WEEKLY BULLETIN for Week Beginning 11.6.17

CALL TO ACTION

● PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES ON THURSDAY NIGHT & FRIDAY AFTERNOON

This week, we have the opportunity to meet our students’ parents and guardians.  Here are some best practices we are asking staff to follow for these conferences:

▪ Have Common Core student work folders ready to show parent / Student work displayed in your room / Extra copies of your course outlines and your grading criteria available. 

▪ Have ‘Welcome’ signs prominently displayed outside your classrooms along with chairs for parents to sit while waiting to meet with you

▪ Have a sign-in sheet to avoid ‘I was here first’ conflicts between families / some teachers use student monitors, if they have them available, to oversee these sign-in sheets

▪ Set up a time limit for each conference – if you need to go beyond 5-7 minutes you probably need an additional conference

▪ Start out with Positives / Focus on what needs to be done to move forward

In my communication with parents I gave them a list of suggested questions they might want to ask – here they are:

1. What is my child expected to learn, know and do at this grade level? How will it be assessed?

2. What are the big projects my child will be doing in your class this year? Throughout the year, how will I know if my child is meeting grade level expectations?

3. What does my child do well and what does he or she struggle with? Can you give me examples?

4. If my child needs extra support or wants to learn more about a subject, are there resources to help his or her learning outside the classroom? Can you give me examples?

5. How will you be introducing the Common Core standards to students this year?

6. Does my child turn in homework on time?

7. Is my child happy at school? How does my child get along with classmates and adults?

8. Does my child participate in class discussions and activities? What would make my child more effective in doing his/her work?

9. What can I do at home to reinforce what my child is learning at school?

10. Are there ways that I can help you in the classroom or the school?

● FASHION DOLLARS DISTRIBUTION ALIGNED TO HSFI PROBLEM OF PRACTICE

Fashion Dollars have never been more valuable, use Fashion Dollars the right way including:

(1) Aligning the distribution of Fashion Dollars to the school’s problem of practice involving rigorous student tasks.  Reward students with Fashion Dollars for trying challenging activities during a lesson.  We need to positively reinforce rigor and move away from just reinforcing compliance and basic class participation.

(2) Verbalize out loud for the entire class why a student is receiving Fashion Dollars.  You are not getting the full impact of this reward system if the student does not hear why they are receiving Fashion Dollars.  You are not getting the full impact of this reward system if the entire class does not hear why a specific student received Fashion Dollars.  This will result in all students clearly understanding why they are being distributed and will motivate students to produce similar behaviors.

● CONSIDERING HSFI STAFF SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING COMMITTEE

The first HSFI Staff SEL committee meeting will be held November 15^th during Period 6. We would love to have teachers and staff from all departments represented. This year our focus will be on developing student workshops, student mentoring and school-wide SEL practices. If you are interested in joining, please email or touch base with Mr. Blank or anyone of our SEL Coordinators – Ms. Parisse, Ms. Stambouly, Ms. Padron and Ms. Molloy (Conaghan). Coverage can be provided for this meeting. 

● STAFF VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

□ Staff Volleyball players wanted -- Tuesday November 21st is the Pep Rally and Staff vs. Student Volleyball game. Last year, the HSFI Staff narrowly beat the students, two games to one.
□ Chaperones needed for the December 2nd Winter Dance -- please support the students efforts to build school spirit while raising money for other activities.

Contact Mr. Rau in Room 829 / SRau@schools.nyc.gov if you are interested.

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 6 *First Monday Bell Schedule PM Supervisor: D Silva (Rm. 125)	7 ELECTION DAY STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY PM Supervisor: S Rau (Rm. 829)	8 *Regular Bell Schedule PM Supervisor: A Rodrigues (Rm. 515)	9 *Regular Bell Schedule PARENT / TEACHER CONFERENCES NIGHT 5:30 – 8:00	10 *Regular Bell Schedule PARENT / TEACHER CONFERENCES AFTERNOON 1:00 – 3:00 PM Supervisor: J Tallone (Rm. 201)

THE ANSWER IS IN THE ROOM

Here are some highlights of the best practices shared by HSFI Staff Members.  This round focuses on TWR strategies in the classroom:

In the Science department, Mr. Stampone created an activity for use in his Physics classes.  The activity prompted students to group words based on their relationship as well as to use appropriate symbols and abbreviations.

