28 Days of OLLIE begin February 1

About 28 days of OLLIE
Online communities and learning networks are helping educators create innovative solutions to age-old problems, and fulfill the promise of today and tomorrow’s educational landscape. Because online learning is evolving quickly it is especially important for online teachers to connect and collaborate.

The 28 days of OLLIE is an excellent opportunity for online teachers to benefit from each others ideas and experiences, as well as gain some insight into the newest innovations in online learning.

Throughout the month there will be coordinated opportunities for online teachers to connect with each other, engage in, and learn from. It is our hope that at the end of this month the connections that are formed among and between the community members will extend beyond the 28 days and lead to community of online teachers that can support each other in future work.

What to Expect during 28 days of OLLIE
28 days of OLLIE is meant to provide online teachers with learning opportunities focused on enhancing their ability to teach in blended or online environments. The community facilitators will be hosting a variety learning opportunities or events for educators.

Year 2 TLC Districts in GPAEA

#GPAEA Year 2 TLC Districts meet with @IADeptofEd @ryanmwise & Lora Rasey. #iaedchat http://t.co/JKXHf2wPLp—
Great Prairie AEA (@GPAEA) January 29, 2015

On Thursday, January 29, Year 2 districts selected for the Teacher-Leadership Compensation Grant meet with Iowa Department of Education staff Ryan Wise and Lora Rasey. The Teacher Leadership and Compensation System rewards effective teachers with leadership opportunities and higher pay, attracts promising new teachers with competitive starting salaries and more support, and fosters greater collaboration for all teachers to learn from each other. Year 2 districts had the opportunity to ask questions and hear from Year 1 Grantees: Mt. Pleasant and Ottumwa.

Year 1 2013-14:

• Burlington
• Mount Pleasant
• Ottumwa

Year 2 (2014-15):

• Albia
• Cardinal
• Chariton
• Davis County
• Fairfield
• New London
• Tri County
• Wapello
• Wayne
• WMU
• Oskaloosa

Year 3 (2015-16):

• Centerville
• Danville
• Keota
• Moravia w/ Seymour
• North Mahaska
• Pekin
• Van Buren

Learn more at http://www.gpaea.org/en/services/teacher_leadership_compensation_tlc/.

STEM Conference for Counselors & Teachers in Ottumwa

What:  Iowa Farm Bureau STEM Career Conference for Counselors & Educators

When:  March 2, 2015

Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm

Where: IHCC, Ottumwa   Rural Health Education Center (RHEC building)

To register: http://www.uni.edu/chas/outreach/stem-resources/career-conferences

In a collaborative effort with U.N.I. STEM and Iowa Farm Bureau, Indian Hills Community College would like to invite teachers of STEM areas to attend this upcoming conference in Ottumwa. We encourage teams of middle and high school counselors, administrators and teachers especially in agriculture, science, technology, engineering, and math areas from your school district.

• No cost for conference (breakfast and lunch included)
• Materials pertinent to the development of STEM careers and teaching STEM initiatives provided
• The first 20 teachers to register will recieve sub reimbursement via U.N.I STEM
• Area business and student panelists part of agenda
• Steve Triplett from ACT will be presenting as well as Jeff Weld from the Governor’s STEM Council
• IHCC Program tours included

STEM Career Conf Flyer – 2015

Summer Institute Series: Thinking Functionally about Behavior

 

 

Next Generation Science Standards Survey

The Iowa Department of Education has announced a series of February public forums and a statewide survey following a state panel’s recommendation to get public feedback on the Next Generation Science Standards. These are a set of learning expectations in science for students in kindergarten through high school. The Next Generation Science Standards were developed by 26 states, including Iowa. All states can consider adopting and adapting them to meet their needs.

Public feedback will be used to provide guidance to the Science Standards Review Team, which is expected to submit a final recommendation regarding science standards to the State Board of Education later this year.

The survey, which is open through February 27, can be found at the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VW6SHDY?c=Iowa_Science_Survey

The public forums are scheduled as follows:

Wednesday, Feb. 11: Waukee
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Waukee Community Schools District Office – Board Room
560 Southeast University Ave.
Waukee, IA

Tuesday, Feb. 24, Ottumwa
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Great Prairie Area Education Agency, Ottumwa Office – Auditorium
2814 North Court Street
Ottumwa, IA

Wednesday, Feb. 25, Dubuque
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Keystone Area Education Agency, Dubuque Office – Room 1 ABC
2310 Chaney Road
Dubuque, IA

Thursday, Feb. 26, Sioux City
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Northwest Area Education Agency, Administrative Office – Room A/Auditorium
1520 Morningside Ave.
Sioux City, IA

The Next Generation Science Standards can be found at http://www.nextgenscience.org/.

For more information, please visit the Iowa Department of Education’s website at https://www.educateiowa.gov/.

2015 MTSS Early Literacy Workshops

The workshops are designed to help leadership teams develop a continuum of literacy supports to address the needs of all learners and close the gap in achievement levels.

Teams will learn how to use the Collective Inquiry Questions as a tool for examining their literacy needs at the Universal and Targeted Tiers.

• If the Universal Tier is not sufficient, what are the needs that must be addressed?
• How will Universal Tier needs be addressed?
• Which students need support in addition to the Universal Tier and how will these needs be addressed?

