Administrator Connection to Go on Summer Break

As the school year winds down, so do our weekly Administrator Connection updates. Today is our last planned weekly update. We will communicate any important information via email during the summer. The blog will start up again around the middle of August. 

If you are leaving your district, please contact the Heartland AEA Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us with your successor's name and e-mail address (if known). We won't take your e-mail address out of our e-mail distribution list until after July 1.

Reminder: Heartland AEA to Get New Website and Emails

We are very excited to announce new agency website which will go live in early June. Based on customer survey feedback and our usage data, the Agency decided to build a new website. Our communications department has done their best to make the new site more user-friendly with improved navigation and updated information. We appreciate your patience as we continue to add content in our new site throughout the summer.

With this new website, we will also get a new URL, www.heartlandaea.org. Users who try to access our old site (www.aea11.k12.ia.us) will be redirected to our new front page. If your district/school links to our website, thank you for your support and please redirect your link to www.heartlandaea.org before school starts in the fall.

We are also excited to announce that our staff email will also change over the summer to end with "@heartlandaea.org." Our current email addresses will continue to work for another year. We will have more information in the fall about the impact of our email changes for area schools.

We are committed to excellent service and believe our new website will help keep you aware of our services and activities. Please contact the Heartland AEA Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us if you have any questions about the new website or agency emails.

Transition from Mandt to CPI Training

Starting this summer, the Agency will begin the transition from Mandt to Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) for management training of disruptive behaviors. The decision was based on several factors including:

• High district interest in training for de-escalation, safety and restraint
• Increasingly tight resources for districts which impact sub time and travel
• Shifting AEA resources related to Mandt

Cindy Yelick, Executive Director of Instructional Services, talked with several school administrators about moving from Mandt to Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI). While there is an interest in CPI for multiple reasons, there is also concern about retraining district and school staff who have recently certified in Mandt. Below is what has been decided for this transition. The Agency will:

• Continue to offer Mandt recertification for the next few years, but will no longer bring on any new cohorts
• Begin to offer CPI as an alternative
• Train at least one AEA staff member per region to be a CPI trainer
• Develop a course around de-escalation strategies

If you have questions about this transition and CPI training, please contact your regional director or Cindy Yelick at cyelick@aea11.k12.ia.us or (515) 270-9030.

Ordering DIBELS for Next Fall

We have had some questions from districts about ordering DIBELS materials for next year. We sent out the DIBELS order form to those who were identified as facilitating the assessments. For your reference, click here for the order form. Completed forms should be sent to Rick Bingaman at printcenter@aea11.k12.ia.us or send it to the Print Center at the Johnston Regional Education Center.

Heartland AEA to Get New Website and Emails

We are very excited to announce new agency website which will go live in early June. Based on customer survey feedback and our usage data, the Agency decided to build a new website. Our communications department has done their best to make the new site more user-friendly with improved navigation and updated information. We appreciate your patience as we continue to add content in our new site throughout the summer.

With this new website, we will also get a new URL, www.heartlandaea.org. Users who try to access our old site (www.aea11.k12.ia.us) will be redirected to our new front page. If your district/school links to our website, thank you for your support and please redirect your link to www.heartlandaea.org before school starts in the fall.

We are also excited to announce that our staff email will also change over the summer to end with "@heartlandaea.org." Our current email addresses will continue to work for another year. We will have more information in the fall about the impact of our email changes for area schools.

We are committed to excellent service and believe our new website will help keep you aware of our services and activities. Please contact the Heartland AEA Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us if you have any questions about the new website or agency emails.

Reminder: Heartland AEA 2013 Summer Van Delivery

Heartland AEA is in the process of scheduling summer van delivery. We will deliver twice a week to each district administration building. If you have summer school, professional development programs or intercessions and you would like regularly scheduled deliveries to additional buildings, please email Sherise Ahlers at sahlers@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Schedule-to-date:

• Twice-a-week delivery to each district administration building runs June 11 to August 8.
• Twice-a-week delivery will automatically continue to each building that has an extended year calendar.
• Regular fall van delivery resumes August 12.

Printing:

• Heartland AEA will contact the district to arrange for special delivery of large printing orders during the summer.

2013-2014 Student Planners Still Available

We are still taking orders for 2013-2014 student planners until May 31. The planners include a full-year calendar to accommodate extended year schedules.

We have two available sizes (5.5” x 8.5” and 8.5” x 11”). Choose your preferred cover, intro pages, planner pages, note pages and calendars from our set styles for basic planners. Optional pages can be added for an additional fee (student handbook, activities calendars, etc.). Order quantities must be a minimum of 50 planners. 

Click here to see the standard styles you can choose from and here for the order form. Please complete and return the order form to Creative Services at creativeservices@aea11.k12.ia.us.
 
For more information or to personalize your school's planners, contact Jill in Creative Services directly at (800) 255-0405 ext. 14368.

