April 20, 2017 - Home Base Biweekly Update

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NCSBE/bulletins/1956510

Home Base Biweekly Update

April 20, 2017

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Home Base: Investing in the Future of Education in North Carolina

By Dr. Maria Pitre-Martin

Chief Academic & Digital Learning Officer
NC Department of Public Instruction

 

Maria Pitre-Martin

Your active engagement and leadership has helped North Carolina continue the hard work of transforming teaching and learning through smart and effective use of digital technology.

 

As educators, we understand that the day is long past when we could choose between the learning resources essential to our parents’ educations and those created by and for a generation of 21st century learners. We no longer have that choice. The future is now.

 

Since Home Base was introduced in 2013, we at the Department of Public Instruction have been focused on making that set of digital tools work as well as possible for all educators and students across the state. This school year alone, we’ve set digital learning competencies for educators, and we’ve launched a Digital Learning Initiative that is aimed at building on our progress so far – learning from our experience and listening to you.

 

Part of that effort includes the development of a Home Base Roadmap, with the goal of evaluating the effectiveness of Home Base and to guide the development and improvement of the product to meet the needs of educators, students and the community.

 

Home Base provides critical technology components supporting the state’s Digital Learning Plan, which is guiding North Carolina’s shift to more personalized, student-centered instruction that will better prepare more students for success after high school.

 

We’ve been encouraged by the participation of all districts in the full array of Home Base applications, including Schoolnet, that is helping North Carolina educators and students take advantage of these valuable resources for teaching and learning.

 

This year there are many added features, including new and improved digital content through collaboration with state partners and Digital Learning initiative, formative assessment items for many high school Career and Technical Education courses, and additional assessment and reporting features.

 

I urge your continued participation for the 2017-18 school year. It’s a good investment.


Home Base

Opt-in Information for 2017-18

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is pleased to announce that the full suite of Home Base will be available to all districts in the 2017-18 school year with many new features.

 

The cost to LEAs and charter schools will remain the same as last year - $1/ADM which gives access to Schoolnet and local control of professional development components in Truenorthlogic. Districts and charter schools can acquire Canvas for an additional cost of $3.74 per user through the state negotiated convenience contract.

 

Access to the Home Base Opt-in Tool will become available later this month. Additional information will be provided through NCDPI emails, newsletters and from the Home Base pages on the DPI website.


Maintenance Set for This Weekend

Home Base maintenance is scheduled for this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Maintenance will be performed on both the PowerSchool and Schoolnet applications.


PowerSchool and Schoolnet will be brought down Friday evening at 6 p.m.  Once maintenance is completed on both applications, a message will be sent to notify users that they are up and available for use.  All Home Base applications should be returned to service no later than 6 a.m., Monday.  If there is a delay in bringing up the applications, users will be notified.

 

Remember to visit NCDPI’s 2016-17 Home Base Maintenance Schedule for a list of all planned Home Base maintenance weekends.  Questions pertaining to this maintenance weekend may be addressed to the Home Base Support Center at (919) 807-4357, or by submitting a ticket through the Remedy Portal.


Truenorthlogic

Truenorthlogic

NCEES Webinars


Please check out the NCEES Wiki for all of the upcoming webinars scheduled for this school year.  We encourage educators to register and learn more about the NCEES System.  The NCEES Webinars and Office Hours are scheduled on Tuesday afternoons. See webinars below:


April 2017


Educator Effectiveness Office Hours

Tuesday, April 25, 4:00 - 5:00 PM


May 2017

 

Administrator End of Year Process

Tuesday, May 2, 4:00 - 5:00 PM

 

Analysis of Student Work: End of Year Process

Tuesday, May 9, 4:00 - 5:00 PM

 

Educator Effectiveness Office Hours

Tuesday, May 16, 4:00 - 5:00 PM


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Discover Schoolnet

Last week"s “Wired Wednesday” focused on the student analysis spreadsheet and student data notebooking. If you missed this webinar, you can access it on the webinar tab of our NC: Home Base Schoolnet Professional Learning Plan.  Our next scheduled webinar is set for April 26. Please remember to check this splash every other Wednesday for updates and to submit concerns to your district representative if a helpdesk ticket is required.



Quick Tips:


Classrooms for Teachers


Are you using your “Student Groups” feature on the Classrooms tab? Groups are a great way to organize students so you can pull them during down times for personalized remediation. Student groups are created when you are reviewing your data from the tabs on Student Performance. You can select students by clicking the box on the left of the student name on many of the student performance tabs. Directly above or below the student selection box is an area where you can create your groups. All groups can be reviewed from the Classrooms, Student Groups area, or you can see groups on your home page at the bottom when you change your roster to “student groups.” 

  

Classrooms for Leadership


Leadership can not see teacher made groups, but you can create your own “Student sets” in the “School and District Data” tab. On the right side of your “KPI Dashboard” you will see an area to create your groups. These groups can be “Published” so that all users can see the groups you want to focus on for your school or district users.


Upcoming Professional Learning


Check with your district level Schoolnet lead (click here). They will determine if they have the staff to provide the professional learning or if they need to request a district training. If the lead can host a district training, please have them contact a DTL Regional Consultant for more details.


Upcoming Webinars


Wed, April 26, 3:30-4:30 p.m.


Click here to find information from past postings.


Still need help? You may also have your LEA/District Schoolnet Lead contact the Home Base Support Center through the Remedy web portal https://nc-myit.us.onbmc.com or (919) 807-4357.