This Week
Fahari's Weekly Staff Memo: 11/17/2014 - 11/21/2014
A Message from Fahari's Principal: Stephanie Clagnaz, Ed.D.
How are you celebrating our progress and RESULTS?
This week, we complete our introduction to the 5 Functions of Healthy Teams as discussed by Patrick Lencioni. The final function...RESULTS. Coincidentally, the Department of Education released the city’s new accountability tools this week. The School Quality Guide and School Quality Snapshot have replaced the Progress Report. The Quality Snapshot is an easy-to-understand accounting of a school’s progress and achievement; its audience is primarily our families. The Quality Guide is a more detailed look at a school’s progress and achievement; its audience is for educators.
Fahari’s results for the 2013-2014 school year are listed below.
We achieve results such as these because of TEAMWORK! Thank you to all who have contributed to our teams to make this happen! In our cycle of continuous improvement, we must continue to work together to meet our next goals and targets.
Reflection: How are you contributing to your team to ensure that Fahari achieves outstanding results? Do you make yourself vulnerable, asking for help when needed and seeking best practices from colleagues? Do you engage in healthy ideological conflict to get your team to its best results? Are you truly committed to our mission, beliefs and goals? Do you hold yourself and your teammates accountable to team norms and contributions?
Culture News
As we enter the new marking period, many us of will use this an opportunity to revisit the norms we established at the beginning of the school year. On Monday, all of our 8th graders will be in new class groupings, and possibly have several new teachers. Our own teams will use the start of the quarter to think about our new priority goal. In all of these new contexts, we will begin by setting norms and expectations. As we think about how to approach this, I would like us to think about the restorative practice “fair process”. What is fair process?:
The central idea of fair process is that "...individuals are most likely to trust and cooperate freely with systems — whether they themselves win or lose by those systems — when fair process is observed" (Kim & Mauborgne, 1997). The three principles of fair process are:
- Engagement — involving individuals in decisions that affect them by listening to their views and genuinely taking their opinions into account.
- Explanation — explaining the reasoning behind a decision to everyone who has been involved or who is affected by it.
- Expectation clarity — making sure that everyone clearly understands a decision and what is expected of them in the future (Kim & Mauborgne, 1997)
Each of these three principles has significant implications for our work this week, as we revisit and/or establish norms in our classrooms and on our teams. For example, how can fair process be used to establish classroom rules and expectations? We can engage students by asking them what rules/norms we should have in our classrooms. This can be particularly powerful for students in the 7th and 8th grade. When we introduce our own classroom procedures, we should always provide an explanation for the procedure. This calls for us to say to a student, “You are not allowed to go the bathroom at the start of class, because the focus lesson is critical to your understanding of what is happening in class today” which differs from saying, “No, you can’t go”. Lastly, expectation clarity allows us to hold folks accountable to the norms and agreements that have been established.
This week, think about how you can use fair process in your classroom or with one of your teams. Find an opportunity to invite students or colleagues into a dialogue about a decision that will impact them. Taking this step will make them feel empowered, increase their likelihood of meeting with success, while deepening your work as a restorative practitioner.
Thanks for all that that you do.
Jared Roebuck
Assistant Principal for Administration and Culture
Technology and Data Updates
Tech Tip of the Week: Add YouTube videos to your PowerPoint or Google Slides Presentation
It’s much easier for your presentation to flow if you embed a YouTube video within your slides rather than exiting the full screen presentation and accessing the website to show a video.
In PowerPoint:
1. While on the slide you wish to display the video, click on Insert tab on your Menu.
2. On the Insert menu you will click the small arrow under select Video, and choose Video from Website. After you make your selection, you will be prompted to copy the embed code for the YouTube video.
3. Go to YouTube and find the video you want to embed. Once the video plays, right click the video and select Get embed code. It will automatically be highlighted so your next step is to copy the code by right clicking the highlighted text and selecting copy.
4. Remember that prompt in PowerPoint? Go back and paste your code into the text field in the Insert Video from Website dialog box. After pasting the embed code, click Insert and you are done. The video will display when the presentation is in full screen mode.
Fahari Grading Policy
The Fahari Academy Grading Policy consists of both a numerical grade that reflects the student’s performance aligned to grade-level standards and a PRIDE grade, indicating the student’s effort, participation, completion of homework, classwork, and other Fahari core values . We have researched Rick Stiggins effective grading practices which require clear criterion for grading that separates the academic and non-academic factors to ensure we capture accurate measures of student success.
Report Cards - Important Dates
November 19 - Final Grades in Datacation and Comments Due by 12 noon.
November 21 - Report cards submitted to Dr. Clagnaz for review
November 26 - Report Cards mailed out to all familiesFamily Engagement Updates
Our newly elected Families of Fahari PTO leaders had their 1st official planning meeting this Friday, November 14th! Some of the agenda items included:
Upcoming holiday events and initiatives
Online Skedula access for parents
Parent Leadership Initiatives
Parent Volunteer Initiatives
Fahari’s new 30% GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!
Look out for more information on these important topics and more! We are very excited about the energy and support generated by our new PTO leaders. Their collective leadership and collaboration with our staff will help to push Fahari Academy to new heights!
**We are continuing the campaign for our new Families of Fahari President and Vice President. Please send names of possible candidates my way for outreach! Thank you!
Holiday Health
As the Holiday season approaches, we want to keep an eye and ear out for families who may be in need of additional support. The holidays can be a stressful time for many families who are experiencing challenges or difficulties. Please refer any students to myself or the Counseling Team that you think may need support. Some signs of holiday stress may include:
unusual behavior patterns
increased stress, anxiety, depression or withdrawal
emotional outbursts
nervous behaviors
pre-occupied minds; unfocused classroom behavior
recent family loss or hardship
inappropriate seasonal clothing
on-going physical complaints such as headaches or stomachaches
Along with staff initiatives such as Fahari’s 1st Annual Food Drive, the PTO is also planning events and initiatives to support our families throughout the holidays. Stay tuned for upcoming information. Let’s do our best to ensure that we ALL have a safe and happy holiday season!
~Ms. Clarke, Director of Family Engagement
Community Advisory Notice
Next week's schedule updates
Will it be an A or B week?
Who will be out?
Monday, November 17th, 2014
Michelle Cooper
Jared Roebuck (PD)
Tuesday, November 18th, 2014
Peter Margulies (CSE)
Wednesday, November 19th, 2014
Kim Hunter (PM out)
Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Stephanie Clagnaz (PD)
Jared Roebuck (PD)
Freddy Fernandez
Friday, November 21st, 2014
Crystal Fernandez
Stephanie Clagnaz (PD)
Natalie Edugene-Guiteau
Jared Roebuck (PD)
Monica Lloyd
Andrew Wintner
Janelle Miller (PD)
Adunni Clarke (PD)
Edwin Santiago (PD)
Upcoming Events
Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Board Meeting - 6:30pm
Saturday, November 22nd, 2014
Volleyball Game (Playoffs)
KIPP Amp -1224 Park Place
Brooklyn, NY 11213
*The time of the game will be announced later this week.
Thursday, November 27th, 2014
Thanksgiving Holiday - No School
Friday, November 28th, 2014
Thanksgiving Holiday - No School