UAI Staff News
Volume XI
Issue 03
September 11th, 2023
As we enter into the first full week of school, the goal is to create a firm foundation of a rigorous and emotionally supportive learning environment.
Core Value ---> Rigor: One side of this work is our the quality of the tasks we put in front of students. Planning teams should be launching into their meetings this week, diving in to Lesson Run throughs and working collaboratively with colleagues how to adjust lesson to best push and deepen student thinking throughout the entire class period.
Core Value ---> Joy: On the other side of this work is creating warm, nurturing, and emotionally supportive environments where students feel safe taking intellectual risks. You can measure the impact of your work to create a positive climate in your classroom by focusing your attention on student-student and adult-student interactions. The CLASS Rubrics (CLassroom Assessment Scoring System) provide useful language that we can collectively used to work on this collaboratively. These classroom interactions have been heavily studied by TeachStone folks at the University of VA, and have been shown to lead to desired outcomes of increased students attendance & performance.
Once we settle into the routines of the year, we will take a deep dive into these rubrics together as a staff. In the mean time, please do begin to take a look through the rubrics on your own. Also, each of our Instructional Leaders have been full trained on them, so please do reach out to any of them with any specific questions you may have.
As we enter into this week, we can expect more students to join us. It is the perfect time to build up the joy in learning and create smiles and warmth that sparkle through the class period. It's also important to minimize the negative. For example, use of sarcasm may be funny to some, but taken as offensive to others. As such, because some may take harm - it's important to maintain a healthy environment for all and to keep it out of the classroom.
Take a look at Positive (maximize) and Negative (minimize) climate rubrics. These are exactly the behaviors you want to accentuate (positive) and eliminate (negative). Here's some great thinking music for you to enjoy while you do!
(Maximize Positive Climate - Aim for High) (Minimize Negative Climate - Aim for Low)
Important Upcoming dates
- Sunday, 10SEP23 - Counselor Jennifer's Birthday!
- Monday, 11SEP23 - First PM Office Hours and Monday PD
- Monday, 11SEP23 - Custodian Junior's Birthday!
- Wednesday, 13SEP23 - First Day of Elevate Study Skills in 6/7 and 8/9 Learning Labs
- Wednesday, 12SEP23 - MS Social Studies Teacher, Fatima's Birthday!
- Friday, 15SEP23 - First Day of Hispanic Heritage Month
- Monday, 18SEP23 - 2nd PM Office Hours and Monday PD
- Monday, 25SEP23 - Yom Kippur, NO SCHOOL
- Thursday, 28SEP23 -
- Tuesday, 03OCT23 - High School Application Period Opens
- Monday, 09OCT23 - Indigenous People & Italian Heritage Day - NO SCHOOL
- Wednesday, 11OCT23 - 2nd Day of Elevate Study Skills in 6/7 and 8/9 Learning Labs
Announcements & To Dos
SyncGrades Updates. Each day that we us SyncGrades, we learn a bit more. We have to keep at it, and keep pushing. New things take time to master. We need to give ourselves the same grace we give our kids!
- Add Your Co-Teachers. All teachers have been added to SyncGrades (still working on paras, deans, and other support staff). If your co-teacher doesn't have access, please ADD them by the EOD Monday.
- Explore Your Students. Click on one of your students and Open their Portfolio. On the left, you should see a bunch of different options. Click through each of them to see what it shows you - don't forget to scroll up and down.
You'll notice that you can check on students' attendance to other classes. If you click on each class they have, a calendar pops up on the right. For some classes, it shows you the kids' attendance. For other it doesn't....
You can only see attendance if attendance WAS TAKEN.
PLEASE take attendance EVERY PERIOD - EVEN if SyncGrades isn't perfect - take attendance of those who ARE there.
This week - rosters are closer to accurate. So PLEASE TAKE PERIOD ATTN. EACH PERIOD.
Thank you ;-)
- SyncGrades Teacher Overview: A walkthrough on using SyncGrades for your courses and classrooms. Please go through this if you haven't yet.
- SyncGrades FAQ: Answers frequently asked questions such as how to create assignments, enter grades, and see student information. Please go through this if you haven't yet.
- Explore the Wiki. Make sure to look at the Blue Left Hand bar for links to many more How Tos and detailed directions. Please go through this if you haven't yet.
Monday Office Hours for September. Monday, 11SEP23 is the launch of our Staff Work Time & Office Hours. For the month of September, please use this time to get ahead in your planning and to set up GoogleClassrooms. Monday Office Hours are 2:50-3:30 every Monday.
Monday PD. This Monday we will be reviewing some protocols and reminding you about a few others. The PD will be short, and the remainder of the time will be used for Teacher work time. We need to present evacuation protocols and review classroom guidelines with cell phones and technology use. Then, work time!!
Family Outreach & Curriculum Night. This week also marks the launch of our family outreach work. All paras and teachers are required to conduct 55 minutes of family outreach each week and document it here.
Student Email Reset. This weekend, I gave permissions to everyone to be able to reset student passwords when needed. Of course, it takes 24-48 hours to reset. So, check back Tuesday if you can't reset. Here are the directions.
NOTE: Advisors and Learning Lab Teachers: Please take the time in Advisory or Learning Labs this week to have students set up their own PINs (the directions are on the same page Here - just scroll down). Once students have a PIN number (e.g. use their birthday or some other easy to remember number), they can reset their OWN email account any time. Let's make it a goal to get everyone to do this, then we will only have to work with incoming new student each year to get access.
Classroom Technology. Jason did a sweep on Friday to check in with folks. It sounds like one of hurdles may be student email access. Please DO NOT default to having kids use their cell phones in place of using classroom computers. In the beginning we ALL need to be lock step around NOT letting kids use phones in the classroom. Without clear, common practices, students find the wiggle room and push boundaries - because that's what teenagers are engineered to do - push boundaries.
However, teenagers are also smart, rational people - if they encounter the same set of circumstances in all of our classrooms - they will adapt. Please - do NOT allow cell phone use in classes for any reason.
Per Session Postings
For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"
Classroom SetUp. All classroom staff are invited to come in to set up and plan for up to 10 hours all together any day this week Monday-Friday 9AM-2PM. Staff must clock in AND out each day, and cannot be in the building after 2PM. Please adhere to guidelines set out in the blog post above. All Staff MUST also apply to this position by completing the "Per Session Application From" - see link above. [Posted 27AUG23] - Posting CLOSED and JOB is over.
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