Friday, August 27, 2010

Early Childhood Professional Development: Iowa Quality Preschool Program Standards Overviews

Sign up today for one of these sessions which provide teachers and administrators with a brief overview of the Iowa Quality Preschool Program Standards. Any state voluntary grant recipients (teachers and administrators) who have not yet received the basic overview training of the IQPPS should consider taking the course. Register through the Heartland Professional Development Catalog.

Iowa Quality Preschool Program Standards Overview

Time: Friday, September 3 from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Location: Adel Public Library

Activity Number: EC007999991101

or
Time: Wednesday, September 8 from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Location: Room 11 of the Johnston Regional Education Center (6500 Corporate Drive)

Activity Number: EC007992111101

Iowa Core Update: Leadership for the Iowa Core

Iowa Core training is just around the corner. Click here for a flyer that contains the registration information for Leadership for the Iowa Core, Year Three, Day One. The Iowa Core team looks forward to our continued partnership with you and your leadership team.

Site Visit Preparation for K-12 School Counseling Programs

Is your K-12 School Counseling Program ready for a site visit? Join Julie Melcher, School Improvement Consultant from the Department of Education, and Susen Schirmer, PLLC from Heartland AEA, for a morning workshop in preparing your K-12 School Counseling program for your DE Site Visit for 2010-11. The workshop will be held on September 1, 2010 in the Johnston Regional Education Center (6500 Corporate Drive).

To register, go to the Professional development course catalog on the Heartland AEA website at https://prodev.aea11.k12.ia.us/4DCGI/CN005292111101INV
.

While you are in the mindset for improving your counseling programs, make sure to check out other professional learning opportunities listed below.


Counselor Academy II is a four-day training that will help individual counselors focus on the use of data to drive their school counseling program. For registration, see the Heartland Professional Development Catalog
.

Counselor Academy III is a four-day training that will help individual counselors write, revise or refine school counseling curriculum. For registration, see the Heartland Professional Development Catalog.

The Iowa National Guard Youth Program is happy to offer a two-day training for educators titled, Living in the New Normal. This training is conducted by the Military Child Education Coalition and provides those working with military children a wealth of information and resources (those attending will leave with a tote bag filled with resources). All materials, the training, as well as breakfast and lunch both days are provided at no cost to the attendee. Additionally, those completing the training may choose to pay for either one graduate credit or a CEU. The training will take place on September 28 and 29 at Camp Dodge in Johnston. For more information and registration, please go to www.MilitaryChild.org
.

IHaveAPlan Iowa training is available to districts and individual educators free of charge. The trainings for individual educators at Heartland AEA are on the Heartland Professional Development Catalog. To arrange training in your district (minimum participation applies) please contact Tracy Havener from the Iowa College Student Aid Commission at Tracy.Havener@iowa.gov.

Becoming a Learning School Conference; October 14 & 15, 2010

Join Joellen Killion, Deputy Executive Director of the National Staff Development Council and author of Becoming a Learning School, for this exciting professional development opportunity on October 14 and 15, 2010 at Adventureland Inn, Altoona. In the professional learning community of a school, an effective collaborative team is necessary to improve learning for each and every student.

This collaborative process, referenced multiple times in the outcomes of the Iowa Core, is foundational to the successful implementation of any school reform effort. The Becoming a Learning School Conference will provide strategies and tools to:
  • Strengthen school and district culture
  • Establish a focus on common goals
  • Clarify roles of the stakeholders in the school
  • Troubleshoot issues that are perceived as barriers to professional learning
  • Build a strong evaluation system that ensures revisions are based on student needs
Collaborative Teams: If you don't have one, this is how to get it started. If you have one, this is how to measure against standards to improve! To register, go to the Heartland Professional Development Catalog at https://prodev.aea11.k12.ia.us/4DCGI/YYYYYYYYYYYYYYSRCH

The activity number is
SI012099991101.

TESOL Seminars offered at Heartland AEA

Heartland AEA will be hosting three online Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) seminars that we are happy to bring to you at no cost to you or your district. We encourage you and your staff to come and enjoy the seminars, taking and using the information that is beneficial to you and your students.

To register for any of these seminars, please go to the Heartland Professional Development Catalog located on the front page of our website or at https://prodev.aea11.k12.ia.us/4DCGI/YYYYYYYYYYYYYYSRCH

Why Are We Still Teaching the Wrong Grammar the Wrong Way?
Time: Wednesday, October 6, 2010 from 9:00-10:30 a.m.
Location: Room 13 of the Johnston Regional Education Center (REC) at 6500 Corporate Drive, Johnston
Activity Number: ES005692111101


In this seminar the presenter critiques the standard pedagogical model then attempts to simplify it to a more elegant system that might be applied in practice. Alternative approaches might require viewing grammar, not as a discrete, sentence-level system but as both big lexis and small text. Likewise, teachers might be better off aiming to inculcate, not rules, but a “feel” for the way that the systems interrelate.


