Adaptive Keyboarding Contest

Do you want to help your students win special recognition for practicing essential keyboarding skills while having fun? Would you like to run your own competition? Learning.com can show you how!

In every educator's account, the Online Training Center is available. We have added new content in the form of Implementation Kits. One available kit is the Adaptive Keyboarding Contest. Run your own district competition utilizing all of the data and lessons provided from Learning.com.

If you would rather just be part of our statewide competition, please share the attached flier with your teachers who use Learning.com or want to introduce Learning.com’s keyboarding exercises into their curriculum. Keyboarding skills are essential in all learning environments and important for investing in future careers. This contest is a fun way to promote ongoing keyboarding practice with your students to develop fluency and accuracy.

This contest is open to students in grades 3-8 and starts on February 1, 2023. Winners will be announced mid-April. More details are in the attached flyer.

Tips for the contest:

• Encourage students to practice their keyboarding skills at least 3 times per week for 15-20 minutes per session 
• Recommended practice:
• Bell ringer activity, early-completer activity, independent practice, during center time, at home
• Remind teachers and students that it’s flexible! Learning.com lessons can be accessed anywhere and at any time!

Check out this short video for more on Adaptive Keyboarding and Online Test Prep- https://vimeo.com/790894649

Lastly, please share your district’s participation by promoting on Twitter and mention @learningdotcom!

Type On!

New Technical Contact PowerSchool IPT Certification in February 2023

Registration Closed. The max number of registered attendees has been reached.

You may click here to register for the waitlist.

In collaboration with PowerSchool, the Home Base Team will be offering virtual IPT certification training for new technical contacts from February 20-24, 2023. Seats are limited and will fill up quickly, please register as soon as possible.

• This training will span five full days. 
• Participants will have 90 days to take and pass the required certification test after training. 
• Each PSU is allowed a certain number of technical contacts based on their ADM. 

If you are unsure of your current technical contacts, please contact PowerSchool Support at 1-855-339-4790. NCDPI has created an IPT FAQ document to help answer questions you may have. Please review this document for frequently asked questions about the training and certification.

Those who can attend the DPI offered IPT Training include: 

• Anyone who is replacing a certified technical contact for their PSU.
• A local charter school employee, not employed by a third-party company and has not previously attended IPT training.

Those who cannot attend this training are: 

• Third-party Charter school SIS management company employees
• PSUs wanting additional technical contacts above their desired allocation
• Anyone who has attended training previously. 

Note: Anyone who is not eligible for this training will need to arrange training and certification through the vendor, PowerSchool, and cover the cost incurred. To do so, please reach out to the PowerSchool training team, training@powerschool.com.

Those who are eligible for this training session, please fill out the registration form.

New Self-Paced PD Courses for Canvas

Digital Teaching and Learning is excited to share two new self-paced professional development courses on the LMS, Canvas.

• Growing with Canvas - The Growing with Canvas course is a “Level 1” introduction to all things Canvas.
• Diving Deeper with Canvas - Educators more familiar with the LMS can utilize the Diving Deeper with Canvas course for specific training on personalized learning, feedback, and course design.

If you are interested in these PD opportunities, enrollment information can be found in the NCEES Self-Paced PD Guide.

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:

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

Access for PSU PowerSchool SIS Admins

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

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

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