Our Mission
To
improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth
by providing services and leadership in partnership with families,
schools and communities.
Our Goals
• Increase learning growth for students
• Decrease the gap in achievement
• Increase annual graduation rates
• Increase gateways to post-secondary success
The Agency is looking forward to a second year of employee engagement through PechaKucha presentations at our All-Staff Meeting!
Save Sept. 15, 2017 on your calendar for a “most of the day” meeting that will again feature an afternoon of presentations from YOU! The feedback from last year’s meeting told us that you enjoyed the PechaKucha presentations and the opportunity to learn from your colleagues.
Presentations will again be in the spirit of a PechaKucha, during which speakers give quick presentations that include 20 images shown for 20 seconds each for a total presentation of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
Topics can be almost anything that is inspiring within our work throughout the Agency (should we ask for presentations that are job related as well as non job related), including but certainly not limited to:
• A successful project
• A pilot project that didn’t reach its target
• Team-building strategies,
• A story of collaboration,
• Technology integration that improved a process or project or
• An initiative that made a positive impact on kids, teachers or families
Here are some quick tips for a great presentation!
How to Apply
If you or a team of your co-workers are interested in presenting, complete this presentation application by June 1, 2017.
When planning your Pecha Kucha, think about whether it reflects, educates, touches on or celebrates areas that we’ve emphasized as an organization, such as:
- Core Values: Caring - Proactive - Collaborative
- Mission: To improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth by providing services and leadership in partnership with families, schools and communities.)
- Goals: Increase learning growth, Decrease gaps in achievement, Increase in annual graduation rate, Increase post-secondary gateways
- Wellness: Heartland AEA’s Five Elements of Wellness help promote the total well-being of agency staff: Career Wellness, Community Wellness, Financial Wellness, Social Wellness, Physical Wellness
This approach to learning during our All-Staff meeting gives us a unique opportunity to feel the pulse of the Agency in just a few hours, to celebrate together, learn together and get re-connected. More than a PowerPoint slideshow, Pecha Kuchas generate discussion and innovation, so don’t be shy, show your work, make an impact!
Submit your presentation application by June 1, 2017!
If you have any questions, contact the Communications Department.
The May 2017 issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Dept. of Education is now available.
The May 2017 issue of the Each and Every Child newsletter from the Iowa Dept. of Education is now available. This issue focuses on keeping kids learning throughout their summer break. And Deborah Reed, head of the Iowa Reading Research Council, weighs in on the so-called summer slide.
The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners quarterly newsletter is now available. Catch up on news about a legislative update on Mandatory Reporting, CPR Certification - Coaching, hiring new graduates, conditional licensure, BoEE helpful website tools and more.
Des Moines Public Schools and Drake University are teaming up to bring you the conference on Transforming Systems Through Standards-Based Learning on June 22 at the Iowa Events Center.
Conference Emphasis
The conference will have an emphasis on secondary buildings and educators who are considering how to start authentic standards-based learning (including grading and reporting), help teachers who are trying things on their own, and support secondary educators who are looking for new ideas to try.
Session Topics
The conference consists of a keynote and two breakouts in the morning, lunch on site, teacher highlight speakers over lunch and two afternoon breakouts. Breakouts will be facilitated largely by DMPS teachers and leaders, as they lead learning over how DMPS has implemented standards-referenced learning, including grading and reporting, in a large district. Other conference faculty will offer sessions on:
- Making a student information system (online grading system, such as Infinite Campus) work with standards-referenced/based grading
- Learning how standards become proficiency scales
- How to track and monitor student learning
- Considerations for exceptional learners
- How administrators can lead efforts in standards-based learning, including grading and reporting
- Where to stand philosophically with regard to standards-based learning, scoring evidence, use of zeroes
- Successful implementation of standards-based learning and grading in smaller, rural schools
- Managing multiple opportunities for assessment of learning
- Looking at research regarding how standards-based learning and grading work
Transforming Systems through Standards-Based Learning
June 22, 2017
8:30 a.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Iowa Events Center
Registration
For more information, contact Becca Lindahl, Professional Learning & Leadership Consultant, at ext. 14355.
The
2017-18 calendar has been added to the Employee Dashboard for all staff
who need to complete a work calendar. The link to this function is
found in the Calendar Online Forms folder on the Leave Online tab. You
may need to logout and log back in to your Dashboard before you start
the calendar process.
The
calendar presented will be the default calendar based on the individual
staff member’s pay assignment. This will look very similar to the
Online Calendar View function. However, functionality is built into the
interface to allow the personalization of the calendar to reflect the
staff member’s schedule. This is done by simply clicking on the day in
question. Each time a day is clicked it will change to one of the
following:
• Blue X – represents a non-working day
• Green / – represents a half working day
• White Space – represents a full working day
• A yellow H represents unpaid holidays, and a yellow H followed by an asterisk (*) represents paid holidays. Sundays and holidays cannot be changed.
At
the top of the screen two numbers will be presented. The number on the
left is the number of working days based on the days selected as such—in
other words, the total of the white spaces (full days) and green
slashes (half days). The second number is the number of days expected to
work based on the pay assignment. These two numbers must match when the
calendar is submitted.
