Be a Visitor to Planet Orange

If your elementary teachers are looking for financial literacy resources for their classrooms, ING Direct, a branchless direct bank with operations in nine countries including the United States, has created a free K-6 educational site called Planet Orange that fits the bill. Teachers can find resources and activities to help explain basic money skills such as earning, spending, saving and investing. They can also find educational materials including lesson plans and quizzes to help students learn the value and good use of money. Find out more about Planet Orange at http://www.orangekids.com/teacher/.

Requested Action Item: Calling All School Professionals from Boone, Dallas, Greene, Guthrie, Jasper, Polk and Story Counties!

Central Iowa Area Health Education Center (CI AHEC) recruits and retains health professionals in under-served areas. Each center teaches children about health care careers, offers clinical training sites for health profession students and supports health care practitioners with continuing education programs. Programming targets three population groups throughout Iowa.

• First, AHEC activities foster kindergarten through undergraduate student interest in the pursuit of health care careers.
• Second, health care profession students are provided greater opportunities for clinical experiences in under-served areas.
• Finally, practicing health professionals are provided continuing education opportunities addressing the unique challenges of serving the under-served.

The CI AHEC is conducting a community needs assessment within their catchment area and have a survey for K-12 professionals regarding what programs currently exist and what programs would be beneficial. The CI AHEC would be greatly appreciative if school professionals from the counties of Boone, Dallas, Greene, Guthrie, Jasper, Polk and Story would fill out the pdf form, found by clicking here, and e-mail it to Jill Whitson, Executive Director of the Central Iowa AHEC, at jwhitson@broadlawns.org or mail it to her at the following:

Jill Whitson, Executive Director
Central Iowa AHEC
1801 Hickman Road
Des Moines, IA 50314

Questions about the Community Forum and/or the survey can be directed to Jill Whitson at 515-282-5721 or jwhitson@broadlawns.org.

Request Summer Van Delivery Now

If your school has summer programs or professional development activities and you would like instructional materials delivered to individual buildings twice a week, contact Sherise Ahlers, sahlers@aea11.k12.ia.us to request summer delivery. Heartland will automatically deliver to each administration building and to extended-year schools twice a week. Summer routes begin June 10, 2009. We will contact the district to arrange for separate, special delivery of large printing orders during the summer.