PowerTeacher Pro Sessions at CCES

Come check out PowerTeacher Pro sessions offered for Administrators and Teachers at the Connecting Communities of Education Stakeholders Conference (CCES), March 11-15 in Greensboro.

PowerTeacher Pro sessions for Administrators are designed for LEA coordinators to learn how to implement PowerTeacher Pro and explore how to create district-level calculation formulas and assignment categories for teachers. Administrators will also learn how to set up grading preferences for both standards-based and traditional grading.

PowerTeacher Pro for Teachers is designed for district/school administrators and teachers to explore the new HTML-based gradebook and its advanced features for both standards-based and traditional grading. Participants also will learn how to set up default preferences, create assignment categories, work with assignments, analyze individual student performance, and run reports included in the gradebook.

ESSA's Partial Enrollment Business Rules Webinar

The NCDPI Accountability, PowerSchool, Career and Technical Education as well as Education Effectiveness divisions are hosting a webinar Friday discussing accountability business rules related to ESSA's partial enrollment requirements. Information will be shared regarding student information management data points used and the accountability measures.

Anyone is invited to attend this webinar and local teams are encouraged to attend together.

The webinar will be held on Friday, Feb. 9 from 1 to 2 p.m. 
Please register for the ESSA Partial Enrollment Business Rules Webinar at: 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8983213796837951491. 

Maintenance Set for this Weekend

The next Home Base maintenance weekend is scheduled for tomorrow, Feb. 9, through Sunday, Feb. 11. PowerSchool and Schoolnet are both scheduled for maintenance.

During this maintenance period, Schoolnet will be upgraded to version 19.1.  This upgrade will feature:

Assessments

o   Test Restrictions

o   Submit a Pending Online Test for a Student

o   Continued Support for Canvas LMS Integration

o   Enhancements to Item Search and Search Results

o   MathML

o   TestNav

           -Texas Instrument Calculators (Graphing Calculator)

           -Answer Key Only Tests

School & District Data

o   Benchmark Dashboard

o   Test Report Summary

o   Tabbed Layout

o   Analysis Spreadsheet

A portion of the Certica Item Bank, specifically multiple choice and open response items with MathML formats, will be updated in Schoolnet as well.  Although Schoolnet may be accessible during certain periods of the weekend, Pearson, the vendor, requests users to refrain from using the application.

Home Base will be brought down on Friday at 5 p.m. and returned to service no later than Monday, Feb. 12, at 6 a.m. Once maintenance is completed, a message will be sent to notify users that the system is up and available for use. If there is a delay in bringing up the applications, users will be notified.

Gov. Cooper Encourages High School Girls to Join Innovative Cybersecurity Competition, "Girls Go CyberStart"

Please read and forward to the appropriate staff this announcement about a great opportunity for girls to get involved in Cybersecurity.  The state of NC is one of 16 states to participate in this limited engagement.  The competition is open to girls in grades 9 through 12.  Registration is open!

https://governor.nc.gov/news/gov-cooper-encourages-nc-high-school-girls-join-innovative-cybersecurity-competition

Introducing Canvas Corner

The Home Base Team is excited to announce a new monthly feature in the Home Base Bulletin just for Canvas content.

This feature will be a collaboration among Canvas Product Manager Pam Batchelor, Canvas State Success Manager Sarah Pratt, and Don Lourcey in the Office of Professional Learning. 

Pine Lake Preparatory Goes Digital with Canvas

Pine Lake Preparatory, a charter school in Mooresville,  is committed to using Canvas for continued communication and digital instruction. With more than 1,850 students on a K-12 campus, finding the best tool for connecting our community is critical. Canvas allows us to come together as teachers, students, and parent observers to reach our academic goals.

All students currently use Canvas to communicate with teachers, receive and submit assignments, and work collaboratively in groups. This year, we have created new roles that allow student club pages to be designed and maintained by students themselves.

Younger students use Canvas Discussion Boards in Literacy Blocks. The teacher will record directions and each student responds individually. Not only do the students enjoy seeing each other, but the teacher also has artifacts to include in portfolios. Even kindergartners are using Canvas. They practice typing their name, email address, and physical address to their profile page, along with sharing their favorite selfie. Kindergartners can then use Canvas to record short video responses to questions and access appropriate digital content.

Parents are able to login and see multiple children’s grades, assignments, and upcoming events in one convenient location.

Administrators and support staff are developing and maintaining courses for school documents such as weekly announcements and meeting agendas that assist in organization and record keeping for professional development CEUs.

