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
As you all know, the past several years our country has seen an increase in school and workplace violence. As our agency learns more from the experts who have studied these events, our Emergency Response & Safety Team has made several recommendations that have been enacted across the Agency to help keep us safe in the case of an emergency.
As Heartland AEA continues to make improvements in our agency’s safety and security, we are now asking that all staff complete the ALICE online training once a year. By the end of the 2018 calendar year, all Heartland AEA staff members should take the hour-long online training to become familiar with the ALICE program and the techniques it teaches in response to an armed intruder event.
ALICE stands for:
- Alert: Get the word out! “Armed Intruder in building” instead of “Code Red,” or “Bring the purple folder to the office.” Use clear, concise language to convey the type and location of the event.
- Lockdown: Good starting point. We will continue to lockdown in secure areas.
- Inform: Communication keeps the intruder off balance and allows for good decision-making.
- Counter: Apply skills to distract, confuse and gain control.
- Evacuate: Reduce the number of potential targets for the intruder and reduce chances of victims resulting from friendly fire when help arrives.
In short, using the ALICE method will give you more tools to use in the event of an armed intruder/active shooter. We want to provide you with the knowledge that if faced with a life or death situation there are methods that can be applied to enhance your chance of survival.
Again, you are expected to complete the ALICE online training by the end of the 2018 calendar year.
To access the training:
- Visit the AEA Learning Online Moodle site.
- Click on the Login with Your AEA Learning Online account, this is the same site that you have taken Mandatory trainings as a Heartland AEA employee.
- Once in the site, find the banner named "Individual AEAs and Partners" and look for the Heartland AEA logo. Click on the logo, and you'll be taken to a page where the ALICE logo is shown.
- Click on the ALICE logo to be taken to a screen where you can then click the "Enroll me" button to be enrolled in the training.
- If you need assistance with accessing the site, contact Shelley Christensen or Britini Jones at ext. 14702.
If you have any questions about the training or the ALICE program in general, contact Dustin Gean, Operations Manager, Emergency Response & Safety Team Lead and Certified ALICE Trainer.
As you may recall, in October 2017, the Heartland AEA Business Office and Human Resources Department asked for your feedback on a survey to help them better serve their customers (you!). Over the past six months, as part of the departments’ WIGS (Wildly Important Goals), they’ve taken your feedback and focused on improving processes, services and communication to you.
As you may recall, the Business Office and HR want to serve you with the following goals in mind:
- Be proactive and help gain efficiencies by improving processes, procedures and programs.
- Contribute to a positive and collaborative culture.
- Decrease the amount of stress and time you spend on items that don't directly relate to your work (e.g, benefits, expenses, technology, etc.) by interacting in a caring and supportive manner.
With that in mind, they would like your help to again provide feedback and let them know if they’re meeting their target goals. You can do that by please completing this short, four-question survey about the Heartland AEA Business Office and Human Resources Department.
Your answers will be submitted anonymously. Complete the survey by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 18, 2018. Thank you for your feedback!
Last week the Communications Department sent out the May 2018 issue of the Educator Connection newsletter. The Educator Connection is intended to keep our educators better connected to our agency and to the many programs and services we offer to educators, students and families. The newsletter is emailed to educators and automatically archived on our agency website. Agency and district staff can also subscribe to the newsletter via the webpage.
Articles:
- Iowa's AEAs... Did You Know We Did All That?
- Student Planners: Help Keep Your Students Organized and Engaged!
- Register Now, Then Tell Your ESL/ELL Colleagues About the 14th Annual Our Kids Summer Institute
- What Are Key Items Needed for Standards-Based Learning Implementation? Find Out on June 14!
- We’re Giving Away Books! For FREE!
- Put the Brakes on Summer Slide With These Audiobooks for Your High School Students
- New Course Options Have Been Added for Evaluator License Renewal
- Paraeducators Are an Important Part of the Team!
- Educators: Check Out Our Professional Learning Courses!
- Family Engagement Guru Steve Constantino Returns to Iowa on June 18 for a One-Day Event
- Heartland AEA is Offering Classes for Teachers Who Work with Students on K-12 Alternate Assessments
- Video: More Tech Tools to Enhance Student Learning
The May 2018 issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is now available.
