November 13th

Celebrations 

• Jill brought over materials from Washington Elementary to supplement our Robotics elective curriculum so more student can participate!  
• Heather and Alexandria's continued leadership leading our SIP team!
• Karen matted, laminated and cut our Q2 elective signs.
• Mr. Marrow and Mrs. Merritt for continued to keep our learning spaces clean, we hope to have our hired part-time custodian working upstairs soon. Paperwork has been turned in we are waiting for HR approval.  
• Sunshine Club for providing coffee and donuts for our business meeting!
• Alexandria leading our curriculum unpacking work through PTA sponsored half-day planning days. 
• Congratulations to our Teacher of the Year: Mrs. Rachel Frasier!
• Congratulations to our Teacher Assistant of the Year: Mr. Lance Lehning!

Critical Thinking 

Moonlight Reading -- Would you like to be a guest reader during Moonlight reading? Readers would be 6pm, 6:25 and 6:55.  2-3 readers per time slot if possible. If interested add your name to the list -- Sign up sheet. 

Magnet Materials -- Magnet money is available to enrich the Magnet content you teach.  Use the Instruction Funds Form (Link ) to submit your request.

Feedback -- If you have more feedback (things that have worked or things that could be better throughout the school year) you would like for us to consider, please feel free to email, discuss or fill out this form. https://goo.gl/forms/XNwhdAo6gU8lOfck1

PTA Stipend:  Just a reminder to spend your $100 PTA Stipend for instructional materials by December.  Provide a copy of your receipt attached to the reimbursement form found in the PTA Treasurer's mailbox. 

Lockdown Drill Follow-up - Awesome job on the lockdown drill!  The three uniform officers said it was "one of the best that they had seen"! 

• In a case of emergency and you need to contact the command center (front office) - call my office # 856-7666 x 21071 or my intercom #1104. This is the place where we would be working with security or the police in a real code red. 

Communication 

Just a reminder that it is imperative to check your elective rosters daily for the first week.  Changes happen daily.  When a change occurs, new elective schedules will be placed in homeroom teacher's mailboxes.

Magnet Spotlight -With tours and recruiting in full swing, take a moment to view your hall display.  Is it visually appealing?  Does it showcase our theme?  All displays should be labeled with a quick summary of the activity and the standards addressed 

Elective work displayed
with a labeled sign
(sign has description AND standards)

"Authors in the Making elective students wrote descriptive paragraphs based
on the writing of Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book."  (The cover of the book and standards are outlined below that are aligned to the project)

Digital Literacy Requirements- As you prepare your lessons for the week, please ensure you have met the requirements you signed off on at the beginning of the year.  Andrea or Tanya are willing to work with you in planning these lessons.  Find the information here https://goo.gl/jhC5Zs

State Superintendent Message about PD for k-5 Math --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGYhL-1gOXs&feature=youtu.be  - The link to the NC Educators Perspective survey mentioned in the video is here. Thank you for everything you do for our students. Be sure to think about and thank our veterans as we head into this long weekend. - Mark Johnson

Staff Holiday Party
We are excited to invite our staff school family to a Holiday get together Friday, December 15th from 5-7 pm at Oak and Dagger at Seaboard station!  We will be sending out an Evite soon so that we can gather exact numbers.  Come join us for a time of joy, good friends and good food (beverages will be on your own but there will be a bar area in our semi private area).  We hope that many can attend this time to come together and celebrate the company of each other!

New, Free Conscious Discipline Webinars!  Each Monday for the next four weeks, CD is offering  free webinar.  This week's topic is "Guiding the most challenging children" with Master Instructor Jill Molli.  Visit here for the details.

Collaboration 

NCTIES 2018 is getting geared up for another exciting conference year.  This year's conference theme is "What Box".  We hope NCTIES 2018 will help you leave the box behind. If you are interested in attending this conference that integrates technology with your daily work complete the following interest form by December 1st. The conference is March 1st and March 2nd (February 28th is a pre-conference) more information is available at http://www.ncties.org/.

Media Center --  Be sure to see Tanya or Andrea about reserving space in the media center. We have a ton of groups working in there this year (yea!!) and we want to make sure that the media center space is assessable, but also the calendar is as accurate as possible to avoid frustration. More info available at https://ugtmmediacenter.blogspot.com/. 
Creativity 

Friends and Family Board:  We will be creating a staff Friends and Family Board in the workroom.  Add your friends/family photo to the google folder here. We currently have 15% of our staff's photo.  Encourage your students to send in a picture of their friends/family to be displayed in your room on a bulletin board, book within your Safe Place, etc.  The Friends and Family Board builds community and connection, and links the home family with the School Family.

Student and Staff Awesomeness -- Check out what our team is doing in their classrooms -- via Twitter - @underwoodgtm -- #weareunderwood Keep up the great work! 

Calendar:

November 14th - Leadership Team meeting 
November 16th-Conscious Discipline Staff Cohort 7:45am, Media Center
November 21st - Early Release, School Family Assembly 9:30

November 22nd - 24th - Vacation Day and Holidays 

November 27th - Book Fair 

November 28th - Moonlight Reading  
November 29th - Instructional Leadership Team meeting at Spring Forest Road 
December 5th - Business Meeting 
December 21st - Early Release 
December 22nd - January 1st - Winter Break 

*Staff attended events listed here