February 19

Celebrations!

• Parent reaction to School Family Assembly (via email): "Both kids were explaining the system they learned and how they practiced the "I Statement".  I am so grateful that you are implementing these skills which I believe are essential life long skills".
• Ashley and Rachel are extending their knowledge of Conscious Discipline through the Advanced Institute (CD2) 2018 in Orlando. 
• To the staff members that are willing to give time to our students through the silent auction. We raised over $3500! Here is the list that continues to be updated with the students that won -- Winners of the Silent Auction. 

Communication 

In response to a busy March.....there will be NO Business Meeting on March 6 and NO PLT meeting on March 28.  Enjoy the gift of time!

Minor referrals:  The goal of minor form is parent communication.  If you have a phone call or email conversation with the parent, that will suffice and you don't need to send home the minor referral form. Otherwise, the minor referral form will need to go home.

Duties:   If you have a lunch duty, am/pm duty, secure a "Back-up Person" or "Permanent Sub" so that when you are out, the duty is covered simply by contacting the back-up person. This would eliminate scrambling at the last minute to find coverage, it would prevent the same person from always volunteering to cover, and it would ensure there is coverage in the cafeteria especially while teachers walk across the building to heat up their lunches.

Lunch Schedule: It was noticed that there has been some congestion around the transition to 4th grade and 3rd grade lunch. The lunch schedule has been slightly adjusted to relieve the congestion. Please let Mallory know if the adjustment does not work. The schedule has been updated in the 2017/ 2018 Schedules folder on Google Drive. The link is also here :) 2/16/18 lunch

Case Managers:  The role of the Case Manager is to provide support in creating tier plans (individual and groups), bring instructional feedback to the ILT and seek answers for questions about resources and interventions.  Case Managers are:  Kindergarten-Ashley; 1st grade-Jen Page; 2nd grade-Mallory; 3rd grade-Melissa Raley; 4th grade-Alexandria; 5th grade-Travis. Slide 18 will give details about our roles within your PLTs. 

Communication Survey for parents: Please share this link in your weekly communication. Survey can be found at - Communication Survey. 

Collaboration

Lunch and Learn --  Tanya will be hosting Lunch and Learn on a variety of technology tools during lunch times. For more information -- see Lunch and Learn flyer. She will also share at our Business meeting on Tuesday. 

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.

D.C. Trip --  Thank you to all of those who expressed an interest in the trip to D.C. We have quite a large group interested!  For those who responded please plan on attending a brief planning meeting on Friday February 23rd at 8:15 am.  Location to be announced. Very excited about this opportunity!

Critical Thinking 

Next School Year -- Staff we are entering that time of year where we are starting to make plans for next school year. If you are considering a change in locations, be sure to complete the transfer application process - via https://wakeconnect.wcpss.net/sites/transfer-process/SitePage/28515/transfer-process - Please see Travis if this is an opportunity that you would like to explore for next school year. 

Instructional Learning Teams (ILT) - We will be completing some walk throughs in 3-5 classrooms to gather knowledge of the district (national) tool. Christine will be emailing the people that we will plan to visit. The walkthrough tool helps us to identify practices in our classrooms that reflect the Shifts in the ELA common core curriculum. 

3 Shifts in ELA 

1.  Regular Practice with complex text. 
2. Reading, writing and speaking grounded by evidence from the text, both literal and informational. 
3. Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction 

Behaviors - be sure that you are documenting both minors and majors behaviors after they occur. This information is used to make decisions, used to see if there are patterns and are used to report incidents to admin.  

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

Creativity

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

Happy Dreamer --: What kind of dreamer are you?  Lauren has a wonderful project that all staff and students will be able to participate in.  Objective-  Decorate your purple circle with the kind of dreamer you perceive yourself.  STAY TUNED FOR MORE ARTPLEASURE INFORMATION!

Calendar:

February 22nd-Spotlight on Students Breakfast; 8am

February 27th-Interims go home
March 2nd-Early Release; 1:15pm
March 3rd-Grounds Day
March 13th-SIP/Leadership Meeting; 7:45am
March 15th-CD Cohort; 7:45am
March 23rd-Foundation Gala at CAM; 7pm
March 27th-SIP/Leadership Meeting; 7:45am
March 27th-Artspleasure; 5-8pm
March 29-Q3 electives end

*Staff attended events listed here