April 8th - April 12th

CELEBRATIONS!

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  CELEBRATIONS!
  • A successful Wellness Fair….a fun day of learning about health, wellness and nutrition for students.  This collaborative effort led by Tracey Bates and Alexandria (among many presenters) and the Wellness Team is a welcomed back event to Underwood that we hope will continue next year as well.
  • Successful First Friday for CAM for our 5th Grade Docents!
  • Karen Fichter-Venners for helping staff with report cards!
  • Staff for supporting each other with report cards
  • Allison Jennessee’s and Jennifer Williams’ classes for writing thank you notes to put in the “goody bags” for the presenters for the Wellness Fair!
  • Quarterly Planning Days!!  Teachers did a great job at reflecting and working on ELO’s!  
  • NC State student teachers for their blog excerpts with a focus on educating males!!  Great Job!
  • Congratulations to our Science Olympiad Teams! We will be doing an Applause Parade at 9:15 for the teams on Monday April 8th
  • All grade levels participation and hard work during Quarterly Planning Days.
  • Karen Fichter-Venners for opening up her classroom for teachers from Fuquay-Varina to “see” Conscious Discipline!
  • PTA stipends ($125 a semester), here is the link if you don’t know if you have spent it this year - Staff - Stipend
  • Five wake ups until Spring Break!  

  Wish Well

  • Rachel Frasier
  • Sherry and family
  • Star and family
  
  
  A Reflection from Alexandria
  What is the last thing you remember that someone said to you about Underwood?  Was it positive or negative? Was it from a parent or co-worker? This week I have had multiple parents approach me about things they are hearing that are not positive from staff members.  As I know we are all in a funk (myself included), it is disheartening to hear when we are all working so hard. Parents believe in us and if we are sharing with them unpleasant things, how do you think that makes them feel when we are with their children more than them?  If you are in that funk and are feeling frustrated/aggravated, find someone that you can share your feelings with that will listen. It is my hope that we would choose someone that is not our direct clientele. Our thoughts are important and have a lot of weight on the place that we come to everyday. Our thoughts also can influence those around us (positive and negative).  It is our choice to choose how we live each day! Last week was hard for me! The end of the week was even harder! I found someone that I could talk with to reframe my feelings and change my attitude. I, myself, am back! I am going to reframe my thinking positively and if I find myself down, I am finding that friend that helped me this weekend!
  
  
  Remember, our parents LOVE Underwood… they tell other parents they LOVE Underwood!  Parents beg to figure out or understand how to attend Underwood! I stayed working here to bring my children to Underwood!  It’s a great place.. And the more we think of the great things instead of the “not so” great things, we will be internally more positive!  It’s great because YOU are here! We got this! I appreciate what each of you bring to Underwood each day!!!!
  
  
  Volunteer Celebration
  Please submit all names for the volunteer celebration by Tuesday April 9th. We will be compiling the names and sending out invitations to out volunteers the week of April 22nd (when we return from Spring Break).  Thank you so much!
  
  
  Be on the lookout for food sign up when we return from Spring Break.  This year the celebration will be a tea. Think tiny but tasty :)
  
  
  Wellness Fair-  If you have time this week and would like to write thank you notes to the four presenters your class visited, we can pull them all together and mail them as a whole.  Please have them to the front office by Thursday afternoon!
  
  
  Parking on Fairview-   
  Starting on April 1st,  there will be NO parking on Fairview Rd. from 3:30 - 4:00pm. This an effort to decrease congestion on Fairview road during Afternoon Carpool.  Please be aware that if you do park on Fairview, you will need to move your car prior to 3:00pm.  Otherwise you will be towed or ticketed!
  
  
  Art Studio - Here is the slide show for the students that participated in the Art Studio if you missed it on Friday’s Daily Message - 2019 Artspleasure - Art Studio
  
  
  NC Check-Ins-  The final NC Check-Ins is this week for 5th grade!  If you have any free moments to help cover an accommodation, please look at the following document.  5th Grade - April 9th Schedule
  
  
  Play60 Grant Announcement:
  FUTP60 video - https://youtu.be/I39WAB57A6c
  
  
  Panorama Survey-  Please include in your newsletters!  
  We are 2 weeks into the Panorama Reflection survey!  As of Sunday, we have had 70 responses!!! Thank you to those families that have taken the time to fill out this survey.  As a parent, it took less than 10 minutes! If you have not filled out the survey, please either search or be on the lookout for an email from the "Panorama Education Team."   The company will send out emails weekly until May! The email contains a family survey to learn more about you and your child's experience at Underwood. If you have children at multiple schools, the link will allow you to take surveys for each school.  As a school, we utilize this information to ensure we are creating a great experience for all of our families. If you need a paper form or did not receive the email, please reach out to Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit (ajudge-lenkeit@wcpss.net or 919-856-7663).  If you missed the email, the Panorama team will continue to send an email weekly.
  
