Week of January 9th

UAI Staff News

Volume XI

Issue 20

January 8th, 2024

Days Are Coming Quickly Now.   The first school week of 2024 is in the bag and now the days are coming fast and furious as we close out the Fall 2023 semester.  There's a lot of announcements today.  So, I'm going to jump straight to those today!

Important Upcoming dates

• Wednesday, 10JAN24 - Instructional Rounds Day for Group 4 (w/ Marsha)
• Monday, 15JAN24 - MLK Jr. Day - NO SCHOOL
• Tuesday, 16JAN24 - Benchmarks Begin (see below)
• Wednesday, 17JAN24 - Adams Street Campus Varsity Girls Basketball Home Game
• Friday, 19JAN24 - Adams Street Campus Varsity Girls Basketball Home Game
• Tuesday, 23JAN24 - Regents Week Begins
  
  
• January Benchmark Schedule
• For Grades 8-12:  2nd AND 3rd period Benchmarks
• Wed 17JAN23 ELA Benchmarks
• Thu 18JAN23 Social Studies Benchmarks
• Fri 19JAN23 Science Benchmarks
• Mon 22JAN23 Math Benchmarks
• For Grades 6 & 7th graders:
• CHANGE:
• 4th & 5th will be MAP & Benchmark testing periods
• Mon/Tue 22/23JAN - MAP Math(23) and MAP ELA (24)
• Wed - normal schedule
• Thu/Fri 25/26JAN - Math Benchmark (25) and ELA (26)
• All staff will have grading time build into their Regents Week Schedules.
  
  
• Please Prepare your students for these benchmarks
• They should be seeing spiral review of MP1 and MP2 topics throughout all of MP2
• They should have practice with Benchmark questions for BOTH content and literacy
• You should schedule some type of practice benchmark prior to the actual benchmark so students have an idea of what to study.  This could be in any form you choose - but you need to provide it for them.  Please see your ILT lead or Kiri or Annie if you need more support on this

Announcements & To Dos

Regents Week and Benchmark Week and Student Perception Surveys.  There are some schedule changes in the coming weeks as we get ready for a variety of assessments

• THIS WEEK:  Advisory, Learning Lab, Small Group, and Some Breadth Course (Theater, Spanish, PE) classes will be administering the Student Perception Survey.  We'll be training those teachers on how to do that in PD on Monday (See below).    Please see the schedule updates in the first green tab of the schedule.
  
  
• NEXT WEEK:  The benchmark schedule is now finalized.  You can find that schedule on the second green tab of the schedule.
  
  
• REGENTS WEEK:  The Regent exam schedule is also now finalized.  You can find that schedule on the third green tab of the schedule.

Monday Professional Development.   We are giving Monday PD time to teachers to update the MP2 Intervention Log and their SyncGrades gradebooks. 

• Student Perception Survey Training.  All advisors, learning lab teachers, small group teachers, and Theater/Spanish/PE teachers should report to the farm at 3PM for a brief training on the Student Perception Survey.  We will be administering the survey in these classes this week.  This training is about 30min and then all folks will be released to work on Grades & Interventions.
  
  
• Grades & Intervention Log.  Subject teams will work together to provide technical and thought-partner support for grading (see below for room assignments).  Please make sure that at the end of Monday's PD time, you have
• converted ALL missing pieces of work to 50s
• updated the  MP2 Intervention log by either adding any new students that are not yet meeting the >75 mark in your class OR removing any students who are not meeting the mark!
• prepare to wean OFF of google classroom.  Your ILT lead can help you with this!

<<RePost>> Preparing for the End of the Semester.  

Benchmarks.  As you prepare students for the final summative Benchmarks, you need to make sure you are giving them a chance to see how they would do on the big test PRIOR to the big test (a trial run).  For example, students should do a practice test that they can then grade themselves (or exchange to grade) to see which topics for which they are ready to demonstrate competency and to understand which topics need more review, study and preparation prior to the benchmark.  Please make sure you are backwards planning from the benchmark to provide students with this type of learning opportunity.

Intervention & support.  Please continue to provide and monitor impact of your MP2 Interventions.  By the EOD on Friday 12JAN24, please update the document with the current grade of your students.  NOTE:  Students who have grades <75 will be scheduled to come in to meet with you during regents week to get extra help and complete necessary work to develop their competencies in your course and merit a grade of >75.   We all will be using the information in the MP2 Interventions to discuss regents week programming with students.

 

RPET Work.  The RPET is planning three major experiences for our community this spring.  They will be (1) A schoolwide teach in, (2) A series of PDs for staff around SEL, and (3) A series of staff equity circles.  The RPET is planning a more detailed workshop for our January 29th PD to review each of these in detail and to get staff feedback on each.  Here's the draft PD calendar for the rest of the year.

