EyesOpenIowa Summer Training Opportunities

The mission of EyesOpenIowa (formerly FutureNet) is to lead Iowa communities in advocacy, education and collaboration to ensure adolescent sexual health. Find a list of trainings and professional development they have available this summer.

Don’t Get Stuck in the Busy Season - Plan Ahead: August 2015 Online Trainings

Here are some tips and tricks for districts to consider when planning their online trainings for their employees in 2015-2016.

1. Encourage employees to take trainings earlier. If your district sends out a welcome-back letter in July to employees, encourage them then to take the trainings. July is a down time for usage of the server.

2. If you are having staff complete the training in August, avoid the heavy usage dates. To the right, you can see the projected usage chart for August, the darker the color, the heavier the usage.

3. Avoid having your entire staff take the training at once. While this practice might be very convenient for the planning of pre-service days, it also greatly enhances your chances of hitting the cap, meaning some will be logged into the site and some will not. Plus, all the individuals from your school accessing the same training could impact your own district bandwidth, slowing down the experience as well.

4. Target district inservice days throughout the school year. Waiting until your first early-out can save a lot of frustration for your teachers.

'Building Literacy in Social Studies' Course for High School Teachers

Secondary social studies teachers may be interested in our new course, Building Literacy in Social Studies (Year 1). Participants will learn about the ELA Literacy Standards for History/Social Studies within the Iowa Core. In addition, time will be spent on an overview of the six instructional shifts needed to fully implement the Iowa Core. A more in-depth analysis of two of the instructional shifts- disciplinary literacy and the use of informational text will also be a central part of the professional development. Social studies best practices and examples will be used throughout the two days.

Building Literacy in Social Studies (Year 1)
Dates: June 8 & 9, 2015
Location: Zion Lutheran Church (4300 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines)
Activity Number: SS004599991601