Sept. 10, 2015 Teachers' Biweekly Message - Lynda Fuller
9/11/15 10:18 AM
Sept. 10, 2015 Teachers' Biweekly Message
North Carolina Public Schools <NCPublicSchools@public.govdelivery.com>
Fri 9/11/2015 10:13 AM
To: Lynda
Fuller <Lynda.Fuller@dpi.nc.gov>;
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Sept. 10, 2015
Last week’s accountability report illustrated the many ways that
North Carolina teachers, principals, students and parents are
staying focused on student achievement. Whether you teach
kindergarten or 12th grade, these accomplishments are yours.
Congratulations on North Carolina’s high school graduation rate,
which jumped to another historic high of 85.4 percent in 2015. All
student subgroups shared in this good news, which is another
cause for celebration.
The 2014-15 results also showed that 72.2 percent of traditional
public schools received performance grades of C or better while
charter schools came in at 70.4 percent receiving grades of C or
better. Science proficiency moved up for fifth and eighth graders,
and more students were proficient in mathematics.
On top of this, 2015 Advanced Placement results released by the College Board found that more North
Carolina high school students are taking Advanced Placement courses and tests and succeeding in
these college-level courses. The number of tests taken increased 19.1 percent, and the number of
scores of 3 to 5 increased 9 percent, according to the College Board.
All of this is news worth celebrating.
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Sept. 10, 2015 Teachers' Biweekly Message - Lynda Fuller
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Last week’s accountability results also underscored the continued need for early childhood education,
more flexibility in school calendars and targeted support for schools that need it. We continue to watch
for signs of a budget agreement and will alert you as soon as any movement occurs in that regard.
State Board of Education Meeting
Highlights
At their September State Board of Education meeting, members
received reports on 2014-15 Accountability Data, School
Performance Grades, Cohort Graduation Rates and Career and
Technical Education Credentials earned during the previous school
year. Members also approved the Digital Learning Report and Read
to Achieve local alternative assessments.
Board members discussed Global Educator Digital Badge
requirements, revisions to CTE Essential Standards and guidelines for Academically or Intellectually
Gifted programs. The complete list of Board actions is available on the State Board of Education
website.
Welcome Back Fellow Educators!
Welcome, fellow educators, to your 2015-16 clean slate! What an exciting time to
be an educator!
The start of a new school year is one of my favorite things about being a
classroom teacher. You are greeted with anxious anticipation regardless of the
number of years you have forged a new adventure with new students. You have
prepared all summer with hours of physical labor in your classroom and weeks of professional
development to further improve your craft. Now, you can showcase what you have learned at this
juncture. There is no pre or posttest for you, but there are the smiling and sometimes hesitant
expressions of your students waiting to see what a year in your classroom may hold. For you, no matter
what the ups and downs of last year held for you professionally or personally, the opportunity to mold
this school year into the BEST North Carolina has experienced is yours.
With this thought in mind, I want to encourage each of us to be diligent in our quest for better education
for our students. May we shine a positive light for the students in North Carolina, even amidst the
sometimes turbulent and ever changing tides of our profession.
There will be those days when you question your chosen path and wonder if the grass is always a lot
greener in other professions or just the pay. My prayer is that your students will rejuvenate each of you
when the inevitable bad days arise. Please take the time to build meaningful relationships with your
students that will further their development as lifelong learners, and seize the opportunity to show each
of our students in North Carolina that they are valued and worthy!
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Here’s to an inspiring and life-changing school year!
Keana C. Triplett, 2015-16 North Carolina Teacher of the Year.
Follow me on Twitter (@teachtrip) and/or Facebook (Keana Triplett, NC Teacher of the Year) so I can
share in your incredible experiences this school year!
New Classroom Assessment Items
Available in Schoolnet
This week as you log in to the Instructional Improvement System (Schoolnet) you may notice that there
are more assessment items available in Math and English Language Arts. Staff recently purchased an
additional 55,000 assessment items for classroom level use in grades K-12. The new items include
multiple choice and open response items. You can find these items under the publisher name “FAIB
from Certica Solutions, Inc.” when doing an advanced search in Item Central.
In addition, the Northwest Evaluation Association items for Science and Social Studies also were
refreshed and have been assigned a new publisher name. The new publisher name is “FAIB from
Certica Solutions, Inc.” As a reminder these items (and the new items noted above) are available to ALL
users in Schoolnet so they are intended for Classroom Assessments (not Benchmark Assessments). If
you have any questions about this resource, please contact Kayla Siler.
NC State Advisory Council on Indian
Education Announces New Instructional
Resources
The North Carolina State Advisory Council on Indian Education is
pleased to announce its new online Culturally Responsive
Instructional Resources.
Use of these resources by classroom teachers was the Council’s
sole recommendation in its Annual Report this year to the State
Board of Education. The goal of the recommendation is to increase
graduation and achievement rates among the state’s American
Indian students and to educate all students and teachers with accurate information about American
Indians.
As this map shows, every county in North Carolina has an American Indian population. The figures on
this map are “Indian alone” and do not take into account Indians self-reporting as multi-racial.
These new webpages include a wide variety of accurate and appropriate resources for teaching to and
about America's first people. K-16 teachers will find many useful resources including lesson plans and
teaching suggestions, research, text lists, information on all eight state-recognized North Carolina
tribes, and contemporary background information on Indian country today.