• January 
• 8th:  Grading Work Time
• 15th:  MLK Jr. Day
• 22nd:  Benchmark Grading Time
• 29th:  Remote Full Day PD (and RPET Presentation)
  
  
• February
• 5th:  SEL PD for All Staff (#1 of 4) - with UA!
• 12th:  TBD by ILT 
• 19th:  Vacation WOOHOO
• 26th:  SEL PD for All Staff (#2 of 4) - with UA!
  
  
• March
• 4th:  SEL PD for All Staff (#3 of 4) - with UA!
• 11th:  Staff Equity Circles - Building Trust
• 18th:  TBD by ILT
• 25th:  SEL PD for All staff (#4 of 4) - with UA!
  
  
• April
• 1st:  Easter Monday - NO SCHOOL
• 8th:  All Staff Prep for School Wide Teach In
• 15th:  All Staff Prep for School Wide Teach In. (TEACH IN on April 16th)
• 22nd:  Spring Break - WOOHOO
• 29th:  STILL Spring Break - DOUBLE WOOHOO
  
  
• May
• 5th:  Staff Equity Circles
• 13th:  Staff Equity Circles
• 20th:  TBD by ILT
• 27th:  Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
  
  
• June
• 3rd:  Staff Equity Circles
• 10th:  Staff Equity Circles
• 17th:  Regents Week Proctor Prep

Trips. 

• None this week.
  
  

Per Session Postings

For ALL per session activities, please complete Per Session Application Form"

After School Clubs.   If you are interested in running an after school club, please complete THIS form by EOD TUESDAY 26SEP23  AND submit the Per Session Application Form.  Clubs are slated to start next week.  Clubs must have a steady roster of at least 8-10 students per week in order to NOT be cancelled.  Rosters & Attendance lists MUST be submitted with per session time cards.  If your club goes three consecutive weeks with less than 8 students, your club will need to be cancelled (so that we can optimize funds for other uses - so sorry...wish we could fund everything all the time, but unfortunately, we don't have endless sums of funds).  After school sessions can be 3-4PM or 3-4:30PM or 3-5:30PM (teacher's choice)up to three days per week.  So per session hours can range from 1-7.5hrs per week).  Posting Expires 10OCT23.

Please continue to help promote your after school clubs.  Please make sure you are getting a reliable group of at least 10 students.  Help our after school classes get off the ground! - I will be collecting final rosters on 30NOV - you have additional time to recruit!!

• Black Student Union - Joanna & Pauline (Rm 411) - Tuesdays & Thursdays 3-4:30
• Arts & Crafts Club - Tiffany & Jennifer (Rm 311) - Mon/Tue/Weds - 3-4:15PM
• Theater Production Club - Noelle (Rm 315) - Tues/Thurs/Fri - 3-5:30PM
• Student Government - Sue, Marsha, Phillan, and Girls' Inc's Kassi (Rm 309) - Tuesdays - 3-4PM
• Youth Leadership Council - Kelly  (Rm 307) - Tuesdays 3-4PM
• Photo Club - Tom(Rm 205F) - Wednesdays 3-4:30
• Cheer - Mary & Lia - Various days depending on Game Days
• Anime & Art Club - Adelle & Francis (Rm 409) - Tuesdays & Thursdays 3-5PM
• Running Club with Camryn (starts after the marathon is over)
• Dance Club - Girls Inc - Room 503
• Students Against Racism & Bias Club - Jelissa (Rm 305) Tuesdays & Thursday 3-4PM
• Muslim Student Association - Laura (Rm 404) TBD
• GSA Club - Amanda - Rm 407

PSAL Supervision.   Posting Expires 10OCT23. PSAL Games are starting up soon. Please submit the Per Session Application Form if you are interested in supervising student spectators.  Hours vary depending on games.  Each game (basketball or volleyball) is usually 4-6pm (is) so each supervision session is about 2hours.  Staff are welcome to sign up for as many games as they'd like.  Please see UAI calendar or PSAL website for game dates. Duties include making sure

• students remain safe and orderly during games
• only eligible students are admitted to games
• all students fully dismiss from the building at the conclusion of the games

CSI Planning & Supervision.   Posting Expires 10OCT23. This posting if for supervision per session to plan, supervise, monitor and coordinate extra improvement efforts to address UAI achievement gaps and improve student performance in target metrics.  Activities include analyzing and reviewing data, planning and executing professional development experiences to improve staff performance, analyzing and editing video footage to improve teacher lesson execution and lesson implementation, and supervising out of school activities - including recruitment, staff planning, and after school activities.  Hours vary per week depending on task and work completed.  Hours range 1-7.5 hours per week.

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.