Week of March 27th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 27

Week of March 27th, 2017

This Week's Memories

Student Led Conferences are Almost done! By the end of the day on Friday, 50% of our students' families joined us for SLCs.  We will be using PD time on Monday (3-4:20PM) and this week's parent outreach will be used on Tuesday (3:00-4:15PM - so for this week, the 8min of calls will be folded into Tuesday) to complete SLCs.  All SLCs are scheduled with parents for 3PM.  The main office will work to make sure they filter traffic to you so that you are not doubled up for parent conferences.  Teachers who have completed SLCs and/or have none scheduled can use Monday and Tuesday time for independent work.  Click here and see the tab "SLCs for Mon & Tue" to see your schedule.

To Do's for this Week

[Week of 27MAR17] Re-establishing Ready To Learn.  Starting on Monday, deans will be visiting classrooms to remind students of school rules and expectations around headgear and electronics. Deans will be at the doors and at entry to help students prepare.  However, inevitably, students do slip by, particularly when hundreds of them are entering at the same time in the morning!  We need teachers to uphold school rules in classrooms.  Students must remove headgear and electronics must be turned off and put away.  Deans will be visiting classrooms this week to announce ready to learn guidelines and to assist teachers in developing strategies for helping students to follow school rules. Please do reach out for help if you need it.  Ignoring students who are breaking the rules can lead to bigger problems for everyone.  If we work together to conquer the small tasks, we can proactively avoid big problems.

[MP5 and Failing Students].  Conferences & Action Plans.  For all students who are failing your class and/or who have less than 90% attendance to your class, you will need to make a plan, with check-in points,  for her to turn failure around and end the year on a positive note.  Please schedule conferences with students and work with the students to establish clear, measurable goals that include specific dates for follow-up.  Here are some example student goals, 

• By April 7th, I will be on time to class at least 90% of the time (i.e. not late or absent more than once). 
• For next 10 days of class, I will complete at least 9 out of 10 classwork assignments in class.
• For the next summative assessment, I will score at least a 65%

In addition to the goal, you will need to create an action plan.  First, understand what is getting in the way of the student achieving her goal.  Is it social, is it organization?  What is the plan to address the hurdle (moving seat, setting up reminders in their phone)?  And how will she monitor progress (daily trackers, weekly trackers, peer or parent check ins)...

We don't teach students lessons through failure.  Rather, we help students learn how to be successful by overcoming failure.  This marking period is the last real marking period that students can explore and learn to master this lesson.  To help them do this, frequent check-ups with the student and her home will be necessary.  Please log calls and outcomes into Skedula as these will also serve as your record of intervention (AIS) for failing students.  Without Skedula documentation, there is no evidence of your intervention work.  So please make sure to follow through on this very important step!

SEL Updates

No updates this week!

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Per Session Posting

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Week of March 20th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 26

Week of March 20th, 2017

This Week's Memories

  

 Successful Progressive Dinner! Over 100 families joined us for our first annual Progressive Dinner. Many thanks to all of the staff who helped execute this fantastic event (Carol, Nancy, Del, Sursattie, Natalie, Elena, Lauren, Jennifer JR, Jamie, Matthew, Cherry, Kerry, Phillan, Alison, Damon, & Jen). Parents, students, and staff all said this was a really fun and exciting event!  We look forward to making it a staple of UAI community events in the years to come!

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 20MAR17] Full Staff PD - Lesson Rehearsals & Student-Student Discourse.  On Monday, you will be reviewing the video that you shot of your partner's collaborative reasoning (CR). Please make sure your CR video and plans are uploaded to THIS FOLDER.  The following staff will be using PD time to prepare for the progressive dinner:  Alison & Damon, Jamie, Matthew & Cherry, Lauren & Jennifer, Sursattie, Natalie, Phillan, and Elena.  If you usual partner is planning for the dinner, please continue to work on your CR plans for this week, independently.

[THURSDAY, 23MAR17 & FRIDAY 24MAR17].  Student Led Conferences. Carol, Del, and Nancy have been scheduling SLC appointments.  They will continue to do so this week.  You can review your schedule - CLICK HERE.  As a reminder, please prepare students to discuss the following:

• Course Progress (current grades, biggest achievements, greatest area of growth)
• Attendance (click to see Heat Map and pull up-to-date data on your advisees)
• Assessment Readiness (what is the student doing at home and in school to prepare for state assessments)
• Progress towards Graduation (For students in grades 10-12, you'll want to review transcripts and progress towards graduation. Here are the graduation requirements and individual student progress)

Upon arrival, parents will be directed to a common area to receive handouts (e.g. information about high school or college application process, summer school opportunities).  They will also receive their survey to complete prior to attending your SLC.  

