March 27

Communication 

Annual WCPSS Student Surveys for grades 4&5 - school engagement and "grit"(approx 10 minutes) and focus of 4th grade is extracurricular activities and advanced courses (5-6 minutes). Each survey is available in both English and Spanish and each student can access their survey in either language using the following link: http://surlogin.wcpss.net/. Students must take these surveys at school, as the link is not accessible outside of the WCPSS computer network. students will have to use their PowerSchool ID number to access their survey. The surveys will remain active from March 20th to May 26th, so please ensure that all grades 4-5 and 7-12 students have the opportunity to complete the survey at school before May 26th.  Results will be tabulated by school and reported out this summer. 

Playground safety - We need to continue to monitor students on the playground and spread out across the playground. Be sure to communicate if concerns arise so they can be addressed and communicated to students. 

Electives - Quarter 4 Electives begin today!  Check your students rosters online if you are unsure of where they are going.  Please check your elective rosters too for the first week!  If a student is not showing up, please let the homeroom teacher and/or office know they are not present.  We want to ensure all students are safe.  Please submit any changes on the Elective Change form.  Elective Change Form 

Elective Reports Cards are to be completed by March 31st.   

Active Learning Grant --- Underwood was awarded one of the first annual Active Learning Spaces Grant ($50,000) to be used to provide resources (furniture, devices) to increase the flexibility of the media center. We are planning to have the items in place to start the 2017-18 school year.

Grade Level Report Cards-  Report Cards go home on April 7th!  

Critical Thinking

School Family Assembly-We are looking forward to March 31st from 9:30-10:15 for our next School Family Assembly.  We will be highlighting and teaching assertiveness within the mini-lesson!

NC House Bill 13 - Shared at the Principals Meeting -- This would impact the way districts use flexibility with academic (arts, languages, PE, and other areas) months and teachers months for k-3 positions. Additional Information. Travis is available to meet with individuals or teams, at this time the district has not made adjustments to allotments. The bill has passed in the house and is now in the senate. More info to come. 

Third Grade - Mr. Brown continues to be out on leave for an undetermined amount of time. To provide consistency and continuity, Heather Peaden will be the teacher of record for this class for the remainder of the school year. This information was shared with the parents of this class Friday evening. After Heather has been able to transition, a substitute will be hired to work the 3-5 teacher position. 

Collaboration

Kim Hughes will be on campus on Thursday to continue in-classroom coaching with Conscious Discipline!

Foundation Gala - thank you to those who participated at the Gala. Ashley Cooper did a great job of organizing the event. Thank you to our student teachers for volunteering to help work the event. As well as JR who led the Live Auction portion of the night.

Beautification - Our Grounds Day was a success! We were able to do a lot of trimming, cleaning and mulching the playground area. Thank you to Alexandria and Ceil for assisting in this event. Teachers please be sure that students are using the sidewalk chalk in appropriate places (not the bricks area). 

Creativity

Artspleasure - Wow!  ArtsPleasure 2017 will go down in the books as a great celebration.  I have no clue about money raised, but the event was well attended starting with Stomp after school 'til we locked the doors after 8:00.  The Arts Team would like to thank all of your for your support.  I am afraid I might miss someone if we started typing names, so we extend a huge hug and gratitude to all.  Thanks for donations of time, energy, and support.  We could not carry out such a successful event without your support.

It is great to work at a place where the Arts are a strong and vibrant part of the culture!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Underwood Arts Team

March 20th

Communication

Playground safety-Just a reminder that all staff members need to separate and monitor different areas of the playground.  Discuss within your team where you are supervising (field, big playground, little playground, basketball court). 


Quarter 3 electives end March 23rd.  Quarter 3 end March 29th.  Decisions about when report cards are going home will be discussed at Leadership on Monday (3/20).  Quarter 4 electives begin on March 27th.

Grounds Day-Saturday, March 25th starting at 9am.  Please try to attend to support the Underwood parent/landscaper donating his time, effort and supplies.  Please add this to your newsletters and MH posts.

Active Learning Grant - Wednesday Underwood will receive funds through the Active Learning Grant. These funds will be used to provide additional resources to increase the collaborative space, variety of learning opportunities, and flexible space. Thank you to Andrea, Tanya, Elizabeth, and Alexandria for their collaborative effort in writing this grant! 

Discovery Ed Cohort-  The Discovery Ed Cohort will meet on Tuesday.  They will be doing learning rounds through classrooms.  

Critical Thinking

School Family Assembly-We are looking forward to March 31st from 9:30-10:15 for our next School Family Assembly.  We will be highlighting and teaching assertiveness within the mini-lesson!

NC House Bill 13 - Shared at the Principals Meeting -- If this bill is passed reducing the class sizes in k-3 will have an impact on NC Schools. WCPSS will need to add 460+ teachers (costing about 26 million). This would impact the way districts use flexibility with academic (arts, languages, PE, and other areas) months and teachers months for k-3 positions. Additional Information. Travis is available to meet with individuals or teams, at this time the district has not made adjustments to allotments. The bill has passed in the house and is now in the senate. More info to come. 

