Friday, December 6, 2013
Happy Holidays!
Click here for an e-card (with sound) from chief administrator Paula Vincent wishing you all a happy holiday season.
Changes Made to Agency Website—New Special Ed Tab Created, About Us Content Shifted
Based on feedback we’ve received, a new Special Education tab has been added to the main navigation bar on our agency website. Check it out at www.heartlandaea.org!
The name of the tab is “Special Education Services” and in the drop-down menu under it are four main categories:
With the creation of the new tab, we have shifted the “About Us” information down on the page. Click on the “About Heartland AEA” link for information about agency leadership, board of directors, office locations and schools we serve.
We hope you find this change helpful. Please contact the Communications Department at comms@heartlandaea.org if you have any questions.
The name of the tab is “Special Education Services” and in the drop-down menu under it are four main categories:
- Getting Started With Special Education
- Guidance Documents
- Program Supports to Schools
- Student & Family Services
With the creation of the new tab, we have shifted the “About Us” information down on the page. Click on the “About Heartland AEA” link for information about agency leadership, board of directors, office locations and schools we serve.
We hope you find this change helpful. Please contact the Communications Department at comms@heartlandaea.org if you have any questions.
Substitute Authorization Updates
Effective November 10, 2013, individuals with a Substitute Authorization may sub no more than 10 days in one month in one classroom. This is in addition to the rule of no more than five consecutive days in one classroom.
Busteed to Focus on Gallup Research and “Economics of Human Development, Feb. 4
After decades of focus on standardized testing and school accountability, American schools still trail much of the world on international measures of student performance. Amidst a time of globalization, disruptive technology and new demands in the workforce, are we educating our students in the right way?
Learn what Gallup research has to say about the “economics of human development,” and what should become a New Bill of Rights for All Students. Brandon Busteed, Executive Director of Gallup Education, will take you through a whirlwind of the most important research informing how we can get our education system back on the path to winning again. Gallup’s insights will change everything you think you know about education.
February 4, 2014
Time: 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Location: Heartland AEA Johnston REC, Rooms 13A & B
Audience: Superintendents, principals, district administrators and curriculum directors. It will be a great opportunity for superintendents or principals to bring in school teams.
Activity Number: AD015292111401
Additionally, Mr. Busteed will hold a presentation for superintendents during the Heartland Administrators’ Association Meeting that morning.
Learn more about Mr. Busteed here.
Learn what Gallup research has to say about the “economics of human development,” and what should become a New Bill of Rights for All Students. Brandon Busteed, Executive Director of Gallup Education, will take you through a whirlwind of the most important research informing how we can get our education system back on the path to winning again. Gallup’s insights will change everything you think you know about education.
February 4, 2014
Time: 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Location: Heartland AEA Johnston REC, Rooms 13A & B
Audience: Superintendents, principals, district administrators and curriculum directors. It will be a great opportunity for superintendents or principals to bring in school teams.
Activity Number: AD015292111401
Additionally, Mr. Busteed will hold a presentation for superintendents during the Heartland Administrators’ Association Meeting that morning.
Learn more about Mr. Busteed here.
English Language Learner Task Force Report Now Available
The ELL Task Force Report has been finalized and vetted through the Iowa Department of Education. The final report is published on the Department of Education website and is available here.
Heartland AEA Provided Internet Connectivity and Security
Heartland AEA area schools are relying more and more each year on Internet connectivity to provide a 21st Century education to their students, and their need for bandwidth is growing exponentially. An important service provided by Heartland AEA is Internet access, which is offered free to all of our districts. While some districts choose to use other providers, Heartland AEA and the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) work together to provide Internet access to 42 of our school districts and several of our private schools.
By aggregating through Heartland AEA, participating schools save close to $1 million in connectivity costs. We place a high priority on reliable service and quick response time when contacted about problems. We know our districts rely on their Internet working efficiently 24/7/365.