SEL Updates

This week all the SEL students had a valuable lesson on looking at things from another person's perspective (which lead to a review of empathy) and how to do that. It reinforced the skills of active listening (our old friend "EARS" - Eye contact, Ask and ask open-ended questions, Reflect their feelings, and Say it in your own words) as a way to gain perspective (which does NOT include giving advice or telling your own story). Through activities, they were able to reflect on what is needed in perspective taking, why its hard and how to push ourselves to "stand in someone else's shoes". 

Additionally, the 9th graders also received an important lesson from the FLSE-Carrera staff on contraception. While, the 6th graders were able to dive deeper into what empathy is and how to express it. 

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Per Session Posting

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UAI Hiring

Week of March 13th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 25

Week of March 13th, 2017

This Week's Memories

Lady Eagles Show Grit! In a riveting quarterfinal game at John Jay High School, the Lady Eagles played their hearts out.  They may have lost the game, but they won incredible experience and growth points! Many shout outs go to Coach Elana and Asst. Coach Damon for bringing our young women through another playoff season.  Many of our players are in 9th & 10th grades this year, so we look forward to yet another amazing year next year!  Go Eagles!

It's a long march to spring break (get it...March...har, har, har).  In the past few weeks, there has been a bit of an uptick in the number of requests staff have been making to have consecutive days off. I know it's hard to control when family schedule life events.  Whenever possible, please minimize the number of days you are requesting, and please remember to receive approval for days off before making your plans concrete.

I know you understand that school staff play a pivotal role in the lives of our students. When you are not here, you are missed by colleagues and students alike.  We all have to pick it up a little to fill the void.  As a result, our school is less effective and efficient whenever you are gone.  We do not get that many days with you each year. Only 180 of the 365 days in a year are school days.  That's less than half the year!  This is exactly why each day requested is so dear and valuable!  

I will be meeting with Val next week to review staff requests for days off. We only have 54 instructional days left before June Regents and MS Field Trip Season begins!  Let's try finish the year strong!

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 13MAR17] Full Staff PD - Lesson Rehearsals & Student-Student Discourse.  On Monday, you will be reviewing the video that you shot of your partner's collaborative reasoning (CR). Please make sure your CR video and plans are uploaded to THIS FOLDER.  The following staff will be using PD time to prepare for the progressive dinner:  Alison & Damon, Jamie, Matthew & Cherry, Lauren & Jennifer, Sursattie, Natalie, Phillan, and Elena.  If you usual partner is planning for the dinner, please continue to work on your CR plans for this week, independently.

[MONDAY, 13MAR17] Progressive Dinner.  Thank you to all of you called parents to invite them to the progressive dinner. We have nearly 100 parents coming!  Staff are welcome to join.  Staff that are planning should meet in the conference room during PD on Monday to finalize plans.

[THURSDAY, 23MAR17 & FRIDAY 24MAR17].  Student Led Conferences. SLCs are just around the corner.  We're changing up the SLC structures a little bit in an effort to increase parent attendance in preparation for completion of our annual accountability survey.  The lovely ladies in the main office will be scheduling all SLCs for teachers.  SLCs will be from 5-8PM on Thursday and from 11:50-2:50 on Friday.  You can expect to receive your schedules next week.  Teachers should prepare students to discuss.  Advisors will still need to print student report cards for advisees. 10th-12th grade Advisors will also receive transcripts 

• Course Progress (current grades, biggest achievements, greatest area of growth)
• Attendance (click to see Heat Map and pull up-to-date data on your advisees)
• Assessment Readiness (what is the student doing at home and in school to prepare for state assessments)
• Progress towards Graduation (For students in grades 10-12, you'll want to review transcripts and progress towards graduation. Here are the graduation requirements and individual student progress)

Upon arrival, parents will be directed to a common area to receive handouts (e.g. information about high school or college application process, summer school opportunities).  They will also receive their survey to complete prior to attending your SLC.  

SEL Updates

Just in time for SLCs, students in grades 6, 9, and 10 last week discussed how goal setting and friendships can influence their paths as adolescents. Students learned how to set SMART goals for fictional characters in anticipation of being able to set SMART goals for themselves in their classes. Students also explored what types of friends are best for them, and what skills they need to better develop in order to build and maintain high quality relationships.  

