May 30th

Collaboration 

Thank you to the k, 1, and 2 teams, all specialists and special areas/curriculum support for completing the class lists for next school. You all did a great job of focusing on balance class lists that you would want to teach. Third and fourth grades will be reviewing class lists on June 10th.

Some great sharing about what is going on in our classrooms  (via Twitter)


Collaboration in Dance

Communication

Custodian -- Mr. Jones has chosen to take a different career path and has resigned from his position. We are currently interviewing for his position. We will also be changing our custodial hours and expectations to increase the consistent cleanliness for our building starting at during the new school year.

Great job on the first two days of testing (all of third grade and fifth grade science). We know this week will be just as successful! We need to continue to work together.

Critical Thinking 

Learning spaces -- 5 minute videos about creating learning spaces for students (interested in making some changes to your classroom environment? We would love to hear from you! We (Ashley, Daphne and I) met with our furniture buyer for the district to get some ideas -- Catalog. 

Creativity

 

May 23rd

Communication 

Sherry Pollock will be returning to Underwood next school year. We are anticipating adding a fourth kindergarten due to numbers and she has agreed to teach this class. 

EVAAS -- roster verification were due on Friday. I will be sending emails to teachers that have students that are over or under claimed and will need to be completed ASAP. 

Creativity 

3rd Grade baseball in third grade -- Twitter Status

Fifth grade Physics -- Fichter-Venners Science

When you feel frustrated with your children, do you tend to express your frustrations with commands, questions, accusations, or sarcasm? - Conscious Discipline® (link to an article) - "Become aware of how you are expressing your frustrations. Then strive to express your feelings in a direct and assertive way".

Critical Thinking 

Are we being purposeful with our student outcomes -- We went through 5 Cases of paper in ONE week, EEK...that is 25,000 sheets of paper - that averages out to 48 sheets of paper per student in one week.

Article -- What it means to be a great teacher 

Reflecting on your practice -- record-yourself-improve-your-practice

As a GT elective magnet, we have been given 5 additional months of employment to support our AIG program. The position will be to support in class higher level thinking opportunities for all students. It will be a coaching, modeling, and collaborative position. More information to come as the position is filled.

Collaboration 

Writing with Rich Leonard, Ellen's class wring about the Civil War --  Author 

Thank you to all that came out to support the 3rd Annual Underwood Foundation Gala -- Photo

May 16th

Communication

Congratulations to Star Davis our teacher of the year! She was recognized on Wednesday at the WCPSS teacher of the year banquet.



Hiring Freeze -- as of 5/12 WCPSS is on a hiring freeze until contracted personnel have secured positions for next school year. 

Newsletters/Updates - be sure to continue to send out infroamtoon to families about what the students are working on, upcoming events and celebrations!

Collaboration

Students working and sharing items via Google Apps (Drive), Minecraft creation, MUG T MES articles, and many more collaboration going on at Underwood!

Next week -- Kindergarten and second grade will be having their next year's class lists discussions. Third and fourth grade's will be on June 10th (times TBD based on cumulative folder review). 

Critical Thinking 

Reminder that the Underwood Under the Stars Foundation dinner is on Friday at the Contemporary Art Museum.
End of year checklist - be sure to complete all pertained items, if you have questions please see the person responsible. 
Leadership team representatives will need to be voted on during the June PLTs. Somethings to ponder -- leadership/SIP meetings will be moved to Monday mornings. We will also be having a leadership retreat on August 18th. 

Creativity 

  

Master schedule discussion at Leadership Team this week. 

Love seeing the variety of end of year activities and celebrations throughout the school building. 

Collaboration 

Thank you to Ashley and Sharon for being a part of the Magnet School Mingle and the WCPSS job fair. We did a great job of representing Underwood Elementary!

Our PLT weekly agenda document has been updated to reflect changes through out the school year. 

MTSS Team - Christine, Victoria, Cheryl, Heather P, Charlotte, Alexandria for the continuous work to support our first year of MTSS implementation -- MTSS is a multi-tier system of support that uses data to provide supports for students and teachers. 

End of year evaluation sign up - Sign up for a time to meet with Daphne and I

Communication 

Congratulations to our Tar heel Historians! They won nine events out of the twenty-two events. Also congratulations to Glendia for being the advisor of the year!

Summer Stem -- fingers crossed for Dawn and Rhonda C. on their application to be a part of the WCPSS Summer Stem project. 

Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday and Thursday from 10-11. Families will be walking around the building seeing their 2016-17 school home. 

Grade level changes -- Allisa Mozingo and Amanda Gary will be moving to second grade next year. No other changes have been made at this time. We are currently interviewing for a second CCR teacher (Rachel Hansen is moving to Washington DC) and Drama (Karen Glenn is retiring). 

Critical Thinking 

MClass Benchmarking window is open May 12th- June 2nd.  

EOY DIBELS Assessment Schedule

Teachers:  Please read through the TRC Guidelines carefully.  Classroom teachers cannot assess their own students.  

TRC EOY Guidelines

First grade (Comer's class) predicted what will happen to little fish?

Fifth graders testing out their self-made vehicles to see how to make them go farther.

Creativity 

Learning spaces -- Flexible seating and learning spaces

50 tools and apps for Showcasing knowledge 

visualizing 21st century classroom design