WHEN & WHERE?
January 30 – March 5 – May 7   9AM – 3 PM (lunch not included)

• Fairfield Arts & Convention Center
  200 North Main, Fairfield, IA (Face-to-face)
• Harold L. Mick Office (Albia)
  103 South A Street, Albia, IA (Zoom w/ site facilitator)
• Burlington AEA Office
  3601 West Avenue, Burlington, IA (Zoom w/ site facilitator)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Building Administrator and Elementary Literacy Leadership Team Members

REGISTER
MyLearningPlan: http://bit.ly/1xZeHVT

MTSS for Early Literacy Flyer

GPAEA Schools in the News – January 2015

A list of the January 2015 headlines featuring a Great Prairie AEA School District:

• GPAEA – #Schools posting, tweeting
• Ottumwa – Project Lead the Way expands to elementary

Post updated throughout the month. Did we miss something? Send your school news to jennifer.woodley@gpaea.org. Note: The articles compiled in this list come from independent media sources who are solely responsible for their content. GPAEA staff did not participate in writing any of these articles and GPAEA does not necessarily endorse the content of the articles.  Some articles may be available only by subscription.

The Cornerstone – January 2015

Click on one of the articles below or scroll down to begin reading:

• Let’s Embrace the Opportunities in Differentiated Accountability
• McVeigh Presents at National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
• Southeast Iowa STEM Festival – April 25, 2015
• 28 Days of OLLIE begins February 1
• Iowa Department of Education Special Education Survey
• Capitol Girls 2015
• Iowa Youth Leadership Forum
• RESPECT Training 2015 – Ottumwa
• 2015 Science Opportunities for Teachers & Students
• K-12 STEM Related Programs & Competitions

Let’s Embrace the Opportunities in Differentiated Accountability

Jon's Blog

Later this week, Iowa’s Department of Education will be releasing its first set of attendance center rankings.  The first iteration of these rankings will include only a subset of three of the nine healthy school indicators that will ultimately be used to rank schools and education agencies.  The first three indicators in this subset are academic proficiency, academic growth, and closing the achievement gap for students with disabilities.  These, initially, will be based on annual, standardized measures and may, therefore, seem to be just an extension of the old NCLB system of sanctions based on standardized data.

I would argue, though, that we are on the cusp of an encouraging opportunity in Iowa education.  I say that because we are looking at a new accountability system in Iowa that needs to be viewed in its entirety.  Yes, there will be an annual release of rankings and those of us in…

View original post 718 more words

McVeigh Presents at National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

Fran McVeigh, Reading Specialist

The Gaylord Convention Center was the setting for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) from November 20-23 in Washington DC. Four days packed with keynotes, sessions, authors, exhibits, teachers, administrators, students, and learning! The convention theme was “Story as the Landscape of Knowing” and stories were abundant 24/7 anywhere and everywhere that participants were gathered.

As a first time NCTE participant, I had the distinct pleasure of being part of a panel presentation as shown in the descriptor above. Our presentation had been developed collaboratively online during several meetings because the five of us had not yet met in real life. Julieanne, Mary Lee and Steve are all fifth grade teachers from California, Ohio and Iowa.  Other facts that are shared by all five of us include the fact that we are all five bloggers as well as frequent participants in Twitter chats.

Southeast Iowa STEM Festival – April 25, 2015

28 Days of OLLIE begins February 1

Mark your calendars!  28 Days of OLLIE is coming.Starting February 1 and lasting throughout February, AEA PD Online kicks off its brand new OLLIE online community for teachers.  Part of their Online Learning for Iowa Educators (OLLIE) series, the community provides educators resources, live events, discussions, sharing and networking with other educators.  It is the perfect learning place for teachers looking to add blended or flipped learning to their classroom.

During 28 Days of OLLIE, we will have daily events, activities and even contests with prizes, where you can get acclimated to the community.  Be sure to check out our website at http://www.aeapdonline.org in the upcoming weeks for more details.

Iowa Department of Education Special Education Survey

The Iowa Department of Education is interested in learning about partnerships between Iowa schools and parents of school-age children who receive special education.  If you are a parent with a child who receives special education services in Iowa, please take a few minutes to complete the 25-item survey. The results will be compared to national findings and used to identify areas of success and those in need of improvement.

The survey will close Jan. 15. Here is the link: https://www.edinfo.state.ia.us/I-Star/parents/start.aspx.

Capitol Girls 2015

Capitol Girls is a chance for high school age girls (9^th-12^th grade) to spend a day at the Capitol shadowing female legislators to learn more about State government and to foster women in leadership roles. Girls will also be able to meet legislators from their home district, hear from the Lt. Governor, and tour the capitol.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015
http://www.girlscoutsiowa.org/

Attached is the flyer for this year’s event which contains the link to the registration page.  Please forward it on to anyone you believe would be interested, and feel free to contact me with questions.

Capitol Girls Flyer 2015

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The dissemination of information from external organizations by Great Prairie AEA does not infer sponsorship or endorsement of the information. It is being passed on to our stakeholders for its educational value.

Iowa Youth Leadership Forum

Iowa Youth Leadership Forum (YLF) is a five day transition program for high school students with disabilities. Throughout the week, students will have the opportunity to learn about developing self-esteem, choosing a career, assistive technology, disability rights and self-advocacy. Students can be in 10th, 11th or 12th grade and that includes fifth year seniors. Students must be working with a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor or be on the waiting list in order to participate. The next YLF session will be July 12th through July 17th, 2015 on Iowa State’s campus in Ames, Iowa. Students stay overnight in the dorms and participate in large group and small group activities, listen to speakers, take a trip to the State Capitol and connect with professionals and community leaders with disabilities as possible mentors and role models.

Approximately 40 students will be chosen to participate in this unique opportunity. There is no charge for those selected to attend. Applications are currently being accepted through January 15, 2015 and can be found online at http://www.humanrights.iowa.gov/pd/leadership_forum/index.html.

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The dissemination of information from external organizations by Great Prairie AEA does not infer sponsorship or endorsement of the information. It is being passed on to our stakeholders for its educational value.