Wealth of Resources Available Through the Governor’s Teacher Network Action Research Portal

The Governor’s Teacher Network database includes more than 200 action research projects created by teachers throughout our great state.

The searchable database has a number of projects dedicated to core subject areas, but it also has a wealth of resources focusing on adult learners, parental involvement, and technology integration.

Here’s just one example: Clare Freed, an English teacher in Wake County, wanted to analyze the impact of innovative technology tools on student interest and engagement with high-level literary texts in an English classroom. She designed lessons using online tools that students could access easily with their cell phones.

Freed found that incorporating small technological lessons at various phases of reading improved student understanding of high-level texts. In addition, these online tools and forums kept students engaged and contributed to the exchange of higher levels of text analysis.

To read more about the technological tools that Freed used in her action research project, as well as many other innovative ideas, check out the NC Teacher Action Research Portal today.

Registration Opens March 21st for Free Online Courses

Registration opens Monday, March 21 for nine instructor-led courses offered by the Educator Effectiveness Division. Enrollment in these free online courses will be limited to 35 participants per section. For a full description of courses or information about the Home Base PD System, please visit our online PD catalog. Classes will start April 4th.

Courses offered:

·      Building and Sustaining Professional Development: 6 weeks, 1 CEU

·      Connecting with our 21st Century Learners: 5 weeks, 1 CEU

·      Digital Literacies in the K-12 Classroom: 7 weeks, 1.5 CEUs

·      Introduction to Data Literacy: 5 weeks, 1 CEU

·      Universal Design for Learning 1: UDL in the Everyday Classroom: 5 weeks, 1 CEU

·      North Carolina Teacher Standards and Evaluation Process: 6 weeks, 2 CEUs

·      Responsibilities of the 21st-Century Educator: 7 weeks, 1 CEU

·      Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, Part 1: 5 weeks, 0.5 CEU

·      Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, Part 2: 7 weeks, 1.5 CEUs

Hosting migration and upgrade set for this weekend

The PowerSchool 9.2.1 upgrade and Rackspace migration will take place this weekend, March 11 – 13, which has been scheduled for maintenance.  The PowerSchool application (including admin, parent, student and teacher) will be unavailable beginning Friday at 5 p.m. – the standard window for maintenance.   A communication will be sent when the application is returned to service.

Hosting Move

NC PowerSchool instances will be migrated from the NJ2 data center in New Jersey to the Rackspace environment in Arlington, VA.  This move provides a faster, more robust hosting environment for the NC instances.  We are confident this will provide a more positive user experience.

Application Upgrade

We will also execute an upgrade of the PowerSchool application from version 8.3 to version 9.2.  This new version includes several updates that will benefit our customers and NCDPI.  These updates include a new visualizations component for attendance and grades that will help schools identify students based on academic performance and attendance.  Also included are updates to the scheduling module, course availability by year and enhanced security controls.