TWR Activity

In the Social Studies Department, Ms. Severino created a Multi Paragraph Outline and a Quick Outline for her Global 3 students.  This activity will help prepare her students for the Global Regents while also practicing their TWR skills.

MPO

Quick Outline

If you would like to see all of the activities compiled from last year, as well as the weekly additions, you can check out the shared Google Folder via the link below.

HSFI Best Practices Folder

*If any staff member would like to share a lesson, activity, or best practice, send it to Ms. Paz at spaz@hsfi.us or Mr. Kearns at kkearns@hsfi.us 

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONAL REMINDERS

● OUR INSTRUCTIONAL FOCUS FOR 2017-18 & BEYOND

□ Every student feels cared for

□ Every student feels challenged

● FIRST MONDAY – WRITING REVOLUTION STUDENT WORK REMINDER

A reminder that for next Monday's PLC for all ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies teachers. Please bring:
For 9th, 10th, 11th grade PLC:
□ COPIES of a range of TWR work for your PLC Target student/s as well as your anticipated response*
□ Include one sample where you’d like feedback on …
-formatting
-how to teach the skill
-how to scaffold the activity up or down
- OR bring content where you want suggestions as to how to build in a TWR skill

Just one copy of anything you bring is fine! Please be sure it is labeled with:
Student Name
Teacher Name
Subject
Grade
*We will send a selection of the work to TWR for feedback. They can only provide feedback if they have your anticipated response.

For 12th Grade PLC:
□ A COPY of your October CCSS Assessment for your PLC Target student/s.
□ Please be sure it is labeled with:
Student Name
Teacher Name
Subject
Grade

● INTERVISITATIONS WITH OTHER HIGH SCHOOLS CONTINUE

Our collaboration with other schools continue on November 16 when staff members from NYC Lab School, Bard Early College High School and High School of Language and Diplomacy will visit HSFI classes and teacher teams and give us their feedback.

● DO NOT USE OTHER CLASSES FOR TESTING MAKE-UPS

Teachers are having students take tests during Physical Education classes; this should not happen.  Do not have students take make-up exams during other classes.

● SPECIAL EDUCATION INFORMATION

With the beginning of the new marking period we in room 329 wanted to provide everyone with a reminder regarding students with IEPs and SESIS as well as the sections of the IEP which you may find most helpful when planning your instruction. While reviewing the IEP you may notice your Teacher Form responses or information you shared during the meeting- this is a great example of how your insight helps us to create an authentic, student specific IEP. In addition to asking a special educator, you can easily determine which students in your class have IEP's by reviewing your class roster. If the first or last character of the students’ official is a letter, the student has an IEP. Generally, but not in all cases, a letter at the end means the student receives SETSS services, while an I, C, or T at the beginning will signify an ICT placement. There are exceptions where students have been moved from one placement to another based on their needs and this is why it is incredibly important to reference the IEP. Students within our D75 Inclusion Program will have an L as the first letter of their official class and at this time will not appear when you log-in to SESIS. We are working to gain access for those who need it. In the interim you are invited to stop by 329 to speak with Ms. Smith-Brown and review a hard copy of their IEP(s). This year we will continue to distribute an electronic standards-based Teachers Form. The information you are required to complete on this form is subject specific and your insight will better help us in determine the needs of our students with IEPs. The Teacher Form in conjunction with your participation at the IEP meeting (if you are invited) are two critical elements we need in order to best serve our students. We try to plan our IEP and Triennial meetings with teacher schedules in mind, however there are times when families are only available at specific times and a coverage will be requested for your class. Our monthly SIT meeting addresses concerns surrounding Special Education (placement, initials, etc.) and is announced in advance in the Weekly Notes. All are welcome and encouraged to attend and if you are interested in becoming a regular member just let me know. Please feel free to stop by room 329 if you have any questions and thank you for your continued support of our students

● TEACHBOOST EMAILS MIGHT GO TO YOUR EMAIL JUNK FOLDER

Instructional supervisors are using Teach Boost to record observation feedback – if you have not received your feedback email from your supervisor, check your Outlook email junk folder to see if it is there.

