Week of September 16th

UAI Staff News

Volume XII

Issue 3

September 16th,  2024

Setting the Right Conditions.  Many thanks to the ILT and all the folks who were able to join last Friday's celebration of back to school!  Many thank to Shan and the school culture committee for pushing the School Spirit and getting UAI gear to everyone!   We are setting the ground for strong community ties in our adult community, and I look forward to those bonds continuing to deepen and grow as we work through the year!

Similarly, we are also setting conditions within classrooms in these precious early weeks of school.  The seeds you sew now will be much appreciated by your future self and your future students if done well!

Use CLASS Domain Guide to help you.  Take stock this week to see how things are going

• Positive Climate (Elevate JOY) - How many kids are smiling throughout class?  If lots - what are you doing to make that happen?  If not so much - what can you change to make more joy?  Stuck with figuring out ideas - then ASK (ask your co-teacher, your ILT lead, a colleague, or Kiri!)
  
  
• Teacher Sensitivity (Center RIGOR & EQUITY) - How often are your students taking risks?  How often are they raising their hands to contribute, asking good questions, and being brave enough to be wrong?  If lots- nice job!! Take note of what you're doing and share with colleagues.  If not so much, think about how you're showing kids it's safe to take risks.  Use video to see how kids interact with you!
  
  
• Regard for Adolescent Perspectives (Grow their POWER).  To what extent are you following students' ideas/leads?  How often are you finding a good idea from your student and using that idea to further the lesson?  1 or 2 times a lesson??  Can you push that to be 2-4 (or MORE) times per lesson? 
  
  
• And never forget....Love, Live and Breathe the STEM.  Curiosity..Problem Solving...and Innovation - STEM Thinking needs to be everything, everywhere, and all at once (love that movie).  Where are you inviting students to be curious?  What are you giving them to figure out?  how many opportunities do they have to try out their learning in new ways or novel situations?

Having great ideas and implementing them are important.  Checking in to see how they are working (or not) is equally as significant!  Now that you've had a full week to plant the seeds, revisit your classroom practices and routines, and check in to see how well you are setting the conditions for a strong Emotional Support Domain.

This week, I'm going to start jumping into classrooms to visit and to meet with folks to begin our IPCs (initial planning conferences - see below).  I look forward to seeing your work in this Domain and I look forward to connecting more with you and the kids!

I cannot promise informal feedback for everyone - there are many of you and only one of me.  Also - I want you to begin to find multiple sources of feedback.  You can rely on your ILT leads for feedback always.  We are normed and aligned.

PLUS - You are in charge of setting the conditions for your own success.  You each have the capacity to leverage tools like the CLASS Rubric and Video to improve your performance in the classroom!  Video and personal reflection are key tools to successfully setting your own conditions for individual pedagogical growth!

Important Upcoming Dates

• THU 26SEP24 - IN PERSON Curriculum Night 5-8PM

Announcements & To Dos

Monday PD.  Monday staff PD begins in the Farm (205F) at 3:30PM.  Please be respectful of the time and make sure you are on time.  2:50-3:30 is teacher work time and office hours. Please begin to wrap up by 3:25 so you have time to get to the farm by 3:30.   Please sit in Subject Teams

NOTE:  We will be making a decision about the Grading Software to use moving forward...AND we will be introducing IEP Meeting Structures moving forward and giving time for September/October PLOPS

Please complete this quick straw poll so that we can use the information to plan.

Classroom Visits and Meetings Start Next Week.  This year, I'm taking over all core instruction (Math, Science, English, and Social Studies) supervision to give Annie the space on her plate to learn and develop her own capacity with school operations.  Never fear -she'll back on the instructional supervision in no time!  That said, there are a lot of you!  So, observations will start the week after next (the week of the 23rd).

My visits are evaluative.  It is the nature of the beast ...AND I want you all to be successful.  The best way to do that is by getting frequent feedback. Please do NOT expect the feedback to solely come from me.  We have an amazing staff with so many years of experience.  We have the CLASS Rubrics and Danielson Rubrics - which are both highly quality sources of what to look for in strong teaching practice.  I have tons of devices if you would like to video yourself and use that video to self reflect.  The expectation is that you get feedback for your own practice prior to my evaluation.

For this first round of visits, I will be really looking at how well you are establishing a strong Emotional Support Domain (the CLASS Rubrics).  So, you'll want to get good feedback from peers and your ILT folks in the next two weeks, prior to my visit!  ILT and I have normed on CLASS together, so they definitely know how to support you the best.   

