July 16, 2009
The team has received inquiries about how an Iowa Core Curriculum Leadership Team might build capacity in the Iowa Core Curriculum once school starts for 2009-2010. The July issue of School Leader Update contained the following information: “Leadership Teams are very motivated to undertake the important work of implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum. Before extensive improvement efforts are launched, it is critical that Leadership Team members take time to carefully determine what actions are needed.
During the first semester of next year, Leadership Teams should focus their efforts to design and implement the Iowa Core Curriculum by:
- Engaging all teachers in thoroughly exploring the Essential Concepts and Skills
- Gathering and analyzing data to complete the Iowa Core Curriculum Self Study
- Participating in thoughtful dialogue and planning for all six outcomes of the Implementation Plan
- Informing all teachers and administrators about the implementation planning process
- Developing and sharing the district’s vision about the Core with community members
- Supporting existing professional development that focuses on student learning
- Ensuring that teachers have the time to learn and apply the priority professional development
During the second semester Leadership Teams should work on:
- Orienting staff to alignment processes (the Iowa Core Curriculum Network will be leading this work)
- Gathering information regarding alignment data and working with the necessary tools
- Planning how to improve alignment based on analysis of data collected through this process
For more information or questions, please contact Rita Martens, Iowa Department of Education, at 515-281-3145 or rita.martens@iowa.gov
You can also contact Linda Biermann Hoobin, Heartland AEA Teaching and Learning Consultant, at 515-270-0405 ext. 14327 or lhoobin@aea11.k12.ia.us.
IEP Training will be available this fall for both new and veteran special education teachers. If you have special education teachers new to the state of Iowa, they must attend training to be able to complete an IEP that meets all state and federal regulations.
Click here to view a list of available new teacher training courses and here for a list of veteran teacher courses.
To register go to the Heartland professional development catalog on our website at https://prodev.aea11.k12.ia.us/4DCGI/YYYYYYYYYYYYYYSRCH. IEP training for veteran teachers will be held in each region in August. Please contact your Partnership Director for dates and times in your region.
In the next week or so, each of your district/school building's secretaries will be receiving an e-mail from the Heartland AEA Communications Department asking the secretaries to update each building's staff members for our PeopleBox online directory database. Secretaries are able to login to our database with a username and password and do the updating themselves. This database houses all of our employee and school staff data and is vital to us when we need to contact school staff about news and events.
Would you please encourage your secretaries to complete this task for us? We would greatly appreciate their assistance in helping us maintain an accurate and up-to-date database. If you have any questions, please contact Arletta Dawson, Director of Technology, at adawson@aea11.k12.ia.us.
Superintendents in Iowa all have the opportunity to participate in a Superintendent Network. These networks are using a model of instructional rounds developed by Richard Elmore. AEA leaders and superintendents from each AEA in partnership with School Administrators of Iowa have participated in training with Richard Elmore and his team from Harvard to learn how to faciitate these networks. There are currently networks in each AEA in Iowa.
The primary purpose of the network is to provide superintendents with a professional learning opportunity that focuses on the role of the superintendent in supporting effective instruction. The instructional rounds process involves the network in site visits to member districts. The host superintendent with their building leadership identify a practice that is part of their overall instructional improvement efforts. The network members spend time learning about that practice, go into classrooms to observe the practice and then provide the host superintendent with feedback about what was observed and engage in a process to leave the host with suggestions or ideas for next steps in their efforts.
The network process was piloted in Heartland second semester of last year. Members of the pilot network are: Denny Wulf- Norwalk, Rob Cordes- Carroll, Theron Schutte- Boone, Ed Ackerman- Colfax Mingo, Clay Guthmiller, Johnston and Greg Defoe- Adel. Site visits were conducted in Norwalk and Carroll. Facilitators in Heartland are Denny Wulf, Superintendent, Norwalk; Sharon Kurns, Director Professional Learning and Leadership, Heartland and Dave Stickrod, Partnership Director, Heartland. We are also pleased to welcome Mike Wells, Superintendent, Winterset who was trained as a faciliator for AEA 14.
We are seeking new network members for the 2009-2010 school year. Network members will meet after HAA meetings on the first Tuesday of each month to plan the site visit for the month. Site visits typically begin first thing in the morning and go until about 2:00 p.m. We will likely have several networks if there are a sufficient number of superintendents who want to participate. If you would like more information, don't hesitate to contact one of the facilitators listed above. You may also want to talk to some of the pilot network members. If you would like to join a network please contact Sharon Kurns at Heartland 515-270-9030 ext. 14362 or skurns@aea11.k12.ia.us by August 15, 2009.
Meetings for superintendents in the Heartland area will again be on the first Tuesday of each month from 9:00 to 11:50 a.m. The location for all meetings is at the West Des Moines Learning Center in the Community Room. Dates for the 2009-2010 year are the following:
September 1October 6November 3
December 1January 5February 2March 2April 6
If you have not already done so, please remember to let us know a little more about yourself. We'd greatly appreciate if you could take a couple of minutes to answer the following questions. You can send your answers to the Heartland Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us. - What is your educational background?
- Why did you decide to become the superintendent for your district?
- What is your vision for your district?
- Please feel free to mention your hobbies/what you like to do in your free time.
If you have not already done so, please send an updated digital photograph of yourself and your correct district contact information to the Heartland Communications department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us.
