If you are interested in having the Administrator Connection sent to other personnel in your district in addition to the superintendent and principal, please contact the Heartland Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us. Please include the name, prefix, title (assistant principal, curriculum director, etc.) and building that each person serves.
Friday, August 21, 2009
SAI, AEAs and the Wallace Foundation to Host "Global Achievement Gap" author Tony Wagner
School Administrators of Iowa, Area Education Agencies and the Wallace Foundation are co-sponsoring a workshop with Tony Wagner at the Polk County Convention Complex on September 16, 2009. The workshop is titled "Leading, Learning and Teaching in the 21st Century."
For more information about the workshop, please view the brochure at http://www.sai-iowa.org/storage/TonyWagner.pdf
Registration is available online at http://www.sai-iowa.org/sept16reg/
The registration fee is $80 per person, regardless of whether you are a member of SAI.
The registration fee is $80 per person, regardless of whether you are a member of SAI.
Superintendents: September Heartland Administrators' Association Meeting Agenda
Click here for the agenda of the September 1 Heartland Administrators' Association (HAA) meeting which will be held at the West Des Moines Learning Resource Center from 9:00-11:50 a.m.
HEART Database Checkoff List
Here are a few important pieces of information about the HEART database. These apply to every district using HEART. Please read and pass on to the correct people in your district for action.
• Send a K-12 barcode file to heart@aea11.k12.ia.us ASAP to update students to their new grade and building and to inactivate students who have moved away. This should be done at the start of each school year. Some displays will not work correctly without this information.
• Review the access and security settings for your users each year. Inactivate users who have left the district and modify other settings as needed.
• HEART training sessions for the year were posted over the summer. The next administrator and behavior training sessions are scheduled for September 3, 2009. Go to the July archive of the Administrator Connection or click here for details and registration information.
• A new version of HEART is up and running. Most of the changes are behind the scenes to accommodate the new ethnicity coding requirements. The changes visible on the Web are mostly minor tweaks to eliminate bugs and improve ease of use. Please let us know if you encounter any problems.
• There is a new administrator’s manual available for download from the Heartland Web site or by clicking here. Please download this version and trash your old administrator manual. The user manual is under revision and will be posted when finished.
As always, your questions and suggestions are welcomed. Please address HEART questions to Connor Hood at chood@aea11.k12.ia.us.
• Send a K-12 barcode file to heart@aea11.k12.ia.us ASAP to update students to their new grade and building and to inactivate students who have moved away. This should be done at the start of each school year. Some displays will not work correctly without this information.
• Review the access and security settings for your users each year. Inactivate users who have left the district and modify other settings as needed.
• HEART training sessions for the year were posted over the summer. The next administrator and behavior training sessions are scheduled for September 3, 2009. Go to the July archive of the Administrator Connection or click here for details and registration information.
• A new version of HEART is up and running. Most of the changes are behind the scenes to accommodate the new ethnicity coding requirements. The changes visible on the Web are mostly minor tweaks to eliminate bugs and improve ease of use. Please let us know if you encounter any problems.
• There is a new administrator’s manual available for download from the Heartland Web site or by clicking here. Please download this version and trash your old administrator manual. The user manual is under revision and will be posted when finished.
As always, your questions and suggestions are welcomed. Please address HEART questions to Connor Hood at chood@aea11.k12.ia.us.
Heartland AEA's Annual Progress Report Now Available
Heartland AEA's Annual Progress Report (APR) for the 2007-08 school year is now available. You can access the APR at the following:
https://www.edinfo.state.ia.us/web/aea_apr_summary_staticweb.asp
You can also access the Agency's APR via our Web site by selecting "Heartland Information" on the navigation on the left-hand side of the page and going to "Annual Progress Report."
Please direct any questions or comments about the report to Kristi Upah, Assistant Director of Internal Accountability, at (800) 362-2720 or kupah@aea11.k12.ia.us.
https://www.edinfo.state.ia.us/web/aea_apr_summary_staticweb.asp
You can also access the Agency's APR via our Web site by selecting "Heartland Information" on the navigation on the left-hand side of the page and going to "Annual Progress Report."
Please direct any questions or comments about the report to Kristi Upah, Assistant Director of Internal Accountability, at (800) 362-2720 or kupah@aea11.k12.ia.us.
Last Call for Counselor Academy I
Don't let your district/school miss out on the last opportunity to participate in Counselor Academy I (CAI). This four-day professional development opportunity tailored for school counselors helps them write and refine their K-12 articulated, sequential school counseling program as required by Iowa Code. Help and guidance is provided to collect artifacts to ease schools through the new requirements for school counseling programs as related to the Iowa Department of Education site visits. There are two other professional development opportunities that are offered as follow-ups to CAI which are the following:
For more information about the counselor academies or other counselor support resources, please contact Sue Schirmer at sschirmer@aea11.k12.ia.us or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14379.
