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!
Last week members of the State Board of Education adopted new statewide social studies standards following an Iowa-led writing and review process that began more than a year ago.
The new standards represent the first update to Iowa’s social studies standards since they were adopted in 2008. Supporters say the new standards provide clarity that teachers have asked for, as well as the real-world knowledge and skills in social studies that students need for success in postsecondary education and in civic life. The new standards outline what students should know and be able to do in social studies from kindergarten through 12th grade. The board’s unanimous vote was based on recommendations from Iowa’s Social Studies Standards Review Team, which convened this year to review draft standards developed in 2016 by an Iowa writing team.
To develop draft standards, the writing team used a framework created by a group of states, including Iowa, and endorsed by the National Council for the Social Studies. The Social Studies Standards Review Team then modified the draft standards this year based on broad public input, which included an online survey, public forums and teacher focus groups. The review team finalized its recommendations in March and released a report to the State Board of Education in April.
The new social studies standards:
Go beyond content that students should master, emphasizing the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that students need to be successful in post-secondary education and training and to compete for today’s most rewarding jobs.
Weave in Iowa history and financial literacy, which were not reflected in the previous social studies standards.
Outline what students should know and be able to do at each grade level from kindergarten through eighth grade, rather than being organized by spans of grades. In grades 9 through 12, the draft standards are organized by content area within social studies.
The State Board of Education also accepted recommendations to ensure successful implementation of social studies standards, such as establishing a social studies position at each of Iowa’s area education agencies, providing teachers with ongoing access to professional development in social studies, and increasing statewide accountability for social studies education.
For more information about Iowa’s academic standards, visit the Iowa Core website.
Heartland AEA is partnering with an advisory company, IS Loan Solutions, to help school employees improve their student loan situations and overall financial well-being. All of your full-time district employees (regardless of position) with student loans are encouraged to find out if this voluntary benefit can help them. They may qualify for loan forgiveness and refinancing to help lower or even eliminate loan payments. IS Loan Solutions has helped others reduce their monthly payments on average by 81%.
Visit the IS Loan Solutions website and enter registration code AEA11 for more information.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) may be able to:
Immediately lower monthly student loan payment s
Reduce student loan obligation
Significantly lower costs to earn additional degrees
Receive a personalized 10-year loan forgiveness plan outlining projected tax-free savings
Some may be able to lower their payments through the program, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF is not Teacher Loan Forgiveness). If you choose to work with IS Loan Solutions, there will be a fee for their services. For those who won’t benefit from PSLF, refinancing may work for you. For those who registered with ISLoan Solutions in the past and were told you would not benefit from PSLF, login to your MyISLS portal, and you will be directed to the refinancing option.
Contact IS Loan Solutions at (866) 831-5564 or visit isloansolutions.com for more information and success stories.
THE ANSWER IS YES. When you see Wellmark on your caller ID, know that a nurse or a Wellmark health support team member may be calling you to help you with your health. Several Wellmark health programs regularly place calls to members. This flyer shows you some of the reasons why Wellmark might contact you and why you want to pick up the phone.
Don't forget you have until May 31 to complete the 2016-17 Wellness program! Many of you are so close to completing the program and earning your incentive! If you need help finding out what you have left to complete or you need ideas on how to complete the program, let Wellness leads Katie Streff or Juliette Houseman know! It just takes a little time to see what you have done and what else you can do before the end of the program. Complete the program and the incentive will be yours! $200 for returning staff and $100 and a Fitbit Flex for all first year staff who complete the program!
Remember that you are granted up to 4 hours of agency time per fiscal year to do volunteer/community service work. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to represent the Agency as a caring organization and help spread the message of our mission to improve the learning outcomes and well-being of children and youth in central Iowa!
If you volunteer during work hours, remember:
There must be at least three Heartland AEA staff members (you and at least two other staff) working at the same volunteer opportunity together.
Staff members are encouraged to wear Heartland AEA-logo clothing or our “Heartland Cares” stickers that were created for this purpose. You can request stickers by contacting the Communications Department. (Please request your stickers so others can see who you are!)
Of course, you must approve your leave with your supervisor before taking the time off.
Volunteer leave should be recorded in the Leave Online system as Volunteer Leave.
Finally, to celebrate your work, take a photo of your group during the volunteer activity and send it to the Communications Department with information about the activity and who was involved.
We’ve had great representation again this year, and we look forward to seeing more of you out before the end of June. Thank you for representing the Agency and serving our communities!
You first saw Fit Chat in the May issue of HeartBeat….we are repeating it here!
Welcome to the first installment of Fit Chat! We plan to bring you a new episode of Fit Chat each month to promote the Agency’s Wellness program and talk to staff who are working hard on their wellness goals. This will also be a way for you to get helpful ideas from your co-workers on what is working for them. Our first episode features an interview with Andrea Brouwer (Special Education Consultant/JO), and she discusses how she balances eating healthy and working out with the demands of her job and always being on the go.
A chronic illness can affect everyone in your family. It can bring up painful emotions, require you to make changes in your home and social life and strain your budget. Learning as much as you can about a condition, communicating well with family members and sharing responsibilities will help everyone meet the challenges a chronic illness brings. Working together and helping one another can be a rewarding experience for everyone. Learn more about this topic by logging on to LifeWorks.
Heartland AEA is hosting two Instructional Practices Inventory (IPI) Workshops in the fall for teachers who want to enhance their practice of collecting and collaboratively studying student engagement. Both workshops will be facilitated by Jerry Valentine, IPI Developer and Lead Trainer.
Instructional Practices Inventory Level I Workshop The IPI workshop will begin with an overview of the IPI categories and the protocols for data collection and transitions to a local school to make observations in a classroom setting.
Oct. 4, 2017 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Van Meter Community School District, 520 First Ave., Van Meter Registration
Instructional Practices Inventory Technology Workshop During the workshop, participants will develop the skills to document student engagement through the use of technology and learn how to use the profiles to engage faculty in collaborative learning conversations about engagement, instructional change, technology integration and school-wide instructional goals.
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!
