Celebrating Teachers!

The NC Digital Teaching and Learning Staff would like to take this moment and show our appreciation to all teachers throughout the state of North Carolina for your sincere dedication in educating children!  The difference you make in so many lives cannot be summed up in one day or week; therefore, we celebrate you today and everyday.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Custom Screens in PowerSchool

During a recent TIMS webinar, the option to create custom screens for summer school was discussed amongst PSUs.  Please be aware that the Home Base Team does not advocate or support the creation of custom screens. Custom screens can be created and used locally; however, custom screen support is not provided by PowerSchool or NCDPI.

Read-to-Achieve Update - 05/06/2022

Please read and share with staff the latest Read-to-Achieve Update.

Read-to-Achieve Update - 05/06/2022

Google Assignments LTI Update

As of Thursday, May 5, 2022, Canvas product team has deployed a fix that we believe will address the unreadable files (.dms file) in Speedgrader that some users experienced when students submit a file from Google Drive via the Google Assignments LTI 1.3.
 

Additionally, both Google and Canvas recently worked to address and release a fix to the "line item.scoreMaximum is a required field" error teachers were seeing when creating a new Google Assignment LTI 1.3 as an external tool in Canvas. 

If you or your teachers are reporting any continued issues with either of these bugs above, please create a support ticket with Canvas Support and, if possible, a support ticket with Google as well. Please connect with your Google workspaces admin to create these Google Support tickets. Additionally, you can share any issues you see with the Google Assignments LTI 1.3 on the Assignments Community Space.

Reminder:  Home Base Opt-in Tool Offline

The Home Base Opt-in Tool has been taken offline for  preparation for the 2022-2023 Home Base Opt-in Process.  The opt-in tool will not be returned to service until the start of the opt-in process which is currently scheduled for May 16, 2022. 

Please visit the NCDPI Home Base Opt-in Website for detailed information concerning the Home Base Opt-in Process.  Questions may be directed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov or yolanda_wilson@dpi.nc.gov.

Reminder: PowerSchool Years and Terms at the LEA Office

At the LEA Office level in PowerSchool, the Years and Terms start and end dates MUST encompass the start date of the PSU’s earliest starting school and the end date of the PSU’s latest ending school. This also includes all Program Schools. The start date for Years and Terms at the LEA level should be 7/1 and the end date should be 6/30.

This information has been updated in the PS User Guide: End-of-Year Processing and can be found under Creating Years and Terms in the user guide.

Reminder:  Attendance During Exam Week(s)

To be considered in attendance, a student (except for hospital/homebound or staggered kindergarten) must be present in the school for the school day or at a place other than the school with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity. Such activities may include field trips, athletic contests, student conventions, musical festivals, or any similar approved activity.

Except as noted above, a student must be present at least one-half of the school's instructional day in order to be recorded present for that day.

NC General Statute 115C-378 states in part that no person shall encourage, entice, or counsel any child of compulsory school age to be unlawfully absent from school.

If a student is exempted from an exam and is not present in the school for the school day or not at a place other than the school with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity, the student is absent.

For questions or concerns, contact Student Accounting at studentaccounting@dpi.nc.gov.

New Home Base Admin Course 

Feedback from PSUs identified a need for resource hubs for the Home Base products. The product managers have created Admin Resource Courses for each area. These resource courses are located in the NCDPI Canvas instance.

Please visit these courses.  Below are the steps to enroll in these courses:

How to access these resources:

• Sign in to the Blue Canvas icon within NCEdCloud
• Using the Global Navigation (on the left), click the Home Base Resources button
• On the menu that opens, select the course(s) you would like to enroll into
• After enrolling, the course will appear on your Canvas Dashboard

Other Information:

• Feel free to provide feedback on these courses. They all contain a feedback button on their homepage.
• We will continue to update these courses as more product information becomes available

Access to NCDPI Canvas for Home Base Resource Hubs

Any PSU PowerSchool SIS admin who does not have access to the NCDPI “Blue” Canvas located in the NCEdCloud portal and would like to have access or grant access to data managers within their PSU, please complete the form below.  In this form, you can enter up to 5 accounts manually or upload a CSV/Excel file if you have more than 5 account requests.

 If you have any questions, please get in touch with Corey McNeill.  

Link to Form

Canvas May Statewide Call

If you were unable to make the statewide call on Monday you can view the slide deck and recording below. Our next call is on Monday Jun 6, 2022 at 2 PM EST. Here is the registration link for the June call.

You can view the slide deck HERE, and the recording HERE. The passcode is: =X#Z+Pv5

Transcend Webinar Recording

In case you missed the informational webinars for Transcend, the recording is now available on the NCDPI YouTube Channel.

Transcend is a computer-adaptive interim assessment add-on for Schoolnet that will be available as part of the Home Base opt-in process for the 2022-2023 school year. Transcend provides tests for grades 3-8 ELA and Math and will be priced at $4 per 3rd-8th grade ADM. 

If you have any questions about Transcend or would like to learn more prior to the Home Base opt-in period, please contact john.mairs@dpi.nc.gov or jeffrey.hauger@pearson.com.

Follow Us on Social Media!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and begin receiving "Did You Know" tips featuring each Home Base product. 

These messages will include upcoming changes, tips, and even hidden treasures within each product to make your job easier.  If you are not following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, click on the links below and begin today!  Make sure you share this information with other staff within your school.

Instagram:  @nchomebase         Facebook:  @nchomebase       Twitter:  @nchomebase