The May 2018 issue of the quarterly newsletter from the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is now available.
Water, water, everywhere! Get ready to get your drink on May 21-31!
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 the end of the day on May 18. After you register, Juliette Houseman will send you a form where you will record your daily entries.
Incentive!
If you drink at least 75 oz. of water on a daily basis, you will be entered in a drawing for a gift bag of Heartland AEA logo items. (You are not required to drink this amount every day to participate in the challenge as a whole.)
How much water should you drink?
Daily recommended water amount: drink 1/2 ounce for every 1 pound of your weight, every day. That’s .033 liters per 1 kg you weight.
Examples:
Half of 150 lbs. = 75, so 75 oz./day
Half of 250 lbs. = 125, so 125 oz./day
Half of 68 kg x .033 = about 2 liters/day
Half of 90 kg x .033 = about 3 liters/day
Why drink water?
Resetting your body is all about undoing years of bad habits and less than perfect health choices. As you’ve heard a thousand times, drinking lots of water is critical. As part of the Wellness Challenge, you can earn your points while flushing your system and creating more energy!
What's the big deal about water?
The Earth is 70% water. 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.
Everyone knows that health care can be expensive — especially when you need to be seen quickly. But did you know that you can lower your health care bills and save time in the waiting room, just by making smart choices about where you go for care? In fact, there’s a simple rule of thumb to help you decide!
Check out this infographic to learn more about “Where to Go for Care.”
The 2018-19 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 your individual 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 your 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 your supervisor just as a leave request would be. And, just as with a leave request, the supervisor will review and can approve or reject the calendar. Applicable emails are sent to you and your 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 2018-19 calendar can be viewed by you, your supervisor and your need-to-know person.
Also, all subsequent changes to the 2018-19 calendar must be submitted via the Calendar Exchange Online request system after July 1, 2018.
The working days calendars are due before you leave for the summer or June 8, 2018, whichever comes first.
If you have any questions, contact Whitney Anderson, Human Resources Generalist, at ext. 14432.
“Speaking for All Learners” will be held on June 12-13, 2018 at North Polk High School. PK-12 educators will have the opportunity to network with other educational professionals, discover new strategies for working with English language learners in Iowa and meet national and local experts to enrich practices for increasing EL achievement.
Conference topics include:
- Strategies for addressing barriers to academic and language learning for English Learners in the classroom
- Best practices for supporting early childhood language acquisition for preschool English Learners
- Instructional leadership strategies for English language learning programs
- Connecting and collaborating with other educators responsible for the success of English Learners
- And many more learning opportunities and topics from experts in educating English Learners!
Featured Speakers
Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D.
ELL specialist with extensive and diverse experience teaching educators how to enhance instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
David Edward Garcia
Grew up on the Mexican border in Texas, two worlds-linguistically and culturally. Successful speaker of five languages, teacher, entrepreneur, comedian.
Anita Pandey, Ph.D.
Professor of Linguistics and Coordinator of Professional Development and Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Ryan Wise, Ed.D.
Director of the Iowa Department of Education
Plus, our amazing local experts and students!
Information and Registration
Learn more at the conference website and register at this link by June 5.
Incentive
Heartland AEA Title III will refund the cost of registration ($150), plus provide an honorarium of $200 to off-contract public and non-public educators for full attendance and participation. This funding is not available to public or non-public districts served by the Des Moines Public Schools.
If you know of educators interested in standards-based learning professional learning, send them to us!
Carol Commodore, Ed.D. will address key items that speak to the need for a full, robust systems approach to implementing standards-based learning, including grading and reporting. She will lead learning on possible components such as having a guiding team or task force of some kind, mapping out a communication plan, and building consensus.
Strand of Standards-Based Learning Framework: Internal/External Capacity Building
June 14, 2018
8:30 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.
FFA Enrichment Center, 1055 SW Prairie Trail Pkwy, Ankeny, IA
Registration
Presenter: Carol Commodore, Ed.D.
