Next Home Base Meet Up - Sept. 21-25 

Attention: PSU Home Base Product Leads and Users

Get ready for another information packed, networking experience!

The Home Base Team invites you to our second 2020-21 School Year Home Base Meet Up!  This year, the Home Base Meet Ups will include training that may be credited at the discretion of the PSU as .1 CEU!  Due to COVID-19 precautions, all sessions will remain virtual.

We are now using a different platform, Cisco Webex; for which registration is required.  All you will need to do is visit our Home Base Meet Ups Invite and select the links for the product sessions you want to attend.

Future Home Base Meet Up dates are below.  Please mark your calendars.

New to online teaching?

Here are some suggestions for teaching in a remote or blended environment.

1. Create a welcome message for your students. Include a photo and some personal information. This will help your students feel more comfortable in your course. 
2. Call home and introduce yourself to the parents also. Allow them to ask questions and let them know how to contact you.
3. Create a Google Form survey to collect student and parent emails and phone numbers. Ask about the preferred method of communication. 
4. Include an icebreaker activity to help build community. This resource provides some examples. Don’t see one you like? Google it! You’ll find many more!
5. Provide an overview of your course that includes:
1. Objectives
2. Expectations, including academic integrity
3. Grading policies
4. Contact information, including virtual office hours
5. Course syllabus
6. Organize the course by modules and units. You can use text headers to organize modules by week and/or day. Each unit should include:
1. Unit overview including objectives, key understandings, and what students should be able to do by the end of the unit
2. Checklist for student assignments and due dates
3. Consider using prerequisites in your Canvas Modules. You can require that students move through items sequentially, score “at least” values, etc.
4. Incorporate practice activities if applicable. You can utilize Complete/ Incomplete or Ungraded Assignments to allow for student practice. Practice quizzes can be set for multiple attempts.
7. Course assignments should include:
1. Clear instructions
2. Assessment guidelines (ex. rubrics)
3. Due dates
4. Opportunities for student-student interaction and collaboration (ex. group assignments, peer reviews, etc.) Think about using Points of View from NC Wise Owl. (Pro/ Con arguments).
5. Opportunities for student-instructor interaction (ex. discussions)
8. Instructional resources should be provided in a variety of formats. (ex. text, video, images, weblinks, etc.) Consider using screencasting tools like Screencastify to provide short instructional videos for students.
9. Assessment considerations:
1. Incorporate a variety of assessment methods.
2. Be sure to provide resources for remediation and enrichment as needed. Providing additional resources to students using the Comment feature in SpeedGrader is an easy way to meet individual student needs.
3. Provide students with timely feedback. Use voice comments and Canvas Speedgrader annotation tools to help students recognize areas of strengths and opportunities for growth.
4. Communicate performance issues as soon as you realize there is a problem. It is imperative that you notify parents in a timely manner. Keep a digital communication journal for all parent interactions. Google Spreadsheets are easy to use for this type of documentation.
10. Utilize Canvas Analytics to monitor student activity. You can get a quick snapshot of all students or by viewing individual student analytics you can see the number of page views and number of participations for each student daily.
11. Use the “Close for Comments” feature to end Discussions. This will prevent the need to monitor old conversations.
12. Log in to the class each day. Return emails and Canvas inbox messages daily.
13. Post daily or weekly announcements to remind students of upcoming due dates and useful resources. 
14. Use announcements to answer FAQs.

September Webinar Recording Now Available!

Our first Schoolnet webinar of the 2020-21 school year was this week and we had wonderful discussions about how and why you should use Schoolnet. Please view the recording and make plans to join us for future webinars!

#NCBold Session: Amp Up Blended Learning with Schoolnet!

During our first ever #NCBold conference, we shared a different perspective around assessments with using Schoolnet to streamline student work flows as well as increasing efficiency in tasks. Check out the recording of the session and the slide deck is available at bit.ly/ampschoolnet

Understanding the Teacher/Support Staff Rubric: Observations and Ratings

Do you have questions about the Standards rubric in teacher and support staff plans? Should staff be rated during an observation? Learn the way to view and mark the rubric Standards & Elements during staff observations and the end of year summary rating evaluation. And what about virtual observations?