Collaboration

Foundation Spring Gala-If you are interested in attending on March 24th at 7pm at CAM...please email Ashley as we have free tickets available for staff members!

Creativity

Mrs. Fichter-Venners science classes created an original carnivorous wetland plant.

Thursday is Artspleasure! Did you know that the money raised at this awesome event has helped with buying mini iPads, set of drums, art supplies, tap shoes, scripts for drama and Theater Productions, music for band and strings......All of this has had a direct and positive impact on our children and our magnet program!  It is from 4:15-7:45. Many volunteer are needed to help make this a successful event. Please consider signing up to help AND attending the different activities. You HAVE to stay for the Mystery Performer Performance at 7:30!!!

March 13th

Critical Thinking 
National Board Certification-The application window to apply for candidacy for National Board Certification for the 2017-2018 cycle opens on April 1, 2017. There will be information sessions held on March 14th and May 9th to hear about the process of becoming a board certified teacher. Details can be accessed at http://www2.wcpss.net/departments/hr/national_board_certification/index.htm. If you have questions, contact Carolann Wade at cwade@wcpss.net.

Weather Makeup Day / School Family Assembly -  March 31st is our third weather make-up day. We will be having our second School Family Assembly. See your PBIS committee member for details. More information to come..

Communication 
MTSS Survey - Please complete the MTSS Belief Survey 

Who:  All Certified Staff

When:  Between Mar.13th - Apr. 29th

What:  Beliefs Survey Link: http://bit.ly/beliefs2017

Coffee with Mr. Shillings -- First Friday of the month from 9:30 and discuss items of interest at Underwood. We will meet April 7th 9:30-10:30  in the media center (other dates will be May 5th and June 2nd. To assist in the discussion, if you have a question that you would like to talk about please fill out the form. - Questions to be discussed form

Volunteer Tea is May 5. Looking for someone to chair/co-chair this committee.  If you would be interested, please let Daphne know ASAP. It will be here before you know it!

School Improvement Plan - 2nd Quarter Data Review (mClass, Report Cards, and Case21). We have many things to be proud of our students work! 
Math Problem Statement: The students that are not proficient on Case 21 and Report Card data are not retaining isolated skills over the course of a quarter/semester.
Action Steps: Modify current instructional strategies, create assessments that have current and previous (reviewed content), interviewing with previous grade levels about curriculum, re-visiting curriculum

Reading Problem Statement: 32% of 3rd grade students are not meeting benchmarks in literacy.

Action Steps: Go into DEF report and list names of students in red or yellow. 3rd grade grade has restructured their day due to previous reading data, so the 3rd grade team will need to provide further/current data at next meeting to show if the restructuring of the day is working.

If interested, please see the Meeting minutes and data here- https://docs.google.com/a/wcpss.net/presentation/d/1A963DIsxw0hLmwX61UsSo0XPCTOudeUf6mviE6et3mQ/edit?usp=sharing

Collaboration 
Specialists Weekly Updates - Important information about First in Fitness, Dance, Art, Music, Spanish, Media Center, Technology, and Drama. Specialists Weekly Update. 

Active Learning Grant - Underwood is one of 28 elementary schools to be awarded the Active Learning Spaces Grant which was established in 2017 to support school efforts to transform facilities into learning spaces that inspire innovation and creativity while fostering the skill sets needed to live, produce, and thrive in today's workplace. We will be using the $50,000 to increase the flexibility of our media center. 

Grounds workday-Please mark your calendars and help us on March 25th as we will be working with a landscaper (and Underwood parent) to tackle the playground and surrounding areas!

Single Sign on Wake ID Portal - Having trouble managing the multiple login names and passwords you need to access applications such as Google Apps, Canvas and more? We have good news! Starting March 15, you will use the new WakeID Portal to access these and other applications in one place with one username and password. 

• The first thing you will need to do on the morning of March 15 is claim your WakeID through the WakeID Portal. Your WakeID is the first part of your email address. You will need to follow a series of steps through the WakeID Portal to update your password and claim your account. The process will take about 10 minutes. 

Creativity 

The students did an amazing job at Pieces of Gold at Progress Energy Center! Many thanks to Melissa Raley, Rachel Fraiser and Kelly Harris for their leadership and continued commitment to the Arts.  

March 6th

March 6 - 10 Updates 
Critical Thinking 
NC Severe Weather Awareness Week - Statewide Tornado Drill Wednesday March 8th at 9:30. See Daphne's email about reminders and ways to prepare the students.