Dr. Carol Commodore is the founding member of Leadership, Learning and Assessment, LLC. Carol is also one of the founding members of the Wisconsin Assessment Consortium and an independent consultant with Pearson's Assessment Training Institute of Portland, Oregon. She was a classroom teacher for over 20 years and was a district-level administrator for eleven years. Carol’s research interests focus on the impact of assessment and instruction on learners and their learning. She strives to provide meaningful ways to assist educators in their reflective practice and in the acquisition of tools that will bring insight and joy to them and their students in the educational process.
Save the Dates!
For these additional Heartland AEA-hosted Standards-Based Learning Opportunities!
Strand of SBL Framework: Belief System and Implementation Considerations
Presenter: Tom Schimmer, Sept. 27, 2018
Strand of SBL Framework: Standards-Based Learning
Presenter: Jan Chappuis, Nov. 29, 2018
Strand of SBL Framework: Learning Targets, Scales & Rubrics
Presenter: Tammy Heflebower, Ed.D., Feb. 28, 2019
Strand of SBL Framework: TBD
Presenter: Myron Dueck, June 11, 2019
FASTBridge will be offering several webinars in May and June on Data Reports and Interpretation for Math and Behavior. You can register for these webinars via this document. The webinars will be recorded and links to the recordings will be posted in the document.
The agenda for the May 8 Heartland AEA Board of Directors meeting is now available.
It’s finally spring! Please take this opportunity to go through and purge, recycle, upcycle or send to the warehouse any items you no longer need to have immediately on hand. If you need any boxes or labels for materials being taken to the warehouse, contact Jason Elliott or Steve Howard in the Operations Department.
If you need to shred a large number of documents, you can box them up and send them via van mail to the Johnston REC, Attn: To Be Shredded, and they will be put in the shredding bins for a large pick up on June 1. You can send boxes anytime between now and May 28.
Thank you for taking the time to clean up and clean out our agency workspaces!
The Iowa Department of Education allocated Title I School Improvement funds to Iowa’s AEA this past November. Due to the timing of the allocation, Heartland AEA was only able to use the funds to hire one position for the 2017-18 school year.
The Agency is funding 2.5 positions with the funds in 2018-19 and will be using some of the remaining funds for 2017-18 to support Certified staff serving K-12 students the opportunity to participate in one day of learning focused on literacy or math. Participants will be paid one day of addendum pay for this voluntary opportunity. (It is not required.) The deadline to register for one of the sessions is Monday, May 21. A description of the sessions, dates, locations and registration links are below.
Cognition-Based Math Assessment and Instruction (June 15 or June 20) (Grades K-8)
Participants will learn how to administer and score assessments from the series Cognition Based Assessment and Teaching by Michael Battista. These are appropriate for grades K-8 students. Most of the content is K-5; however, these will be appropriate for older students who are struggling, as they will help determine the student's areas of need.
The assessments are designed to work with any curriculum, and Cognition-Based Assessment and Teaching will enable you to better understand and respond to your students’ learning needs and help you choose instructional activities that are best for them.
Effective Literacy Strategy Instruction (Grades K-12)
The purpose of this session is to provide professional learning around effective literacy strategy instruction that will include the following areas: Elements of Effective Literacy Strategy Instruction, Effective Phonics Instruction - Grapheme-Phoneme Mapping, Effective Instruction in Building Words with Morphemes (prefixes, suffixes and roots), Effective Instruction in Vocabulary - Frayer Model and Effective Instruction in Comprehension - Text Structure. These strategies complement any curriculum and are appropriate for students K-5 in universal instruction and for struggling students at the elementary and secondary level.
The Agency is preparing to upgrade all of its Mac computers to Apple’s current operating system, macOS 10.13. Having all staff using the same operating system will enhance our security and simplify the process of providing support.
You received an email on April 18 with detailed instructions about how to perform this upgrade. This is a fairly simple process, but it will take some time. For example, if a new computer is being upgraded in the Johnston REC, the process could take as little as 35 minutes. If an older model is being updated using home Wi-Fi, it might take 2-3 hours. So, you’ll want to plan your time according to what computer you have and what network you’ll be using.
Included in the email is a short video we encourage you to watch prior to doing the upgrade so you know what to expect. You will also want to do a Time Machine backup on your external hard drive just prior to performing the upgrade. You will need 15 GB of free space in order to perform the upgrade.
