Self-Care for Parents

Missouri Valley CSD is hosting a parent self-care night on December 12th with Katie Pohlman. Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Katie's presentation will demonstrate the impact stress has on our lives, which includes the impact it has on the children we are raising! Participants will learn about their top stressors and new ways to take care of themselves.
Click here to learn more!

Iowa AEA Customer Satisfaction Survey

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEA) are administering a survey to local school administrators and teachers to better understand stakeholder awareness of and satisfaction with AEA services. You should have received an email yesterday containing this information and a link to the survey. We hope that you will participate in this survey, as your feedback is critical to ensuring Iowa AEA continues to provide quality services to local schools.

Iowa AEA has partnered with Hanover Research to administer and analyze this survey. Hanover Research is an independent market research firm based in Washington, D.C., and is in no way affiliated with any other entity or organization. Your responses are completely anonymous and will be kept strictly confidential, so please be as open and honest as possible. The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The survey will close on December 14.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Cate Keller (ckeller@hanoversurveys.com) at Hanover Research.

Please click the link to begin.

SPARK for Autism

Want to be a part of something big? The University of Iowa invites you to join SPARK for Autism, the nation's largest autism research study. The SPARK site in Iowa City is the closest clinical site for all of Iowa and Nebraska. But on January 5, SPARK for Autism is coming to YOU! Free for anyone participating in SPARK, participants will enjoy a sensory-friendly night at The Durham Museum in Omaha.

Learn more HERE

Find an EdCamp Near You

There are two EdCamps coming to you this winter! Save the date for the Council Bluffs EdCamp on February 23 and the Lamoni EdCamp on December 8th.

WHAT IS AN EDCAMP?

 EdCamps are FREE "unconferences," designed to be teacher centered. They are great places to network and learn from each other. Each session is created and run the day of the event by the individuals who attend an EdCamp. Sessions could include exploring a technology tool, a discussion about best practices, or a collaborative presentation with multiple facilitators. All participants are encouraged to discuss and provide content as well as ask questions. Edcamps also operate on the “Rule of Two Feet.” This means if you attend a session and you decide it isn’t what you expected, you are encouraged to get up and go to another session.

STOP School Violence Prevention and Mental Health Training Program Grant

As shared in the November School Leader Update, The Iowa Department of Education was awarded a $494,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Justice’s STOP School Violence Prevention and Mental Health Training Program. The federal funding is intended to help schools prevent and respond to acts of violence, and respond to students who face mental health challenges.

Iowa’s project has three objectives:
• Train teachers and school employees to respond to threats of violence and to prevent violence in schools. Training content will align with school emergency plans.
• Train school staff, area education agency staff, and community members to respond to students who may be struggling with mental health or addiction.
• Educate students on preventing violence against themselves and others.

The application to participate will be open from Nov. 5 to Dec. 3. To learn more, register to attend the informational webinar on Nov. 5, at 11 a.m. The webinar will be recorded. For questions, contact Nancy Ankenhy- Hunt at 515-326-1031 or nancy.ankeny-hunt@iowa.gov.

Pre-Retirement Workshop

If you have started thinking about retiring this year, in five years, in ten years, or more, this Pre-Retirement Workshop is just for you! Learn everything you need to know about retirement including IPERS benefits, Social Security, retirement tools, Medicare, SHIIP (Senior Health Insurance Information Program), benefits of Pre-Retirement membership and Retired School Personnel Association, AARP, & NRTA. The more you know now, the better you can plan your future. The workshop is free, but registration is required. Sign up today!

Free Microsoft Office Applications

For those who are in need of office applications such as Word, Excel, Power Point and more, please be aware that Microsoft offers Office applications and more free of charge to Educational Institutions.

If you are interested, you can use this link to get started. If you have any questions, please contact Darek Madejski at darek@ghaea.org or 712-366-7768

Display Student Artwork Easier Than Ever

Just in time for the holiday season, the Green Hills AEA Print and Design Center can take any piece of art and turn it into a vinyl adhesive. Just think of what you can do with student artwork and classroom learning decorations! 11 x 17 vinyl adhesive printed in color is $1.06 each. The adhesive can be hung on walls and windows with no residue behind. No more worrying about taking off paint with tape. To order yours today contact the Print and Design Center at printcenter@ghaea.org

Green Hills AEA Website: Tell Us What You Think!

Got a minute? We want to hear from you! Take our survey and help us improve our website! Take the Survey!

American Education Week

What is American Education Week?

American Education Week, November 12-16, 2018, will present all Americans with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate public education and honor individuals who are making a difference in ensuring that every child receives a quality education.

The weeklong celebration will spotlight distinguished individuals who are critical in building great public schools for the nation's 50 million K-12 students. American Education Week's celebration days include:

Monday, November 12, 2018: Kickoff Day
Tuesday, November 13, 2018: Parents Day
Wednesday, November 14, 2018: Education Support Professionals Day
Thursday, November 15, 2018: Educator for a Day
Friday, November 16, 2018: Substitute Educators Day

Sensory Friendly Holiday Workshop

This event is free to families supporting someone with a Sensory Processing or Autism Spectrum Disorder. Mark your calendar for November 24th for pictures with Santa, cookie decorating, crafts and games!

See more details HERE

Post-Secondary Readiness Data Recently Released Through AEA PREP Dashboards

This message was shared with school administrators and is being included here for your information.

   Recently, the Iowa Department of Education released the AEA PREP (Postsecondary Readiness & Equity Partnership) Dashboards providing a portrait of how prepared Iowa high school graduates are for success in postsecondary education and training. The dashboards are intended to help guide school and district school improvement efforts using statewide, AEA, district and building level data.  Schools can use their local information to benchmark and monitor progress toward locally defined goals as they relate to postsecondary readiness and success, including enrollment, persistence, and completion of postsecondary programs. The AEA PREP Dashboards are highly interactive in nature and allow schools to examine the postsecondary success of their students through a variety of postsecondary readiness and demographic filters. The dashboards are housed within EdInsight; if you desire access to these dashboards and currently do not have an EdInsight role in the Portal (also known as an “A & A” account), please see these instructions for creating a user account and/or requesting access.

History Day Contest

The 2019 Western Historic Trails History Day Contest registration will open January 1st for grades 4-12. Get your students involved in this year's theme, "Taking a Stand in History" and encourage entries in one of nine catagories including:
• Paper (individual only)
• Individual exhibit
• Group exhibit
• Individual performance
• Group performance
• Individual documentary
• Group documentary
• Individual web site
• Group web site

Click here to learn more!

Iowa Ramps Up Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Training

Following Senate File 2113, a law requiring at least one hour of training annually for certified K-12 educators beginning July 2019, the Iowa’s Area Education Agencies have increased their efforts to address student mental health by launching online suicide "prevention and postvention" training. This training will serve as an option for teachers completing the new annual requirement. The "awareness-level" course is a "step in the right direction," said David VanHorn, Green Hills AEA associate administrator who helped develop the online module.
Read the full article

STEM BEST Program Awards 13 New Partnerships

The STEM Council Executive Committee voted unanimously to award 13 of 23 proposed new or expanded STEM BEST® (Businesses Engaging Students and Teachers) Program partnerships. These newly added partners bring the total to 50 partnerships in Iowa since the inception of the program in 2014.