March 2015 School Leader Update Available

The March 2015 issue of the School Leader Update is available from the Iowa Department of Education. In this issue, Director Brad Buck reminds us to be thankful – for our teachers. Legislative liaison Shan Seivert gives us an update on legislation that could affect all of us and attorney Nicole Proesch touches on the law – and leprechauns.

Reminder: TLC Administrator Support Program Information Webinars

The Iowa Department of Education is launching a year-long program to support building principals state-wide who lead the Teacher Leadership and Compensation System.

Overall Program Purpose: To equip and support principals to form a cohesive building leadership team that is aligned to a singular mission as embraced by the district, and is able to develop and lead a collaborative process to strengthen instructional practice that leverages teacher leaders for school-wide improvement of student learning.

Audience: The program will be open to TLC schools who implemented in school year 2014-15 (YR 1) and who will implement in 2015-16 (YR 2).

Information Session Details: Any districts interested in learning more about this opportunity should plan to participate in one of the following meetings next week. All details, including program outcomes, participation requirements, dates, selection process and other key components will be shared via ZOOM.

    ZOOM dates and times are:
    Session 1: March 9, 2015 from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
    Session 2: March 9, 2015 from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
    Session 3: March 11, 2015 from 8 – 9 a.m.
    Session 4: March 12, 2015 from 9 – 10 a.m.

Superintendents, or superintendent designees are asked to go to the Iowa Department of Education website on the TLC webpage to register for the informational ZOOM session they plan to attend. Participants will then receive the link to the desired ZOOM informational session.

Registration on the TLC page of the DE website.

If you are unable to attend any of these sessions, recorded session will be available, linked to the TLC webpage on the DE website on Friday, March 13, 2015.

West Des Moines CSD and Heartland AEA to Host ELL Expert

Don’t miss this professional development day through the collaboration of West Des Moines Community Schools and Heartland Area Education Agency. Please pass the following information to Title III ESL and content/grade level teachers and administrators of ELLs.

Teaching ELLs with Gaps in their Formal Education
Date: Monday, May 4, 2015
Location: West Des Moines Learning Resource Center, Community Room
Times: 8:30 am- 3:30 pm; Lunch will be provided
Activity Number: ES008969571502

Description:
Kristiina Montero, Ph.D. will explore her groundbreaking, community-engaged research that explores teaching English language and print literacy to English language learners who have experienced gaps in their formal education due to mass violence and/or disaster.  Public schools inherit students who have limited L1 literacy and other gaps in their formal education. This workshop will explore literacy strategies that will benefit all ELLs, but will specifically focus on the learning needs of ELLs with limited or interrupted formal education.

Bio of Dr. Montero
Kristiina Montero, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She received her PhD in Language and Literacy Education from The University of Georgia (Athens, GA) in 2004One of her overarching goals is to give voice to marginalized individuals and communities. Her most recent work examines the impact of early literacy instructional interventions on the English language and literacy development of adolescent English language learners with limited prior schooling.

To extend her work with adolescent refugee students she recently completed the Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Certificate Program through Harvard University. Her research can be found in journals such as The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Journal of Children's Literature, Middle School Journal, and Oral History Forum d'histoire orale.

Dr. Montero is passionate about learning, teaching and pedagogy. She has taught courses in language and literacy, equity and diversity and children’s literature in teacher preparation programs and qualitative research methods, oral history research methods and narrative analysis, and critical theory and praxis at the graduate level. Her university teaching was recognized with the Meredith Professors Teaching Excellence Award at Syracuse University in 2007 and at Laurier, she was nominated for the Northeastern Graduate Schools Teaching Award in 2013. More recently, Dr. Montero was honored with an Alumni Excellence award for all around teaching, research, and service to the literacy research community from Northern Illinois University (2014).