Friday, January 3, 2014

Superintendents: January 7 HAA Meeting

Click here for the January HAA meeting agenda which will be held from 9:00-11:50 a.m. on Tuesday, January 7 in Rooms 13 A & B of the Heartland AEA Johnston Regional Education Center (6500 Corporate Drive).

RSVP by Jan. 6 for TLC Grant Application Feedback Session

Is your district submitting a Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) grant application at the end of January? Do you want feedback from knowledgeable AEA staff and districts who are applying? Do you want feedback from a process that is consistent with the process the TLC Commission plans to use? If so, Heartland AEA has an opportunity for your district to get valuable feedback on your grant.

Heartland AEA will hold a feedback process session for districts on January 13 from 12:00-4:00 p.m. The TLC grant planning session on that day will only run from 9:00-11:30 a.m. Interested districts can reserve a spot by contacting Kevin Fangman at kfangman@heartlandaea.org by Monday, January 6. Participating districts will need to submit a draft of their grant to Kevin by Thursday, January 9, and commit to sending one or two people to review sections of grants for other districts. There will be one or two simple directions regarding how grant application drafts will need to be submitted so the process can be organized efficiently. This will be sent out to participating districts on Tuesday, January 7. 

The process will be modeled after the structure that the Teacher Leadership and Compensation System plans to use to score grants. District and AEA reviewers will be assigned to read one or two sections of the grant, along with the abstract, and then fill out a structured feedback form. All 10 sections of a district's application will be reviewed, and all feedback will be sent home with districts at the end of the day.

If you are interested in participating, you will need to contact Kevin Fangman know by Monday, January 6. Kevin can be reached at kfangman@heartlandaea.org.

More Information about Learning Management System Day, Jan. 17

Heartland AEA will be hosting a Learning Management System (LMS) "Shootout" on January 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Johnston REC. The day is primarily targeted at curriculum directors, technology directors, tech integration specialists and K-12 administrators.

Click here for a tentative agenda. Vendors will give a 50-minute presentation that provides an overview of their LMS product. Most vendors will present 4-5 times on this day. A full presentation schedule will be distributed in early January, once all invited vendors have indicated if they plan to participate. Districts should be able to easily see 4-5 presentations on this day if they are interested in that many different options. There will a lunch break, and there are multiple restaurants within easy driving distance.
 

Registration is free and available through Heartland AEA PD catalog. Click here to register.

More about LMS
The first link below is from EdWeek magazine, and it suggests several key steps to selecting an LMS. The second link is from the University of Central Florida, and it has an extensive checklist of criteria and features you might consider. This list is longer and more detailed than most PK-12 districts/schools need, but you should be able to identify 10-20 items from this longer list that will be important to you. These articles might be useful to review prior to January 17, and could serve as a framework for deciding which LMS is the best fit for your district/school.

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2013/06/12/03lms-evaluation.h06.html

http://teach.ucf.edu/resources/webcourses-migration/lms-evaluation-checklist/

We look forward to seeing many teams from districts and schools on the January 17. Please contact Lance Wilhelm at lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org if you have any questions at this time.

Drug Impairment Training for Educators, Jan. 20 & 27

Due to popular demand, we are again offering our "Drug Impairment Training for Education Professionals" course. This course is intended to make educators competent and confident in evaluating and documenting those individuals suspected of abusing drugs in the school setting with the eventual goal of making the school a safer and better learning environment. The class will be held January 20 and 27, 2014 and will be taught by Craig Porter, retired police officer. Click here to register.

Important Dates and Information about I-ELDA Testing

Click here for more information on administrative guidelines and timelines for this year’s I-ELDA Testing. 

All education personnel assigned to administer and/or score the I-ELDA must participate in the online training module, even if you have administered the assessment previously. A certificate will be issued upon successful completion of the quiz integrated into the online training module. 

Directions for accessing the online training are as follows:

• Go to http://moodlesw.aeapdonline.org/

• There is a welcome message that provides instructions for setting up an account or using a current account to access the training.  If it is the first time on the site, create a free account by clicking on the “Create an account here” link. If you already have an account, enter a user name and password. 

• Once you have logged in, from the home page scroll down to COURSE CATEGORIES. Choose “Assessment” and then choose I-ELDA Training. Before you enter the training, it will require you to enter an enrollment key. Type in ielda in the field, and then click the “enroll me” button.
• The training itself is a series of lessons regarding the assessment. Follow the instructions in the I-ELDA training site and be sure to print a certification of successful completion as documentation purposes. Note: the certificate will be a PDF generated by the system. If you have difficulty accessing the PDF, be sure to visit with your school district’s technical support, or contact support@aeapdonline.org.

If you have further questions, please contact Colleen Anderson at Colleen.Anderson@iowa.gov or Jobi Lawrence at Jobi.Lawrence@iowa.gov.

January 2014 School Leader Update

Click here to find a link to the January 2014 issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education.

January Webinars through SchoolReach

In case you missed it, below is a link to a video archive of “Bullying in Schools: What Can We Do?” webinar:
http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/stan-davis-youth-voice-project.html

The link above will take you to an online form that will give you access to the archived webinar. Once you fill out that form, you will be presented with a page where you can view the video archive of the webinar.

Don’t miss the next FREE webinars in SchoolReach's Professional Development Series:

The Risky Business of Student Health Records
Thursday, January 16th
@ 2:00pm EST / 1:00pm CST / 11:00am PST
Register at: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/377017711

Helping Students Understand Their Digital Footprint
Thursday, January 23rd
@ 11:30am EST / 10:30am CST / 8:30am PST
Register at: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/308529231

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.