May 2013 Edition of AEA Impacting Lives Update

Read the latest Impacting Lives update at http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/. In this issue, meet Anna Mikkelsen, an iPad "whiz kid" who's taking her passion for technology to the next level. You'll also read how the AEAs are empowering teachers and administrators to support student achievement and well-being.

Heartland AEA 2013 Summer Van Delivery

Heartland AEA is in the process of scheduling summer van delivery. We will deliver twice a week to each district administration building. If you have summer school, professional development programs or intercessions and you would like regularly scheduled deliveries to additional buildings, please e-mail Sherise Ahlers at sahlers@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Schedule-to-date:

• Twice-a-week delivery to each district administration building runs June 11 to August 8.
• Twice-a-week delivery will automatically continue to each building that has an extended year calendar.
• Regular fall van delivery resumes August 12.

Printing:

• Heartland AEA will contact the district to arrange for special delivery of large printing orders during the summer.

Agency Welcomes Two New Regional Directors

We are excited to welcome Kathie Danielson (Des Moines Schools) and Mark Crady (Norwalk Schools) to our administrative team as regional directors. We look forward to them joining us this summer as they help us in our mission to improve learning and well-being for central Iowa students.

DIBELS Support for 2013-2014

Heartland AEA will again provide assessment materials and access to the DIBELS website at no cost to your district (https://dibels.uoregon.edu/) for the 2013-2014 school year. Given the timeline of implementation of the new system the Department of Education has recently announced, we will review DIBELS support annually as we monitor usage and the implementation of the new statewide system.

DIBELS assesses literacy skills and assists teachers and literacy teams in identifying those students who may be in need of additional instruction. Questions regarding administration and scoring, training and/or use of the DIBELS can be directed to your regional director.

April 2013 Edition of AEA Impacting Lives Update

All of Iowa’s AEAs have received great letters of support from parents who are grateful for the services their children have been provided by AEA staff. For this month’s Impacting Lives update at http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/, we are sharing some letters we’ve received. Thank you to all who have showed support to the AEA system. We are truly honored to provide the services that impact so many students’ lives in Iowa. Four stories come from the Heartland area: Aiden, Brooklyn, Alex and Aedyn.

April Educator Connection with World of Media Now Available

Click here for the latest issue of the Educator Connection with World of Media. The interactive, online e-magazine allows you to search by keyword, download pages and print specific pages. You'll find information about the following:

• K-8 literacy support with Tales 2 Go audiobooks (with links to the Iowa Core)
• Posters to support science teaching
• Hundreds of resources to support the K-6 unit on the states or regions
• A tool to help parents combat summer reading loss
• Primary sources--finding them and using them
• Professional development classes

Follow-Up Information on Clarity Service through BrightBytes

During the March HAA meeting, we viewed a webinar on Clarity, a new service we are offering to districts. Clarity, which is used in thousands of schools across the country, uses online surveys to help districts better understand their technology strengths and areas in need of improvement. Data can be gathered at a building and district level.

The value is in the data dashboard that is created for each school. The data tell a story about the degree of technology implementation and integration, impact on teaching and learning, infrastructure and access. It is a tool to plan, make decisions and even monitor implementation and growth in the area of technology in the classroom.

Examples of these surveys for students, teachers, administrators and parents are below. Feel free to answer questions on these sample surveys as you look through them. They generally require about 5-10 minutes to take.

High School Student: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1049180/Clarity-High-School-Student-Sample-Survey

Middle School Student: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1049175/Clarity-Middle-School-Sample-Survey

Elementary School Student: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1049178/Clarity-Elementary-Student-Sample-Survey

Teacher and Administrator Survey:  http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1049181/Clarity-Teacher-and-Administrator-Sample-Survey

Parent Survey: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1049171/Clarity-Parent-Sample-Survey

Once a district has a significant number of surveys filled out (normally defined as 25% or more of the number possible), the real fun of data analysis begins. After the data collection concludes, districts and buildings will be given access to a data dashboard and a set of recommendations that are based on the data and how it compares to other districts. Heartland AEA will offer several different opportunities to become trained in analyzing the data and drilling down to the individual question level.

Click here for a PowerPoint which gives an overview of the process, using the Katy, Texas district as an example.

If you are interested in learning more about Clarity, or you are interested in starting to gather data in your district, please contact either Lance Wilhelm or Susan Schrader at the email addresses below. If you are ready to start surveying your students and staff and community, please indicate a point of contact person for your district, and Lance or Susan will get them the information they need to get started (including survey links and templates for communicating with your various groups).

For more information, contact Lance Wilhelm, Director of Technology, at lwilhelm@aea11.k12.ia.us or Susan Schrader, Director of Resources and Library Services, at sschrader@aea11.k12.ia.us.

AEA Customer Survey: Please Encourage Participation

The AEA Customer Survey will close on April 5. Our current response rate is a bit lower than in years past. We'd be grateful if you would continue to encourage your staff to participate in the survey. The survey is available at http://survey.aea267.k12.ia.us/survey/7490/b5d8/. Below is a message that can be sent from a school administrator to district staff.

