Logan-Magnolia School Safety Training for Districts

Logan-Magnolia CSD will host an all-day school safety training event with John Michael Keyes, the founder of the I Love U Guys organization and you are invited! This event will inform school and community counterparts about Standard Response Protocol (Evacuate, Shelter, Lockout, Lockdown, Hold) and Standard Reunification Method, discuss important response components within comprehensive school safety plans, begin/continue multidisciplinary team discussion and planning, initiate &/or strengthen collaboration between school staff members and first responders.

Interested in Attending?
DATE: April 4, 2019
TIME: 8:00 registration/check-in   
            8:30 - 3:30 workshop
LOCATION: Logan Community Center, 108 W 4th St, Logan, IA 51546
TARGET AUDIENCE: School safety/crisis team members, administrators, Green Hills AEA staff, and local first responders (law enforcement, fire, EMS, emergency management)
Optimal planning and discussion will occur when school staff and community first responders attend this workshop together. 

QUESTIONS: Jacob Hedger, Logan-Magnolia 7-12 Guidance Counselor jhedger@lomaschools.org / 712.644.2250

Iowa AEA Online's New Website

The Iowa AEA Media Collaborative Committee is pleased to announce the launch of our new website for Iowa AEA Online.

The website includes 16 high-quality resources available to Iowa's accredited public and non-public PK-12 schools. Students and staff have 24/7/365 access from anywhere!

The previous URL:  iowaaeaonline.org (has been redirected to the new website).

New URL:  https://www.iowaaea.org/about/iowa-aea-online/

The redesign brings a new look to Iowa AEA Online through the addition of visual resource representation, recommended grade level and an associated color band at the top.

All username(s) and password(s) remain the same for access at both the building and/or district level.

We hope you enjoy the new Iowa AEA Online website as you continue your learning!

Green Hills AEA Professional Learning Opportunities

Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools:

Green Hills staff members continue to be involved in bringing trauma-sensitive training to districts. Since January of last year, 18 districts have participated in this training and interest continues to rise. This important information is paramount to understanding the science behind toxic stress and how it affects students and educators. Contact Michelle Catterson or Jenny Barnett if you are interested in learning more about this training.

Social-Emotional-Behavioral-Mental Health: 

• Several opportunities for learning are being offered in 2019 including:
• Developing a Mindful Classroom
• Youth Mental Health First Aid
• Yoga for Teachers:  How to use Yoga and Meditation in the Classroom
• Foundations of MTSS for Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Health
• Suicide Risk Assessment Training
• PREPaRE 2 Workshop

Registration for these courses can be accessed under the Professional Development tab on our website.

Your NEW -printed- Spring 2019 Professional Development Catalog should be arriving at your school very soon!  Check your mailbox!

Last Chance! Survey Ends Today!

The Iowa's AEAs Customer Satisfaction Survey is open until 4:00 p.m. today, December 21, 2018!

Share your input: https://bit.ly/2RVBUWx

The holidays are right around the corner and we realize you are working hard to get everything completed before winter break. If you would be willing to take a moment to complete this survey, we would greatly appreciate it.
Your time is valuable and we appreciate the opportunity to hear from you about your awareness and satisfaction of AEA services. Your feedback will help provide us with a more complete set of data, which we will use to better serve you, your students, and your district.

Iowa Leadership Academy Coming June 2019!

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies are partnering with McREL to offer the Iowa Leadership Academy. The Iowa School Leadership Academy will give school leadership teams in-depth strategies and guidance from McREL’s research- and evidence-based knowledge sets of Balanced Leadership, What Matters Most, and Curiosity Works. School districts are encouraged to consider bringing a team(s) of 3-6 leaders who can learn and work collaboratively around the presented course content and be willing to engage in this work within their respective districts.
Learn more!

Exciting Products at the Print and Design Center

Canvas backdrop featuring
Career and Technical Education Consultant, Murray Fenn

With our new canvas material, we can make anything from picture backdrops, posters, banners, you name it. We can print up to 44" wide by any length you need! Grommets are available if you'd like those as well. The canvas material makes your colors POP and look very professional! Order today!

Redefining Ready

Earlier this month, Green Hills AEA sponsored a session with Dr. David Schuler. Dr. Schuler is Superintendent of High School District 214, a northern Chicago suburban high school district. He is also the current AASA Superintendent of the Year and a recent Past-President of AASA. Dr. Schuler is nationally known for his district's "Redefining Ready" criteria to ensure every high school graduate is either career or college ready in measurable and concrete ways. "Redefining Ready" is now a widespread national movement and many states and districts across the nation have adopted his model or a personalized version of it for their college/career readiness work.