Commitment to high quality service
Recent months have been particularly challenging. While the Agency’s network is “up” over 99% of the time, the networks in some of our districts have been the subject of attacks from hackers from various parts of the world, including China and Eastern Europe. These have generally been what are called “denial of service attacks.” For example, imagine you run a telemarketing firm, and one of your competitors programs their computers to call all of your phone lines every 3 seconds. That’s essentially what a denial of service attack does to an Internet connection. The network is working, but because of all of the extra traffic from hackers, it slows down considerably, sometimes to the point where it is essentially unusable. Attacks of this nature can slow down the network not just in the targeted district, but other districts as well.
In the past couple of years, service has also been interrupted or significantly slowed down due to Heartland AEA router issues, Internet filter issues and fiber optic lines being accidentally severed. Other AEAs and Internet service providers have also been the targets of denial of service attacks and similar problems, causing similar frustrations in their parts of the state.
In order to increase the reliability and security of our network, Heartland AEA is taking several steps, and considering the implementation of other safeguards. These include:
• Purchasing a new router and higher-capacity Internet content filter.
• Increasing bandwidth from the ICN from the current 3.0 Gb to 4.0 Gb after the first of the year.
• Hiring an outside firm to conduct a network penetration test - such a test identifies security holes in a network and leads to recommendations to strengthen it against outside attacks or hackers.
• Purchasing and implementing more robust network monitoring software than the Agency currently uses.
• Providing training in network security and troubleshooting for IT staff members at the AEA and district levels.
• Testing network circuits in each district/school to which the Agency provides Internet aggregation. Gathering these baseline data while the network is working well with help identify problems when troubleshooting is necessary.
We are confident these steps will help to improve our network performance, and we look forward to working together to strengthen our network security. If you would like additional information, please contact Lance Wilhelm, Director of Technology, at lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org or Tuan Dao, Network Administrator, tdao@heartlandaea.org.
By aggregating through Heartland AEA, participating schools save close to $1 million in connectivity costs. We place a high priority on reliable service and quick response time when contacted about problems. We know our districts rely on their Internet working efficiently 24/7/365.
Commitment to high quality service
Recent months have been particularly challenging. While the Agency’s network is “up” over 99% of the time, the networks in some of our districts have been the subject of attacks from hackers from various parts of the world, including China and Eastern Europe. These have generally been what are called “denial of service attacks.” For example, imagine you run a telemarketing firm, and one of your competitors programs their computers to call all of your phone lines every 3 seconds. That’s essentially what a denial of service attack does to an Internet connection. The network is working, but because of all of the extra traffic from hackers, it slows down considerably, sometimes to the point where it is essentially unusable. Attacks of this nature can slow down the network not just in the targeted district, but other districts as well.
In the past couple of years, service has also been interrupted or significantly slowed down due to Heartland AEA router issues, Internet filter issues and fiber optic lines being accidentally severed. Other AEAs and Internet service providers have also been the targets of denial of service attacks and similar problems, causing similar frustrations in their parts of the state.
In order to increase the reliability and security of our network, Heartland AEA is taking several steps, and considering the implementation of other safeguards. These include:
• Purchasing a new router and higher-capacity Internet content filter.
• Increasing bandwidth from the ICN from the current 3.0 Gb to 4.0 Gb after the first of the year.
• Hiring an outside firm to conduct a network penetration test - such a test identifies security holes in a network and leads to recommendations to strengthen it against outside attacks or hackers.
• Purchasing and implementing more robust network monitoring software than the Agency currently uses.
• Providing training in network security and troubleshooting for IT staff members at the AEA and district levels.
• Testing network circuits in each district/school to which the Agency provides Internet aggregation. Gathering these baseline data while the network is working well with help identify problems when troubleshooting is necessary.
We are confident these steps will help to improve our network performance, and we look forward to working together to strengthen our network security. If you would like additional information, please contact Lance Wilhelm, Director of Technology, at lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org or Tuan Dao, Network Administrator, tdao@heartlandaea.org.
Training Sessions on E-rate Form 471 Announced
The deadline for filing E-rate form 471 applications for the 2014-2015 school/funding year has been announced. E-rate form 471 may be filed online starting at 11:00 a.m. CST on Thursday, January 9, 2014. The deadline for completing Form 471 is 10:59 p.m. CST on Wednesday, March 26, 2014.