● PARENT INFORMATION LISTING

Familiarize yourself with our student list with all their Parent Contact information 

https://docs.google.com/a/hsfi.us/spreadsheets/d/1yEo3ZbWPZqU_4C7Tr6HaPRevPjr28h5N5q1_PAhW0Q4/edit?usp=sharing

If you get an updated phone number and/or email of a student that is different from the information in this document, email AP Danielle Silva at DSilva3@schools.nyc.gov – include Student Name & 9 Digit ID - with the correct, updated contact information.  This list will also be added to the Staff Homepage

CYCLE SWITCH ON NOVEMBER 20

All of our alternate day classes will switch on Monday, November 20 - we will have an OP on Friday, November 17 to give out new schedules.

This means that classes that meet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, will meet on Tuesday and Thursday starting on November 20.

This means that classes that meet on Tuesday and Thursday, will meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on November 20.

These classes include: APPS College Prep; Physical Education; Health; Peer Group Connection; Algebra for All; and SAGA Math Tutoring.

OPERATIONAL NEED TO KNOW

● CHECK YOUR DOE & HSFI EMAILS EVERYDAY

● HSFI STAFF HOMEPAGE LINK - https://sites.google.com/a/hsfi.us/hsfi-staff-portal/

● CANNOT LEAVE STUDENTS UNATTENDED

You cannot leave students unattended anywhere in the building – a classroom or office, the Auditorium or Cafeteria – if you have to leave a particular area, ask the students to leave with you.

● GRAPHICS & ILLUSTRATION TESTING ADMINISTRATION

Senior graphics and illustration students will begin testing for their Adobe certification exam the week of November 13th. This test will be administered 4th or 7th periods once a week until students pass the test. The test is 50 minutes long and will run into the first ten minutes of 5th or 8th period. Students will be provided with a late pass to 5th or 8th period if taking the exam. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we administer this exam. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Katy Collins at ext. 8443.

● ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE ATTENDANCE OFFICE

□ The Attendance Office must know when you are taking students on a trip.  Even if it is only for one period.  You must submit your class list or students names and OSIS numbers.

□ There are a lot of attendance mistakes.  We are doing a lot of reversals for students who are not here.  Please try to take more accurate attendance.

□ Confirmation Sheets were due October 25.  I am still missing about 15 teachers who have not submitted them.  Please fill them out and submit them.

□ Please look over your daily attendance sheets.  Make sure the names on the list match up with Jupiter Grades.  You can add a student to Jupiter if you need to

● PARKING PERMIT INFORMATION

If you signed up for a parking permit through the online system, please see Ms. Ianniello in Room 819 to pick it up.  The school no longer has any generic parking permits to distribute on a daily baiss.

● PROTOCOLS FOR RESPONDING TO CLASSROOM INCIDENTS

In the event of an incident in your classroom that creates disruption (student is defiant and / or uncooperative) but is NOT A THREAT to student and/or staff safety, the following protocol should be

followed:

□ Classroom management, i.e., using your skills as an educator to move on from the situation, followed by

□ A phone call to your Supervisor informing them of the incident and the steps you have taken to address the matter, followed by

□ A referral to the Peace Center and/or the Guidance Department via Google Docs., followed by

□ Outreach to parents, informing them of their child’s misbehavior, and request for family support to correct the matter.  

In the event of an incident in your classroom that involves an immediate THREAT to student and/or staff safety, the following protocol should be followed:

□ A phone call to the Peace Center (x1491 or x1431) informing available staff of the incident and requesting assistance, followed by

□ A phone call to School Safety (x1341) informing them of the location and nature of the incident and requesting assistance, followed by

□ A call to your Supervisor informing them of the incident and the steps you have taken to address it.

UPCOMING STUDENT ACTIVITIES

11/9 & 11/10: Student Government will be selling HSFI planners to parents during Parent-Teacher conferences
11/14-16: Movie week in the Student Lounge - students get to watch a film for Fashion Dollars
11/21: Pep Rally and Staff vs. Student Volleyball game
11/28: Blood Drive Assemblies -- Seniors Periods 2/3 and Juniors periods 5/6
12/2: Winter Dance
12/4: From 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Blood Drive [it is First Monday so staff can come after classes to donate blood]

● KEEPING TRACK OF STUDENT ACTIVITY / COMMUNICATING WITH STUDENTS ABOUT SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Tracking Activity

In our effort to understand how ALL our students are doing, we need to know how much students are participating in activities around the building – this includes:

TUTORING / CLUBS & ACTIVITIES / PSAL SPORTS – PRACTICES & GAMES / ESL ACADEMY

MAKE-UP LABS / NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY PEER TUTORING / USING THE COMPUTER LABS

Use this link to keep track of student attendance in these activities - https://sites.google.com/a/hsfi.us/hsfi-staff-portal/attendance-for-student-activities

