Please see this week’s
information items from across the North Carolina Department of Public
Instruction’s departments and divisions of interest to local superintendents.
Friday is Deadline to
Boost Summer Reading with myON
As part of North Carolina’s new statewide reading initiative, NC Reads,
NCDPI is partnering with myON, a division of Capstone, to offer preK-5th
grade students access to the personalized literacy tool myON Reader. Friday, May 19, is the deadline to register your
district to participate.
Students will be able to use this tool during the summer months
to select from thousands of titles and download free books that are well
matched to their reading level and personal interests. As an added bonus,
parents, teachers and others can access data from this tool on how many pages
and hours students spend reading. There is even a feature to help measure
students’ literacy growth while they are away from the classroom.
If you would like to join the 30 North Carolina districts that
have already signed up to offer their students free access to the myON Reader
this summer, please contact myON Account Manager Darren Drye (704.219.9624) by
Friday, May 19, or visit the myON website
for more information.
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NCVPS Summer Session Begins June 19
NCVPS
summer session begins June 19. Registration is still open, and will remain open until that
date. Please have your advisors register as soon as possible, however. Spaces may become limited in certain courses as the start date approaches.
Additionally, students who are able to start on the first day of class are more
successful in their summer courses.
If your district has students enrolled in summer session, please
identify whom your summer contact(s) will be. Our teachers and your students
will need to have that information. NCVPS has sent a survey to your district’s
e-learning coordinator (ELC). Please be sure that your ELC has completed this survey.
Also note that the allotments for summer enrollments are part of
your 2017-18 allotment totals.
Please visit the
NCVPS Summer 2017 web page for more details.
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Evaluation/Professional Development Plans
The 2016-17 Evaluation and Professional Development Plans will
close on Friday, June 30, at 5 p.m.
At that time, all evaluations should be
completed and locked. Once the plans and the data within are archived, no
further updates can be made.
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End of Year for Home Base
The
2016-17 end of year (EOY) process for the Home Base suite of applications will
begin Friday, June 30.
Home Base will be taken offline Friday at 5 p.m., and EOY
processing and archiving of data will begin Saturday
morning, July 1. Once all EOY tasks are completed and systems
tested, Home Base will be returned to service.
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Schoolnet: It's Opt-in Time!
We hope you are “opting-in” to share resources and assessment items statewide within Schoolnet. Many states do not provide systems like North Carolina’s Home Base platform where for only $1 per ADM, you have access to standard aligned lesson plans, assessment items, evaluation resources and data.
As we continue to shape the digital landscape, our main focus is to ensure that users understand their “professional role” in selecting resources and assessment items that meet their students’ individualized needs. This does require vetting resources and differentiating them for personalized learning. Whenever Schoolnet content or items need a second review, we are happy to assist. Based on your recommendations, we have added a new Reporting Tool so that teachers can now report items or instructional materials that may need a second review.
As we look forward to a new year with Schoolnet, we are excited about the upgrades and enhancements in Schoolnet 19.0 (see image below). Look for a sleeker design with navigation changing from the top, to the left side, which will prevent extra clicking when searching for materials or creating assessments. Schoolnet also will continue to work with Global Educators and Teachers@Work to share their lesson plans within the system and with Canvas to integrate the use of assessments within their platform.
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It’s a great time to be an educator in North Carolina,
and we look forward to providing enhanced services in our next opt-in cycle.
Friday Institute Offers Professional Learning on
Personalized and Digital Learning
Building upon the exciting work with leaders
across the state, The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State
University, in partnership with NCDPI, invites superintendents to join their
colleagues in ongoing, job-embedded cohort-based programs in 2017-18. These
programs are targeted for superintendents, district leaders, principals and
assistant principals, coaches, media coordinators, Instructional Technology
Facilitators (ITFs), and teacher leaders.
The program includes face-to-face sessions in
regional locations and opportunities to learn and collaborate with peers. Data
from current participants in the program show that they are excited about the
quality and the relevance, and many share examples of how the programs have
contributed to or accelerated changes in their districts and schools. This
program provides you the opportunity to learn while also working directly on
challenges and ideas you have for your own school(s) and district.
We encourage you to apply for this face-to-face
and blended opportunity to learn and share with your colleagues from across the
region and state. Program details are available here.
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Summer Teacher Leadership Workshops 2017
NCDPI staff are excited to bring back Summer
Teacher Leadership workshops this summer focusing on building teacher
leadership capacity by using data and critical analysis. These workshops will
highlight Student Surveys, EVAAS, NCEES, professional development resources,
and state policy – including licensure updates and a discussion of equity in
light of ESSA.