For those of you who upgraded your operating system as part of the pilot group, thank you for your willingness to help us test the process. If you were part of the pilot, there’s no need for you to do any additional upgrades at this time. The Internal Technology Department asks that you complete the upgrade to OS 10.13 by May 11, before the rush of the end of the school year. Starting May 4th, if you haven't already upgraded to macOS High Sierra, you will see the message below daily reminding you to complete the installation.
If you have any questions, contact the Internal Technology Team.
This information was provided in regional and Central Support meetings and was emailed in its entirety to staff on April 26. If you haven’t yet done so, please complete 2-Step Verification as soon as you can.
As part of Heartland AEA’s increased efforts to improve our agency’s digital safety and security, we're moving to a new sign-in process for our G Suite (Google) accounts called 2-Step Verification. 2-Step Verification adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to enter a verification code (similar to a passcode) after you enter your usual username and password to sign in. You receive the verification code through your mobile phone.
Why are we doing this?
2-Step Verification helps protect your account from unauthorized access due to a compromised password. Even if your password is cracked, guessed or stolen, an attacker can't sign in without a verification code, which only you can obtain via your own mobile phone.
Next Steps for You
Be sure to have a mobile phone available. You can use an Android or iPhone with a data connection to receive verification codes via text message or phone call. You may also choose to receive phone prompts or the Authenticator app to generate verification codes while offline. Set up your account for 2-Step Verification by following the instructions below:
- Go to the 2-Step Verification page. You might have to sign in to your Google Account.
- Select Get started.
- Follow the step-by-step setup process.
Once you're finished, you'll be taken to the 2-Step Verification settings page. Review your settings and add multiple verification methods. The next time you sign in, you'll receive a text message with a verification code.
Important Dates
• May 8, 2018: Enrollment in 2-Step Verification begins.
• June 16, 2018: You should be registered and using 2-Step Verification.
Need Help?
If you have any questions or need assistance with this process, contact your region or department’s Technology Lead or:
Tim Weets
Network Specialist
ext. 14322
Marquis Jones
Technology Support Specialist
ext. 14618
This shout out missed the deadline for publication in last Friday's HeartBeat, so it is being included here.
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to the teachers in our Shelter Care Educational Program! In recognition of this week, here are some facts about the Program.
What is Heartland AEA’s Shelter Care Educational Program?
The Shelter Care Educational Program (SCEP) provides accredited K-12 instructional services to neglected and/or delinquent children and youth (ages 5 – 17).
SCEP classrooms are located in the following sites:
- Polk County Juvenile Detention Center in Des Moines
- Rosedale Shelter in Ames
- Youth Emergency Services & Shelter in Des Moines
Who are our SCEP Instructional educators?
Cheryl Graham, LaVon Goodrich, Deb Smith, Leilani Shaw, Bob Brown, Nancy Miller, Dee May, Jill Lawrence, Stacey Geiger, Erika Schuck, Nancy Coursen, Corrine Breitsprecker, Elaine Mattingly, Laura Howell, Stacie Thomas, Lisa Peterson, Lisa Schossow, Darcy Van Dam, Crosby Hinze and Raymond Wynter
Who is our SCEP administration?
Leanne Chapman-Thill, Administrator
Jill Caltrider, Administrative Assistant
What are shelter and detention facilities?
Shelter facilities are residences run by county, state or private agencies to provide safe places for children and/or youth who, for a variety of reasons, are not able to live at home.
Most children are placed in shelter facilities by court order due to family problems such as abuse, neglect, abandonment or personal problems related to the use of drugs or alcohol.
Detention centers are locked facilities for youth who have criminal charges filed or pending against them.
Although children are away from home and in unfamiliar surroundings — separated from family, friends and neighbors — it is our hope the classroom environment provides a safe and effective place for students to learn.
SCEP Belief Statements
- We believe every individual has value.
- We believe the future will be better for those who know how to learn and desire to continue to learn.
- We believe every child deserves a safe, stable and caring environment with the opportunity for growth and success.
- We believe every child has the potential to learn and learns most effectively in an educational program that addresses his/her needs.
- We believe the Shelter Care Program is strengthened
through collaboration and continuous individual growth.
