What Teaching Looks Like in NC

This is what teaching looks like in North Carolina.

Inaugural #NCed Awards

Join educators from across the state Wednesday, October 29th, at 9:00 pm for the first ever #NCed awards! 

At 9:00 pm on October 29th, #NCed moderators will kick off this hour of celebration. Promptly at 9:00 pm, categories for #NCed awards will be announced. Then, participants will each choose an educator to recognize at the end of the one-hour celebration. Each participant will have 40 minutes to create a video that honors an educator for a specific category. Each video will celebrate the amazing work that a North Carolina educator does. After the videos have been created, participants will share them with all #NCed chat participants via Twitter. This will be an incredible hour of honoring and recognizing educators who have shaped our practice. Following the chat, videos will be archived here on the #NCed blog.

We hope you'll choose to join us to recognize an educator who has impacted your own practice and influenced the work of others. Look for us at 9:00 pm on October 29th using #NCed.

Special thanks to Karl Lindgren-Streicher, John Stevens, Robert Pronovost, and Sam Patterson of #caedchat for allowing me to jump in on the brainstorming for this awesome idea as it was happening. 

What is your focus for 2014-15?

In tonight's #NCed chat, educators from across the state will discuss their priorities for the school year. Participants will be asked to share their #1 focus for the school year and discuss strategies for implementing and communicating that focus. Join tonight's conversation to share your focus for the year and hear about the awesome things that are happening in schools across the state.

In addition to Twitter, tonight's conversation will also take place via Google Hangout, as panelists discuss their priorities and action steps. If you are interested in joining the Google Hangout as a panelist, click here to RSVP. The live panel conversation will be streamed below.

View the Twitter archive here. 

#NCed Evolves for 2014-15

As we welcome the 2014-15 school year, #NCed is proud to announce some exciting new opportunities for connecting and collaborating with North Carolina educators throughout the year. #NCed has provided a forum for ongoing discussions and sharing among NC educators and others interested in NC education since early 2013. Since its inception, the #NCed hashtag has been used for Twitter chats and asynchronous sharing that occurs between chats. 

Although there has been tremendous professional learning and sharing by folks using the #NCed hashtag, we believe there is great potential for collaboration across the state that is untapped. We want to learn from the experiences and expertise of educators in all parts of the state and use #NCed to provide venues for deep levels of learning and professional growth. In an effort to strengthen collaboration and learning across the state, #NCed is evolving in the following ways for the 2014-15 school year. We hope you will choose to be an active participant and share these opportunities with friends and colleagues.

• The #NCed team is developing a schedule of monthly chats to occur simultaneously via Twitter and Google Hangouts on Air. During these chats, we will discuss topics that are important to educators across the state. Panelists for these chats will be educators recruited from across the state who are eager to share and learn from others. These chats will regularly involve collaborative planning and sharing via Google Drive. For example, we may host a collaborative planning session focused on effective practices for communicating instructional initiatives with stakeholders. Participants would be encouraged to share strategies, resources, and practices that have worked for them. Our hope is that promising practices will spread across the state like wildfire. Collaborative planning and sharing can continue asynchronously following the live chats via Twitter, Google+, and Google Drive. Resources and ideas shared during these collaborative planning sessions will be linked to the #NCed blog. 

• We are focusing our efforts this year on growing the #NCed Google+ Community. Google+ Communities provide a great space for collaborating in more than 140 characters. Our hope is that this community will be a place where NC educators go when they have questions, ideas, and resources to share with others. We also will link archives from #NCed Google Hangouts on Air / Twitter chats and collaborative planning sessions to the Google+ community. If you aren't a member, join today!

• The #NCed team and other educators across the state will host occasional un-chats using the #NCed hashtag to talk about whatever participants want to talk about. Un-chats allow educators to discuss issues that are important to them and their students in that moment. These regular un-chats can help NC educators and those interested in NC education stay current with what's happening in classrooms across the state.

As #NCed evolves, we hope you will join us so that we can all learn from one another and apply what we learn in our local settings. Please visit this link to share your feedback and express your interest in participating.

Educators Represent NC at ISTE 2014

North Carolina was extremely well represented at this year's ISTE conference in Atlanta. I spoke with dozens of NC educators throughout the conference, and each of them was energized by the learning and connections happening at ISTE 2014. More importantly, they were all eager to take their learning back to their local contexts. These educators are leaders not only in their schools and districts but also in the state and across the country. Several of these incredible folks gathered one morning for an #NCed meet-up. Many, many other NC educators were present at ISTE but were unable to join us for the meet-up. If you were there, please leave us a comment to share a bit about your conference experience and how it will impact your work with student learning and teacher learning.

Front row, left to right: Beth Elmore, Stacy Lovdahl, Heather Mullins, Jayme Linton

Back row, left to right: Ashley Hurley, Derek McCoy, Kelly Hines, Nate Bourne, Steven Anderson, Geoff Price, Jamie Frye

#NCed at NCTIES 2014

The #NCed team is excited to present a session at this year's NCTIES conference. Our session is called "Connect with #NCed", and our goal is to help educators get connected and expand their learning networks. All resources for the session can be found on our blog on the NCTIES tab. Some of these 25 NC educators to follow on Twitter are planning to make a guest appearance at the session. We're looking forward to connecting face-to-face with many members of our PLNs! If you have any questions for the #NCed team or are planning to attend NCTIES 2014, leave us a comment below.

NCCAT Seminars with Immediate Openings

NC educators >> Apply for these upcoming NCCAT seminars to collaborate and connect with other North Carolina educators. After spending a few days at NCCAT, you'll be refreshed and re-energized to return to your classroom with new knowledge, new skills, and new connections. 

Feb. 12-14 – Digital Learning Across the Curriculum in Cullowhee: Our students live in a digital world, with the ability to contact anyone, anywhere, anytime. How can we first catch up with our students and then help them channel their connectivity into the pursuit of knowledge? This program will help you acquire the skills necessary to navigate the digital age, to develop technology-enriched learning experiences, and to facilitate the effective use of current and emerging digital tools. Gain confidence and skill in accessing information as you seamlessly integrate technology into your curriculum. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. Capitalize on your students’ excitement and guide them on a safe, legal, and ethical journey into the digital universe.

Feb. 19-22 – Using Data Wisely: Formal and Informal Assessment in Cullowhee:  An increased focus on accountability is leaving many teachers feeling uncertain and afraid. Many teachers view assessment data merely as an external measure by which others can judge their value. Once we understand what the data says, we can take ownership of it and use it as a tool to inform ourselves and strengthen our practice. In addition to learning how to interpret your formal assessment scores, you will learn how to create your own reliable classroom assessments. You’ll walk back into your classroom with a number of tools that you can immediately use to improve instruction and to understand your students’ needs more fully.

Visit www.nccat.org to apply. 

NC Principal Receives 2014 Digital Principal Award

Our very own Derek McCoy, principal of Spring Lake Middle School in Cumberland County, was one of 3 principals recognized by the National Association of Secondary School Principals for the 2014 Digital Principal Award. Derek co-moderates #ncadmin, a bi-weekly Twitter chat for administrators, and #edfocus, a Twitter chat that connects authors and experts with educators. Derek, we're proud of you and thankful for the work you do to impact students and educators locally and globally.

Read the NASSP announcement here.