  
  Makerspace:
  The Makerspace and it's materials are being used on a daily basis by different classes and electives - so awesome! New items - including craft materials and electronics (circuits, simple machines, etc.) - are being added over the next couple weeks. In order to keep the space and materials manageable, help is needed. If you use, have used, or plan to use (or are thinking about using) the Makerspace, please sign up to manage it for a week. What does managing the Makerspace entail? Simply stopping by for 5 minutes 3 - 4 times during the week to tidy, restock, etc. Please sign up at the Makerspace entrance. Also, please consider including the following info in your weekly communications with families:
  
  
  Playground Equipment-  Playground equipment is out!  The black cart can be taken out by the first grade team.  Please do not let the students grab balls out of the blue cart.  This is only for teachers to re-stock the black cart if we are missing  materials. If a ball goes over the fence, please let Mr. Marrow and front desk know.  We will need to get the balls. Check the inventory sheet to make sure all materials are in the cart before your grade level goes in!  5th grade/Mrs Snyder’s class, please bring the cart in at the end of the recess block!
  *Tip (maybe for next year)-  assign 2-3 people as playground equipment collectors!
  
  
  
  
  North Carolina State Senior Leadership Project (our student teachers)
  Post 4 by McKenzie Weed (Ellen Nightingale’s Student Teacher)
  Over the last three weeks, we have discussed how to reach boys academically in grades K-5 as well as behaviorally in grades K-2. This week I will be focusing on reaching our 3-5 boys behaviorally. Student teaching in 5th grade has given me so much insight to behaviors of our upper Elementary boys. It has been really interesting to observe their tendencies and learn how they are motivated. With this being said, I was really excited to do some additional research. So let’s dive into this together- How can we reach our 3-5 boys behaviorally?
  
  
  The National Education Association released an article called “Educating Boys for Success”. This article laid out a few strategies to help our upper elementary boys. The first strategy laid out an environment where boys can be active. This includes allowing boys to move about the room or have alternative seating options. Standing desks was an alternative seating option that continuously came up in my research. One study suggested that standing desks “...change the way students work and improve physical and mental health - all by standing up. (Varidesk Education, 2016).” This can be a great “seating” option for boys whether its for assigned parts of the day, group work or individual work.
  
  
  The second strategy laid out in the NEA article suggested making classroom learning as interactive and hands on as possible. Rather than having boys write about what they have learned allow them to show you! A great resource we have to make this happen is the Makerspace! Students could create a visual to display their learning and then describe it using a resource like Flipgrid. This allows them to be creative, learn about the design process and verbally describe their product and knowledge.
  
  
  The last strategy that I wanted to explore was bringing additional male influence into the classroom. With a school that’s staff is made up of 92% females, it is understandable that boys might need additional male influence in the classroom. This is really important as 3rd-5th grade boys are beginning to mature. So how can we do that? One of my favorite suggestions was inviting members of the community to come into the classroom. Whether that be fathers, local officials or business owners. Their presence in a classroom can engage, excite and motivate male (and female) students in the classroom to succeed.
  
  
  I hope the suggestions and strategies that we have discussed over the past 4 weeks can be useful in your classroom! We would love to hear any feedback on strategies you tried or ones you already integrate into your classroom.
  
  
  KHS readers
  A group of students from Knightdale HS students will be coming to Underwood on Monday, April 8 from 10:10 - 10:40 to read and visit with our students. This is the info from Kristel Behrend, librarian at Knightdale High School:
  
  
  Our HS Library Media Studies students are currently preparing for our Literacy Week (#JustReadIt) 4/8 - 4/12 and they really want to be role models for younger readers. So we'd like to take a field trip ... (and also to Hunt Library) to do read-alouds to ES students.  We're talking very simple - kids come in, pass out some bookmarks, share why they should read and read a picture book to a class.
  
  
  This looks like a great opportunity for encouraging and inspiring our students!   Sign Up for KHS student readers   **Please indicate your class/elective grade
  level so students can plan accordingly.
  
  
  Final Observations
  Happy April! It is that time of year for final observations.  Travis or Mallory will be coming to your classroom soon :)
  
  
  Check the Underwood Calendar often….
  
  
  Check the shared Underwood google team drive, folder-Daily absences and info for the preferred sub list.

   

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

  
  
  
  Conscious Discipline Challenge of the week:  
  • “What you offer to others you strengthen in yourself.”  At this hard time of year, extend the qualities you feel are lacking around to others and your internal state will be changed for the positive as well!
  
  
  Calendar/Important Links:
  • April 8th - Student Teachers Thank you Breakfast at 8:00
  • April 8th - Applause Parade for Science Olympiads
  • April 9th-Leadership Meeting; 7:45am
  • April 9th-Q3 Report Cards go Home
  • April 12th - Third Grade (Bryson-Jacobs and Pollock) - Walnut Creek Wetlands
  • April 12th-Cultural Arts Performance-Living Rhythms (9:30 K-2; 10:30 3-5)
  • April 15th-19th-Spring Break
  • April 22nd - Teacher Workday
  • April 22nd - Earth Day
  • April 23rd-Leadership Meeting; 7:45am
  • April 24th - Lunch and Learn (PTA sponsored learning event)
  • April 25th-CDAT meeting; 7:45am
  • April 25th - Special Olympics (Ravenscroft HS) - ID Mod 1 and 2
  • April 25th - Equity Team meeting
  • April 26th-Cultural Arts Performance-Carolina Ballet (9:30 K-2; 10:30 3-5)
  • April 26th - Tar Heel JR Historians - NC Museum  of History
  • April 26th - Third Grade (Hill/Peaden) - Walnut Creek Wetlands