Teachers will particularly want to note:
- Text Resources page with lists of recommended books for elementary, middle and high schools as
well as a useful guide for evaluating books;
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- Teaching About Thanksgiving page with recommended books and thought-provoking teaching points;
- Teachers/Administrators page with resources listed alphabetically, including an American Indians in
Children's Literature blog link with great book reviews and information, and LearnNC's Curriculum
Guide aligned to CCSS and Essential Standards with information on all eight state-recognized North
Carolina tribes; and
- Montana Office of Public Instruction Indian Education for All Companion Guides - Connections With
Common Core Standards with detailed ELA lessons aligned with the CCSS using wonderful Nativebased texts.
Please make sure your fellow classroom teachers and social studies departments are aware of these
resources.
K-2 Teachers Will Want to Take Advantage of The Read Aloud
Project
K-2 teachers: are you wondering how to align your K-2 read alouds with the North Carolina ELA
Standards while engaging your students? Curious about what topics will build the knowledge and
vocabulary your primary students need to develop their ability to read well independently? Looking for a
bank of quality lessons to support your science and social studies instruction with high-quality read
alouds?
If so, you may want to participate in The Read Aloud Project, which will be held Oct. 1-2 at the Charlotte
Museum of History. All the details, including registration, are available online.
ELA LiveBinder Updated
The K-12 English/Language Arts LiveBinder has been updated. Please visit to find new resources and
professional development opportunities.
Free Resources from NCWiseOwl
Most of you are aware that there is a password available to students and teachers to use with
NCWiseOwl when off campus. Effective Aug. 5, this password changed to wiseowl15. Please be sure
to share this with others in your school and district to ensure the continued use of NCWiseOwl
resources. While the password cannot be shared on public facing websites, please feel free to share
with parents and students on paper flyers, bookmarks, etc.
A new resource from EBSCO has been added to the NCWiseOwl site. You will now see a link for
Explora in each of the school zones. Explora will be replacing Searchasaurus, Kids Search, and Student
Research Center. Over the next few weeks, staff will be removing the links to those three resources that
are being discontinued by EBSCO. Teachers and students should be able to use Explora to access
content that they are accustomed to receiving from those three resources.
Be sure to check out the NCWiseOwl Toolkit that provides links to promotional materials and tutorials.
Staff also are excited about Wiseowl Wednesdays. Webinars are planned for Wednesdays throughout
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the school year. Also the @ncdpiDTL twitter account will have special NCWiseOwl related tweets on
Wednesdays.
As a reminder, Jennifer Northrup now serves as the NCWiseOwl support person for the state. If you
have professional development needs, please first try contacting your regional consultant.
Middle School STEM Resource
Future City
Future City focuses on how to make the world a better place
through a citywide sustainability issue. Students engage in
engineering concepts where they identify problems,
brainstorm ideas, design solutions, test/test, build and then
share the results.
This year’s topic is: waste management. Interested? If so,
you’ll want to act fast as registration fee is waived if you
register by Oct. 15. When registering, make sure you say
“bill me later” when it asks about the $25 fee. Participating
schools receive access to the free SimCity software and
supporting materials and the winning team gets a free trip to
Washington DC to compete at nationals.
Contact NC Regional Future City Coordinator Nancy Shaw
for more information.
NCCAT Supports Public School Teachers
For nearly three decades the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of
Teaching (NCCAT) has provided high-quality professional development to
help teachers make a difference in the classroom. NCCAT offers
professional development in a variety of topics including early grades literacy, digital learning, beginning
teachers and teacher leadership.
NCCAT conducts programs for pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, school administrators, counselors
and library media specialists. Other educators who may be eligible for programs are curriculum
specialists, lead teachers, mentors, school social workers and school psychologists. Established by the
state legislature in 1985, NCCAT is a place where teachers “advance teaching as an art and a
profession” through a wide range of learning opportunities.
The calendar of programs is available online. Information on how to apply is available here. NCCAT also
provides online programming. You also may want to access information on how NCCAT may be able to
work in your school.
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NC Dept. of Insurance Sponsors Poster Contest to Support Fire
Prevention Week
The theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week in North Carolina (Oct. 4-10) is “Hear the Beep Where
You Sleep.” Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Wayne Goodwin invites all second and
third grade students to participate in a poster contest to promote fire safety and the need for smoke
detectors in places where we sleep.
Winning poster designs will be displayed on the Office of State Fire Marshal’s website, and every child
who participates will receive a personal thank you for helping keep North Carolina fire safe. The deadline
to submit a poster is Oct. 1. Contest details are available on the Office of State Fire Marshal website.
Environmental Sustainability Focus of Symposium
Join World View on Oct. 21-22 at The Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill to explore
one of the world’s most pressing global issues – the sustainability of our environment.
Participants in From Local to Global: Exploring Environmental Sustainability will explore themes related
to food security, energy, pollution, waste reduction and more through keynote addresses, a film
screening of Landfill Harmonic and 30 different concurrent sessions. Sessions such as digital
storytelling, STEM note-booking, and service learning will increase educator capacity to add
environmental themes into classrooms and schools.
This program is designed for K-12 administrators and teachers in all disciplines, and educators will leave
the program with strategies to integrate global themes into their schools and classrooms. For details,
including registration, please visit the World View website.
Stay Connected with North Carolina Public Schools:
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Sept. 10, 2015 Teachers' Biweekly Message - Lynda Fuller
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St. · Raleigh, NC 27601
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