Doing this is mandatory if you oversee these activities and needs to be done every time you meet with students.  You must be signed in to your own hsfi.us account when you do this.  Contact Shannon Kohm with questions at skohm@school.nyc.gov, or ext. 5311

Communication

Please make sure that you communicate with our students about anything going on in the school – a club meeting, sports game or program opportunity – you can do this by including it in our Daily Announcements email / Jupiter message – here is the procedure for submitting this information:

(1) Go to the HSFI Staff Home page - https://sites.google.com/a/hsfi.us/hsfi-staff-portal/home?pli=1 

(2) From there use the Announcement form link on the left hand side of the page - all announcements should be requested by 3:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

LATENESS PLAN DATA

Thank you to all the staff members involved in executing our Lateness Plan – this includes Ms. Trotta, Ms. Carter and Mr. Montenegro for being at the computer logging late students in; the Guidance counselors doing parental outreach to late students; Mr. Jocelyn for assisting in the identification of the late students; our Assistant Principals for supervising these efforts; and Mr. Stampone for working with the lateness data.  Here is some of the data thus far including this past week’s information and all the data from the inception of the plan:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Date	Mon, Oct 30	Tue, Oct 31	Wed, Nov 1	Thu, Nov 2	Fri, Nov 3
Number of Late Students	140	152	0	0	0
Number of Habitually Late Students	50	52	0	0	0
First Timers	45	39	0	0	0
12	34	39	0	0	0
11	22	33	0	0	0
10	37	35	0	0	0
9	39	34	0	0	0
Early	78	87	0	0	0
Late	55	56	0	0	0

  

Day	Number of Late Students	Number of Habitually Late Students	First Timers	12	11	10	9	Early	Late
9/25/2017	64	0	64	20	17	2	22	63	1
9/26/2017	63	0	49	20	19	3	21	63	0
9/27/2017	81	0	54	24	21	7	27	79	0
10/2/2017	102	2	80	27	23	17	35	71	31
10/3/2017	136	0	80	31	40	25	37	93	41
10/5/2017	137	8	50	35	36	26	40	102	35
10/6/2017	133	19	51	29	42	25	35	96	35
10/10/2017	131	29	38	42	29	23	37	100	31
10/11/2017	143	30	39	36	39	21	45	119	24
10/16/2017	75	27	20	24	22	5	22	73	1
10/17/2017	32	13	7	11	7	2	12	32	0
10/18/2017	135	40	49	26	30	34	44	81	53
10/20/2017	104	38	33	38	27	2	36	103	1
10/23/2017	82	36	14	14	23	5	39	81	0
10/24/2017	149	54	37	43	35	33	36	104	44
10/25/2017	60	34	8	18	19	1	18	57	0
10/30/2017	140	50	45	34	22	37	39	78	55
10/31/2017	152	52	39	39	33	35	34	87	56

HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION ON NAVIANCE

Guidance counselor Alex Jones sent you an email this past week on how to upload letters of recommendation onto Naviance.  At this point if you don't have an active Naviance account, please send a separate email to Mr. Jones – Ajones22@schools.nyc.gov or call him at ext. 1011 - and he will set you up with one.  

1. Enter your Naviance Log in Info

2. Click on Manage and Complete your College Recommendations

3. See a list of your student’s names

4. Click on UPLOAD FILE for a specific student (far right) - this will take you to a student’s EDOCS page, complete with a list of yellow tabs, documents checklist, and a section that says TEACHER DOCUMENTS

5. Scroll down to TEACHER DOCUMENTS and click the +ADD icon

6. Click UPLOAD A FILE

7. Under Applications, select ----ALL APPLICATIONS

8. Under Type, select ----LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

9. Click BROWSE and find your saved letter of recommendation that you have typed (from Word, a thumb drive, etc.)

10. Open the document and press UPLOAD FILE

11. Go back out to the EDOCS screen (where you started with the yellow tabs underneath the student’s name)

12. Scroll down to TEACHER DOCUMENTS and click the +ADD icon again

13. Click on PREPARE A FORM

14. Under Type, select ----COMMON APP TEACHER EVALUATION

15. Click on PREPARE FORM

16. Answer all of the questions and select SAVE

You must complete BOTH actions for each student, including uploading a written letter of recommendation AND completing their Common App Teacher Evaluation. After you have done both of those, your job is finished.