Want to learn more? Check out these resources:

• Dr. Schuler's slides presentation
• This document
• AASA (American Association of School Administrators) website

Green Hills AEA Professional Learning

Be on the lookout for your 2019 Spring Professional Learning Catalogs to be delivered to your schools next week!

If you have taken Fierce Conversations (Foundations, Team, Coaching, Delegation and Confrontation Conversations) and are interested in adding two more conversation models to your repertoire, join us for FIERCE 2 on February 1st and 15th in Avoca to learn more about the Generations and Feedback Models. This has been approved for 1 Evaluator Approval/License Renewal credit. Register today! Course #160607

The Collaborative Leadership Institute with Peter DeWitt wrapped up on Friday, December 7th with several representatives from 12 school districts and Green Hills AEA in attendance. Participants engaged in deep discussions about building collective efficacy and providing effective feedback within their organizations. Students from the CAM school district interviewed several participants about their most important takeaways and ideas for implementation. They also enjoyed the opportunity to interview Mr. DeWitt about his experiences as a student, teacher, administrator, author and international speaker. These students will now analyze the information from their interviews and provide feedback to Green Hills about the themes and overall responses they received. Their digital learning class is excited about this project and we are thrilled to partner with them!

Iowa'a AEAs Customer Satisfaction Survey Extended

Great news! You now have an additional week to complete the customer survey from Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEA)!

Share your input: https://bit.ly/2RVBUWx

The survey will close at 4:00 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2018.

We ask school administrators and teachers to complete this survey so that Iowa's AEAs better understand stakeholder awareness of and satisfaction with AEA services. We hope that you will participate in this survey, as your feedback is critical to ensuring that Iowa's AEAs continue to provide quality services to local schools.

Iowa's AEAs have 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 min. to complete.

Take the survey: https://bit.ly/2RVBUWx

Thank you for your time!

Gov. Reynolds Announces More Iowans on Track for Success in Postsecondary Education, Training

Gov. Kim Reynolds and Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg on Wednesday announced that fewer Iowa high school graduates are taking remedial coursework during their first year at Iowa’s community colleges and state universities, a signal that more students are on track to earn a degree or other postsecondary credential.

Iowa AEA Customer Satisfaction Survey

Green Hills AEA is undertaking an important, system-wide effort to review our mission, vision, and core values as your AEA. Following that, we will be launching the 2019-20 school year with a new 5-year strategic plan based on The 4 Disciplines of Execution model. We are very excited about what this will mean for our ability to improve our services, support and impact for students and schools in southwest Iowa.
One powerful tool to guide us in this work will be the results of the Iowa AEA Customer Satisfaction Survey that you would have received recently. We sincerely want your feedback and assessment of our AEA services and will use the results in our strategic planning. Please take time to complete the survey by Friday, December 14, 2018. If you haven’t already done so, you can use this link. It should only take you 10 minutes to complete, but will provide us with rich and meaningful information to help us improve. Thank you in advance for helping us in this important way.

Iowa Authentic Learning Network

Have you heard about the Iowa Authentic Learning Network (IowaALN)?  This partnership with local businesses provides students with opportunities to help solve real-world problems while they gain invaluable experience. Learn more about Iowa ALN from Brodie, a member of Creston CSD's CAST program.
For more information, contact Stephanie Lane.

Green Hills AEA Holiday Schedule

All Gren Hills AEA offices will close at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, December 21, 2018. Offices will be closed Monday, December 24, 2018 through Tuesday, January 1, 2019. They will return to a normal schedule on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

Our van mail delivery will not run while the agency is closed. Please be aware of this as you place your print and design job orders and request media supplies.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

K-2 Special Education Math

The Green Hills AEA Math team will be offering a Sped Math K-2 Follow-up Class for any teacher who has previously participated in the 3-5 Sped Math Project on January 18 at the Red Oak AEA. This 1-day training is for returning teachers/coaches who would like additional information about supporting K-2 students with math IEPs. This expansion will include new content around understanding early counting, a diagnostic assessment, and materials.

For more information about this training, visit this link.  Please contact Lisa Magnesonif you are interested or if you would like any additional information.