The Iowa Youth Survey results are in!! The state report is available here. Other reports (county, AEA, etc) are available at www.iowayouthsurvey.iowa.gov. Superintendents (or a designee) may request local results.
The dissemination of information from external organizations by Great Prairie AEA does not imply sponsorship or endorsement of the information. It is being passed on to our stakeholders for its educational value.
All of Iowa’s AEAs have received great letters of support from parents who are grateful for the services their children have been provided by AEA staff. For this month’s Impacting Lives update at http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/, we are sharing some letters we’ve received. Thank you to all who have showed support to the AEA system. We are truly honored to provide the services that impact so many students’ lives in Iowa.
Lisa Jacobs, GPAEA Technology Specialist
Thank you to everyone that contributed to the shared document about your own PLN journey. It was a great experience to request and receive input from Cornerstone readers and my own PLN group. You can click on this link to see the actual responses: Shared PLN Google Document.
A few highlights:
Lisa Jacobs – (GPAEA Instructional Technology Specialist) A smart phone makes connecting to my PLN much easier- no passwords to remember as you are always connected to email, twitter, facebook, etc.
Sharon Padget (Science Teacher, Ottumwa) Twitter has connected me with so many wonderful people with some of the best resources. I have more help than I ever thought possible especially when it comes to gifted kids, special needs kids and ELL kids I believe it has made me a better teacher.
Fran McVeigh (GPAEA Literacy Specialist) About two years ago, I found the group #educoach. This PLN has the answer to my questions! II finally began blogging at franmcveigh.wordpress.com and have had over 2200 readers in six months…
Joel Pedersen (Superintendent, Cardinal CSD) I started to join different chats especially #iaedchat every Sunday night. I have found that Twitter is the main place I go for information on school leadership topics. I am encouraging everyone in my district to engage and learn more about the power of PLNs. PLNs are truly a “game changer” in my opinion.
Kristin Steingreaber (GPAEA Media Specialist) I’ve been blogging since 2009 at http://amrc-reviews.blogspot.com/ …I follow teacher librarians around Iowa use #tlchat and I specifically get inspired by Kathy Kaldenberg, a good friend and terrific librarian at Solon – @scsdmedia and of course, national library leader – Joyce Valenza. I participate in TLChat once a month. Using online webinars as a way to do PD this year and it’s been working very well with FreeScreenShare. I get a lot of good ideas from Wes Fryer - @wfryer and I often tune in to presentations he is doing around the country, because he’s so good about making them accessible long distance! (read more from Kris on the shared google site).
Susan Kientz (GPAEA Instructional Technology Coach) My personal PLN (Professional Learning Network) journey began with the book “Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms” by Will Richardson. … In my personal learning network I follow a variety of people with many different ideas about how technology should used in the classroom. I don’t always agree with everything I read but it does open the way to thinking about technology in different way. One blog I follow is called Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Bryne. He presents 7 to 8 different web based tools to use in the classroom each day. He not only tells me about the resource but he also includes a paragraph about how he sees it being used in classroom…
Lynn Selking (GPAEA Mathematics Specialist) I relax with my Scoop.It. http://www.scoop.it/t/common-core-mathematics I have found so many interesting things on here.
Jessie Greiner (2nd Grade, Cardinal) Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are my three go tos for my PLN! Twitter: I started by following a couple of key people who tweeted a lot: @shannonmiller, @mcleod, and @sbehmer. I followed the people that they followed, plus people I already had in my PLN and I am now following 595 people. I also set up my Tweetdeck with the hashtags that were most popular. Now I am able to look for specific hashtags to accommodate what I am needing. Some of my favorite hashtags to follow are: #edchat, #cardinalcomets, #mysteryskype, #skypeintheclassroom, #elemchat, #2ndchat, #edtech and #1to1. Tweetdeck made a huge difference in my PLN and has helped keep me organized! I find most of my ideas and websites on Twitter, plus it is a great place for me to share with others things I am doing as well. Pinterest is also a great place to get and give ideas to my PLN.
Sheila Fetter (Cardinal Middle School) One of the first electronic PLN’s I experienced, was google.docs. One middle school teacher would create a shared document that we could all access. It’s let us plan things together, add ideas, etc without all having to be there at the same time. It accomodated coaching schedules, family schedules, etc. We now also use it to discuss issues, share information. Pinterest has become a great place to get ideas both professionally for my classroom and personally for home ideas.I have just recently started tapping into Twitter..
You can click on this link to see the actual responses: Shared PLN Google Document. The shared document is still open if you want to contribute your own PLN experiences.
Not another survey! Yes, we are sorry, but would really appreciate your feedback regarding the Great Prairie AEA website. Take a few moments to browse our website before taking the survey.
Click the following link to take the Great Prairie AEA Website Survey: http://bit.ly/110ZBMh
If you haven’t already registered and plan to attend GPAEA’s Summer Institute on June 17 & 18, please do so now at http://bit.ly/summerinstitute13. No cost, lunch included.
The Great Prairie AEA Sixth Grade Math Bee was held Friday, April 12, 2013 at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center in Fairfield, Iowa. The event involved 47 teams from 21 school districts within the Great Prairie AEA region. There were 218 students participating on the building level teams including their team alternates. The test covers six different areas: Number Sense & Estimation; Patterns & Functions; Geometry& Measurement; Probability & Statistics; Ratio, Proportion & Percent; and a Team Problem Solving Round.
Individual Winners:
| Individual Place | Name | School |
| 1st | Hank Hammer | Ottumwa Evans Middle |
| 2nd | Maggie Voyles | Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont CSD |
| 3rd | Julia Fairchild | Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont CSD |
| in top 10 | Waylon Weirather | Central Lee Middle |
| in top 10 | Ben Sheppard | Central Lee Middle |
| in top 10 | Wyatt Klyn | Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont CSD |
| in top 10 | Laurel Hilger | Fairfield Middle |
| in top 10 | Shaleen Thiengmany | Mt. Pleasant Middle |
| in top 10 | Makenna Hall | Central Lee Middle |
| in top 10 | Jagger Gourley | Mediapolis Middle/High |
| in top 10 | Mason Porter | New London Jr./Sr. High |
| in top 10 | Rebekah Hartman | Ottumwa Evans Middle |
| Top Alternate | Bridget Hayman | Burlington Aldo Leopold Middle |
Each AEA in Iowa sends the top 10% of their competing teams to the State Competition. The State Sixth Grade Math Bee is scheduled May 3, 2013 and will be held in Fort Dodge.
The five teams from Great Prairie AEA eligible to participate in the 2013 State Sixth Grade Math Bee include:
Congratulations to all of the students and those teams advancing to state!
