FREE Cognitive Coaching Session Available Through December with Thinking Collaborative

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary responses. Thinking Collaborative is extending its offer to provide educators with a coaching session at no cost with one of the training associates in the Cognitive CoachingSM Lifeline. Go to the Thinking Collaborative website for more information.

Heartland AEA Literacy News and Notes is Now Available

The Heartland AEA Literacy Newsletter is now available. Make sure to follow the newsletter and share it with your colleagues! In this issue…

• Decodable Text
• Adolescent Fluency
• Phonemic Awareness Resources
• Student Writing Samples
• Sight Words and How to Teach Them
• Professional Learning Opportunity: Comprehension Strategies for Grades 4-8

Looking for holiday gifts? How about books?Here are some gift ideas on books to put on your gift giving list this year.

Heartland AEA Math Minutes Newsletter is Now Available

The Heartland AEA Math Minutes Newsletter is now available. Make sure to follow the newsletter and share it with your colleagues! In this issue…

• Follow our Math Consultants on Twitter
• Achieve the Core Family Guides
• Mental Health and Well-being Matters
• Addressing Unfinished Teaching and Learning
• Creative Services at Heartland AEA

Heartland AEA is Offering Professional Learning to Support Educator Well-being and Resiliency Building

Through the use of COVID-19 Relief Funds, made available by the State of Iowa and our partners at Polk County Health Services, Heartland AEA is offering an exciting opportunity to support educator well-being and resiliency building. 

As a result of the current pandemic, the stressors placed upon educators have been further magnified, with many lives significantly disrupted due to millions of students now at home, thousands of educators teaching from home, and entire families and communities living in isolation. ALL educational staff are facing a plethora of challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Schools may be shifting between online learning and in-person learning; educators are adapting to new schedules and different ways of teaching; and trying to meet the needs of their students, while also meeting the needs of their own family and friends.

CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) workshops are unique, evidence-based professional development programs that help educators handle the stresses and rediscover the jobs of teaching.

The goal of CARE is to:

• Offer educators tools and resources for reducing stress, preventing burnout, enlivening teaching, and helping students thrive socially, emotionally and academically.

CARE introduces tools such as:

• Mindful awareness practices
• Caring and emotion skills training

Research shows that such practices are helpful for developing awareness, openness, emotional responsiveness and sensitivity - all essential qualities for modeling healthy behavior in the classroom and optimizing teaching and learning. By practicing the skills learned in the program, educators learn to cultivate calmness, awareness, presence, compassion, empathy and ability to listen. In the classroom these qualities improve teachers’ classroom management, curricular implementation and relationships with their students.

REGISTRATION
We will be offering separate sessions to meet the unique needs of administrators, educators and Heartland AEA staff. Registration is limited to 35 participants per session.

Administrator Session
Dec. 7 and 14; Jan. 14, 22, 27 and 29
8:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom
Registration information is located at this link: https://bit.ly/3etfhFr Course 190771

Educator Session
Dec. 9 and 14; Jan. 13, 22, 27 and 29
8:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom
Registration information is located at this link: https://bit.ly/3etfhFr Course 190771

AEA Staff Session
Dec. 9 and 14; Jan. 13, 22, 27, and 29
8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom 

Registration information is located at this link: https://bit.ly/3etfhFr Course 190771

Our Wellness Resource Has Great Information For Educators, Families and Students

In an effort to support the well-being of districts, students, educators and families, we're pleased to bring you "Wellness Inspiration," a resource dedicated to well-being. Check out the Wellness Inspiration site for well-being resources, tips and fun and share with colleagues and families! This week features:

• Professional Learning to Support Educator and AEA Staff Well-being and Resiliency Building
• Continuing the Conversation: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
• DIY Face Mask Parody

Our Mission 

To improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth by providing services and leadership in partnership with families, schools and communities.

Our Goals

• Increase learning growth for students
• Decrease the gap in achievement
• Increase annual graduation rates
• Increase gateways to post-secondary success

Heartland AEA Mitigation Measures During Increasing COVID Numbers

As COVID case numbers are rising in Iowa, our agency leaders have been reviewing the mitigation measures our staff are expected to follow when working in school buildings and common settings. Our staff are routinely in and out of many locations and like you, we’re concerned about not only their safety, but the safety of your staff, students, and families as well. For that reason we are asking for your cooperation in helping us to prevent the spread of this virus and to keep everyone safer and in school.

Our staff members may begin to request that those children who can, wear a face covering while receiving services. If students are unable to wear a mask or face covering, we are also giving our staff permission to seek out ways to temporarily move to virtual service delivery in order to maintain safe social distancing. We do not intend to pressure or coerce students into wearing masks and we understand that IEPs need to be followed and that some students simply cannot wear a mask for a variety of reasons. However, because we are seeing an increase in cases in the larger community and in our staff, we want to make sure that as many people as possible involved in service delivery are safely masked. This will help us to prevent the spread of the virus and limit the number of adults and students needing to quarantine under current state guidance.