Because form 470 MUST be filed no less than 28 days before filing form 471, this means that E-rate form 470 must be filed no later than February 26, 2014. However, you are strongly urged to file form 470 now! You don't need to wait until January or February to file for 470. If you missed the training webinar on filing form 470, contact Lance Wilhelm at lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org.
The Form 471 is being revised and all applicants are encouraged to participate in training. Training sessions for Form 471 are as follows:
Completing Form 471: (select one)
Wednesday, January 15, 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Thursday, January 16, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 28, 10:00 a.m.-noon
Wednesday, February 5, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
To participate in any of the above sessions, go to http://iowa.adobeconnect.com/e-rate/ and select “enter as a guest.” There is no need to sign up in advance for any session.
Because form 470 MUST be filed no less than 28 days before filing form 471, this means that E-rate form 470 must be filed no later than February 26, 2014. However, you are strongly urged to file form 470 now! You don't need to wait until January or February to file for 470. If you missed the training webinar on filing form 470, contact Lance Wilhelm at lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org.
The Form 471 is being revised and all applicants are encouraged to participate in training. Training sessions for Form 471 are as follows:
Completing Form 471: (select one)
Wednesday, January 15, 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Thursday, January 16, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 28, 10:00 a.m.-noon
Wednesday, February 5, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
To participate in any of the above sessions, go to http://iowa.adobeconnect.com/e-rate/ and select “enter as a guest.” There is no need to sign up in advance for any session.
Heartland AEA Website Goes Mobile
The mobile site is not a full recreation of our main website—it features those items that we know our clients use most often:
- Professional Development Catalog
- Reserve Materials
- Online Resources
- News
- Calendar (coming soon!)
- Careers
- Staff Directory
- Locations
- Contact Us
- Heartland AEA didn’t need to go through Apple or Android to have an app approved, and we don’t need to go through them to have it updated, so we have control over and easy publishing rights to the content on the site.
- Mobile sites are easier to find than apps that have to be searched for on the App Store or Android Market.
- A mobile site doesn’t have to be downloaded to your device as an app would, so it does not take up valuable data on your phone or tablet. Updates don’t have to be downloaded, either.
- Mobile websites are always available for users to return to them.
- Mobile websites are accessible across platforms and can be easily shared among users and search engines.
Agency Exploring Purchase of Full-Color, Short-Run Digital Envelope Printer
Heartland AEA is exploring the purchase of a digital envelope printer to enhance the products that Creative Services can provide. New features of this printer would include:
- Full-color printing on envelopes that will be an exact match to your letterhead
- Personalized addressing of envelopes
- No minimum order quantity
- Various envelope sizes and styles
Heartland AEA Creative Services Shaves Up a Good Incentive
Our creative services staff were able to help out Pleasantville Elementary with a reading incentive for students. Read more about the incentive below and don't hesitate to contact creativeservices@heartlandaea.org for things we can create to help motivate your students! Special thanks to Pleasantville Elementary for sharing your fun photos.
From the principal:
From the principal:
"Students earned a mustache each week they read a certain amount of minutes each week. The number of minutes read was recorded on a calendar. While we encouraged students to read at home daily, students had all week to meet the assigned number of minutes.
The goal was for each grade level classroom to earn a minimum of 60 mustaches by the end of the month. As a reward for meeting the goal of 60 mustaches, their teacher wore a mustache all day."
December 2013 School Leader Update
Click here to find a link to the December 2013 issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education.
SchoolReach Webinar on Teen Depression
Click here to register for a webinar with Dr. Scott Poland on teen depression taking place on Thursday, December 12. Dr. Poland, a former president of the National Association of School Psychologists and a school crisis prevention expert, will speak on the causes of teen depression and what school leaders can do to help teens who are struggling.
The dissemination of information from external organizations by Heartland AEA does not imply sponsorship or endorsement of the information. It is being passed on to our stakeholders for its educational value.
The dissemination of information from external organizations by Heartland AEA does not imply sponsorship or endorsement of the information. It is being passed on to our stakeholders for its educational value.
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