Home Base Maintenance Set for Friday Night
The next Home Base maintenance is scheduled for the evening of Friday, Oct. 16. PowerSchool is the only application that will undergo maintenance. All other Home Base applications will remain available.
The PowerSchool application will be brought down for one night only, Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. and returned to service by 7 a.m., Saturday morning, Oct. 17. Systems will be made accessible to all users.
Note: Each year, a list of scheduled maintenance windows are published by NCDPI. This is published in advance to help teachers and administrators better prepare for temporary outages and loss of access. Please review the 2020-2021 maintenance schedule and put these dates on your calendar. In most cases, the entire window is not necessary and we can return systems to service earlier than listed. If emergency maintenance is required in addition to these scheduled dates, all users will be notified in advance.
If you have any questions pertaining to this maintenance, please contact the Home Base Team at home_base@dpi.nc.gov.
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Canvas Teacher Spotlight
School: Governor Morehead School for the Blind
Contributor: Nancy Kerner-Durling, Music Director
Topic: “The accessibility features in Canvas were a major reason for their successes.”
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When I decided to transition from teaching in a typical elementary school to taking over the music program at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind, I knew there would be some challenges and a lot of adjustment for me as a teacher. I had never taught students who could not access printed materials the same way I could. I knew I had to find ways to make learning music accessible to my new students.
Using Canvas turned out to be the solution and helped me to break down many of the barriers my students and I faced.
Canvas has enabled me to provide opportunities for my students to extend their knowledge and practice by giving me a place to upload recordings, documents, and class materials. Students learned how to upload videos of performances for feedback and became experts at using the recordings to improve their practice and performances.
The accessibility features in Canvas were a major reason for their successes. Students of all ability levels have been able to learn to navigate Canvas, have become proficient in its use, and can do all of these things independently using screen readers!
Even with the challenges faced by all students during the COVID-19 shutdown, my students were still able to continue learning. I hosted class meetings using Canvas Conferencing and was able to have several guest speakers join the class to discuss topics that included musical theater, directing, acting, majoring in music in college, having a music career when you are visually impaired, and how music can continue to be a part of life after the school career has ended.
My students continue to benefit from the increased access to learning and practice. Since implementing this learning platform three years ago, we have greatly expanded our horizons. We have performed at Walt Disney World, the North Carolina Conference on Exceptional Children, The Department of Public Instruction Holiday Celebration, as well as the Eastern Schools for the Blind Music Festival.
While our performances have been put on hold for a while, our learning is continuing thanks to Canvas.
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Canvas Training Portal
Did you know that you can earn badges and certificates by completing short courses and learning pathways in our Training Portal? You can also find quick videos on several Canvas tools by visiting the link from your Canvas Help Menu. See the image below to learn how to access these helpful training resources.
Upcoming Canvas Professional Learning Courses
The Home Base Team is excited to announce a change in our upcoming webinar formats. Starting Nov. 2, a new monthly self-paced training course will be available for Canvas.
This course will be designed to be completed in one hour and will be linked to NCEES for automatic CEU award upon completion of the course. This course will take the place of our currently offered monthly webinars to provide a more flexible and accessible format for all.
If you have registered for a November or December webinar, you will receive an email when the first monthly course is available on Nov. 2. Please note, the webinar for October - on Oct. 27 - will still be held as scheduled.
Additional Assessments and Item Banks in Schoolnet
The North Carolina Final Exam (NCFE) Bank (647 items and 15 passages) is now accessible to all PSUs that opt-in to Schoolnet.
Additionally, NCFE assessments have been created at the state level and recommended to the district level only for all opted-in PSUs. The NCFE Bank and assessments join the NCDPI Math Sets Bank, Math Sets Assessments, Math Testlets, and ELA Testlets to provide a range of easily accessible assessment options for 2020-21.
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Go WILD with Resources from the North Carolina Zoo!
The #GoOpenNC team has partnered with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to build content collections on #GoOpenNC.
Our first collection of resources from the North Carolina Zoo is now live. Check out this collection of more than 80 science resources aligned with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.
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Upcoming #GoOpenNC Professional Learning Courses
The #GoOpenNC team is excited to announce a change in our upcoming webinar formats. Starting Nov. 2, a new monthly self-paced training course will be available for #GoOpenNC. This course will be designed to be completed in one hour and will be linked to NCEES for automatic CEU award upon completion of the course.
This course will take the place of our currently offered monthly webinars to provide a more flexible and accessible format for all. If you have registered for a November or December webinar, you will receive an email when the first monthly course is available on Nov. 2.
RECORDED: NCEES Do You Know Tips & Tricks
Do you know what you don’t know? In this session, participants learn tips that may help improve timely processing within NCEES on the My Staff page, the Staff Evaluation page, professional development and more.
- Examine the practices that reflect Cultural Leadership
- Recall how to ensure teachers share their instructional resources
- Understand the importance of a leader's 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.
- Participants will learn how creating Staff Groups in NCEES can be utilized for evaluation and professional development, review using Staff Dashboard information, and will be creating PD Playlists.
NEW: Learning.com Remote Learning Lessons
Four new remote learning lessons are now available to help learners better navigate remote and hybrid learning. These new lessons are intended for use with students in grades 3-8 and lay the foundation for effective remote learning by teaching students how to communicate virtually and troubleshoot their tech issues independently.
- Navigating common virtual classroom applications.
- Actively participating in online discussions and virtual meetings.
- Practicing good netiquette by respecting other students and the teacher.
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Troubleshooting common tech problems such as turning on their device or connecting to their webcam and audio.
These lessons can be found in the Library under the Online Safety and Digital Citizenship tile and also in the NC Remote Learning Sequences and in TechQuest.
Additionally, infographics called “Tips for Successful Online Learning” and “Troubleshooting Tips” are available from the Student Resources Help screen that can be used by students (all grades) and parents to help them establish processes at home for successful remote learning.
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