Week of April 3rd

 UAI Staff News

Volume X

Issue 25

April 3rd, 2023

The Final Marking Period.  There are 40 days until Year End Final Exams.  NYS Middle School Exams, Mock Regents, and AP Exams are happening during this marking period, and this is the final marking period that will result in students earning credit for the year.

It is time to lean in on our students with love and support.  We have worked hard all year long to build strong relationships and support students in closing learning gaps that COVID caused.  Now, we have the capital required to push our students to achieve what they are more than capable of achieving!

We want to see what our students can do and we want to praise their achievements to build confidence and give constructive feedback that helps them find the power to continue to close gaps and end the year strong!

This week and everyday this marking period, we need to help kids understand that this is a very important marking period, and that being in school every day, and on time is exactly what they need to do in order to achieve.  

For most of our students, it is pushing them to move their grades from just passing to quite good or from quite good to great.  For some of our students, it's getting them and their families to understand that not showing up this marking period may mean summer school or repeating the entire year.

For this marking period which starts tomorrow, please make sure that you are clear in your daily communication how important being in class on time each day will connect with their performance in your class and on the upcoming major assessments.  Set up small achievable goals.  For example, structure required activities at the beginning of your class for the next few days before break that are high-impact and high-value.  Then COMMUNICATE.  Connect their attendance to their performance.  Explain the connection between attendance and performance to parents and use these leverage points to show parents how their grades are impacted.

If you are confronted with "Why are you suddenly doing this?", explain that this is the final marking period and the run up to major exams.  We are in the final lap of the year, and that means turning up the heat a bit to make sure our kids are ready.  We know that they have it in them to succeed.  Now we need our families' support to help us push their kids to their next level of excellence.

Remember - with every push you give, you also need to provide encouragement, guidance, and instill confidence.  Pushing without that support only results in kids feeling betrayed and angry that they feel unready.  We have valued our Joy and relationships so that we can lean into pushing our students to find their Power and meet the Rigor with which we challenge them.  This means that we TOO need to believe in them.  We ALSO need to believe that they will excel and achieve.  When we do, we realize all of our values - we bring Equity to the Joy, Power, and Rigor of our school.

Unbelievably, the longest stretch of the year from February break to April break moved within the blink of an eye.  This next stretch will be filled with so many things, the time will fly.  I have watch each of you work hard to build your lessons and classroom cultures.  I know that you are all ready to push and support our students to cross the finish line strong!  You have your ILT folks to lean on, and always, Annie, Jen, and I are here to support!  Let's go team UAI.  We got this!

Here are the important dates for kids

• 4 Middle School Testing Days (AM testing schedule, PM normal schedule)
• NYS MS ELA Exam for Grades 6-8:  April 19th & 20th
• NYS MS Math Exam for Grades 6-8:  May 2nd & 3rd
  
  
• 3 High School Mock Testing Days (AM Testing schedule, PM normal schedule)
  
• HS Testing Day 1:  April 25th
• 8:30-11:10 AM:   Math Regent*
• Senior Graduation Conferences and Homework Catchup
• HS Testing Day 2:  April 27th
• 8:30-11:10 AM:  Science Regent*
• Senior Graduation Conferences and Homework Catchup
• HS Testing Day 3:  May 2nd
• 8:30-11:10 AM:  Social Studies Regent*
  
  
• *Students who are in a class that does not have a required regent (e.g. African History, LINCT QR, Pre-Calc, Physics/Chem, APES), they will be assigned to take an alternate activity in the following order
• If they are in 10th/11th grade OR 8th/9th Grade & in African History
• --> ELA Regent Exam (if they have <75)
• If they are in 12th grade 
• --> Graduation Conference with Counselors, Advisors & Admin

Important dates. 

• Wednesday, 05APR23.  Rapid Dismissal 
• Thursday 06APR23 - 16APR23 - Spring Recess
• Wednesday, 19APR-20APR - MS ELA Exams
• Friday, 21APR23 - Eid al-Fitr - No School
• Tuesday, 25APR23 - HS Mock Regent Day 1 (Math)
• Wednesday, 26APR23 - Affinity Lever Visit to Math Team
• Wednesday, 26-28APR23 - Trip to Washington DC
• Thursday, 27APR23 - HS Mock Regent Day 2 (Science)
• Tuesday, 03MAY23 - HS Mock Regent Day 3 (Social Studies)
• Thursday, 04MAY23 - UAI Math Team Citywide Lighthouse Visit
• May2, 3, 4, 9 - AP Exams and AP Exam Roster

Announcements & To Dos

Weekly Outreach Logs.  For all students who failed MP3, all classroom teachers will be required to provide weekly outreach to families to give them updates on how students are progressing and keeping families apprised of what needs to happen in order for students to pass.   Please cc advisors on any written communication home so that they are also aware of what students need to do.

