December 17th

Celebrations

 

Staff Connection:  

Alexandra Gamez, Kindergarten TA

   I was born in Venezuela. I’m an interior and landscape designer with a master in Art

history. I make abstract paintings and sell them. I used to work as an event producer for major companies around the country and parts of Central and South America. I worked for a

summer camp for 4 years, and owned one for 8 years. There, I learned to work with

children, how to build a team spirit and always give back to the community.

  In 2014 I moved to the US; my life started in Orlando, Fl. I moved to NC last year, and

couldn’t be happier to call this place my home.

  Working here at Underwood is a blessing, is such a fun loving place to work... And working

with Ms. Miller is just the cherry on top!

  I enjoy surfing, yoga, hiking with my husband Dereck and our daughter Anastasia

(she’s in Ms. Davis class!!), watching movies and cooking.

• Kudos to Shellie and the Sunshine Squad for a fantastic Holiday Party of Friday afternoon!
• Each year we keep an ongoing document of awards received on behalf of Underwood, Underwood students or Underwood staff.  Please notify Ashley if you have anything to share!                                                                                                                                                   Wish Well
• Everyone….as this is a particularly stressful time of year!
• Mallory

Communication:

Q3/Q4 elective placement spreadsheet can be found here.  Brochures will be going home next Tuesday,

December 18th.  If you need to initial brochures, you can do so on Monday or Tuesday until noon in the

IRT/Magnet office.  Elective registration will take place in early January.

Check the shared Underwood google team drive, folder-Daily absences and info for the preferred sub list.  

Helping Hands

We are excited to have the Helping Hands program return to Underwood!  The program will be an

afterschool program to mentor some of our males in grades 3-5.  Due to the weather the program will

not start until January on a date to be announced. There will be new letters to go home to the families

when they are created.  

 

Ugly Sweater Contest and Secret Gift Giver-December 19th

The Ugly Holiday Sweater will be open to all staff members. The competition and voting

will begin at 8:30am. If you work early care or another morning duty, staff members have

already offered to "tag in" so that you are able to participate and/or get breakfast. The winner

will receive the awesome trophy and a $25 gift card.   Link to breakfast-

Spreadsheet

Secret Santa

The week of Dec. 17th-21st be a Secret Santa and deliver gifts to someone at school.

The limit will be $15 and you decide how you would like to spend your money...a couple

of little gifts, one big one, you pick! On (or by if you don't work Fridays) Friday, Dec.

21st reveal yourself to your person. Please use this form to sign up and sign up by

Wednesday, Dec. 12th.  Secret Santa Sign up

Our staff's favorite things:   Staff list

Together we are better!  Feel free to share feedback/celebrations anytime here

Creativity

 

Let’s learn more about YOU!!  In the celebrations section of this blog, we have been featuring

our new staff members in an effort to learn more about them.  Now it’s your turn!  We would like

to showcase all staff members throughout the course of the year.  (These will also be archived in

the Team Drive). If you are willing, send Ashley 2-3 paragraphs as well as emailing me a picture

of you! Things you might want to mention:

• Family, Hobbies, Role at Underwood, What you love about being an educator, Past experiences

 

Critical Thinking

Letterland and EL Curriculum - WCPSS Elementary ELA departments have provided k-5 with

curriculums to support our students in learning the ELA curriculum. The expectations is that all

students are receiving this instruction daily. Christine Keith is supporting our Letterland implementation

and Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit is supporting our EL curriculum. These will be reviewed in our mid year

PDP discussions.

 

Admin aspirations? - NC Fellows Program is taking applicants until January 15, 2019. There are

also two info sessions along with fellow Unicorns that have been a part of the program or considered

it at one time.

 

NKT/AMC

If you need help setting up interventions for your students and remembering how to progress

monitor, please see Alexandria.  Here is the link to the students in red and yellow. This also

includes students that are above the benchmark by the end of their grade.   NKT Sheets

K-2 Intervention/Progress Monitoring Next Steps Webinar :

• If your school needs additional support with K-2 math interventions and progress monitoring, join us for a live webinar on December 12th from 11:00-12:00.
• The webinar will be facilitated through YouTube and is located here.  
• Any teacher or support staff who would like to participate should sign up on eSchools:194100902
• Following this session the webinar will be archived and posted on Canvas for any teachers who were not able to attend or participants who wish to reference it later.
• If your school has added additional K-2 classes for the 18-19 school year and needs additional materials, please fill out this link.  

