May 5, 2016 - Home Base Biweekly Update

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Home Base Biweekly Update

May 5, 2016


NC Elementary Classroom

Educator Effectiveness

Two New Titles Added to Online Professional Development Catalog


The Educator Effectiveness division is happy to announce the release of two new professional development modules now available in the Home Base PD System:


 

·      Helping Struggling Readers in the K-12 Classroom: Action Research from the GTN Project (1CEU-Literacy)

·      Universal Design for Learning 2: UDL and the Whole Classroom (1CEU-General)

 

Each self-paced module will take approximately 10 hours to complete and is worth 1CEU on completion. For a complete description of these newly added modules, please visit http://rt3nc.org/. If you need additional support, please contact our instructional design lead, Dr. Geetanjali Soni at Geetanjali.soni@dpi.nc.gov.


NC Elementary

Digital Learning Update

A goal of the State Board of Education is for every student in North Carolina to benefit from a personalized education. The Department’s NC Digital Learning Plan addresses this goal, and the State Board of Education’s 2016-17 supplemental budget recommendation includes substantial support for digital learning.

 

Some highlights of staff accomplishments to date include the recent release of the new Digital Learning and Media Inventory, the development of an RFP to establish contracts that districts may use to procure devices such as Chromebooks, and the development of Digital Learning Competencies for School Administrators and Classroom Teachers. Where the competencies are concerned, staff are soliciting teacher feedback:

 

·      Draft Digital Learning Competencies for Classroom Teachers

·      Feedback Form

 

If you have specific questions about moving digital learning forward in your school, please feel free to reach out to Verna Lalbeharie, director of digital teaching and learning for the department. Verna and her staff are available to provide guidance and support.


Schoolnet: Stay Tuned

Testing is currently underway for the next version of Schoolnet 18.0.  Stay tuned for more details highlighting any new and/or enhanced features.


Don't Miss This

Maintenance Slated for Next Weekend

The next Home Base maintenance weekend is scheduled to run from the evening of Friday, May 13, through early Monday, May 16.  Maintenance will be performed on PowerSchool and Truenorthlogic applications.


PowerSchool will shut down May 13 at approximately 5 p.m.  Once maintenance is completed, a message will be sent to notify users that the system is up and available for use. PowerSchool will be returned to service no later than 6 a.m., May 16.  If a delay in bringing up the system should occur, users will be notified.

 

Truenorthlogic 2016.2 will be released on May 15. This release will include the Moodle 2.9 upgrade for the professional development component.