Weekly outreach will begin on Tuesday.  All outreach needs to be a conversation with families (so - confirmed contact - phone call or text conversation is fine).  If you are unable to contact the family during Tuesday outreach, please use one of your professional periods to pull student from class and call with student during the Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday following the Tuesday outreach.

Advisor Conferencing.  For all advisees who fail a course in MP3, we need to keep families extra aware of student progress for MP 3.  Advisors must call, email or text t give a weekly update of the student's grade & attendance to families.  In advisory, Advisors need to also have weekly conferences with students around barriers to their success (e.g. if they aren't coming to school, why not?  How can they fix it?  What needs to happen?).  With ample communication and support, we will be able to circle the wagons around our neediest kids and help them get successfully over the finish line!

CEP Writing.  After the Spring Break, we will be engaging our entire school community in writing our school's annual Comprehensive Education Plan.  The Comprehensive Education Plan is the tool that guides the goals and action plans we have each year.  We will be working on this plan during Monday PD time starting April 24th, and if more time is needed teams will also meet on Tuesdays and get per session to conduct family outreach.    We are meeting with the ILT on Tuesday to finalize exact plans and will share with the entire school when those are ready!

Attendance & Lateness to Your Classes.  Students regularly receive calls home when they are late or absent to school from our Attendance Team, Deans, and Parent Coordinator.  These calls have limited impact without your help.  We need teachers to help us get kids to want to come in to school on time everyday.  So, what can you do?

• Start classes on time - no matter how many kids you have.  The ones who are there came on time. Honor that.  Don't make them wait.  Make a plan for catching kids up that doesn't require making those kids wait.  Touch base with your ILT lead or with Annie or Kiri to brainstorm ideas if you're getting stuck!
  
  
• Show Kids Why it Matters.  Sometimes kids really just don't get it.  Sometimes they need a little help to see what's happening and why.  Kids need to know that you care (first and foremost) and that you don't want them to fail.  Being in class is the best way for them to thrive academically, and they miss a lot when they're not in class on time (which is why you need to start your class on time).   So, when kids come late, go directly to them, find out what happened and why they were late, and then catch them up and make sure to get a commitment to being on time to class tomorrow.  Keep at it - even if they are late again tomorrow.  Your persistence will pay out.  We will begin to see changes in folks if we all keep pushing on it together.
  
  
• Celebrate the Win.   When a students starts coming to class on time, connect that effort to their understanding in your class.  Ask them how much they understand and feel confident in your class now that they are coming more?  How good does that feel, and how can they keep it going?  For example, Some ideas to help them understand why Early Birds get the worm.
  
  
• a mini-quiz to start the class - kids who are on time get to revise at the end of class.  Kids who are not on time have only the one shot at the end of class.  Then you could ask kids to share how much easier it was to revise and why being on time helped!
  
  
• incentivize being on time - Go over problems/questions/prompts that will be on the unit summative assessment at the start of each class leading up to the test.  Kids who are on time get a leg up in their summative performance grade - have them and YOU make that clear to everyone who is late (don't post those reviews on Google Classroom).  That way, kids have to be on time and in class to get the extra boost.
  
  
• Be their Model.  We need to model what we want to see.  On average, we have had 4-5 staff out each day this year.  On Fridays and Mondays in particular, our average soars up to 7-8 staff out.  That means that our students have had a sub in at least one of their classes everyday this year.  From the adult perspective, it feels like you're not out that much.  However, from the student perspective, they see adults out almost everyday they come to school.  So, they naturally take that as an approval for their own attendance habits.
  
  For this marking period, let's all make it a point to model excellent attendance.  Please try your hardest to have all appointments OUTSIDE of the school day (or at least during non-instructional days - like Spring Break, Regents Days, or Brooklyn Queens Day)
  
  If you're going to be out, avoid calling out on Fridays or Mondays.   
  
  Also, be clear to your students as to what is happening and why - post it up on Google Classrooms or send out class emails so students are clear why you are out.  Please make sure that if you are out, you provide students with work that will COUNT TOWARDS THEIR FINAL GRADE, and you are clear that the work is completed by the end of the period and submitted to the sub - or submitted on line at the end of the period.
  
  
• If you are out for a Professional Development activity - please make sure your students understand that you are not absent, but that you are fulfilling your professional responsibilities elsewhere.
  
  
• If you are out sick or on personal business, please let them know that and remind them that you have only been out x number of days for the year - which gives you an overall attendance rate of y (put it in their terms of understanding)
  
  

We are in the final lap, too. 

We got this, too.  This final marking period will go faster than you think, and before you know it, summer vacation will be stretching before you like a beautiful beach basking in the late afternoon sun.

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