When the
calendar is submitted, it will be routed to the staff member’s
supervisor just as a leave request would be. And, just as a leave
request, the supervisor will review and can approve or reject the
calendar. Applicable emails are sent to the staff member and his/her
need-to-know person as well.
A
help doc named “Calendar Online Entry Documentation” is available on
the Help tab. This document describes in detail all functions of the
interface.
Once
approved, the 2017-18 calendar can be viewed by the staff member, the
supervisor and the need-to-know person. Also, all subsequent changes to
the 2017-18 calendar must be submitted via the Calendar Exchange Online
request system after July 1, 2016.
The working days calendars are due before you leave for the summer or June 13, whichever comes first.
If you have any questions, contact Whitney Anderson, Human Resources Generalist, at ext. 14432.
Water, water, everywhere! Get ready to get your drink on May 8-19!
How to Participate in the Water Challenge
You will record your daily ounces of water by your participant number that will be assigned to you when you register. Deadline to register is TODAY at 2:00 p.m. After you register, Katie Streff will send you a Google sheet where you will record your daily entries.
In order to be in the drawing for a Fitbit flex, you must record at least 75 oz. daily. You are not required to drink this amount to participate in the challenge in order to earn your points.
As you’ve heard a thousand times, drinking lots of water is critical. Your body is 80% water. It stands to reason that water is some pretty important stuff – right? Water is the body’s transportation medium. It’s how it moves EVERYTHING around to different parts of your body. Water is used to move nutrients to the 100 trillion cells in your body. Water is used to move waste and toxins from your cells to your kidneys, to leave your body. Water is used to wash fat from your body. These things have to get out somehow—they don’t just evaporate away! So water moves good things around your body, and water moves waste, toxins and fat out.
As part of the Wellness Challenge, you can earn your points while flushing your system and creating more energy!
Congratulations to all the winners in this year's Stash the Cash Challenge!
Week 3 Winners
- Christine Auxier
- Heather Davis
Week 4 Winners
- Karla Day
- Kelly Polich
Week 5 Winners
- Linda McAtee
- Anne Winter
Grand Prize Winner (Wins a pack of assorted wellness items):
- Julie Ridley
Disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes can occur in almost any area of the country, so it's a good idea to prepare for them. LifeWorks will help you organize your home to minimize damage, create emergency plans and make sure you have emergency supplies. You should also plan what you would do in case of a natural disaster and discuss it with your family to make sure you are all as prepared as possible.
Website: heartlandaea.lifeworks.com
Username: heartlandaea
Password: lifeworks
Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) are pleased to announce that for the 2017-18 school year, students and educators will continue to have access to many of the same digital resources they have come to depend on as high-quality, reliable instructional resources. In addition, two new resources will be available for upper elementary and middle school students.
Statewide resources continuing in the next school year:
• AEA Digital Library
• BookFLIX
• Britannica School
• CultureGrams
• Gale Resources
• iClipArt for Schools
• Learn360
• SIRS Issues Researcher
• Soundzabound
• TeachingBooks.net
• Teen Health & Wellness
• TrueFLIX
New resources coming for upper elementary and middle school students:
• FreedomFLIX
• ScienceFLIX
Two resources will be discontinued at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year:
• Atomic Learning
• AP Images
Selection Process Note: The statewide selection committee and RFP review process included AEA library professionals, Iowa Department of Education consultants, AEA content experts and teachers. Final selections were made after surveying teachers and students for their patterns of usage and preferences, examining past years of database usage and receiving and reviewing proposals from more than 30 vendors.
In addition to these resources, Heartland AEA also purchases a number of digital resources for students and educators in our service area. For more information or assistance with digital resources, contact Susan Schrader, Director of Resources & Library Services at ext. 14332.
The agenda for the May 9, 2017 Heartland AEA Board of Directors meeting is now available.
Pass this opportunity on to parents you work with…
Are you raising a child, age birth-21, who has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? Learn more in our 10-week class for parents! With readings, online modules and group discussion at our weekly video conference meetings, Heartland AEA staffers Kristen Bloch and Kate Boonstra will explore the definition of evidence-based practice as well as review and discuss specific interventions that have been demonstrated to be effective for children with a diagnosis of ASD. More information is available on this flyer.
On May 2, you should have received the following email requesting that you complete the BrightBytes survey. It is being repeated here for your information. All staff should complete the survey by May 15.
Heartland AEA is once again partnering with BrightBytes, an educational research and analytics organization, in order to learn more about your technology access and use for learning and delivering our services to the districts we serve.
We are requesting that you again complete the BrightBytes Technology Survey (link to the survey in May 2 email). Just as our schools and districts are working to use technology in authentic and meaningful ways—as a transformative tool for learning rather than just a learning outcome—we as an AEA must become not just tech-savvy but business-savvy, creating a culture of technology within our organization in order to deliver services that meet our customers’ demands. Acting quickly and strategically to embrace technology will help us ensure that we stay relevant, competitive, and ultimately, of greatest service to the students and teachers we support.
Your participation is essential in helping us form a more complete picture of technology use at Heartland AEA, and we are very excited to see how the work we’ve done to build technology skills will influence our survey results. As you know, this is one important piece of data that we use to help our agency choose the right technology for our work and the right professional learning for our staff.
Please know that all of your responses will remain anonymous to protect your privacy. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and will close on May 15, 2017.
Thank you for providing the Agency with this important information!
