UAI Staff News
Volume X
Issue 35
June 20th, 2023
Today is Juneteenth, the day (19JUN65) when General Order No. 3 reached the slaves in Galveston, TX and they were finally free. Juneteenth is a call to action to each of us to continually confront and disrupt the systems of inequity that persist today.
Each of you have had a part in that work this year. As educators, we stand before our students and alongside their families as the cultivators of our students' dreams and potential. Sometimes, the crush of content standards obscures our role. Sometimes we fall into the pattern of believing that the goal is to get kids to pass this test or meet that benchmark. But those tests and benchmarks are just individual rungs in their larger ladder to our students' dreams & futures.
The rungs are not the goal or purpose. They are roadside signs, marking a bigger, more significant journey. Our students are the future, and our role is to make sure they are ready to create and implement a future that all of us deserve and need.
This year, each of you were activists of this social change through our core values
Rigor - You challenged students to improve their thinking and understanding with a wide variety of tasks, lessons, and learning experiences.Power - You showed students where to find their own voice and inner strength to learn from their mistakes and failures, to grow and push their thinking and understanding, and to stand up for themselves and for those things that they believe to be just and right.Equity - You made sure our students saw themselves in their curricula and/or were themselves seen and valued by you and your class.
Joy - You connected with your students and showed them that they are loved, lovable and FUN. You showed them that learning with them and their peers is joyous and fulfilling.
Realizing and enacting our core values each day is an ever-evolving process, and each of are getting better at it with each day. As we do, we celebrate and honor the beauty of Juneteenth. Working alongside our families, we push our students to bring their dreams to life - to write a new future in which our young, black & brown people become the authors of a world that challenges the systems that keep folks down and raise up new systems that breed justice and equity.
In so doing, we join them in writing a better future into existence.
Juneteenth serves as a reminder to each of us that, as educators, we should be conduits of change and the catalysts of transformation. It is a reminder that our role in the lives of each of our students has the potential of becoming the inspiration to the next president, climate activist, inventor of the next great tech invention, or the doctor who cures cancer.
I will remind us that we already stand in our students lives as mentors, role models, and loved teachers. And on behalf of the teenagers (who never say it enough) and our families (who say it to me all the time), I say thank you for all that you have done this year and all you will undoubtedly continue to do as the amazingly, committed and talented educators that you are!
Important dates.
- Tuesday, 20JUN23 -
- Geometry Regents Exam (9AM)
- 8th Grade Yearbook Signing (9:30-12:30)
- 12th Grade BBQ @ Brooklyn Bridge Park (11:15-2:50)
- Wednesday 21JUN23
- 8th Grade Graduation Rehearsal 12-2:50PM
- Thursday, 22JUN23
- 8th Grade Gown Pick Up (9:30-12:30PM)
- 12th Grade Graduation Rehearsal 12:30-2:50PM
- Friday, 23JUN23 -
- High School Graduation at City Tech Theater (9:30AM)
- Monday, 26JUN23 - 8th Grade Stepping Up
- Tuesday, 27JUN23 - Last Day of School
- Students meet advisors in Advisory from 8:30-10AM
- Pick up final report cards
- Clean out lockers
- Return Tech
- Staff meets in Farm for Final Staff Meeting of the year at 10AM
- Teacher Exit To Do List (once staff meeting and list is complete, you are free to go!)
- Monday, 10JUL23 - First Day of Summer School (Mon-Thu only)
- 10JUL - 27JUL - Summer Splash (Enrichment & Credit Recovery Classes)
- 31JUL - 15AUG - Regents Prep
- 16AUG - 17AUG - August Regents Testing
Announcements & To Dos
This Week. Tuesday & Wednesday will be our last two days of tutoring. All grades have been uploaded and here is the final failing list with links to work to be completed for summer. Tutors this week should meet with students to review what is required. This week, teachers with failing students should meet with students to support them in understanding what is required and to complete as many tasks as possible. What is not finished on Tuesday or Wednesday will be completed in summer school.
Teachers MUST share links to ALL work (including forms, docs, etc.) with Kiri & Kelly so that we can monitor and support student completion of tasks and assignments.
Please review the June Regents Schedule for your schedule on for the rest of this week and next. I'm currently updating it - so please keep checking!
Summer School. UAI Summer School is Ready to Kick Off. Many thanks to folks for signing up to join our summer school. Our summer school is broken up into three components
- Summer Splash! - Fun Learning Experiences to stoke the creative and ambitious fires of our young, brilliant minds. Summer isn't supposed to be punishment! Summer is another way to get kids to plug into a lifetime of learning. That is our goal for UAI Summer Splash. Getting kids STOKED to learn! This program runs 10JUL-27JUL Mondays-Thursdays
- Summer Credit Recovery. We use June Regents Exam week to leverage the instructional component of traditional summer school. Students learn best with their teachers, and most teachers need summer breaks! So, June Regents time is the best happy medium of these two truths. For those students who are not able to complete the required assignments during the June Regents intervention time, we will have our sub teachers working with them to complete those assignments in July. This program runs concurrently with Summer Splash 10JUL-27JUL, Mondays thru Thursdays (Students can enroll in both). Students are automatically enrolled in Summer Credit Recovery, based on final June Grades.
- Regents Prep. For those students who didn't quite reach their exam goals in June, we offer another at bat during the summer. From 31JUL-17AUG, students can attend regents prep classes run by their teachers (Mon-Thu only) with testing on 16AUG & 17AUG. Enrollment is automatic (based on June Regent scores), and mandatory for graduation requirement regent exams (E.g. Earth/Living, Algebra 1, ELA, and USH/GLO). We do not have staff to offer GEO, ALG2, or other exams during the summer. Students can take those again in January 2024.
Summer Splash Sign Up. Please Share THIS FORM with your advisory students. All middle school students who sign up will also be enrolled in our Girls Inc Summer Camp and will have the opportunity to stay until 3PM each day.
- Digital Design & 3D Printing with Ms. Judy. Learn how to turn your creations into reality with Ms. Judy's Digital Design and 3D Printing Class this Summer! Open to all students!
- US History Through Comics with Mr. Sean. Love US History?? How about Comic Books or Graphic Novels? Come join Mr. Sean this summer to have a fun exploration of our nations history!
- Fashion Design with Ms. Freida. Are you interested in exploring or deepening an interest in Fashion? Join Ms. Freida this summer to do just that!
- Visual Art with Ms. Frances. Visual Art is both a beautiful and therapeutic process. Come join Ms. Frances to explore various art forms and to add some beauty to your summer.
- Cosmetology with Ms. Syan. Do you have an interest in hair and makeup? Are you interested in learning how to develop your own products that are both natural AND work? Then join Ms. Syan this summer to learn from one of the best!
Technology Collection. We will be collecting student technology this year to make sure all equipment is fully updated and inventoried this summer. All 8th and 12th grade students should be bringing in their technology to school this week. Jason will be collecting equipment in the Cafe and in the Main office this week.
Staff technology must also be returned if you are not planning to return to UAI in the fall. This includes all computers, document cameras, printers, plugs and peripherals etc. that you may have at home from remote school times. If you are planning to return in the fall, you can hold on to these materials.
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