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.
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.
- 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:
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
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)
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