This week, students in all 3 grades will be delving deeper into empathy. Students will practice taking one another's perspective and will explore situations where they might or might not have empathy for what someone else may be going through. Students will also review how to listen actively using the EARS strategy (Eye contact, Ask & answer questions, Reflect feelings, and Say it in your own words), demonstrating empathy as they do so.

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Per Session Posting

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Week of March 6th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 24

Week of March 6th, 2017

This Week's Memories

College Acceptances are beginning to flow in!  Dreams are becoming real! Janiah Williams (Class of 2017) was recently accepted into SUNY Stonybrook via their educational opportunity program.  This means that she will be fully funded for college at one the state's premier universities.   Many seniors like Janiah are rapidly receiving their acceptances.  Take some time to check in with them this week to see what great news they have to share, and/or check out the rapidly forming college wall outside the college office! 

Finally, it is pride, love, and a heavy heart that I announce that Mara, the architect of our college office and the person responsible for the successful matches of so many of our alumna, is leaving UAI for an amazing job opportunity. Beginning April 1st, she will be the senior development officer for the I Have a Dream Foundation.  It is an undeniable opportunity for her and her family. Please join me in giving her a huge congratulations for a much earned title.  Also, please join in giving her big hugs and many, many thanks for her hard work.  Ms. Mara will always be a part of our UAI family.  We will always appreciate her work and look forward to having her return often for visits and advice!  Also - save the date for a Mara celebration on Friday, March 31st.

I am excited to announce that Ms. Martine will be spending March learning from Mara (with the support of Cassie from Urban Assembly) to take over the leadership of our college office.  Ms. Doris, and Ms. Jennifer will also be working with Ms. Martine to support the continued excellence and growth in a department that has been a jewel in the UAI crown for so many years.  Please join me in welcoming in the new team, and shower them with encouragement and excitement for this new role in their careers at UAI.

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 06MAR17] Full Staff PD - Lesson Rehearsals & Student-Student Discourse. We will continue to use our Monday PD time to focus on lesson planning.  Please continue to use THIS FOLDER by PD time on Mondays so that your peers have access to what you've planned.  This week's focus will be on planning for student-to-student discourse.  Please bring your texts & plans for Collaborative Reasoning Groups.  If you are planning other formats this week for student-to-student discourse (e.g. turn and talks, think pair shares, etc.) please be prepared to discuss and plan for these with your partner.

[MONDAY, 06MAR17] Lady Eagles are in the Quarter Finals!  After a decisive victory (59-43) over #13 seeded Julia Richman, our Lady Eagles are on fire and ready to take on #5 seeded John Jay. Staff are encouraged to head to Park Slope after PD on Monday for the 5PM game.  As the #29 seed in the playoffs, our amazing young woman are overcoming great odds to shine!  Let's show our support by being there to cheer them on!

[MARCH 2017] Attendance Calls and Skedula Attendance.  As a reminder, attendance is a professional responsibility for classroom teachers.  You must take accurate class attendance within the first 10 minutes of class (e.g. right after the lesson, during transition to work time).  You must also complete your phone calls home (to those advisees who do not make it to 2nd period on time) by the end of the day (you have 8 min scheduled to the end of your day to complete this).  Make this a priority because it has real impact for your students' achievement.  I've created a google calendar reminder to help you remember Advisory calls, and Val has met with each of you.  Follow through on this responsibility and help our students excel!! Make contact with home and accurately document in Skedula!  

SEL Updates

This past week, the 6th grade reviewed strategies for coping with strong emotions and began discussing identity development. Students described challenges they will face in adolescence and how having a strong sense of self can help them navigate these challenges. Students explored parts of their identity with their classmates, sharing out some of their talents and skills, and sharing objects from home that had personal meaning to them. 

The HS SEL classes explored Envisioning your future and Planning for College. They explored what is needed to get into college and the important steps they should take each school year.  S. They also learned about the 5 Phases of Achievement (Dream, Wish, Goal, Mission and Expectation).

SEL classes for 6th, 9th, and 10th graders next week will begin addressing some of the needs that arose out of the DESSA survey. As goal-directed behavior was an area for growth across grades, classes will remind students how to set SMART goals to reach academic and behavioral success. Students in all 3 grades will also begin the unit on Building Relationships and Mediating Conflicts, starting with the importance of developing positive relationships. Students will also dive deeper into skills they need to develop to overcome obstacles in relationships.