WEEKLY PARENT COMMUNICATION

● FASHIONABLE TIMES BLOG

Just like we maintain a blog for staff, we maintain a weekly blog for HSFI Parents that includes a weekly message from me.  The link is:

http://hsfifashionabletimes.blogspot.com/

STUDENT INFORMATION RESOURCE

● NYC DOE STUDENT PROFILES

The NYC Department of Education has created a central location to access key student information – www.nycenet.edu/studentprofile

You have been emailed a one page summary of this resource.  Here are the key categories of the ‘Student Profile’:

● Grades – current and historical report card grades

● Assessments - previous Regents scores

● Attendance - current and historical daily attendance including lateness

● Schedule – students’ current schedule

● Details – student biographical and demographic information including Special Education and English Language Learner (ELL) status

● Enrollment – enrollment history including all NYC schools attended

● Guardians – all the adults on the students’ biographical record including contact information and preferred language

STAFF MEMBERS WHO SOARR

The SOARRing staff showcased below come from nominations from their supervisors and their colleagues.  You can nominate a colleague by using the email: PBISDataTeam@hsfi.us

Please include the reason why your colleague has SOARRed!

Thank you to all the staff members who have contributed to our best practices sharing - MS. SEVERINO-NORTMAN & MR. STAMPONE - the sharing spirit at HSFI is alive and well!

Thank you to MS. LaTANZA for hosting a group of Geometry teachers from our district in a professional learning series.

Thank you to MS. ADAMCZYK, MS. ABRAMYAN, MS. CUFFIE & MS. EISENBERG for giving students the opportunity to publish their creative work --engaging them in project-based learning at its best!

Thank you to MS. CHAVEZ for dedicating her Saturday to represent HSFI at the Annual CTE High School Fair.

Thank you to MS. TROTTA & MS. VELEZ for their support in the Main Office.

Thank you to MR. MENDEZ for coaching the Girls bowling team that made the playoffs and had two players who placed 2nd and 7th in the Manhattan Borough individual championships.

Thank you to MS. DYE, MS. HUSTED, MS. GARCIA & MS. KUCKER for taking the time to administer the NWEA exam to Special Education students this week.

Thank you to MS. KONO, MS. ORTIZ, MS. VARRICHIO, MS. BOHNER & MS. INCE  for offering feedback and participating in an AT evaluation for a student.

Thank you to MS. BALMIR, MS. VACCARO & MS. COLLINS for working super hard to keep all CTE teachers well stocked with the necessary CTE instructional supplies and materials.

Thank you to MS. CHIN for her efforts in ordering the Science supply lists.

VTODs FOR THE WEEK

November 6 – Math Mondays - Algebra

Percent: (n) A percent is a ratio that compares a number to 100. The number of cellphone-only households predictably has been climbing over the years, surpassing the households with both a landline and a mobile phone and now reaching almost 51 percent. The students were doing well learning how to convert a percent to a fraction but needed more help when the fractions were mixed.

Tuesday November 7 – Election Day Students not in attendance

November 8 –CTE Wednesdays - Fashion Merchandising

Registries: (n) plural of registry, a collection of official records or the place where it is kept. The new urgent care center contacted the city’s two nursing registries to locate qualified staff for its facility. Many online gift registries now allow their users to merge different store registries or simply pick anything from a physical or online store anywhere in the world to be included in their gift list.

November 9 ELA Thursdays 10th grade

Demonstrate: (v) 1. to prove or make clear by evidence or reasoning. The students demonstrated their understanding of similes and metaphors by identifying examples of them and by creating their own.   2. to protest in a public place.  Hundreds of citizens gathered to demonstrate against the city’s budget cuts.

November 10    Social Studies Fridays   10th Grade

Hierarchy: (n) A system of organizing people into different ranks or level of importance. At Valve, the successful   video gaming company, there is no formal hierarchy and no job titles. The earlier stages of Ancient China’s Han Dynasty had a strict social hierarchy: the emperor and then aristocracy at the top, followed by a middle class of skilled workers, and, finally, unskilled workers and slaves at the bottom.

ADDITIONS TO THE BLOG

If you are interested in adding something to the Weekly Bulletin Blog, please email Angela Ianniello – AIanniello@schools.nyc.gov – by Wednesday of that week.  Submissions emailed after this deadline will be placed in the following week’s Blog.