Discover Schoolnet

February Upgrades for Schoolnet

• Feb. 9-10 (Home Base Maintenance Weekend), update of Schoolnet to version 19.1 and Phase I of Certica Item refresh (this is necessary to support the MathML content format for Math items). This process will start after 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9. Schoolnet will be inaccessible until the update is complete.

• Feb. 16-17, Phase II of refresh and re-indexing of all Certica assessment items, this will update the metadata for all assessment types. This process will start after 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10. Schoolnet will still be accessible during this update but searching for items or creating new assessments is not recommended until the re-indexing is complete.

• Feb. 23-24, transfer of Schoolnet hosting to Amazon. The transfer will begin after 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 23. Schoolnet will be inaccessible until the transfer is complete.

Spiraling to Success with Schoolnet in Franklin County Schools

Brittany Hurley is the Mathematics Instructional Coach at Terrell Lane Middle School in Franklin County. She spends time each week with the mathematics teachers at Terrell Lane creating spiral reviews in Schoolnet for students to complete as part of their weekly remediation.

Hurley shared her creation methods: “each standard was analyzed in our weekly data meetings and then I selected five questions from each standard that students struggled with using Schoolnet for teachers to use and work on with students during their remediation time. Teachers and students were responsible for completing 15 questions based on three standards with their weekly remediation groups.”

Hurley explains that she has seen a change in daily instruction since creating the spiral reviews. She shares that “our teachers have made a purposeful change to use Schoolnet questions or question stems to drive the instruction within their classrooms. By using Schoolnet questions this semester, I have seen our students and teachers become more confident in their ability to tackle these problems.”

We are excited to share Hurley’s successful strategies for using Schoolnet. You can connect with her on Twitter (username: @FCS_mrshurley).

If you would like to nominate an educator in your school or district to be a Schoolnet Storyteller, please complete this brief nomination form to be featured in a future newsletter.

The Heritage Calendar: Celebrating the NC African-American Experience

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is proud to have partnered with AT&T to provide educational resources for The Heritage Calendar 2018: Celebrating the NC African-American Experience.

The Heritage Calendar is project sponsored and created by AT&T (since 2013) in an effort to recognize and honor a diverse group of individuals who have made significant contributions to the lives, causes, and experiences of African Americans in North Carolina. The 2018 Edition of the calendar features outstanding and remarkable individuals who have made achievements in a variety of fields including education, business, the performing arts, athletics, community service, law, and STEM. Each honoree is considered to be a “role model through their integrity, vision, and dedication to excellence”.

We are excited to announce that 29 of the 2018 Heritage Calendar lesson plans are now available in Schoolnet. Educators across the state can search for the term "Heritage Calendar" on the "Find Materials" page of the Instructional Materials section of Schoolnet. The lesson plans cover a variety of grade levels and subject areas and have been vetted by our content specialists. To access lesson plans, please see the image below.

Truenorthogic/NCEES

Check Out the TNL/NCEES Sessions at CCES

Mark your calendars for Mar. 12-13. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to participate in CCES Conference’s TNL/NCEES session offerings. Register now.

TNL/NCEES courses will be offered on Monday, Mar. 12 and Tuesday, Mar. 13. Sessions will benefit new to advanced users to learn new skills and boost best practices. 

NEW to TNL/NCEES?  You'll want to check out ...

• NCEES Basics, 
• Truenorthlogic NCEES Reporting, 
• Connect the dots on Entering Staff in NCEES, 
• NCEES Process: Teacher Evaluation Process, 
• NCEES Process: Principal Evaluation Process, 

Other courses offered include Truenorthlogic PD on the Double!, Supporting Teacher Professional Growth through Online Learning, NCEES: Elements and Indicators Count!,  “Ain’t Nobody got Time For That! NCEES Tips and Tricks”, and in the Educator Effectiveness strand: "Reporting ... Extreme Makeover NCEES Edition."

NEW this Year: Register for one, two or all three conference days! http://www.ncpublicschools.org/cces/

WANTED: TNL/NCEES Stars to Showcase in NCDPI Newsletters

Are you or someone you know an excellent team leader, highly respected by all team members?

Have you or someone you know developed best practices in using the NCEES evaluation system, professional development, planning PD courses and recording CEUs, use of Micro-Badging, utilization of NCEES reporting or other? 

Please complete this brief form to nominate yourself or another educator to be featured in the monthly Home Base Bulletin.