• Recording Password: Ncees2020 
• Presentation

NEW: NCEES Google Site COVID Resource Page

NCDPI’s Dr. Robert Sox and Dr. Kimberly Simmons have created a dedicated page on the NCEES Google Site related to observing remote and blended learning this school year. Please feel free to bookmark this link for future use, and share as you deem appropriate. 

• Google Site COVID Page: https://sites.google.com/dpi.nc.gov/ncees-information-and-resource/covid-2020?authuser=0

The NCEES Google site is still a very important resource for educators, and I hope you will use and share it as well.

• NCEES Google Site: https://sites.google.com/dpi.nc.gov/ncees-information-and-resource/home?authuser=0

NCEES Sept./Oct. Webinars

Please click titles to register.

• Instructional Leadership for Principals – Tuesday, Sept. 22, 4-5 p.m.
• School administrators are expected to set high standards for the professional practice of 21st century instruction and assessment. This session will focus on the elements of best instructional and school practices and the collaborative structures within the school for the design of highly engaging schoolwork for students. Evidence, artifacts and questions for the self-assessment and evaluations for School Executive Standard 2, Instructional Leadership will be reviewed.
• PD Office Use to Create Learning Opportunities – Tuesday, Sept. 29, 4-5 p.m.
• This hands-on training webinar will cover in depth how to manage a local NCEES PSU PD Office within NCEES PD component to create all types of Learning Opportunities
• New AP Series Meeting 2 - Tuesday, Oct. 6, 4-5 p.m.
• New assistant principals need consistent ongoing support.  This New Assistant Principal NCEES Series will offer numerous meetings over the 2020-21 school year.  Each meeting will address timely topics to support NCEES, ensuring fair and reliable practices for assistant principals to support teacher growth. An agenda outline for all 8 meetings has been developed. In addition, participants will have a link to submit questions and ideas for topics/ standards to be covered throughout the series.
• NCEES Do you know tips - Tuesday, Oct. 13, 4-5 p.m.
• Do you know what you don’t know? In this session participants will learn tips that may help improve timely processing within NCEES on the My Staff page, the Staff Evaluation page,professional development and more.  
• Cultural Leadership for Principals - Tuesday, Oct. 20, 4-5 p.m.
• This session will:
  • Examine the practices that reflect Cultural Leadership
  • Recall how to ensure teachers share their instructional resources
  • Understand the importance of a leaders visual presence
  • Identify failure as an opportunity to begin again
  • Explore the impact of efficacy and empowerment on student achievement.
  • Provide evidence, artifacts and questions for the self assessment and evaluation. 
• Using Staff Groups, PD Playlists - Tuesday, Oct. 27, 4-5 p.m.
• Participants will learn how creating Staff Groups in NCEES can be utilized for evaluation and professional development, and will be creating PD Playlists.

Free Training Available

Learning.com Tier 1 Districts - Virtual, instructor-led training and pre-recorded webinars are available and can be customized to your district or charter school needs. Please Contact Tiffany Kinney (tkinney@learning.com) if interested. 

Teacher One-Pagers 

• North Carolina Educator Digital Literacy Brief
• Options for signing in
• Teacher Set Up Guide
• Assigning and Managing Curriculum
• NEW! NC Remote Learning Sequences in EasyTech Library
• Online Training Center
• NEW! Tech Quest One Pager - Learning.com feature that delivers essential technology skills to K-8 students without teachers needing to manage classes.

Learning.com Webinar Recordings

Want to know more about Learning.com? 

• Recorded Webinar: K-8 Digital Literacy Initiative: Supporting the NC Remote Instruction Plan with Learning.com

Presentation Slide Deck: https://bit.ly/NCLearningDigitalSkills