Good job!
Nice work!
You missed three questions.
89.

As a student, didn’t you just cringe at this kind of feedback?   Think back to your last experience as a student.  Remember the time you spent on an assignment and then received nothing but the grade?  Or you received “Good job.”   So deflating.  No affirmation of what you learned.  No direction in what you didn’t know or WHY you received that B.

During my last degree time, I took a class that had a project due at the end.  It was huge.  It was one of those “3-inch notebook” projects.  It took hours and hours to research the material, write the entries, and then put it together.  I felt like a ten year old when I turned it in.  I had put so much work into that project, and my forty year old self was excited to show it to my professor.

The next week, it was returned.  The professor placed the binder on my desk, I opened it, and there was a grade.  Just a grade. Not a single comment.  I looked at each page.  Nothing.  I am convinced to this day that the professor never looked at it with any depth.   I was happy with the grade, but it did not have as much meaning because of the lack of feedback I received.

As NCVPS teachers, we have worked very hard to change the culture of how we leave feedback.  We have worked to make sure that every question on every assignment receives instructional, meaningful feedback for students.  We want our feedback to be specific, directive, connective and the right tone.
We will continue to work on developing this culture.   Culture is created by our shared beliefs and values.  We have a shared belief of what effective instruction looks like at NCVPS and that is what your Spot Checks measure.  In the coming weeks, I will talk more about this culture we are continuing to create together and how we want to continue to support our teachers as we create and define our NCVPS instructional culture.

As we approach our final weeks with our students, make sure the feedback you are leaving is meaningful.  You are instructing your students with each question.  You should be specific in your feedback with what was good about an answer and what was lacking; you are directive in that you point students where to go to review or learn more; you are connective in your feedback in that you connect to prior learning or learning that is to come; and you have the right tone.  Tone is hard to communicate without body language or facial expressions but we can communicate a positive tone by using a student’s name and offering affirmation.

Perhaps a good rule of thumb may be this:  If you are parent, leave the kind of feedback you would want your children to receive.  If you are not a parent, leave the kind of feedback you would want to receive.

We want to provide the best instructional experience we possibly can for our students – this is one of the factors that makes NCVPS so different from all the other options out there.  And YOU are the best teachers for these students – we want the state to know this!  As Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty would say, “You can take that to the bank, Jack!”
~Michelle Lourcey
Chief Academic Officer

Because registration will be offline for three weeks (June 17 – July 8), we encourage schools to be proactive in their enrollments for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014.

We will continue to use the registration system to post summer school grades throughout the summer. All grades will be recorded in PowerSchool starting with the Fall 2013 semester.

The PowerSchool system will include enrollment and reporting features for NCVPS registration.  NCVPS is working closely with PowerSchool administrators to assure the initial NCVPS data requirements are met to make the transition as seamless as possible.

We will send updates in the days ahead to include training information from the PowerSchool team. NCVPS is excited by this partnership and the enhanced registration processes and data management of NCVPS enrollments.

NCVPS will transition to PowerSchool for its registration process during the summer of 2013.  Schools will continue to use our registration system until June 17. At that time, we will close the registration system for enrollments, and all registration information will be imported into PowerSchool. We will be back online for registration on July 8 in PowerSchool.

Because registration will be offline for three weeks (June 17 – July 8), we encourage schools to be proactive in their enrollments for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014.

We will continue to use the registration system to post summer school grades throughout the summer. All grades will be recorded in PowerSchool starting with the Fall 2013 semester.

The PowerSchool system will include enrollment and reporting features for NCVPS registration.  NCVPS is working closely with PowerSchool administrators to assure the initial NCVPS data requirements are met to make the transition as seamless as possible.

We will send updates in the days ahead to include training information from the PowerSchool team. NCVPS is excited by this partnership and the enhanced registration processes and data management of NCVPS enrollments.

