NOTES FROM THE
PRINCIPAL/TEACHER ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
Teacher at Work Initiative: What is the ultimate purpose?
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To help business understand quality of teachers
Help teachers answer students questions
Gain support of business for education
Each group was given time to prepare and present comments on this item:
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Business sponsored internships (1 week)
Rotating for teachers & business employees
Business sponsors a school to provide scholarships
Rigorous interview process for teachers wishing to participate
When: Summer (for teachers), Fall/Spring (for business employees)
Cost: Scholarship-Based, if teacher internship is during the year, ask business to pay for subs.
Things to consider – District level support, principal support; ask for CTE (District Level) to help organize a business
list; preparation for Teachers – Business Employees (Training program on purpose, how & why)
Positives:
1. Opportunity to better understand industry and align instruction as appropriate.
2. Gain a clearer understanding of business practices and provisions for student interns
3. Similar to Teacher Executive Institute. Teachers travel to different businesses to determine
vision/mission/connections to curriculum.
4. Other counties have similar programs
Areas of Concern:
1. Districts in rural areas
2. Roll out?
3. Select educational liaisons that will garner the respect of businesses and build collaborative partnerships.
Suggestions:
1. Potentially allow NCSBE, Chambers of Commerce, LEA reps. Work together to develop a comprehensive
plan of action to build a relationship with industry focused on enhancing learning and preparing for future
opportunities.
K-5 involved in the experience – build hope for future because teachers have been exposed to “real world”
careers and will know how to help students see the vision of why they are learning what they are learning – can’t
wait until middle school to talk to students about the hope of their future
K-12 vertical conversations
Job Shadow program in Edenton-Chowan/Perquimans school system – talk to Emily Parrish.
Can we afford to take teachers out of the classroom? How can it be done so it doesn’t negatively impact student
learning?
Key that principal or LEA has the autonomy to determine how it works / looks / who is involved at their school not
the state.
Shadow a student – District expectation to reflect on school
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NOTES FROM THE
PRINCIPAL/TEACHER ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
HomeBase – Angela Quick gave the members 15 minutes to discuss the following questions about HomeBase:
1. What parts of HomeBase have you used?
 Power School & School Net
 True North Logic (evaluation system), Power School and School Net (benchmarks)
 True North Logic – Power School – moving and retrieving data on students was easy
2. What do you find valuable in the system?
 Concept of everything being in one place
 1 stop shop – all three areas right there
3. What do you find challenging in the system?
 Access – program times out – off line
 Times out – have to “sign in” each time it goes off line
 Fatal errors
 School Net & Power School – not playing well together right now
 EC problems
 Multiple – inaccurate transfer data all the way to no access
 It changes
 Modules not sufficient – “we are working on that ….?”
 When you change students from one class to another the grades are not transferring
 When questions or issues are sent in, we are not getting timelines for addressing issues
 No response from helpline
 Immunization information is missing
 Codes are not accurate
 Absenteeism is not calculated
 McKinney-Vento kids are not being listed
 Need timeline for solving problems
 Transcripts are not printing with correct information
 Too many buttons or steps. Click, steps are arduous. Buttons should be more intuitive.
 For teachers without a mentor, the mentor step is stopping the process
 Needs to be more user friendly
 Issues with teachers not logging out completely and when another teacher signs on they enter as
the first teacher.
 Data Managers are stressed out – high turnover in that position
 Transfer students were :kicked out” of Power School before school started
 TNL looked different from when training was completed to how it looks now
 Principal would like to do observations before self-assessment, training and orientation
 Teachers cannot adjust PDPs without HR opening it up
 Need to go to a different screen to get a listing of elements to complete the PDP
 Learning as we go is challenging
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NOTES FROM THE
PRINCIPAL/TEACHER ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
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Some principals are so concerned about morale that they are not making their teachers learn
anything new right now
4. When you have a question or issue about the system, how do you go about getting support?
 Help button – then call District
 Go to data manger – then district data manager
5. Have you found the DPI Newsletters and webinars useful for understanding how to use the system?
 Not spent a lot of time on it
 Not as useful to many as one would think
6. Do you have other questions or suggestions for us?
 Why roll out a system that is not ready?
 Use one name
 Student (Parent Portal) demographics do not seem to be right; can it be done that parents can
update their own demographics?
 Checks & Balances – need something to confirm that information has been updated
(Confirmation)
Final Exams: Rebecca Garland & Tammy Howard
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Common Exams – will be administered this fall
Performance – Based Courses - will come from portfolio’s by a third party
We are planning to have Regional Principal of the Year Summits across the state – every school & every district will be
invited.
Reflections – what are you taking away from this meeting?
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Urgency that are voices are heard
Consistency in PowerSchool
Education changes are not DPI driven
Final Exam information
Focus voices outside of school
Teacher won’t have to grade constructive responses
HomeBase when up and running will be great
Business component of Teachers at Work
Felt like our voices were heard
Networking with others
Learning the whys and how things are being done.
$5,000 over 4 years – I think that I am worth more than that.
Even though disappointed we still love what we do
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