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Per Session Posting

Progressive Dinner on 13MAR17.  I am looking for teachers to plan with Ms. Carol and Mr. McLean for a progressive dinner next Monday.  Specifically, we're looking for at least 1 teacher from each discipline to run a short 10min collaborative reasoning group (or other brief format) and give an overview of the discipline at UAI.  Please see Ms. Carol for details.  The first meeting of the committee will be on Monday in Carol's office from 3-4:20PM.  

Week of February 27th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 23

Week of February 27th, 2017

This Week's Memories

 

Winterfest and Spring in The Winter!  We wrapped up the start of February with another fantastic full-school assembly.  Performers from our annual Winterfest dazzled the crowd, and Ms. Kree & Ms. Jen put together another wonderful celebration of our girls, their cultural diversity, and their talent! Following this joyous assembly, we welcomed a vacation full of spring weather a rejuvenation!  We are all well positioned as we launch this next interval of the school year.  It's a long one, but with six weeks of uninterrupted instruction, it promises to be a very productive stretch!  Let's get to it!!

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 27FEB17] Full Staff PD - Lesson Rehearsals.  One of the practices of Artisan Teaching is doing a run-through of a planned lesson with colleagues. Very often we only talk about lessons.  By actually doing them, a whole new realm of feedback and insight is made available to teachers.  During Monday's PD, please bring your lessons planned for Wednesday 01MAR17. Upload those lessons into THIS FOLDER by PD time on Monday so that your peers have access to what you've planned.  Teachers will be paired and each partner will have a chance to practice their lesson and hear feedback.

[WEDNESDAY, 01MAR17] Lady Eagles Playoffs, Round 3.  Our Lady Eagles are dedicated and play with heart!  After a tense game with #4 seeded Queens HS, our strong, smart and bold players upset the lead seed with a 52-50 victory!  Congratulations to our amazing team!  On Wednesday, they head to round 3 at the Julia Richmond Complex to hopefully continue the pattern of upset as they pursue victory over the #13 seed.  Wish them luck!

[WEDNESDAY, 01MAR17] Superintendent Walsh Visits.  Superintendent Fred Walsh will be returning to evaluate UAI on the 2nd PPO visit of the year.  We will be visiting about 7-8 classrooms. The schedule below is still tentative (I must finalize with Fred before our visit).  In particular, we are looking to see how teachers are planning to "take the pulse" (aka formative assessments) of the class and how teachers pivot to the student data they get when they conduct these assessments.  Checking in with students to see how much information they are successfully uploading is key to effective teaching.  Teachers should be planning to use formative assessment strategies throughout the lesson to check on how well your teaching is taking root.  Colleen shared a resource to give you ideas for formative assessment techniques to use in your classes.   Please make sure that your lessons include these techniques and that your lesson plans include your planned responses to predicted student outcomes in response to these techniques.

SEL Updates

SEL is Good Teaching.  <excerpted from Edutopia Article, "SEL is Good Teaching", May 2016> When working with schools, I often hear, "I don't have time to teach SEL. I have a lot on my plate right now." It is true that in order to successfully implement social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and services, teachers and schools need to invest their most precious resource: time. Teaching an SEL curriculum, creating school-wide activities, or receiving professional development also requires commitment and some strategic planning. Are you discouraged by this? Don't be! The good news is that there's another side of the story: many teachers already use teaching strategies that support students' growth in this area. Do your students reflect on their work? Do you use pair-shares in your instruction? Do you celebrate your students' accomplishments? If so, you might already be supporting students' social and emotional development!  Click Here to Read the entire article.

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Per Session Posting

Saturday and or After School Test Prep for MS ELA.  I am looking for teachers to work with groups of 10-15 students to prepare them for the MS ELA exam at the end of the month.  Sessions can be help after school or on Saturdays (teacher preference), and teachers will be able to select students from a list of at-risk students provided.  All teachers are eligible to apply.  The focus will be on test prep - helping students understand what questions are asking, building stamina etc.  Teachers will be responsible for preparing materials.  Teachers who are interested must sign up for two 90 min sessions (and identify days) OR one 3-hours session on Saturday.  Please RSVP to Kiri no later than Friday 03MAR17 at 3pm.  Sessions will begin next week.  

Week of February 13th

UAI Staff News

Volume IV

Issue 22

Week of February 13th, 2017

This Week's Memories

 

February Family Friday. The 8th grade students shared their researched and well-crafted Capstone Projects with their proud parents.  Many thanks and kudos to Marsha and Kristina for making sure our students and families had such a great opportunity to share and celebrate learning.  Many more thanks to the 7th & 8th grade team for coming together to make sure the event was seamlessly executed!