The Multilevel ESOL Class: A Multitude of Opportunities for Language Development
Time: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 from
2:00-3:30 p.m
Location: The Learning Center at the Johnston REC
Activity Number: ES0056-92111102

In this seminar, participants examine ways to organize multilevel classrooms, consider the principles of effective multilevel instruction and work with specific presentation and group management strategies that address the challenges of multilevel instruction and enhance its benefits.


A Focus on Academic Oral Language and Vocabulary Instruction in Language Learning

Time: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 from 9:30-11:00 a.m.
Location: Lower Level of Zion Lutheran Church (4300 Beaver Ave., Des Moines)
Activity Number: ES005699991101

This seminar will address the role of oral language and vocabulary development in K-12 students’ school success. It will then explore a number of effective and practical ways to teach academic language and the vocabulary of the content areas of math, science and social studies.

TransACT Webinar Series Offered through the DE

The Iowa Department of Education has partnered with TransACT to provide basic user-training sessions designed specifically for Iowa school districts. Click here to download an informational flyer.

Curriculum Network: September 3 Curriculum Network Meeting

The first Curriculum Network Meeting for the 2010-2011 year will be held on Friday, September 3, 2010. The meeting will go from 8:30-11:30 a.m. and will be held in Rooms 3, 4 & the ICN of the Johnston Regional Education Center. The agenda is available at http://curriculumnet.pbworks.com/September-3%2C-2010-Agenda.

Topics for this meeting include a district perspective of instructional rounds and the latest on the inclusion of the Common Core in the Iowa Core.

Superintendents: Heartland Administrators Association Meetings 2010-2011

To our superintendent colleagues, we invite you to join us for our monthly Heartland Administrator Association (HAA) meetings. The meetings are a time to come together, collaborate and discuss educational laws and standards and district-wide issues.

All monthly meetings, with the exception of the May, will be held at the West Des Moines Learning Resource Center. The May meeting will take place in the Johnston Regional Education Center. Meetings are always the first Tuesday of every month and begin at 9:00 a.m. This year’s first HAA meeting will be on September 7, 2010 (the Tuesday after Labor Day).

Agendas will always be available for download in the Administrator Connection on Fridays prior to the meetings. Be sure to check next week's update for the September agenda!


Dates for the 2010-2011 year are the following:

September 7

October 5

November 2

December 7

January 4
February 1

March 1

April 5

May 3


If you have suggestions for agenda items please contact your representative on the Superintendent's Advisory Council (listed below) or Sharon Kurns at skurns@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Area 1: John Kinley, Gilbert
Area 2: Brian Horn, Madrid

Area 3: Steve Smith, Guthrie Center

Area 4: Randy Flack, Knoxville

Area 5: Mark Wittmer, Pella

Areas 6 & 7: Tom Narak, West Des Moines

Chairperson: Tom Downs, Southeast Polk

Area 8: Nancy Sebring, Des Moines

Area 9: Luvern Gubbels, Des Moines Diocese

Area 10: Doug Williams, DMACC

Organization and Facility Changes at Heartland AEA

We’d like to provide you with an update on changes to our agency’s leadership team and to our facilities.

Three partnership directors have left the Agency. We have absorbed two of the partership director vacancies, and in those regions, districts have been assigned to other partnership directors. Our third and most recent vacancy has been filled with an interim partnership director serving in Regions 6 & 7. The Agency has chosen Dr. Kristi Flugum Upah to fill that role for 2010-2011. Dr. Upah has been with the Agency for 17 years, and she will serve the Ames, Ballard, Colo-Nesco, Gilbert and Roland Story school districts.

Heartland AEA closed two offices during the summer, Woodside (Ankeny) and Newton. Woodside staff were relocated to the Johnston Regional Education Center at 6500 Corporate Drive. The sound booth formerly in the Woodside office was also relocated to the Johnston REC. Newton office staff were relocated to the former Emerson Hough Elementary School building at 700 North 4th Avenue East in Newton. The relocation of the office to Emerson Hough allows Heartland a great opportunity to partner with the Newton Schools. Future plans for the new Newton office will include the creation of classroom space that can be used for professional development classes and agency meetings.

The Administrator Connection: A ‘Hub’ for Ideas and Feedback

Please consider using the Administrator Connection as a means of exchanging ideas, offering feedback and sharing information. You may post a comment by clicking on an article title, scrolling to the bottom of the page and leaving a comment in the field. A more direct route to leaving a comment is to click “Comments” under the article (shown below) and the Comment field will appear. Note: Posts are moderated by the Heartland Communications Department.