NCEnsi:

• All students who fell within the STRATEGIC and INTENSIVE range on the NKT should be progress monitored using the NCEnsis.
• Students within the STRATEGIC range should be progress monitored every 3 weeks and students within the INTENSIVE range should be progress monitored every 2 weeks.
• NEW: Once teachers have completed AMC assessments on students they should go straight into interventions. Students do not need to be given an NCEnsi probe as a baseline because these are mastery measures that do not rely on a rate of improvement. The baseline data for Tier II or Tier III plans should be 0.

Collaboration

Media Center- So, in support of MTAC's focus.....

MTAC will meet next on Thursday, January 24. MTAC's focus this year is Equity

and Cultural Competency. To learn more, please join us and/or check out the Library

Media Program Portfolio (this is a work in progress.) Also, we ask that all staff

members consider the following:

• How often do my students have access to the library? How often do my students have access to technology to support their learning? How can I help to improve my students' access to resources? How can the library media program help to improve my students' access?
• We will be beginning a diversity audit of our collection in January. Do you know of parents/community members who would be interested in assisting with this task?

Questions? Contact Andrea.

There are a number of  afterschool clubs going on:  Fitness Club on Monday’s, TEK on Wednesday’s,

LEGO on Thursday’s.  Club rosters can be found here.

Conscious Discipline Corner

Quote of the week:   Everyone is going through their own personal struggle.  When we judge others,

we sit in our own struggles longer.  When we offer empathy, we heal

our own hurt in the process.

Resource of the week:  DJ Batiste Video “Words Have Power” ….an

inspiring follow up from DJ about teaching assertiveness to children

and using words to solve problems.

Calendar/Important Links:

Important Dates Document-  Please double check this against the school calendar.

December 18th - Holiday Performance (Music/Dance-7pm)

December 19th-Holiday breakfast at 8:00am/Ugly Sweater Contest 8:30am

December 20th-CDAT Meeting 7:45am

                      -Holiday Performance (Band/Strings-7pm)

December 21st - Early Release (Community Service Project)
 -3:30 Reveal yourself to your Secret Santa (if participating)

December 10th

Celebrations

 

• Staff Connection:  Mr Shillings, Principal

      I am original from Greencastle, Indiana and I am big Indiana Hoosier Fan! Prior to moving to

Wake County, I attended Ball State University and earned my bachelor's degree in Elementary

Education with a minor in Social Studies.

     When I am not at school I enjoy physical activities such as running, biking, playing a variety

of sports and being outside. My wife Courtney and I have been married since 2005 and we have t

wo wonderful children, Braxton (born in 2010) and Brynn (born in 2012).

     I began my education career at Underwood as a first and second grade teacher in the “old”

building and was part of the two time move from Glenwood to Old Cardinal Gibbons and then

back to Underwood. As I was teaching at Underwood I completed my graduate degree in school administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As part of my studies, I

completed a year long internship at AB Combs Leadership Elementary. For eight years I served

as an assistant principal in three elementary schools. I started at Olive Chapel Elementary for

five years, one year I was split between Olive Chapel and Durant Road, and three years at

Brassfield Elementary. Throughout those years I have been a part of many wonderful activities

and supported many initiatives including high growth for all students, technology integration

through devices and tools, student running clubs, strategic district planning, and was recognized

as a finalist for Assistant Principal of the year three times in a row.

     In August of 2015, I was approved to return "home" to Underwood GT Elementary as the

proud principal and lead learner!

Each year we keep an ongoing document of awards received on behalf of
Underwood, Underwood students or Underwood staff.  Please notify Ashley if you

have anything to share!

• YAY to NC Crunch Helpers-  Tracey Bates, Ted Sherburne, Megan Delong, Holly Collins and Karen Whehman!!!  See below:

Thank you for entering the NC Crunch contest and sharing how you promoted North Carolina apples during National Farm to School month in October.  We received fantastic entries and loved seeing so many photos of students and staff crunching!