FYI - The Emotional Support Domain ties closest to Danielson Domain 2, but other Danielson Domains (like planning & prep, 1d in particular, and learning experiences (3c - student engagement, in particular) are also key areas to make sure you are attending to as you prepare for this first round of observations.  You can also use this Danielson Look Fors document to see what success criteria I am looking to see.

The goal is to complete everyone's first observation of the year by October 18th. Those who need a 2nd fall evaluation can expect that to happen sometime in Nov/Dec.  

To get this party started, we need to have our initial planning conferences.  Look for those invites to show up in your inboxes next week!  These will be brief meetings (5-10min tops), and very focused on the CLASS emotional support domain.  They are not the only meetings we will have this year - just the first!  Things to be prepared to discuss:

1. Which of the 3 parts of the Emotional Support Domain is your strength - why?  
2. Which is your Area in need of the most growth, and 
3. What are you planning to do to work on it? 

[REPOST] Committee Sign Up.  We are looking for staff to sign up for various committees & teams to help UAI become even better.  Please complete this FORM by this MONDAY 23SEP24

Here they are

School Culture Committee.  This committee will be led by Shan (with Marsha being leadership support).  The goal of this committee is to elevate student voice, create more opportunities for all students to have joyous & strong experiences in school, and for our UAI community and identify to deepen and strengthen as a whole.  More details on the committee to follow during Monday PD.  Per Session available for activities with students.  Meeting time for planning and prep is limited to 1 hour per week.

Equity Team:  As we begin a new school year at UAI, we're looking to continue and build our RPET (Restorative Practices Equity Team) and launch this year's equity work. Last year's RPET's mission: 

The Restorative Practices Equity Team (RPET) is responsible for providing an inclusive, culturally aware, and equitable environment for all students/staff. Our mission is to educate our community on how we can foster an environment where different perspectives and cultures are accepted and respected despite differences. 

Our three main objectives are: 

1. Create structures and systems of support that empower our community to continue to become one where all stakeholders of all backgrounds feel that they belong and are valued.
2. Educate all students and staff about our diverse backgrounds and learn how to respect and accept all who are different from us 
3. We will work actively towards becoming an anti-racist, fully inclusive, caring community that proactively builds community and education to reduce instances of all types of identity-based bias. 

This year's focus is to be determined but the core of the work will be driven by the idea noted in the first sentence above: "...[being] responsible for providing an inclusive, culturally aware, and equitable environment for all students/staff." Equity work is hard work, but it's essential we challenge ourselves to commit to it not only for the students we teach, but for ourselves, our school community and the community at-large. 

Per session is available to 1 hour per week for meeting and planning and for after/before school events 

Recruitment Committee.  This committee will support Jen in planning, executing, and following up on all recruitment activities for the Fall 2024 recruitment seasons.  There are significant after school, weekend, and in-day time commitments as we are intensifying our work this year.  You do not have to participate in all, but you do need to commit and follow through on some if you choose to join the committee.  Jen will lead the committee with team support.  Per session available for 1 hour a week meeting and for after/before school events.

Staff Sunshine Committee.  This is strictly a volunteer committee - primarily because it can't be per sessionable without kids being the direct recipients.  Unlike the other committees, this committee is really aimed about building camaraderie and community of the adults on staff, and while important, the DOE can't use tax dollars to do that....BUT it is important, and we do need more than just my or Annie's or Jen's brain thinking about how we uplift the well-being of our UAI grownups.  Please join if you can!

Other Committee.  If you have another idea for a committee, please do submit it!  Just because it's not here doesn't mean that it's not important!  Share your thinking.  It may be a blindspot in our school, and we'll make it happen.  (It's also possible that your identified need is being addressed in the work of another body - we'll let you know if that's the case too!)

[REPOST] After School or Lunch Time Clubs Sign Up.  All staff are encouraged to offer lunch time and/or after school clubs for students.   All clubs should be a confluence of teacher interest and student interest.  Examples of clubs in the past have been:  Guitar Club, Piano, Mural Painting, Running, Dungeons & Dragons, Photography, Youth Leadership Council, Gay Straight Alliance, Muslim American Club, Journaling, Journalism, National Honor Society,  Spanish Club, STEM Club, and more! 

If you have an interest that you think kids would be interested in, sign up to share!!  Please sign up by MONDAY 23SEP24 All before and after school clubs are per sessionable (and max meet 3 hours per week).  Clubs must have at least 10 students that attend regularly to remain active.  Lunch time clubs will be eligible for coverage pay and staff must collect students from the cafeteria.

Per Session Postings

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

Classroom SetUp and Planning.  12 hours total.  All Classroom Staff (Teachers & Paras) are eligible.  Tue 27-29Aug .