December 17th

Celebrations

 

Staff Connection:  

Alexandra Gamez, Kindergarten TA

   I was born in Venezuela. I’m an interior and landscape designer with a master in Art

history. I make abstract paintings and sell them. I used to work as an event producer for major companies around the country and parts of Central and South America. I worked for a

summer camp for 4 years, and owned one for 8 years. There, I learned to work with

children, how to build a team spirit and always give back to the community.

  In 2014 I moved to the US; my life started in Orlando, Fl. I moved to NC last year, and

couldn’t be happier to call this place my home.

  Working here at Underwood is a blessing, is such a fun loving place to work... And working

with Ms. Miller is just the cherry on top!

  I enjoy surfing, yoga, hiking with my husband Dereck and our daughter Anastasia

(she’s in Ms. Davis class!!), watching movies and cooking.

• Kudos to Shellie and the Sunshine Squad for a fantastic Holiday Party of Friday afternoon!
• Each year we keep an ongoing document of awards received on behalf of Underwood, Underwood students or Underwood staff.  Please notify Ashley if you have anything to share!                                                                                                                                                   Wish Well
• Everyone….as this is a particularly stressful time of year!
• Mallory

Communication:

Q3/Q4 elective placement spreadsheet can be found here.  Brochures will be going home next Tuesday,

December 18th.  If you need to initial brochures, you can do so on Monday or Tuesday until noon in the

IRT/Magnet office.  Elective registration will take place in early January.

Check the shared Underwood google team drive, folder-Daily absences and info for the preferred sub list.  

Helping Hands

We are excited to have the Helping Hands program return to Underwood!  The program will be an

afterschool program to mentor some of our males in grades 3-5.  Due to the weather the program will

not start until January on a date to be announced. There will be new letters to go home to the families

when they are created.  

 

Ugly Sweater Contest and Secret Gift Giver-December 19th

The Ugly Holiday Sweater will be open to all staff members. The competition and voting

will begin at 8:30am. If you work early care or another morning duty, staff members have

already offered to "tag in" so that you are able to participate and/or get breakfast. The winner

will receive the awesome trophy and a $25 gift card.   Link to breakfast-

Spreadsheet

Secret Santa

The week of Dec. 17th-21st be a Secret Santa and deliver gifts to someone at school.

The limit will be $15 and you decide how you would like to spend your money...a couple

of little gifts, one big one, you pick! On (or by if you don't work Fridays) Friday, Dec.

21st reveal yourself to your person. Please use this form to sign up and sign up by

Wednesday, Dec. 12th.  Secret Santa Sign up

Our staff's favorite things:   Staff list

Together we are better!  Feel free to share feedback/celebrations anytime here

Creativity

 

Let’s learn more about YOU!!  In the celebrations section of this blog, we have been featuring

our new staff members in an effort to learn more about them.  Now it’s your turn!  We would like

to showcase all staff members throughout the course of the year.  (These will also be archived in

the Team Drive). If you are willing, send Ashley 2-3 paragraphs as well as emailing me a picture

of you! Things you might want to mention:

• Family, Hobbies, Role at Underwood, What you love about being an educator, Past experiences

 

Critical Thinking

Letterland and EL Curriculum - WCPSS Elementary ELA departments have provided k-5 with

curriculums to support our students in learning the ELA curriculum. The expectations is that all

students are receiving this instruction daily. Christine Keith is supporting our Letterland implementation

and Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit is supporting our EL curriculum. These will be reviewed in our mid year

PDP discussions.

 

Admin aspirations? - NC Fellows Program is taking applicants until January 15, 2019. There are

also two info sessions along with fellow Unicorns that have been a part of the program or considered

it at one time.

 

NKT/AMC

If you need help setting up interventions for your students and remembering how to progress

monitor, please see Alexandria.  Here is the link to the students in red and yellow. This also

includes students that are above the benchmark by the end of their grade.   NKT Sheets

K-2 Intervention/Progress Monitoring Next Steps Webinar :

• If your school needs additional support with K-2 math interventions and progress monitoring, join us for a live webinar on December 12th from 11:00-12:00.
• The webinar will be facilitated through YouTube and is located here.  
• Any teacher or support staff who would like to participate should sign up on eSchools:194100902
• Following this session the webinar will be archived and posted on Canvas for any teachers who were not able to attend or participants who wish to reference it later.
• If your school has added additional K-2 classes for the 18-19 school year and needs additional materials, please fill out this link.  

NCEnsi:

• All students who fell within the STRATEGIC and INTENSIVE range on the NKT should be progress monitored using the NCEnsis.
• Students within the STRATEGIC range should be progress monitored every 3 weeks and students within the INTENSIVE range should be progress monitored every 2 weeks.
• NEW: Once teachers have completed AMC assessments on students they should go straight into interventions. Students do not need to be given an NCEnsi probe as a baseline because these are mastery measures that do not rely on a rate of improvement. The baseline data for Tier II or Tier III plans should be 0.

Collaboration

Media Center- So, in support of MTAC's focus.....

MTAC will meet next on Thursday, January 24. MTAC's focus this year is Equity

and Cultural Competency. To learn more, please join us and/or check out the Library

Media Program Portfolio (this is a work in progress.) Also, we ask that all staff

members consider the following:

• How often do my students have access to the library? How often do my students have access to technology to support their learning? How can I help to improve my students' access to resources? How can the library media program help to improve my students' access?
• We will be beginning a diversity audit of our collection in January. Do you know of parents/community members who would be interested in assisting with this task?

Questions? Contact Andrea.

There are a number of  afterschool clubs going on:  Fitness Club on Monday’s, TEK on Wednesday’s,

LEGO on Thursday’s.  Club rosters can be found here.

Conscious Discipline Corner

Quote of the week:   Everyone is going through their own personal struggle.  When we judge others,

we sit in our own struggles longer.  When we offer empathy, we heal

our own hurt in the process.

Resource of the week:  DJ Batiste Video “Words Have Power” ….an

inspiring follow up from DJ about teaching assertiveness to children

and using words to solve problems.

Calendar/Important Links:

Important Dates Document-  Please double check this against the school calendar.

December 18th - Holiday Performance (Music/Dance-7pm)

December 19th-Holiday breakfast at 8:00am/Ugly Sweater Contest 8:30am

December 20th-CDAT Meeting 7:45am

                      -Holiday Performance (Band/Strings-7pm)

December 21st - Early Release (Community Service Project)
 -3:30 Reveal yourself to your Secret Santa (if participating)