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NC HSTW October 2010 Workshops

The NC Department of Public Instruction is pleased to offer the following free workshops in October 2010.

These workshops will be conducted using the GoToWebinar online meeting program. This allows all members of a school team the opportunity to sign in from remote locations and actively take part in the workshop.

If you plan to have multiple people participating in the workshop using the same computer, then only one person needs to register. The person who registers will be the person who connects to GoToWebinar on the day of the workshop.

You do not have to be part of the High Schools That Work state network in order to participate. These workshops are open to everyone who may benefit from them.

GoToWebinar User Guide

Participants should read the Attendee Quick Guide (PDF 110 KB) to learn about joining the GoToWebinar and to familiarize themselves with the GoToWebinar window and controls before attending.

HSTW Assessment Data Workshop

If you administered the HSTW Assessment this past spring, you should have received by now the comprehensive school-level report disaggregating student achievement by student perceptions of school and classroom practices. This report gives schools, districts and states a unique opportunity to determine what is and is not working to increase student achievement. Some areas of focus include course-taking patterns; student expectations; English/language arts, mathematics, science and career/technical experiences; extra help; guidance and advisement; transition to and from high school; and postsecondary plans.

Schools can use this data to improve their school culture and student experiences, raise student expectations, and increase student achievement and graduation rates. Schools use the results to identify a need for improvement, gain support for improvement, engage the entire faculty in improvement and set priorities for improving school and classroom practices. Assessment results not only provide baseline data but also allow schools to document and measure progress over time. This is the largest, oldest and most comprehensive student assessment designed specifically for continuous school improvement.

Register for the HSTW Assessment Data Workshop. Identical workshops are offered on two different days.

After registering for a workshop you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining GoToWebinar on the day of the workshop.

Documents

Improving Literacy Across the Curriculum Workshop

Literacy is everyone's job. Workshop participants will learn the importance of actively teaching students how to learn content through strategies that help them get the most from written and spoken words. Strategies that promote literacy are modeled throughout the workshop, and participants are encouraged to reflect upon how these strategies and others like them could be incorporated into their practice. School teams of teachers and administrators should participate in this workshop to get a start on improving literacy in their school. Follow-up workshops and webinars will be discussed.

Register for the Improving Literacy Workshop.

After registering for a workshop you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining GoToWebinar on the day of the workshop.

Documents

Technical Details

A computer with a speaker and a connection to the internet is all that is required to participate. A telephone connection will also be available for those who wish to listen to the audio on the phone while watching the visual on the computer screen. The phone number and PIN will be included in the e-mail you receive after registering for the workshop.

Anyone who speaks during the workshop will require a microphone connected to their computer, or he/she can use the telephone to both talk and listen. Each attendee will have the ability to mute and unmute (turn off and on) their microphone at any time.

NOTE: Whenever a microphone is unmuted (turned on) care must be taken to ensure that the delayed sound coming out of the speakers does not get picked up by the microphone. This causes an annoying echo effect for all attendees.

Options to avoid the annoying echo include:

System Requirements

PC-based attendees

Macintosh®-based attendees

Firewalls

It is possible that LEAs might have video conferencing blocked at their Internet firewall. Check with your system administrator to be sure. If it is blocked, the system administrator might be able to unblock the firewall to allow a specific video conferencing session.

It might be that only your outgoing video or audio is blocked rather than the incoming video and audio.