 

10th Grade Field Trips.  The 10th/12th Grade team took the 10th graders out on one of their student-choice field trips this past Friday.  During these trips, teachers coordinate a variety of field trip options, allowing students to self-select into one of the options.  This Friday, the majority of the grade picked to go see the movie, Fences, or ice-skating in Prospect Park.  The movie goers were glued to the screen for over 2.5 hours while the skaters took risks and pushed themselves to try something outside of their strength zones!

  

12th Grade Trip to Skyzone.  The seniors kicked off their final term in high school with a raucous trip to Skyzone.  Martine, Danielle, and Doris chaperoned.  Upon return, both kids and adults had ginormous smiles and raved about the good times had by all.  Danielle even got to safely show Jada who was boss!

  Musical Reconstruction.  Ana Marinez demonstrated her mastery of the US History Topic of Reconstruction, by performing an original song (to the tune of "Sweet Home Alabama"!  In Brodie's words, [this was an] "awesome reminder of why we have the best job in the world". Thanks for the share Mr. Brodie!

 

InspirED Youth Leadership Lab.  Jen & Lauren took several of our students to join The inspirED Youth Leadership Lab.  This series was developed to further the goal of fostering a nationwide movement for emotional well-being in schools. At the event, our team worked with students, educators, administrators, social and emotional learning experts from across the country.  

 




6th Grade Interviews.  This weekend over 100 prospective students came to UAI on Saturday to be interviewed as potential matches next year's 6th grade class.  Many thanks to Ms. Val's hard work in this dramatic increase in enrollment numbers.  Last year, we only had about 70 students interview.  Thank you also to all of the teachers and staff who stepped up to support the seamless flow of over 100 students and their families (which totalled nearly 300 people) on Saturday!!

To Do's for this Week

[MONDAY, 13FEBB17] Full Staff PD - Unit Planning.  For the next few weeks, we will be visiting classroom to observe collaborative reasoning in action and in planning.  At this point, all staff have been trained in Collaborative Reasoning and text selection.  Here's Colleen's resources:  CLICK HERE.  Please reference these resources in planning for collaborative reasoning.  We will be there to support your work on Monday during PD!

[TUESDAY, 14FEB17] Lady Eagles Playoff Game.  Please join our Lady Eagles as they play against Frank Sinatra in the first playoff game of the this season.  It will be at home at 5PM on Tuesday.  Let's support our community by supporting our teams!  Looking forward to seeing you there on Tuesday!

[15FEB17] Winterfest.  Our annual celebration of After School activities and display of students arts and artistic talent will be on Wednesday, 15FEB17.  Please join us in celebrating our girls in the gym from 6-8PM.

[17FEB17] Black History Month Assembly.  We will be having our next full school assembly on Friday, Feb 17th.  This will be a slightly early assembly to accommodate a staggered rapid dismissal for the building (SLJ and AIL are dismissing early on Friday).  The Assembly will begin at 1:30 and we will rapidly dismiss at 2:15PM.

SEL Updates

This section of the blog has been largely dedicated to student SEL development.  For this week, prior to the vacation, I wanted to share some articles that spin that tables and allow us to consider our own contributions to the emotional equation of our classrooms and learning environments. 

Click Here for the full article:  Educator's Social Emotional Skills Vital to Learning

Here's an excerpt: 

Social and emotional competencies aren’t secondary to the mission of education, but are concrete factors in the success of teachers, students, and schools.

“I yelled at my students too much today.” “I thought I was going to lose it when Nick acted up in class again.” “I’m so stressed out that I don’t want to teach tomorrow.” Statements like these are all too familiar to educators. What teacher or administrator hasn’t felt stresses that make it difficult to focus on teaching and learning? Who hasn’t needed to call on a deep well of social and emotional resources to overcome those challenges? In the current national focus on teacher quality, the essential role of teachers’ social and emotional competencies is often overlooked. 

But ask educators when they need those competencies and they’ll likely respond “every day.” And ask students to describe the teachers who most influenced them and why, and their answers will likely include qualities in the social and emotional area — the ability to listen and empathize, pick up on a subtle social cue, find a student’s hidden strength, or model calm under stress. These educators and students know intuitively what research has shown: Social and emotional competencies influence everything from teacher-student relationships to classroom management to effective instruction to teacher burnout. 

Add this calendar to your own!  See that little "+" sign in the bottom right hand corner?  Click on it to have it show up in your personal google calendar!

Per Session Posting

No new postings this week.