Greetings,

If you haven't already, please participate in the 2012-2013 AEA Customer Survey. The information from this survey provides valuable data that assists the AEA system in evaluating its services and continuing to meet current and future LEA needs.

Access the survey at http://survey.aea267.k12.ia.us/survey/7490/b5d8/

The survey will run through Friday, April 5, 2013. You are only asked to complete it once.

If you experience problems with the survey, please contact Dr. Gary Dannenbring, Director of Planning and Evaluation at Prairie Lakes AEA, at gdannenbring@aea8.k12.ia.us for assistance.  

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Iowa AEA Customer Survey open until April 5

This is a gentle reminder that the AEA Customer Survey will remain open until Friday, April 5, 2013. The survey provides us with your insight on how to improve our services to your school(s), staff and students.

Since the survey is anonymous, we have no way of knowing who has contributed and who has not. You and each of your staff members are only asked to fill out the survey once. After you complete the survey, you may disregard the reminder notices. We will send a reminder next week to all area educators ensure that staff have a chance to participate.

The survey can be accessed at http://survey.aea267.k12.ia.us/survey/7490/b5d8/.

Please encourage all of your staff to participate. If you have already completed the survey, we thank you for your support!

March 2013 AEA Impacting Lives Update

Teamwork is the overall theme of this month's Impacting Lives update at http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/. Read how AEA professionals work with schools, families, organizations, and especially the students they serve to create opportunities for improved life and learning.
 
This issue includes:

• Teamwork Continues to Improve Life of Ogden Boy with Hearing Loss
• Meet the People Who Make a Difference: Speech-Language Pathologists
• Northwest Iowa Boys Transition Smoothly to New Family

Request to Serve on the IEC Custodial Advisory Committee

Please forward this request to school building custodial/maintenance staff.
What is the goal of the Committee?
To identify the custodial supply needs of Iowa schools and AEAs in order to help the Iowa Educators Consortium (IEC) put together a more useful and effective custodial bid come fall 2013.  The following questions will be discussed:

• Are there certain product categories we should focus on? 
• How do we get more vendors to bid?
• What is the easiest way to spread the word about the bid pricing to get schools to order and take advantage of the program?
• And more…

What is the time commitment?
One meeting in Johnston at Heartland AEA on April 29, 2013 from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. would be required. If you would like to be involved in evaluating the bids in the fall, we would welcome that input as well and could schedule an additional one-day meeting if enough people are interested.

We would like to have representatives from different areas around the state and different sizes of schools. At your earliest convenience, contact Jamie Albertsen at jalbertsen@iec-ia.org if you are interested.

We truly appreciate your time and input.

Heartland AEA Introduces Tales 2 Go Audiobooks

Heartland AEA is excited to announce the purchase of Tales 2 Go audiobooks for elementary, middle and junior high school students. Tales 2 Go is an award-winning audiobook service that streams thousands of titles from leading publishers and storytellers to desktop or laptop computers. You'll find popular titles and some old favorites. All have professional narration. Titles range from two minutes to two+ hours. You can search by character, age, grade, level, story type, and more.

Go to www.mackin.com/via and log in with the online database username/password. Click Databases, click Tales 2 Go, click Read Now.

Audiobooks and the Common Core
Audiobooks have been used in classrooms for decades because listening builds critical listening, comprehension and fluency skills.  Oral language precedes written language (i.e. developmentally), making listening an important component of language acquisition. In fact, there are reading methods such as The Daily 5 that include listening as a component of reading instruction.  Also, the Common Core Standards spell out specific Listening and Speaking skills required of all primary grade students. 

Tales 2 Go will be another effective resource to support literacy instruction. Some students may want to check out the book from the school or public library and follow along as they listen to the book. If you are looking for audiobooks that also include the text, don't forget BookFLIX, TrueFLIX, and the audiobooks (cassette or CD) and accompanying books available for checkout from Heartland AEA.

Heartland AEA Releases Agency Videos

The Agency has created four new videos to help describe AEA service. The main video is entitled, "About Heartland AEA" and takes a brief look at the services Heartland AEA provides for children and families, educators and school leaders. Three smaller videos go into more detail about services provided to the three audiences. The videos are available on our EduVision site. Direct links, including video descriptions are below. Special thanks goes to Dr. Tom Lane, Carlisle Community Schools, for his testimonial. 

About Heartland AEA
Education is everyone's responsibility. This video recounts ways Heartland AEA works with parents, educators and school leaders in improving the learning outcomes of children and youth.

Heartland AEA Services to Children and Families
Parents discuss how Heartland AEA has made an impact in the lives of their children.

Heartland AEA Services to Educators
Sarah Brown Wessling, Johnston High School English Teacher and 2010 National Teacher of the Year, describes her experiences of working with Heartland AEA.

Heartland AEA Services to School Leaders
Dr. Tom Lane, Superintendent of Carlisle Schools and 2012 Iowa Superintendent of the Year, provides his insight and experience of working with Heartland AEA.