January 2

Celebrations

• Alexandria, Travis, Christine for helping with elective registration!
• Sunshine Club for organizing the sweater contest, secret santa, and treats for the holiday. 
• If you didn't get a staff photo on Thursday, please come see me and we have one for you. 

** From the feedback responses. 

Communication 

Lunch Monitor Reminders:  You should be getting students up 2 minutes prior to the end of their lunch time. This allows time for the tables to be washed prior to the next group coming in.  Also, it is important to be circulating around all areas of the cafeteria.

January 2 Business Meeting has been moved to January 30.

Elective registration will continue with 3rd and 2nd grade this week  Ashley will be in touch with scheduling details via email.

Eschools

Please be sure to complete your evaluations in Eschools, so they are feeding into your transcript to renew your license!  

Collaboration

MTAC -- Why MTAC? 

Underwood's newly formed Media Technology Advisory Committee (MTAC) will have our first meeting on Thursday, January 4 at 7:45 in the media center. Coffee will be served!

If you are interested in serving on our MTAC, let Andrea or Tanya know. We are hoping for the following representatives - admin, K-1, 2-3, 4-5, specialist, and parent. 

CAM Docent Program will begin in January.  Selected 5th grade students will go on five consecutive Tuesday afternoons for training after school, followed by presentation opportunities to the general public during First Friday Evening Events at CAM.  If you are able to come attend and help, please sign up here.  

Technology Request -- If you have a technology problem that you would like to be looked at complete the Tech Help request and if on-site staff is unable to fix then they would be submitted to district help desk.  If you are need of a equipment  be sure to complete Funds Request form . This would be for cords, bulbs, ink, batteries, etc.

Mid Year PDP - Mid year PDPs will need to be conducted by January 26th. The administrator that is not the person that did your first observation will be meeting with you to go over your mid-year review. Be sure to write a short paragraph (2-5 sentences) that gives details about where you are in meeting your goal and/or steps that you are going to take second semester to meet your goal. Mallory and I will send up a sign up sheet to the people that we are to meet with via email by January 3rd. 

Teacher Assistants - Teacher Assistant Training - Jan. 16 In collaboration with the Wake County Teacher Assistants Association, the Office of Professional Learning is hosting a session designed specifically for Teacher Assistants: Building Capacity as Teacher Assistant to Offer Instructional Support in the Classroom. The session will focus on behavioral intervention strategies and will be held on Jan.16 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in room 1400 B of the Crossroads II building. TAs should register in eSchools with SRN#183011903. Participants will receive a letter of recognition for attendance. Enrollment is limited to 70.

Critical Thinking 

Readvolution: Remember to remind and encourage students to keep reading and logging books in the Hurricanes Readvolution app found in the WakeID Portal over break. Our school has only logged 658 entries so far. That is way under 2 books per students since Readvolution began.

The 3-1 Student Device Integration - ES course is now live in Learning Central. Teachers and staff at your school will not be automatically enrolled. All teachers who are receiving Chromebooks as a part of the 3-1 device rollout are expected to complete the 3-1 Student Device Integration - ES course by the end of the 17-18 school year (6/30/18). I will forward the information to all teachers that this applies to as the computers should be coming in the spring. The district has identified the make and model. 

ECU Offers New Online Master of Arts Program - Apply by Feb. 1
East Carolina University is offering a one-year online Master of Arts in Education program for practicing teachers. A new cohort for elementary school teachers begins in Summer 2018. The cohort for middle school teachers begins in fall 2018. Middle school teachers in the program may choose from a concentration in English, Math, Social Studies or Science. Elementary teachers entering the summer cohort may choose from Teacher Leadership, Academically and Intellectually Gifted or Teaching English as a Second Language. The deadline to apply for either cohort is Feb. 1, 2018. GRE or MAT test waivers are possible if an applicant has been teaching for 10 or more years or if the applicant is an ECU graduate with a GPA of 3.3 or higher. Check out these Google docs for more information on the program or contact Carol Greene, greeneh@ecu.edu.

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

Feedback responses -- See Link to feedback to see responses to the staff's questions and feedback. This will continued to be updated monthly. 

Creativity

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

Calendar:

January 9th-SIP meeting
January 10th-Magnet Open House, 10am/12:30pm/6:30pm
January 11th-Theater Production, 7pm
                    -Q2 electives end  (Electives down Jan. 15-26)
January 15th-MLK Holiday (No school)
January 16th-Reflections Breakfast 8am (media center)
January 18th-CD cohort 7:45 am
January 22nd-Workday
January 23rd-SIP meeting
January 25th-Q2 elective report cards due
January 29th-Q3 electives begin
January 30th-Business Meeting 7:45am

*Staff attended events listed here