The winners of the K-12 contest are:

            1st – Underwood Elementary, Wake County Public Schools

2nd – Burke County Schools

            3rd – Perquimans County Middle School

Wish Well

• Jenny Snyder with returning to work from maternity leave
• Debra Gracey as she works through her knee injury

Communication:

Parent Teacher Conference - We are almost half way through the school year. At this point of the

year, all teachers should have had at least one parent teacher conference with every family to discuss

progress in academics, social/emotional, and behavior. Be sure to email Mr. Shillings the families that

you have been able to conference with and the names of families that you haven’t been able to connect

with. For the families that you haven’t connect with, what is your plan to make that connection. Some

people that could help - Sheree Chen if language is a barrier, Megan Vaughn if a location is a challenge,

Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit, Christine Keith, and Brenda Herb if academics is a concern, or Ashley Cooper

and Amy Schnitzer if social emotional is  concern. This is due by this Friday, the email can be a photo of

your conference list, a shared doc, or a list.

Afternoon bus duty:  Starting November 26th, look at the link on the google doc or listen for the all call.  

(The bus program on the tv will NO LONGER be used)

Check the shared Underwood google team drive, folder-Daily absences and info for the preferred sub list.  

Giving Tree - Underwood's Holiday Giving Tree is up!  If you would like to assist a family with their holiday

gift needs, please come by Ms. Schnitzer's office and take a tag from the tree.  We are asking parents and

staff to purchase gifts of a maximum of $30 per tag. Please wrap each gift and put the tag on the gift you

are giving, so we can keep track of your purchases.  Please sign up to give gifts on a sign-up sheet in the counselor's office.

Gifts are due by Monday, December 10th.  All gifts can be brought to Ms. Schnitzer's office.  Thank you

everyone in advance for your participation and for helping Underwood families!

Minor referrals should be communicated to parents about incidents that occur that you write up.  Building

a relationship and opening communication with families is powerful. Major referral communication to parents

will be done by administration. Specialists will print the minor referral, along with the updated cover

letter with their contact information, and pass it along to the homeroom teacher.  This will allow the

homeroom teacher to be aware of the incident and ensure the referral gets home in a folder/bookbag.

Helping Hands

We are excited to have the Helping Hands program return to Underwood!  The program will be an

afterschool program to mentor some of our males in grades 3-5.  The letters went home to families

and the interest meeting will be on Monday Dec. 10th in the Media Center. The mentors are students

from NC State University.

 

Ugly Sweater Contest and Secret Gift Giver-December 19th

The Ugly Holiday Sweater will be open to all staff members. The competition and voting

will begin at 8:30am. If you work early care or another morning duty, staff members have

already offered to "tag in" so that you are able to participate and/or get breakfast. The winner

will receive the awesome trophy and a $25 gift card.   Link to breakfast-

 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eLZUiVCqshF2XPDg1m4t8YjXVuuOGHVH3lsu1fAdnxQ/edit#gid=0

Secret Santa

The week of Dec. 17th-21st be a Secret Santa and deliver gifts to someone at school. The

limit will be $15 and you decide how you would like to spend your money...a couple of little

gifts, one big one, you pick! On (or by if you don't work Fridays) Friday, Dec. 21st reveal

yourself to your person. Please use this form to sign up and sign up by Wednesday, Dec. 12th.

 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1qYuvV8WEbrDSoVZ4ysvFRmPMMG-HXVUhszat-nK8pOE/edit

Our staff's favorite things:   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a2WqA5zTFZ_vDxku-IoqTPMZKH6VWeHs23JYOPR9vlo/edit?usp=sharing

Together we are better!  Feel free to share feedback/celebrations anytime here

Creativity

Underwood Gives Back

As our time moves closer to our next ER day, please be sure you have had an opportunity to tie up

any loose ends for your day of giving back!  If you have any questions or need any support, please

speak to Heather Burton or Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit

If you were absent on our last ER day, please see Alexandria to identify a group that you can connect

with for this day.  If you are only part time, you can do something prior to the day’s event to support

the cause.

Let’s learn more about YOU!!  In the celebrations section of this blog, we have been featuring our new

staff members in an effort to learn more about them.  Now it’s your turn!  We would like to showcase

all staff members throughout the course of the year.  (These will also be archived in the Team Drive).

