Jill Darrough is the new Digital Teaching & Learning Lead Consultant at the Department of Public Instruction.  She has been with Digital Teaching and Learning since October of 2015 and has served as the Southeast Consultant and the Statewide Consultant for Digital Leadership & Professional Learning for the Digital Learning Initiative.  Darrough was instrumental in the modernization of the Annual Media & Technology Report to the NC Digital Learning & Media Inventory and its alignment to the Digital Learning Progress Rubric.  She has coordinated macro-professional learning opportunities to support the implementation of the Digital Learning Competencies to include Home Base applications and Digital Learning Competencies for Educators by Educators.  On an annual basis, she has co-led the organization of the agency-wide Connecting Communities of Educator Stakeholders Conference.  Additionally, she has her Certified Education Technology Leader Certification.

Throughout her 23 years in education, The majority of Darrough’s experience was in Craven County Schools.  She began her career teaching middle grades science and social studies and transitioned to Craven Early College in 2008.  While at CEC, she co-taught a blended, 9th grade course referred to as World Dynamics that was taught through overarching concepts in World History, Earth & Environmental Science, and English I.  In 2010, the opening of a second early college in Craven County gave her the opportunity to co-teach in a blended environment to both early colleges through live video.  In 2011, she transitioned to the district level as Craven County School's Lead Technology Literacy Coach.  She supported Craven County Schools by modeling instructional technology for K-12 teachers, coaching teachers in 1:1 learning environments, providing professional development for instructional technology, writing grants, and making recommendations for district and school purchases of technology.  In addition, she led Craven County Schools through the implementation of Home Base and NCEdCloud applications which included PowerTeacher, PowerSchool, NCEES, and Schoolnet.

Mrs. Darrough is delighted to be leading the Digital Teaching & Learning Consultants, supporting all of the Department of Public Instruction, collaborating with all our partners, and working with you.  She looks forward to supporting PSUs' needs as they navigate digital and remote learning.

NC School Library Media Association's 2020 Annual Conference

Registration is open for the NC School Library Media Association's 2020 Annual Conference, September 24-26. This year the conference will be totally virtual with attendees having exclusive access to video sessions for a year. With the theme of "Carolina on My Mind", this year's featured authors and speakers are all from North Carolina. Registration is $40 for members and $90 for non-members (includes a membership). For more information and to register, please go to www.ncslma.org.

NC Broadband Survey

The NC Broadband Infrastructure Office (in cooperation with the Friday Institute at NC State) has developed a tool to allow residents to test and report their home internet connection speed. This tool is not intended for students but would be appropriate to share with employees and parents. Users are asked to provide their address so that demand can be aggregated and targeted for investment through policy and grant programs. For parents and staff that have no internet access, they may call or text a phone number and have their location added to the database. Exact addresses will not be published. Email addresses are not collected. Users are asked to answer a few quick questions and presented with a 30 second speed test.

Complete details are here:
https://ncbroadband.gov/survey

Georgia has done a similar mapping of their residents, which we hope to replicate for NC:
https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2020-07-01/state-launches-broadband-availability-map

Parent & Caretaker Resource Update on the NC Remote Learning Resources Website

The Digital Teaching & Learning team continues to add resources and refine the NC Remote Learning Resources website. If you haven’t seen our recently revamped Parent & Caretaker Resources page, check it out! We’ve also been working to add more tech tutorials for parents and caretakers, and our own Vera Cubero, DTL Regional Consultant, created parent tutorials for both Google Classroom and Google Meet this week.

We hope this website will continue to be a useful resource not only for PSU administrators and teachers, but also for parents and the community! Don’t forget! If you have a resource or live event to share with educators across the state, this Google Form will allow you to post it on the Shared Resources page of the website.

PodcastPDNC is live!

PD doesn’t have to always be sit-n-get. How about PD on the go, instead? "Listen and launch" great ideas, strategies and concepts!

The purpose of this podcast is to model a format that can be used for professional development, as a communication tool, and a vehicle for learning.  On the Podcast PD NC website, you can listen to episodes, read the transcripts & explore resources associated with each episode. Tune in from Anchor.fm & Spotify, as well.