During this spike in quarantines and positive cases, we also continue to expect that adults wear masks when working with our staff. If this isn’t possible, we may in some cases request to temporarily meet virtually with administrators, teachers and parents as well.

As a reminder, below are the expectations we hold for Heartland AEA staff as they work in your buildings. Heartland AEA staff should be wearing a mask in the following situations:

• Upon entering a district building or community setting
• While in a building and moving through the building and/or
• When unable to maintain at least a 6-foot physical distance between themselves and others and
• Whenever required by districts, families and other partners
• While working directly with children and/or adults in close proximity

We understand that we are a service agency and not in the ultimatum business. We greatly desire to cooperate in a way that allows us to deliver the best possible service while keeping the maximum number of students and educators safe and in school. I only hope we can put this difficult time behind us as soon as possible. Thank you for any cooperation you can extend in helping us work to that end.

Heartland AEA Library & Digital Newsletter is Now Available

The Heartland AEA Library & Digital Resources newsletter is now available. Make sure to follow the newsletter and share it with your colleagues!

Knocking on doors is the theme for this issue. There are lots of resources to share with teachers.

• DVD, Books/Cassette Kits, and LeapFrog Give-away
• Publisher Read-Alouds Extended to March 31, 2021
• Book Rotation
• Ebooks Added in October
• New Collection: Picture Books with Built-In Audio
• U.S. History--Primary Source Posters

We’re Giving Away DVDs and Other Digital Treasures!

Welcome to our first digital give-away! Heartland AEA usually has a used materials give-away each summer. Well, that plan changed this year! That’s OK because it gave us the opportunity to think about the giveaway in a different way.

We have about 2,800 DVDs, books/cassette kits, or LeapFrog titles that have been weeded from the collection (mainly duplicate copies). If you’re interested in grabbing up some of these items, follow these directions:

Go to this special Medianet site and log in as you usually do with the “regular” Medianet.

Materials are yours to keep and will be sent to the school on the Heartland AEA van. 

“Pick” the titles of interest to add to your cart. You'll then be prompted for your username/password. Then click Test Availability.

Following the instructions in red led you here to Submit your request.

New Awesome Ebooks Added to MackinVia

Heartland AEA added 190 ebook titles to MackinVia in October. Thanks to the teachers who recommended titles--mainly fiction! This spreadsheet includes titles and annotations and you can easily sort and share titles with teachers and students. Remember that we have also purchased many titles to support social justice and equity--representation matters. These links will help you access www.mackinvia.com or https://scout.iowaaea.org. For more information, contact the Heartland AEA Library on our website or email library@heartlandaea.org.

Heartland AEA is Offering Professional Learning to Support Educator Well-being and Resiliency Building

Through the use of COVID-19 Relief Funds, made available by the State of Iowa and our partners at Polk County Health Services, Heartland AEA is offering an exciting opportunity to support educator well-being and resiliency building.

As a result of the current pandemic, the stressors placed upon educators have been further magnified, with many lives significantly disrupted due to millions of students now at home, thousands of educators teaching from home, and entire families and communities living in isolation. ALL educational staff are facing a plethora of challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Schools may be shifting between online learning and in-person learning; educators are adapting to new schedules and different ways of teaching; and trying to meet the needs of their students, while also meeting the needs of their own family and friends.

CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) workshops are unique, evidence-based professional development programs that help educators handle the stresses and rediscover the jobs of teaching.

The goal of CARE is to:

• Offer educators tools and resources for reducing stress, preventing burnout, enlivening teaching, and helping students thrive socially, emotionally and academically.

CARE introduces tools such as:

• Mindful awareness practices
• Caring and emotion skills training

Research shows that such practices are helpful for developing awareness, openness, emotional responsiveness and sensitivity - all essential qualities for modeling healthy behavior in the classroom and optimizing teaching and learning. By practicing the skills learned in the program, educators learn to cultivate calmness, awareness, presence, compassion, empathy and ability to listen. In the classroom these qualities improve teachers’ classroom management, curricular implementation and relationships with their students.

REGISTRATION
We will be offering separate sessions to meet the unique needs of administrators, educators and Heartland AEA staff. Registration is limited to 35 participants per session.

Administrator Session
Dec. 7 and 14; Jan. 14, 22, 27 and 29
8:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom
Registration information is located at this link: https://bit.ly/3etfhFr Course 190771

Educator Session
Dec. 9 and 14; Jan. 13, 22, 27 and 29
8:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom
Registration information is located at this link: https://bit.ly/3etfhFr Course 190771

AEA Staff Session
Dec. 9 and 14; Jan. 13, 22, 27, and 29
8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom Registration information is located at this link: https://bit.ly/3etfhFr Course 190771