Monday, February 9, 2009

First Version of the 2009-2010 Heartland Calendar Available

The first version of the 2009-2010 Heartland calendar is now available. This early version includes major agency meeting dates, holidays, etc. and is being provided to you now to help you with your planning for the next school year. Throughout the next month additional internal and external dates will be scheduled. If you are responsible for scheduling internal meetings or professional development, please contact Sarah Brown (ext. 14380 or sbrown@aea11.k12.ia.us) for instructions on how to coordinate your event. If you want to schedule an external meeting or professional development, please contact Cheryl Risen (ext. 14587 or crisen@aea11.k12.ia.us). Eventually both the external and internal calendars will be available on Kerio. You will then be able to select and copy events into your own personal calendar. Anita Davids will be making all room assignments for meetings on the calendar.

Click here for the calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Heartland Calendar

Do all meetings need to be on the Agency calendar?

No. Only meetings of major councils, committees and workgroups need to be included on the Agency calendar. All internal professional development events and specialized external professional development events are included as well. By coordinating these events, we are able to decrease overlap and double booking for staff members who are expected to attend multiple meetings or professional development activities.

What meetings are not required to be on the Agency calendar?
Meetings that are not regularly scheduled or are between a small group that meets infrequently are not required to be on the calendar. Catalog classes are not on the Agency calendar. They are scheduled in the Universal Registration system. Site-based professional development classes are not included as well.

Do we always need to book rooms through Anita Davids?
No. You only need to go through Anita when you are scheduling a meeting or event that is going to be placed on the Agency calendar. Additionally, all meetings of groups over 15 need to be booked through Anita. This is to ensure that we are using our largest rooms for groups who need them and that we will use the most economical sites when there are no agency locations available.

Are we able to enter dates on the internal calendar and external calendars on Kerio?
No. Anita Davids enters all dates on these Kerio calendars. You are able to copy dates from these calendars onto your own personal calendar. This is a great way to quickly update your calendar.

Who do I contact with questions?
All questions about the calendar should be directed to Anita Davids at ext. 14613 or adavids@aea11.k12.ia.us. If you need assistance coordinating an internal meeting or event, please contact Sarah Brown. If you need assistance coordinating an external meeting or event, please contact Cheryl Risen. If it involves both internal and external staff, either Cheryl or Sarah will be able to help you.

Benefit Meetings Schedule Notice: Save the Date!

Please save one of these dates for the Agency's annual benefit meetings. More information coming soon.

April 1
9:00-11:30 a.m.
Carroll AEA office


April 1
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Guthrie Center Library
, 400 Grand, Guthrie Center

April 7
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Indianola AEA office


April 8
8:30-11:30 a.m.
Ames AEA office


April 8
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Johnston AEA office
(Conf. Room 3, 4, ICN Room)

April 13
8:30-11:30 a.m.
Woodside AEA
office

April 14
8:30-11:30 a.m.
Grace Lutheran Church,
23932 Meadow Road, Adel

April 14
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Knoxville Public Library,
213 E. Montgomery St., Knoxville

April 21
8:30-11:30 a.m.
St. Mary of Nazareth Church,
4600 Meredith Dr., Des Moines

February Board of Directors Meeting Agenda

Click here for the agenda for the February 10 Board of Directors meeting agenda.

Teacher Quality Professional Development - Important Deadline Coming

There will again be opportunities for all certified staff to participate in professional learning activities funded through Teacher Quality. The deadline to indicate your intent to participate is February 23. Click here for important information including procedures to indicate your intent to participate. It is essential that all certified staff members who wish to participate are identified by that date. The rate of payment for participation will be based on the number of individuals who participate.

Special Education Update

Mid Year Report on Special Education Issues
Click
here for a mid-year update on Special Education issues.

Web 2.0 Tools Lunch & Learns to be Offered

The Educational Technology team would like to invite Heartland staff members to attend upcoming monthly Technology Lunch & Learns. Anyone interested in learning more about Web 2.0 tools is welcome to attend. Topics will include blogs, wikis, GoogleDocs, GoogleReader, RSS feeds, social bookmarking and collaborative communication tools. More topics and tools may be addressed if time and interest exists.

Each session will include sufficient hands-on work time so participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops. Laptops will be provided for participants who need them. All classes are 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Meeting Room 14 at the Johnston office. Heartland staff should register through the Universal Registration system. There is no fee.


Dates and Activity Numbers are as follows:

February 17, 2009 IN0172-9211-09-01

March 17, 2009 IN0172-9211-09-02

April 16, 2009 IN0172-9211-09-03
May 13, 2009 IN0172-9211-09-04

Technology Update

Password Required for Wireless Networks
One of the North Star Phase II objectives is to improve our network security, which requires a minor change to our wireless network. Currently, our wireless network is hidden from public view, but we have found out there are tools available that can make it visible to the public, which will pose security issues to our network. The only way to make it more secure is to set up the wireless access points with an access password.


As of March 2, 2009, to connect to the Heartland wireless networks, staff will be required to enter a password after selecting the wireless network name “HAEAnet.”
Staff computers should remember the wireless network name and password after the initial set up. Staff will need to enter a new password that will be changed quarterly and sent to staff via e-mail with the instructions. Instructions will also be posted in the Technology Information Archive on the Intranet for later reference.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation. These steps are necessary to protect our network and servers.

Sending Attachments in Kerio

If you send attachments via Kerio, this article is one you will want to read.
If you’ve been having trouble sending attachments to colleagues lately, it may be because you have some corruption in your Firefox profile that is preventing the files from being properly attached to the message. Below are instructions on how to fix the issue.

1. Quit out of Firefox. (Go to the Firefox menu and choose Quit or just restart your computer before proceeding.)

2. Locate and double-click on Macintosh HD located your desktop.

3. Locate and double-click on the Users folder.

4. Locate and double-click on the house icon with your name below it.

5. Locate and double-click on the Library folder.

6. Locate and double-click on the Application Support folder.

7. Locate and double-click on the Firefox folder.

8. Locate and double-click on the Profiles folder.

9. Locate and double-click on the folder with the word default in the name (e.g., 7dpbvdwi.default).

10. Locate the file named mimeTypes.rdf and drag that file to your Desktop.

11. Launch Firefox, log into Kerio, create a new message, attach a Word document and send it to yourself.

12. After you receive your message, if you retrieve the attachment to your computer and it opens properly, then your problem is fixed.

If you are still having problems, contact one of the Technology Support Specialists for assistance.


Things to remember when attaching documents to an e-mail message:

• You can attach multiple files by clicking the Attach button once for every file you want to attach to the message.
• Be sure the document(s) you want to send isn’t open on your computer.

• Use a name that doesn’t contain any special characters ( such as / ? < > \ : * | ") and include the appropriate 3 or 4 character suffix (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf) for the type of file. (See http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/intranet/tech/File_Naming.pdf for more information on file naming.)


Cell Booster Installed in Johnston Office

Heartland recently installed a cellular signal booster in the lobby of the Johnston office. Many parts of the Johnston facility suffer from poor cellular reception. Our clients and staff are often forced to go outside to get a reliable signal. The installed booster will improve signal strength within the main lobby and many of the front collaboration areas. We hope that the boosted signal will make it possible for clients and staff to stay connected and stay warm.