We’d love to feature educators, administrators, and specialists from across NC! If you have a topic, strategy or story to share, check out our submission page.  Look for updates in the DTL Insider and on the DTL social media sites.

Innovative Learning Catalysts - ILCPD

The DTL Innovative Learning Catalysts are excited to host conversations around topics that NC Educators request as we navigate the 2020-2021 school year as part of the #ILCPDNC series. These sessions are weekly, in-time and interactive. Learn more on the website.

Sign up to join the live conversations, or review the highlights and resources on the website. Tweet along with us using #ILCPDNC and follow the NCDPI DTL social media channels for updates and the schedule.

NCWiseOwl Toolkit

NCWiseOwl is North Carolina’s K-12 source for research databases, e-Journals, primary sources, magazine subscriptions, encyclopedia, eBooks and more! These resources are invaluable as part of your remote learning strategies.

Checkout the updated accompanying toolkit! Learn more about resources including tutorials, assistive features, research tools, Google Classroom integration, permalinks and more! Upcoming webinars can be found under professional learning. Also, discover over 40,000 eBooks covering all subject areas in both fiction and non-fiction.  There are many downloadable presentations, video tutorials and recorded sessions.  Stay tuned for more additions soon. The toolkit can be easily accessed from the main NCWiseOwl site at the bottom of each page.

Utilize the Contact Us when you have questions or concerns.  Updates and best practices are sent periodically via the mailing lists.  If you would like to join this list, follow the instructions under Get Updates.

Family Choice Boards

Family Choice Boards are  a new take on Homework packets.  Instead of kids being sent home with a packet filled with homework sheets for the week that can possibly be lost or even “eaten by the family dog” (smile), parents and children may access assigned lessons anywhere and at any time.  This can also be viewed as “homework on the go” because as the teacher, you can include outdoor activities that would encourage the student to get up from the computer and engage in physical fun activities as well.  The creator of Family Choice Boards looks at this as a way to bridge home/school connections.

Another plus side is that you don’t have to use several reams of paper a week.  You only need one sheet of paper that will be enclosed in a sheet protector that can be used repeatedly.

The site gives some examples of what you might include on your choice board and other advantages it offers. If you think this is something that could work for you in your classroom, then below you will find an overview of the materials that you will need.  A more extensive list can also be found on the bottom of the Family Choice Boards page.

• Gather reusable materials to send home 
• Teachers provide some additional reusable materials in the students’ homework folders.                 Some  of the homework tools include: 
  • Name writing practice page and lined sheet of paper in a sheet protector page (They can use this as a ‘white board’ that can be used repeatedly.)
  • Dry erase marker
  • Writing journal or composition
  • Letter/number/sight word flashcards    
• Create your Choice Board
• Add your activities and resources
  
  

We hope that this can be a valuable tool to assist you in the education of our future generation as we continue to face and conquer the many challenges presented in the 2020-2021 school year.  Please check PSU policies and consider HIPPA, FERPA, and COPPA laws with regards to student privacy BEFORE implementing any free resources.

Professional Development for Educators

Educators, check out the Professional Development in NCEES! 

All learning opportunities taken through NCEES will post the CEU credits earned to your staff transcript on the My Courses page > My Transcript button. To search for courses, navigate to the Professional Development page. There are three different ways to search:  keyword, course title or number. Find courses aligned to teacher standards, administrator standards or subject focus areas. The "View All" link  will then allow you to refine the search further.  Check out this summer’s webinar: CEUs MY PD My Courses My Transcript  to learn more.

A list of over 79 courses in the NCEES catalog is posted here: NCEES LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES CATALOG. Find a course you are interested in? Navigate to the NCEES Professional Development page to search for and start the course!

Bookmark NCEES Information and Resources - bit.ly/ncees-support.  This area contains manuals, documentation, beginning of year orientation guidance, current and past webinars, online tool resources and much more!

Attend NCEES Webinars and earn a certificate for .1 CEU.  Check out the list here: NCEES 2020-2021 Webinars.

Find NCEES system help guides outside of the online system here: On-line Tool Resources.

Welcome Back to School! and thank you for all you are doing as educators, supporting that high priority resource - our students!