Week of 05OCT26

 

  Urban Assembly Institute of Math &                      Science for Young Women

05 October 2026

School Leadership Message

It was a busy week! It finally feels like we're in the swing of things and we're ready to push our instructional practice. As we're walking through classrooms, we're seeing a lot of effective practice - behavior management is strong, and kids are sitting in groups ready to engage in learning. Now that foundational structures and climate are solid, our next high-leverage move is elevating academic rigor. As we move forward, our focus will be on raising cognitive demand for all students: asking open-ended 'why' and 'how' questions, increasing student-to-student discourse, and giving students more ownership over solving complex problems.

Here's some questions we will work on answering through this year's PD sessions:

1. When you lead a whole-class discussion, who is doing most of the thinking and talking - one student at a time, or everyone in the room? How can we consistently replace the traditional teacher-to-student call-and-response pattern with Total Participation Techniques (like Turn & Talks) that require every student to process, articulate, and defend their ideas with a peer?
2. How can we elevate the level of rigor of our tasks? Does this assignment ask students to recall information, or does it require them to analyze, synthesize, and grapple with complex ideas? How can we ensure our daily tasks go beyond procedural accuracy to demand higher-level cognitive work - offering multiple pathways, encouraging productive struggle, and requiring students to cite evidence, hypothesize, or draw their own conclusions?

This week we will be coming into classrooms to give non-evaluative feedback specifically around Danielson 3C - Engaging Students in Learning. 

We are raising the bar this year on the academic expectations we have for all of our students. In turn, the bar must be raised for all of us - and that starts with me. So, this year, you will receive much more constructive, honest and direct feedback from the admin team - both informally and through the evaluation process.

I am excited to be on this journey with all of you and I look forward to leaning into the hard work ahead of us.

Upcoming Events. 

See Master Calendar Here.  Trips, assessment days, evening family events, student engagement activities and more. 

• October 5: Smile Dentist at UAI
• October 6: Soft Lockdown Drill, 10:30am
• October 7: Woodhull Hospital Trip 
• October 12: No School
• October 16: Pep Rally at 2p
• October 20: Uber Speed Networking Trip
• October 21: Trip to Javitz Center
• October 21: Theater trip to Kramer/Fauci Show
• October 21: HS Hamilton Trip
• October 25: PTA meeting, Future Ready Induction & Screener Workshop, 5-7p
• October 30: Fright Fest Trip
• October 30: UAI Haunted House

Announcements:

• Bells. I've asked the custodian to increase the hallway volume of the bells and to repair the speakers that are not working in classrooms (I only know of 205A and B53 having an issue so if yours doesn't work please email me). The bells will only be effective if we are all present in the hallway pushing kids to class and holding them accountable when they are late. Please be in your doorways during transitions! If kids have a pattern of lateness, the classroom teacher must call home to inform the parents.

• Monday PD. We are diving back into the Science Of Reading this week. Please report to the farm promptly after last period.

• Family Phone Calls. Please continue reaching out to your outreach case load - Rosie will be following up with anyone who may need support.  
• With our new outreach system, you are only being asked to contact about ten families as part of your outreach responsibilities - you do not need to call these ten families weekly. Once you make successful contact you should call home to any student you feel needs a call home - if that student isn't on your case load you should add a comment in the spreadsheet with you notes under that child's name. 
• Here is the link for New Visions Portal. You should use this tool to talk through the child's attendance and academic progress. You can also check the behavior log to review any behavioral incidents or counseling interventions.

• Contracted OPW Time. Reminder - teachers must report to work by 7:50am on Monday's for OPW time. Paraprofessionals must report by 7:55am. If you are late, you will need to clock in. We have four more Monday's where OPW time can be remote: 30NOV26, 04JAN27, 22FEB27, 03MAY27 
• Course Grades. We are now three weeks into the school year - every teacher should have at least one graded assignment or assessment entered into the DOE Grades (OASIS) system. In doing a quick check, very few of you have grades entered for your courses. Please reach out to your content team lead if you need support in entering grades. As a reminder, this year the expectation is that grades are entered at least every two weeks into DOE Grades, not Google Classroom. The reason for this is we need students and families to be able to track their own progress. Please be sure to have grades updated by the end of this week for each course you teach. 

Instruction & Curriculum Updates.

Pacing Guides & Syllabi: If you have not already, please share admin on your pacing guides (template) and syllabi (template). We'll be reaching out to those who we don't have this week. Please let Kelly or Rosie know if you have questions or would like a thought partner on how to structure your pacing guide for your class.

Roster & Program Changes: Thank you to those who emailed with continued roster issues. We found out about a few kids who were not following the right schedule (not on purpose), so please continue to let us know when your roster does not match who's showing up in your room. All program changes are finalized EXCEPT intervention groups. Now that we have completed STAR testing and ROAR (for ELA), intervention groups will shift based on student need. These will be finalized by Tuesday evening and new groups will begin Wednesday for ELA and Thursday for Math. If you teach intervention, keep an eye out for an email from Mike or Judy with more details.

Operational Updates.

• Please see here for our 2026-27 Staff Directory.
• All purchase requests must be made through this form for this year! We have begun making purchases for items already requested!

School Culture Update.

Lateness. We are noticing an increase in students arriving late to class. Consistently addressing lateness helps reinforce the expectation that instructional time matters.  When students arrive late to your class please make sure to:

• Acknowledge the late arrival rather than allowing students to enter unnoticed.
• Keep the interaction brief so instruction is not disrupted: “You’re late. Please get started, and we’ll check in after class.”
• Avoid addressing the issue publicly or engaging in a back-and-forth during instruction.
• Look for patterns. If a student is frequently late, have a private conversation to understand what may be contributing to the behavior.
• Reinforce the expectation: Students should be in class and ready to learn when the period begins.
• Follow the school’s established response for repeated lateness and communicate recurring patterns to the student support team.

The goal is not simply to catch students being late - it is to build a culture where students understand that being on time is part of being ready to learn.

Family and Community Updates.

• We need more blue cards turned in! Please remind your students to submit their forms to the dean team.
• PTA/SLT calendar for the year is here.
• Our next PTA meeting is in person - October 29 at 5pm.

Per session Postings: Please Use this FORM to apply.