We understand that many educators would like to
attend these workshops and in the past, we have had to close registration due
to capacity limitations of some locations. To ensure that we are able to serve as
many teachers as possible, we are not offering these workshops to school
administrators this summer.
Workshop dates and locations are noted below. Please
register here
for the time and location you would like to attend. If you have any questions,
or if any administrators would like to discuss other ways of obtaining this
information, please contact Paul Marshall with NCDPI Educator Human Capital Policy and Research.
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NC K-3 Formative Assessment Process: Success During the Kindergarten Year
Teachers, instructional coaches and
administrators in North Carolina’s public schools are sharing how their
engagement with the NC K-3 Formative Assessment process is impacting teaching
and learning in classrooms across the state.
The following story from a North Carolina school
illustrates the importance of utilizing data from the Kindergarten Entry
Assessment (KEA) portion of the NC K-3 Formative Assessment process to make
instructional decisions for children. This example illustrates how the
whole-child focus of the KEA provides teachers with valuable information to
improve student learning.
Megan Turner, a kindergarten teacher at B.
Everett Jordan Elementary School (Alamance-Burlington Schools), said fine motor
development construct progressions have been of great value to her this year.
Turner has several students who initially struggled with being able to properly
grip a pencil. She shares that, while many children coming into kindergarten
hold their pencil in a fisted grip and are able to write adequately, she has
one child who had a hard time holding his pencil in any way and had difficulty
figuring out how to make his pencil move on the paper the way he intended.
Using
the fine motor construct progressions, Turner specifically planned morning work
stations that focused on fine motor skills, using materials other than pencil
and paper. She found that her student was able to build fine motor control and
make a connection between his center activities and holding his pencil during
writing. Turner felt this fine motor practice significantly improved his
handwriting skills.
For more information about the K-3
Formative Assessment process, please visit the NCDPI K-3 Formative Assessment
Process website or contact your regional K-3 Education Consultant.
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Driver Education Advisory Committee to Meet
The Driver Education Advisory Committee will hold
its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, May 16,
from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., in the 7th Floor Board Room, Education
Building, Raleigh. Agenda items include Legislative Update, Educating Teens for
Successful Police Stops, and subcommittee reports.
The meeting will be audio streamed for those who cannot attend.
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2017 Principal of the Year Named
Congratulations
to Hertford
Grammar School (Perquimans County Schools) Principal Jason Griffin who last
Thursday was named 2017 Wells Fargo North
Carolina Principal of the Year.
State
Superintendent Mark Johnson said Griffin exemplifies the qualities of
leadership essential for helping teachers excel and students to achieve. “Jason
makes smart use of data to work with his teachers to personalize learning for
all students. He delegates to help his teachers grow as leaders themselves, and
he works to provide them with innovative strategies to improve teaching and
learning for students.”
As Wells
Fargo Principal of the Year, Griffin receives $3,000 for personal use and
$3,000 for his school. He also receives professional development and resources
supporting global awareness in the curriculum for his staff thanks to Education
First Tours, and a custom-made NC Principal of the Year signet ring and pendant
from Jostens Inc.
While
continuing to lead his school next year, Wells Fargo will furnish him with a
stipend to travel across the state as an ambassador for education. He will
serve as a member of the State Superintendent’s Principals’ Advisory Committee,
as an advisor to the State Board of Education and also to the board of
directors for the NC Public School Forum.
The other
regional Principal of the Year finalists for 2017 were:
* Southeast: Maria Johnson, Northside High
(Onslow County Schools);
* North Central: Kiley Brown, Efland-Cheeks
Global Elementary (Orange County Schools);
* Sandhills: Mary Hemphill, I. Ellis Johnson
Elementary (Scotland County Schools);
* Piedmont-Triad: Jusmar Maness, Balfour
Elementary (Asheboro City Schools);
* Southwest: Amy Rhyne, East Iredell Elementary
(Iredell-Statesville Schools);
* Northwest: Jeffrey Isenhour, Bunker Hill High
(Catawba County Schools); and
* Western: Doris Sellers, A.C. Reynolds High
(Buncombe County Schools).
Regional winners will each receive $1,000
for personal use and $1,000 for their schools.
Profile Videos for the 2017 Wells Fargo NC Principal of the
Year and Regional Finalists Online
Profile
videos for North Carolina’s 2017 Wells Fargo Principal of the Year Jason
Griffin and the regional finalists are available on the North Carolina
Department of Public Instruction YouTube page.
Select
the “Top Notch Educators, Schools and Students” playlist to learn more about
these amazing principals!
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