Edgenuity Workshops Scheduled for March 10

Many of you use the credit recovery program Edgenuity (formerly E20/20) and have expressed interest in learning more about the features of the program as well as best practice in the field. We have put together two workshops to be held Monday, March 10 at the Heartland West Des Moines Campus to learn more about these great resources. Please register for the workshop that best suits your needs:

Morning Workshop
March 10, 8:30-11:00 a.m.
Click here to register.

Lunch will be provided by Edgenuity from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Afternoon Workshop
March 10 1:00-3:30 p.m.
Click here to register.

Course to Assess Mental Health in Schools

Join us March 29 and April 12 at the Heartland AEA West Des Moines Campus for the professional learning course, Mental Health in Schools. During this course, participants will learn about the most common mental health disorders seen in schools. Participants will learn how to recognize and describe symptoms, access resources and increase their confidence when working with students experiencing mental health concerns. This course will include face-to-face instruction as well as self-guided study through a moodle site. Participants will be responsible for blogging about their learning online and participation during in-class exercises. Click here to register.

Pamphlet Paints Picture of AEA System Legislative Priorities & Services

Click here to read a pamphlet about the AEA system that highlights our legislative priorities and our increasing demands for service and gives a snapshot of our current services.

Heartland AEA Calendar Up and Running on Website

The Agency’s events calendar is up and running on the website. It can be accessed by clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner of the homepage called “Calendar.” The calendar is an embedded Google calendar so events can easily to be copied to personal Google calendars. To see our Agency events, visit: http://www.heartlandaea.org/calendar

Quarterly Journal of School Improvement Released

Click here for the Iowa Department of Education’s Quarterly Journal of School Improvement. The document is intended to strengthen the network of Iowa school leaders, to disseminate best practices around school improvement and to serve as a resource to garner lessons learned from the field.

Iowa BOEE February 2014 Newsletter

Click here for the link to the Iowa BOEE's February 2014 newsletter. Topics include: the new www.teachiowa.gov job posting and applicant site, new endorsement areas (STEM and content area specialists), the teacher intern program, teacher shortage areas, native language teaching authorization and the military exchange license.

EyesOpenIowa Provides Sex Education Curricula Trainings

EyesOpenIowa: Your connection to adolescent sexual health, the statewide teen pregnancy prevention agency is here to help school districts with trainings and curricula to meet the Iowa Code section 279.50. Our work is funded in partnership with the Department of Human Services.

We can help school districts by offering:

• Teacher Trainings - trainings with Heartland AEA continuing education and nursing credits options 
• Curricula - Iowa Department of Education approved curriculums are listed on our website~ www.eyesopeniowa.org
• Evaluation Tools - Establish implementation monitoring to ensure success
• Technical Assistance - Development of an individualized technical assistance program for your teachers
• Resources - We will provide you with the supplies you need to successfully deliver your programming

We offer the Working to Institutionalize Sexuality Education program (WISE Initiative). This program is a nationwide effort to support schools and districts in the effective and sustainable implementation of K-12 Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE). The WISE Iowa Initiative partners with school districts to support them in adopting, implementing and institutionalizing comprehensive sexuality education programs that are research-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate and comply with the State’s Human Growth and Development mandate. The WISE program is currently serving 78, 821 students in Iowa, including the Des Moines Public School Districts.

Additionally, EyesOpenIowa offers topic trainings such as HIV/AIDS 101, working with LGBTQ youth, answering sensitive questions and self-disclosure, and teaching techniques for sexual health educators. We can also customize trainings to your school’s needs including offering them at your location if enough participants are available. We are also happy to provide any technical assistance, curriculum review, policy assessment and parent sessions.

These opportunities are available at a sliding scale fee with scholarships available to school districts Heartland AEA works with.

On our website you will find further details on the services, trainings and curricula that EyesOpenIowa offers at www.eyesopeniowa.org / bobbiejo@eyesopeniowa.org or contact our office at (515) 276-6788 if we can be of any assistance.

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.