Spring 2014:  OCS Blended Learning American History 2

Fall 2014:  OCS Blended Learning English 3 and OCS Blended Learning English 4

The dates are still tentative, and these offerings will not be confirmed until they are listed in our catalogs here.

Take a look at these awesome presentations by Deanna Lancaster, Kyra Bernat, Sara Mann, Pat Lewis, Allison Crawford, and Daneilla Stamm!

Way to go, teachers!  You represent NCVPS well!

Well, enter two options for doing just that, Jing and Screencast-o-matic.  Both tools are 100% free to use and very user friendly.  There are some differences which we will discuss but they both get the job done.  Let’s start with Jing; it’s a free to download application for your Mac or PC that allows you to take quick screenshots with annotations or screencasts up to 5 minutes in length.  You can upload your screenshot/screencast and just send a url so you don’t need to worry about attachment size constraints.

Second, there is screencast-o-matic, this tool only does screencasts, but the nice part is that can be run both as an installed application like Jing or via the web with no installation so you can use it on a computer where you don’t have the rights to install a program on.  With the second method, you do your screencast, then download the file, then email it to the person you’re communicating with.

Both tools are easy to use and come with ample documentation to get you started.  Next time you’re trying to explain something, just say, “let me show you!” and break out your new tools.

Jen Currin

NCVPS’s own Jen Currin led a webinar hosted by the Southern Regional Education Board Education Technology Cooperative on April 17. In the webinar, entitled “Creating a Culture of Success: Building Relationships and Community in the Online Classroom,” Currin discussed ways that online teachers can better connect with all stakeholders, including students, parents and administrators.  The webinar focused on differentiating instruction and helping special-needs students complete the same curriculum as regular education students by building relationships and creating a community.

If you missed the webinar, you can watch the archive here:

https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-17.0713.M.EE4826E2E6DCAEADD84E92E462021C.vcr&sid=849

Jen was 2013 NCVPS Teacher of the Year and a 2013 National Teacher of the Year finalist. Jen is an instructional leader with NCVPS where she coaches other teachers with best practices. Jen also teaches English in our OCS Blended Learning and Credit Recovery programs.

Timeline

Be familiar with the last day of class for both our early calendar and traditional calendar courses. Students will lose access to their courses at midnight on the last day of class. Students will not be able to submit assignments after the last day of class! Mark these dates on your calendar:

May 9: Last day of class for early calendar courses.

May 14: Early calendar grades posted in the registration system.

May 24: Last day of class from traditional calendar and yearlong courses.

May 30: Traditional calendar and yearlong grades posted in the registration system.

Early Senior Grades

If you have graduating seniors, you may request grades early from instructors.  Our instructors can only accommodate this for graduating seniors and for early calendar students in traditional calendar courses.

EOC and VoCATS Testing

Schools must administer all EOC and VoCATS tests.  Schools will also need to average the EOC and VoCATS scores (25%) into the grades that we post for those courses. If you’ve not already made arrangements with your school’s testing coordinator, please do that right away.

 Grades

Our final grade report will show each marking period grade and the final grade except for EOC and VoCATS courses.

You will want to be aware of our grading policy and how we weight grades, especially for EOC courses where you will need to calculate the final grade once you receive your test scores. Follow this link to see our Grades Quick Reference Guide and how we calculate grades.

Report Cards and Transcripts

Schools must enter grades into NCWise/Powerschool.  Be sure the data manager has access to the grade report and understands our grade calculations. Be sure to examine the spreadsheet closely to find the final grade. This will be essential when your data manage enters NCVPS grades into NCWISE to avoid data entry errors.

Grade Questions

If you have questions about a student’s grade, you should send those directly to the student’s teacher or submit a help ticket to the Virtual Support Center.

Extensions

If you have technical issues at your school on the last days of class or if a student is ill, you may request a short (1-2 day) extension directly from the teacher.   See our full guidelines here for course extension requests.

 We hope these procedures help you successfully close out your semester. Thank you for enrolling your students with NCVPS! We look forward to serving you in the future.