School Counseling Program Refinement, Jan. 17 and Feb. 18

K-12 school counseling programs in the state of Iowa are required to be articulated and sequential. They are also required to be comprehensive in scope, preventive in design, developmental in nature, driven by data and integral to the school district's curricula and instructional program. This two-day, one-credit course is designed to assist teams of school counselors to analyze their current programming, determine gaps and create plans to fill those gaps. Register through the Heartland AEA Professional Development Catalog. The activity number is CN005392111101.

Budget Workshops for Superintendents & Business Managers Approaching

Heartland AEA will be hosting School Budget Workshops for area school districts with the goal to assist schools in completing their school budget in a single work session. Larry Sigel and Margaret Buckton will facilitate sessions on February 7 and March 9, and Dennis Scudder, AEA 267 Director of Finance, will host a session on February 22. Workshops will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Johnston Regional Education Center at 6500 Corporate Drive on their scheduled days. Click here for more information.

DE and SAI co-sponsored Principal-Counselor workshop, April 5 & 6

Dr. Peggy Hines, Education Trust Director of Transforming School Counseling, will be the speaker for Maximizing the Principal-Counselor Relationship to Increase Student Achievement. Teams of school counselors and their principals will examine the level of congruity regarding each others' roles in increasing student achievement, identify best practices based on the ASCA standards and successfully redesigned districts/buildings and develop a team action plan. The April 5 workshop is reserved for elementary/K-12 principal-counselor teams, and the April 6 workshop is reserved for secondary school principal-counselor teams. The location of both workshops is the Courtyard Marriott in Ankeny (2405 SE Creekview Drive).

A grant was secured to allow the first 150 principal-counselor teams to attend the workshop free of charge. There are still some of these spaces available. Otherwise, registration is $80 for administrators and school counselors who are SAI members; $136 for non-members. Registration includes two books, materials and lunch and can be done through the SAI website.

Urbandale Schools to host Summer Seminar for Area Administrators

The Urbandale Community School District will host the Langford Four-Day Quality Learning Seminar from June 13-16, 2011 in the media Center at Urbandale High School. This intensive seminar will introduce you to Quality Learning principles, history, tools and applications to learning. Gain the vision, purpose and direction for quality implementation in your organization. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Superintendents: January HAA Meeting Minutes

Click here to download the minutes from the January HAA meeting. The minutes and handouts are also posted on Heartland’s website under the Heartland Networks link which is located under the Leaders tab on the front page of the website. You can also bookmark this address: http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/leaders/ldr/admin.html

Click here for an updated 2011-2012 Legislature Contact sheet. It came to our attention that there were errors in the sheet that was attached in the December 17 Connection. Please also note that newly elected Senator Joni Ernst (Dist. 48) is not included. When the Dist. 35 seat is filled, we will add both Sen. Ernst and that elected person in the final revision of the document. Sen. Ernst’s contact information is the following:

Sen. Joni Ernst - (R) Dist. 48
910 N. 6th Street
Red Oak, IA 51566
(712) 623-4931
joni.ernst@legis.state.ia.us

Transition Times Workshop to be Held For Students With Disabilities

Heartland’s Parent & Educator Connection will be hosting a workshop on January 27 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. for high school students with disabilities and their families. The workshop will focus on post-high school planning for students with disabilities in grades 7-12. The topic of disclosure will also be covered and tips will be provided about how to disclose a student's disability. Please pass on the attached flyer to those who may be interested.

Originating Site: Estherville High School ICN Room
Satellite Sites: High School ICN rooms in Ames, Audubon, Winterset, North (Des Moines) and the Heartland AEA Johnston Regional Education Center (6500 Corporate Drive)

Iowa Educators Consortium Winter Paper Buy Deadline Extended to Jan. 31

In an effort to be more accommodating for Iowa schools, the Iowa Educators Consortium (IEC) has extended the date for schools to order their winter paper supply to January 31, 2011. Information and downloadable order forms are available at http://www.iec-ia.org/vnews/display.v/ART/4cea867abe0cf

Entities eligible for participation:
• K-12 Schools-public and private
• Colleges and Universities
• Public Libraries
• City, county, state government offices
• Nonprofit educational organizations

Questions can be directed to Marie Hills of the Iowa Educators Consortium at mhills@iec-ia.org or (319) 268-9005.

Final Version of National Technology Education Plan Available

The final version of the National Education Technology Plan (NETP) emphasizes “enhancing academic instruction through Internet-based learning, a decreased emphasis on ‘seat time’ and a preference for more flexibility.” The document also includes plans to fund the creation of open-source resources for schools and online professional learning communities for teachers, among other initiatives. The five goals include recommendations and one of the five essential components of learning powered by technology: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure and productivity. Go to the following link to view the plan. http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010