- Counselor Academy II, which focuses on using data to drive the school counseling program
- Counselor Academy III, which focuses on curriculum, instruction and assessment with regard to the school counseling program
For more information about the counselor academies or other counselor support resources, please contact Sue Schirmer at sschirmer@aea11.k12.ia.us or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14379.
What’s Different About Teaching Reading to English Language Learners?
These sessions connect research-based reading instruction and second language acquisition theory and practice. Through an interactive format, teachers learn about the important and striking differences between teaching reading to native English speakers and teaching reading to ELLs. Using a practical, hands-on approach, teachers then explore reading instruction strategies, focusing on areas of need particular to ELLs.
Instructor: Lynda Franco
Date: September 24, 2009
Location: Heartland AEA, Johnston Office, Learning Center
Session 1: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. This session is geared for internal staff, but teachers are welcome, too. The activity number is ES0055-9211-10-01.
Session 2: 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. This session is geared for teachers, but internal staff are welcome, too. Please bring a “brown bag” meal to eat during the brief break. The activity number is ES0055-9211-10-02.
Choose the session that works for your schedule. Register through the Heartland Professional Development catalog on the home page or click here. For an informational flyer, click here.
Instructor: Lynda Franco
Date: September 24, 2009
Location: Heartland AEA, Johnston Office, Learning Center
Session 1: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. This session is geared for internal staff, but teachers are welcome, too. The activity number is ES0055-9211-10-01.
Session 2: 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. This session is geared for teachers, but internal staff are welcome, too. Please bring a “brown bag” meal to eat during the brief break. The activity number is ES0055-9211-10-02.
Choose the session that works for your schedule. Register through the Heartland Professional Development catalog on the home page or click here. For an informational flyer, click here.
Spread the Word about "THE PUSH"
Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University. He also is the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation's only center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators.
Join his latest campaign, the PUSH, to identify excellent subject-specific blogs that are useful to P-12 teachers. If you know if any great blogs that could be a useful resource, please submit them on his Web site, Dangerously Irrelevant, at http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org.
Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If everyone contributes, two weeks from now there will be a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs and resources to share with teachers in your district/school.
Join his latest campaign, the PUSH, to identify excellent subject-specific blogs that are useful to P-12 teachers. If you know if any great blogs that could be a useful resource, please submit them on his Web site, Dangerously Irrelevant, at http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org.
Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If everyone contributes, two weeks from now there will be a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs and resources to share with teachers in your district/school.
A Two Step Online Fundraising Strategy for Schools and Nonprofits
Posted on August 17, 2009 by Will Marlow
Here is a solid online fundraising strategy that will work for many non-profits and schools:Will Marlow is an online fundraising consultant. Learn more about fundraising from Will Marlow’s blog at http://willmarlow.wordpress.com/
1. Become an excellent storyteller.
2. Adopt a proactive "spread the word" strategy that enables your donors and volunteers to begin carrying your flag and making requests for people to donate.
Of course, I would never suggest that an organization stop asking for money. I am suggesting, rather, that you start asking people to join you in making even more solicitations, which enables you to begin sending out more THANK YOU notes than requests for money.
It used to be that you had to do everything. You had to produce the content and deliver it. Now, you can get help with the second part of that, using tools like Facebook, Twitter and AlumniFidelity to ensure deliverability of your message. And this allows you to focus more of your own resources on the content part of the equation.
Inside your institution, you should cultivate your strength for storytelling so that whenever someone visits your Web site, they are hit hard by the compelling stories about how you impact the community and accomplish your mission: videos that discuss your impact on homelessness; interviews with your CEO talking about how many children you taught to read; a transcript of your school’s President talking about how excellent this year’s incoming freshman class is; stories about people you help and stories about how those people go on to help their communities. Whatever your institution’s mission, focus your resources on telling that story, and telling it well online.
And if you get the content right, your donors and volunteers will want to tell their friends and family about you; all you need to do is ask them to spread the word, and tell them exactly how you want them to do so (Facebook, Twitter, AlumniFidelity). It doesn’t need to be intrusive, but your message to your donors and volunteers should be: "Help Carry Our Message". Tell your friends and family. If you’re on Facebook, update your status message to tell people about your support. If you’re on Twitter, tweet on our behalf and include a link to your homepage. And for some supporters, ask them to create a personal fundraising page using a service like AlumniFidelity, or a product from Blackbaud or Convio, that let’s them do something like asking for donations to your charity or school instead of birthday presents. Let them be as creative as you like.
The bottom line is, you can tell your story better than anyone. And that story is the real asset you own. Create inspiring content that will make your donors feel good about giving you their money, and feel good about telling their friends. Your donors and volunteers are in the best position to deliver your message to their friends and family on your behalf. Let them do it.
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