Home Base Maintenance This Weekend

The next Home Base Maintenance Weekend is planned for this weekend, Feb. 8-10. PowerSchool and Schoolnet are both scheduled for maintenance during this period.

Home Base will be brought down Friday, Feb. 8, at 5 p.m. and returned to service no later than Monday, Feb. 11.  Once maintenance is complete, a message will be sent to notify users that the applications are up and available for use.  If there is a delay in bringing up the systems, users will be notified.

Questions or comments pertaining to these maintenance activities may be addressed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov.

Stay up to date for all Home Base planned maintenance periods by visiting our 2018-19 Home Base Maintenance Schedule.

CCES Conference Updates

Have you registered for the 2019 CCES Conference?  The last day to capitalize on the Early Bird Registration discount is Feb. 14!  

Take a peek at what we have in store for you by clicking on the CCES-AT-A_Glance agenda.  The CCES team has also released a detailed schedule that will allow you to build your own schedule based on sessions, presenters, or conference presentations. Use the quick link to navigate to the detailed session guide at http://bit.ly/2019CCESSessionDetails.

Lodging is available at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel & Koury Convention Center located at 3121 West Gate City Boulevard in Greensboro, NC.  A special rate of $140 per night is set aside for CCES attendees. To book your room(s) by phone, call 1.800.242.6556 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., choose Option 1, and reference the Connecting Communities of Stakeholders Conference code: CAC.

For more conference details, visit the CCES Conference website or contact the CCES committee.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Recording Available for Home Base Meet-Ups Virtual Session

Were you unable to attend our Home Base Meet-Ups in January? Watch the recording of the Canvas virtual session for Home Base Meet-Ups.

Canvas Teacher Spotlight

District: Pitt County Schools

School: Hope Middle School

Teacher: Mary Holloman

Grade Level: 6th Grade Language Arts

Project: Canvas for Blended Learning

Mary Holloman is a 6th Grade Language Arts teacher at Hope Middle School in Pitt County. As one of the district’s Impact Venture grant recipients, she has received extensive training and support in blended learning strategies and was also awarded a classroom set of Chromebooks to use with her students.

A quick glance inside of Mary’s Canvas course shows her understanding of how a blended learning approach can empower students to be more successful. First on her homepage is the current week’s agenda. Upon entering class each day, her students automatically log into Canvas to see the agenda. They always know exactly what they will do for the day, including upcoming homework assignments.

From the agenda, Mary links directly to the day’s activities and resources for quick and easy access. For example, her daily bell ringers in SmartLab are linked in the agenda. Also, included on her course homepage are buttons linked to modules and frequently used class resources, including Renaissance Learning, Kahoot, and Newsela. She says there is no question for students what they are supposed to do, because it’s all there for them.

Mary reports that she uses Canvas for everything! Among her favorite features are Speedgrader, Google Apps integration, Calendar, Discussions, and External Tools like FlipGrid, YouTube and PlayPosit. She uses rubrics for all assignments and loves that she can sit at a basketball game and grade on her mobile device using Speedgrader. Mary says that discussions are especially easy to grade in Speedgrader because she can see not only the students’ original responses but also their replies to their peers all on one screen. She also reports that the Google Apps integration benefits both her and her students. By creating resources in Google Docs and embedding them in Canvas, she can quickly update as she makes adjustments from year to year. The integration also makes it easy for students to turn in their assignments.

Using a flipped model of instruction, Mary provides videos and resources for students to access for homework using foldables created together in class to take notes. She also has paper-based options for students who do not have internet access at home, although she reports that the number of students without access is very low. Mary has a very well-defined process for students who need paper copies; they know where to pick them up and turn them in each day. She also provides options for them to complete online work before school and during flexible class time. Her daily in-class lessons are also available in Canvas so students have access to go back and review the presentations, and she finds that providing this access is also helpful for absent students.

Mary has a vocabulary module with Quizlet vocabulary sets embedded for every unit. She also uses Canvas to facilitate Booktalks, where her students create multimedia projects and submit them on Canvas, allowing access for their classmates to view the Booktalks also.

Mary includes a Getting Started in Canvas Module for her students and says they work through it together at the beginning of the year. But she reports that her 6th grade students quickly and easily acclimate to the tool. She also promotes parent engagement in Canvas by sending home a letter with instructions for observer and Canvas Parent App Access and highlighting Canvas parent use during the 6th grade Curriculum Night. As a parent of a 7th grader, she has seen first hand how parent access to Canvas can be beneficial.

As part of her work as an Impact Venture grant recipient, Mary also provides Canvas training and support both in her school and across the district. She is happy to report that all of the teachers on her hall are currently using Canvas.

We applaud Mary and her understanding of how to apply the tools and features in Canvas to create a successful blended learning environment for her students.

Recording Available for Home Base Meet-Ups Virtual Session

Were you unable to attend our January Home Base Meet-Ups? Watch the recording of the Schoolnet virtual session for Home Base Meet-Ups.

Schoolnet Maintenance Upgrade

This weekend, Schoolnet will be upgraded to version 20.1.2. This upgrade will include an enhancement to auto-publish shared grades to the student and parent portals in PowerSchool. Currently, teachers have to take the extra step of publishing grades they have selected to share to the PowerTeacher Pro gradebook. This upgrade also includes an update to the Certica Navigate Item Bank with the addition of over 1,000 new K-8 math items. Be on the lookout for a standards breakdown chart of Certica items in the March edition of the Home Base Newsletter.

CCES Conference Schoolnet sessions

We are excited to offer Schoolnet sessions for LEA and Charter Administration, Teachers and Support Staff! Click this link to see a listing of all CCES session: http://bit.ly/2019CCESSessionDetails. We look forward to seeing everyone March 18-21st at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC!

NEW! NCEES Google Site will replace NCEES Wiki Site

The NC Educator Effectiveness System (NCEES) has a new Google site to house resources and information to assist educators with  the evaluation process. NCEES Information and Resources(https://sites.google.com/dpi.nc.gov/ncees-information-and-resource/home) Google site is organized much like the NCEES wiki.

The NCEES site has a navigation bar down the left hand side with links to pages including: Teachers, Principals, Support Staff, Central Office Staff, Superintendent, Presentations, Webinars and Additional Resources.

Please bookmark and check this site often. DPI will post the latest information and updates regarding educator evaluation. If you are looking for a resource not found on the NCEES site, please email Kimberly Simmons, NCEES Coordinator.  kimberly.simmons@dpi.nc.gov