalog what you did for the fall (for just one section) using the UAI Pacing Guide Template.  Make a copy of this template for each course you teach.  Type in the daily learning target and link the lesson or activity to the learning target.  Also link in the assessment of that learning target (exit ticket, activity, etc).  It's OK if you don't have everything.  The point is to link in what your DO have so you are not recreating the wheel next fall.  

Moving forward into the spring, folks are encouraged to use this template to track their work for the spring term.  Per session is available for maintaining these Pacing Guides and your Google Classrooms for the Spring Term (see per session post below)

Planning Ahead.  Finally, this week you want to use time to make sure you are getting ahead in your planning for the Spring Term. Make a goal to fully plan at least 3-4 lessons, and to sketch out the calendar for the spring.   Some important dates to keep in mind:

• NYS MS ELA Exam. Weds 19APR- Mon 24APR (21 APR is Eid al-Fitr - NO SCHOOL)
• NYS MS Math Exam. Tues 02MAY- Thu 04May
• NYSESLAT Exam. Mon 15MAY- Fri 26May (Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing)
• US History Regent Exam.  Thu 01JUN23 - NO CLASSES for HS or 8th Grade
• Final Exam Week For All - Mon 05JUN-MON12JUN (Same as Benchmark Week)
• Regents Week Begins - 14JUN23
• We WILL be having a mock regents exam period after Spring Break some time in April/early May.  Exact dates and schedule still TBD.  Courses ending in Regent exams will use this data to structure regents prep for May/June.

PID.  In 

<REPOST> Benchmarks.  Our first school-wide benchmark assessment will be taking place during the week of January 23.  In addition, we will be giving the NYCDOE Tripod Survey during that week for students (stay tuned for schedule).  For the benchmarks...

• All Regents ending classes will be provided with a regents-based exam designed by your ILT lead, based on the regent exam and the units that your classes have completed thus far.  

• All other 8-12th grade classes (breadth classes and AP classes) will need to develop their own class assessment and give it on the assigned day, during regular class time.
  
  
• All exams will take place during your regular class time on the assigned days below.  Please note the DATE CHANGES.  These were made because I realized I hadn't considered that you might not see your classes on the day I picked!  I changed some things around to accommodate for that as much as possible.
  
  
• Tuesday, 17JAN23.  All Science Classes give the Science Benchmark
• Wednesday, 18JAN23.  All Social Studies classes
       (except sections PUZ - they don't meet on Wednesdays)
• Thursday, 19JAN23.  PUZ Social Studies & All Math classes
• Friday, 20JAN23. All ELA classes
• Monday, 23JAN23.  All breadth classes.  If you don't meet with a section on Monday, please choose any day from the prior week to give your benchmark.
• Tuesday, 24JAN23.  NYS Middle School Math Benchmark
• Wednesday, 25JAN23.  NYS Middle School ELA Benchmark

• All make-ups should be completed during learning labs or teachers should use prep/professional time to pull students from learning labs to complete make ups. 

Progress Reports.   The final progress reporting for MP2 will be next week.  Please make sure you are up-to-date with your grading and can input grades that will be largely reflecting of what student can expect to see on their final MP2 report card.  We'll meet in circle rooms next Tuesday to update the Progress Report document, and this will count as family outreach for the week.

Regents Exam Sign Up.   For the January Regents administration, students will have to opt in to taking the exams.  In June, all students in regents-ending classes will be automatically signed up for the exam.  Students who are ready to retake the Regents exams need complete THIS Form.  For this January testing period, only students who have been studying and are prepared to retake an exam should sign up.  For students who are looking for just practice, this is where they can find practice exams and answer keys

Per Session Postings

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

Hiring Committee.  It's hiring season again!   Each year we open up our hiring process in February to meet candidates.  We run our hiring process independent of known vacancies.  We do this because we need to start early to catch the most folks, and that early start is too soon for many folks to know next year's plans.  We also are part of a larger network of schools with whom we share candidates.  So our hiring process serves to first staff UAI, but secondarily support the larger UA network.  We are looking for folks to join!  If you are interested, please complete the per session application (link above) and email Kiri no later than 23JAN23.

If you are interested in the hiring committee, here's what happens

• The Process 
• First Cast a Very Wide Net.  To find the best teachers, we cast the widest net to get the most applicants.  From this pool interview and select candidates for demo lessons & debrief interviews.  We post for all positions and all grade levels each year.  We then interview all the candidates at multiple interview fairs that happen on several times (after school & Saturdays) throughout the Spring.  The hiring committee is charged with interviewing panels of candidates and selecting the best of these candidates to perform a demo lesson and debrief the interview.
• The Demo Lesson.  ILT leads, Annie and Kiri observe all demo lessons, and where possible, hiring committee members join (volunteering their prep, lunch and/or professional period).
• The Debrief Interview.  After the demo lesson, ILT Leads, Annie & Kiri lead the interview to listen to the candidate reflect on the demo and see how well the candidate is at taking in and using feedback.  As with the demo lesson, hiring committee member join in on the debrief interviews.
• Goals
• Diversify Staff Hires. We will increase the diversity of our UAI instructional staff
• By actively recruiting and promoting hiring events to members of groups have been historically denied access and opportunity, we aim to increase folks identifying as POC and/or LGBTQ+ applying to work at UAI.
• By intentionally reaching out to organizations for educators self-identifying as POC, the Hiring Committee will increase the number of folks identifying as POC and/or LGBTQ+ in Round 1 panel interviews.
• The committee will report the diversity results of each Hiring Fair and Demo Lessons in the subsequent Blogs and will provide an in-depth report of processes in April and in June.
• Inclusive and Interrogated Decision Making. The committee will implement structures, policies and practices that maximize inclusive decision making.
• By collaboratively interrogating decisions and actively raising up possible member biases around POC and/or LGBTQ+ or conditions that may put folks identifying as a POC and/or LGBTQ+ in Round 1 and in the Demo Lessons, the Hiring Committee will increase the percentage of POC being offered a position at UAI by Sept 23.

SHSAT & SAT Prep.  Students have been asking for SHSAT and SAT Prep.  If you are interested, please complete the per session application (link above) and email Kir no later than 23JAN23

Per Session Postings Now Closed