Transfers - The window will remain open until 11:59 PM on May 1, 2017.  All information is posted on the intranet for your review http://www2.wcpss.net/. Via Raushawna L. Price Senior Director, Talent Acquisition

2017 SAS Curriculum Pathways Summer Teacher Institute - Deadline February 26 - Deadline - March 26th, 2017 at 11:59 pm EST
We are excited to announce our 2nd Summer Teacher Institute - an opportunity with area teachers to join our team for a paid, 8-week edtech immersion. You can find all the details here: http://blogs.sas.com/content/sascp/2017/01/31/2017-teacher-institute/. 

Promotion/Intervention - Be sure to review the criteria for promotion/intervention letter for families. If you are on the fence on if you should send it, go ahead and send the letter home on the 8th. It will be important to communicate with families that is coming home and if they need to meet to have further conversations. Also, we added a letter in Spanish if need through our Document Translation Department.

Curriculum Procurement Update: Per Brian Kingsley (Superintendent of Academics) As our team continues moving towards a final recommendation to the Board of Education in April, we want to remind you of 3 important tasks:

• If your school is field testing a recommended resource, ALL field testers need to input their data in the assigned Google Community by end of day on Friday 3/10/17.

• Encourage all appropriate (Grades 3-8 ELA & HS Math) teachers to explore each vendor’s content in Canvas at bit.ly/wcpssinput. 

a.  Feedback forms are available for each vendor.  
b.  These sites will be available until March 17 for exploration and providing feedback. 

• IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER - Please remind all staff that the school system has been granted a personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the content files, for evaluation purposes only; solely for non-production testing, internal development, and evaluation purposes and not for commercial use. 

Communication  
School Improvement Plan - 2nd Quarter Data Review (mClass, Report Cards, and Case21). We have many things to be proud of our students work! 
Math Problem Statement: The students that are not proficient on Case 21 and Report Card data are not retaining isolated skills over the course of a quarter/semester.

Math Action Steps: Modify current instructional strategies, create assessments that have current and previous (reviewed content), interviewing with previous grade levels about curriculum, re-visiting curriculum

Reading Problem Statement: 32% of 3rd grade students are not meeting benchmarks in literacy.

Action Steps: Go into DEF report and list names of students in red or yellow. 3rd grade grade has restructured their day due to previous reading data, so the 3rd grade team will need to provide further/current data at next meeting to show if the restructuring of the day is working.

If interested, please see the Meeting minutes and data here- https://docs.google.com/a/wcpss.net/presentation/d/1A963DIsxw0hLmwX61UsSo0XPCTOudeUf6mviE6et3mQ/edit?usp=sharing

Magnet Visit - Thank you for letting Charlotte Magnet Schools and WCPSS into our fine arts electives. They were impressed with the teaching tools and learning objects that were taking place and the student engagement during the lessons.

PowerSchool and PowerTeacher Outage - PowerSchool and PowerTeacher will be unavailable from 5pm, Friday, March 10th until 6am, Monday, March 13th due to DPI system maintenance. 

Collaboration 
Office of Immigration and Refugees -- Contact information - P. Scott Phillips, PhD. 
Field Office Director

US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

SPhillips@uscrinc.org

919-334-0072  ext. 4010

Elementary Arts Integration opportunity - there is a week-long Arts Integration Institute. Over the course of the week, scheduled for June 19-23 at the Cary Arts Center, professional teaching artists will lead hands-on activities for so classroom and arts teachers will learn ways to integrate arts disciplines across the curriculum. More info to come from United Arts. 

Single Sign on Wake ID Portal - Having trouble managing the multiple login names and passwords you need to access applications such as Google Apps, Canvas and more? We have good news! Starting March 15, you will use the new WakeID Portal to access these and other applications in one place with one username and password. 

• The first thing you will need to do on the morning of March 15 is claim your WakeID through the WakeID Portal. Your WakeID is the first part of your email address. You will need to follow a series of steps through the WakeID Portal to update your password and claim your account. The process will take about 10 minutes. 
• You will receive more information about how to claim your WakeID account next week via email.  
• The change over to the WakeID Portal will begin at 6 p.m. on March 14. You will not be able to access Google, PowerSchool/PowerTeacher, EASi, and any other application that uses your WakeID and password again until 6 a.m. on March 15. 
• The WakeID Portal is where you will eventually access many resources including new email and intranet platforms. 
• You will be able to use the WakeID Portal to reset your own password. Teachers will be able to use the WakeID Portal to reset students' passwords. 
• Students will need to access their Google Apps and Canvas through the WakeID Portal, but they won't need to claim their accounts. Their default password will be their student number. Secondary students must change their passwords on their first login. 
• More information is coming. Stay tuned!

Creativity 

June Explore Wake Schools is All About Teachers -The June issue of Explore Wake Schools magazine will focus on our outstanding teachers. Please use this form to nominate a colleague or two to be featured in this special issue.

Governor's Budget - https://www.osbm.nc.gov/2017-19-governors-recommended-budget?platform=hootsuite