If you are willing, send Ashley 2-3 paragraphs as well as emailing me a picture of you! Things you might

want to mention:

• Family, Hobbies, Role at Underwood, What you love about being an educator, Past experiences

Critical Thinking

Letterland and EL Curriculum - WCPSS Elementary ELA departments have provided k-5 with

curriculums to support our students in learning the ELA curriculum. The expectations is that all

students are receiving this instruction daily. Christine Keith is supporting our Letterland implementation

and Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit is supporting our EL curriculum. These will be reviewed in our mid year

PDP discussions.

 

Admin aspirations? - NC Fellows Program is taking applicants until January 15, 2019. There are

also two info sessions along with fellow Unicorns that have been a part of the program or considered

it at one time.

 

NKT/AMC

If you need help setting up interventions for your students and remembering how to

progress monitor, please see Alexandria.  Here is the link to the students in red and yellow.

This also includes students that are above the benchmark by the end of their grade.

  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uHqL_xMeTPmC5ObZJalLzvstHE2EwYxnVgJumV7F9SY/edit?usp=sharing

K-2 Intervention/Progress Monitoring Next Steps Webinar :

• If your school needs additional support with K-2 math interventions and progress monitoring, join us for a live webinar on December 12th from 11:00-12:00.
• The webinar will be facilitated through YouTube and is located here.  
• Any teacher or support staff who would like to participate should sign up on eSchools:194100902
• Following this session the webinar will be archived and posted on Canvas for any teachers who were not able to attend or participants who wish to reference it later.
• If your school has added additional K-2 classes for the 18-19 school year and needs additional materials, please fill out this link.  

NCEnsi:

• All students who fell within the STRATEGIC and INTENSIVE range on the NKT should be progress monitored using the NCEnsis.
• Students within the STRATEGIC range should be progress monitored every 3 weeks and students within the INTENSIVE range should be progress monitored every 2 weeks.
• NEW: Once teachers have completed AMC assessments on students they should go straight into interventions. Students do not need to be given an NCEnsi probe as a baseline because these are mastery measures that do not rely on a rate of improvement. The baseline data for Tier II or Tier III plans should be 0.

Collaboration

United Way! -  Please be on the lookout for your United Way link.  The campaign is underway!

Any little bit helps! If you contribute please let me know. Your name will be entered for one of 3

Target gift cards.  Thank you so much for all that you do to support the community we serve.

Media Center-  Keep in mind that we have the following resources/spaces that are open for you to utilize for your

classes and electives:

• 
  Makerspace Lab: Sign up using the Makerspace Lab Google calendar *
• 
  Media Center: When you sign up your elective/class for the Media Center space, you have access to 24 Chromebooks and 10 iPads during your scheduled time. Contact Andrea or Elizabeth to sign up. Click here to view the Media Center Schedule  
• 
  12 Magnet Laptops: These are for use with electives only, with priority given to Robotics. Sign up using the 12 Magnet Laptop Google calendar *
• 
  *See Andrea if you do not have access or need assistance with this.

There are a number of  afterschool clubs going on:  Fitness Club on Monday’s, TEK on Wednesday’s, LEGO on Thursday’s.  Club rosters can be found here.

Conscious Discipline Corner

Quote of the week:   “Resistance does not bring about change-it just plants the seeds of conflict.  Change only comes about through acceptance.”

Resource of the week:  This is the time of the year when life gets crazy and chaotic.  Make sure you are taking some time for YOU! Watch this webinar here from Amy Speidel about Simple Steps to Self-Care for Educators

Calendar/Important Links:

Important Dates Document-  Please double check this against the school calendar.

December 11th - SIP / Leadership meeting

December 12th-PLT

December 14th-Holiday Staff Party (4:30-6:30 at the Pointe)

December 18th - Holiday Performance (Music/Dance-7pm)

December 19th-Ugly Sweater/Holiday breakfast at 8:00am

December 20th-CDAT Meeting 7:45am

                      -Holiday Performance (Band/Strings-7pm)

December 21st - Early Release (Community Service Project)

                        -3:30 Reveal yourself to your Secret Santa (if participating)