December 11th

Critical Thinking 

PTA Stipend:  Thank you to our PTA for the first semseter stipend for our staff that has been used to purchase items for individual classrooms! 

Lost and Found -- We are getting ready to donate our lost and found items as they have been in there for a few weeks now. Before we donate them is their a student in your class that could benefit from some gently used clothes, if so click on this link to add their name. 

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.

Communication 

@LeoLibraryDog - Leo the Library Dog tweets about interesting events, tech tools/toys and new books available - please follow Leo on Twitter. 

Elective brochures are going home on Tuesday, December 12. 

Link to Amazon during your holiday shopping and help Underwood!  Visit smile.amazon.com and then search and link to the charity:  Underwood Gt Magnet Elementary School Foundation or Underwood Elementary PTA.  Then .5% of eligible purchases will go back to our school!

Memberhub - Be sure that you are on your child's classroom Memberhubs so you can receive weekly information about objectives that are being focused on in the classroom, updates, and other items from the classroom. Email or see the teacher to be added if you aren't receiving emails. 

Creativity

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

Collaboration

Here comes the Bus App - Have a student that rides a bus? It would be helpful to download - Here comes the Bus app. You will need the school district code 67500 and a student’s WCPSS identification number. Follow the bus in the morning and afternoon as it picks up and drops off the student. You can also see when they arrive or leave Underwood at - Arrival and dismissal. 

Celebrations

• *Quarterly Planning Days have been a life saver! Time to process new learning and work side by side as a team allowed our grade level to get so much accomplished.
• Congratulations to our students who participated in the Special Olympics held last Thursday!
• Mrs. Judge-Lenkeit for ordering and organizing additional independent reading texts for Grade 3 EL curriculum.

Calendar:

December 14-Holiday Performance (Dance and Music), 7pm
December 18th- Instructional Leadership Team meeting 
December 19th-Holiday Performance (Band and Strings), 7pm
December 21st - Early Release 
December 22nd - January 1st - Winter Break 
January 10th-Magnet Open House, 10am/12:30pm/6:30pm
January 11th-Theater Production, 7pm

January 12th - School-wide Spelling Bee