Substitute Authorization- New Lower Price!

Green Hills AEA Substitute Authorization courses will pick back up in January. We are excited to announce that the cost has lowered from $250 to $100!

See flyer HERE!

Book Creator Projects to Support Social-Emotional Learning

Teachers, check out these 10 Book Creator Projects to Support Social-Emotional Learning 

Iowa Sets a Higher Bar for Student Success

The State Board of Education today approved performance levels that determine how many students met expectations on Iowa’s new state test, the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP).

4 Our Kids Workshop

This workshop provides information about how the court systems work, as well as information on many topics of interest ranging from foster care to sex trafficking to domestic violence and special programs to help drug-addicted parents.

This year the AEA has been asked to present information on what Early ACCESS is all about, how referrals can be made, how services are different now than they were in the past, how we process CAPTA referrals, and how we can work together to possibly improve this process and provide quicker service to families.

Scholarship Opportunity for HS Seniors

The Iowa Environmental Health Association (IEHA) is a Professional Association for Environmental Health specialist in Iowa. They are involved in environmental and public education, reviewing existing and pending environmental health legislation and community service.

In 2016, the IEHA started a scholarship program. This scholarship is open for applications now. The details are as follows:

• $500 for the school year, scholarship may be renewed one time if student is in good academic standing (2.0 GPA or above) with their respective college.
• Scholarship monies will be paid directly to the college or university. 
• The selection committee shall consist of five (5) IEHA members. The committee shall award the scholarship and the decision of the committee shall be final.
• IEHA reserves the right to verify any information on the application.
• Scholarship recipients will be notified in March 2020 and will be recognized at the IEHA business meeting during the Iowa Governor’s Conference on Public Health in April 2020.

To be eligible for this scholarship, recipients must be:

• A resident of the State of Iowa.
• A high school senior OR a non-traditional student returning to college in the State of Iowa.
• Currently a full-time student at any college, university, or community college in the State of Iowa.
• Recipient must be majoring in Environmental Health or a related field.

To apply for the scholarship, please follow this application process:

• Download the scholarship application, http://www.ieha.net/College-scholarship. Please complete the application and submit it with all required documents to the address on the bottom of the application. This application cannot be submitted on-line at this time.
• Include three (3) letters of recommendation from three (3) individuals that are not family members (i.e. teachers, high school guidance counselors, employers, minister, family friends, etc.)
• Enclose an official high school transcript.
• Enclose an essay – approximately 250 words (one typed page, font size 11 or 12) explaining your career plans and goals.
• Applications must be postmarked by February 1, 2020.

If you have any questions concerning the scholarship or IEHA in general, please contact Sandy Bubke. Thank you and I appreciate you sharing this information within your education system.

Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities

• SCERTS- November 13-15 in Treynor
• Yoga for Teachers - October 4 and 5 in Red Oak
• Mindful Games - December 6th and 7th in Red Oak
• Think Tank/Leadership Camps - additional dates below:

Leadership Camps:

September 23-24, 2019 from 8:30-4:30 in Cedar Falls
October 1-2, 2019 from 8:30-4:30 in Creston
October 29-30, 2019 from 8:30-4:30 in Fairfield
November 7-8, 2019 from 8:30-4:30 in Red Oak
March 26-27, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Cedar Falls
April 2-3, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Pocahontas
April 21-22, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Fairfield
June 11-12, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Sioux City
June 15-16, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Cedar Rapids
June 18-19, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Johnston
July 21-22, 2020 from 8:30-4:30 in Johnston

Think Tanks:

September 26, 2019 from 10-1 in Amana

September 30, 2019 from 10-1 in Creston

October 17, 2019 from 10-1 in Cedar Falls

November 6, 2019 from 10-1 in Red Oak

November 19, 2019 from 10-1 in Fairfield

March 31, 2020 from 10-1 in Fairfield

Open Educational Resources - Call for Participants

On November 11th or March 31st, from 9:00 - 2:30, administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers are invited to learn (in person or virtually via Zoom) about using Open Education Resources (OER). These resources are free PLUS you have the right to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute them. The overview will answer questions like: what is OER, where do we find resources, what about copyright, will this save our district money?
Two additional days (for possible relicensure credit) will be available for coaches and/or teachers who want to collaboratively create lessons/units with others from the same grade level/content area. If you are interested, please complete this form. If you have any questions, email judy@ghaea.org.

Brian Mendler - Discipline with Dignity (GHAEA Discount!)

We are excited to announce that Brian Mendler, co-author of Discipline with Dignity 4th Edition, will be presenting his full-day seminar, Motivating and Managing Hard to Reach, Uninterested and Disruptive Students, on Nov. 14 in Omaha (Council Bluffs) and Nov. 15 in Des Moines. This training will focus on how to Build Responsibility, Relationships, and Respect in your schools. Here are some key training points:

• Relationship building bootcamp...discover how to build relationships with challenging youth
• Learn to defuse any student, at any time, in any situation
• Implement social emotional learning methods that model respect and promote responsible decision making
• Receive dozens of high impact instructional strategies to help motivate at-risk youth

The complete program agenda and specific location info can be found here.  

Furthermore, we have secured a special discounted rate of $170 (a $75 discount) for anyone attending from one of our districts! Please use the discount code GHAEA when registering.

To register for the Omaha seminar, simply click here.

To register for the Des Moines seminar, simply click here.

And - the best part - hope you're still reading....we have secured two FREE registrations!  If you are interested, email mcatterson@ghaea.org

Presidential Candidates Gather for Students

Des Moines Public Schools has partnering with the Des Moines Register to host presidential candidates for a student forum called Youth Voice: The Iowa Caucus at Roosevelt High School. they have opened up this forum statewide and would like to see a nice geographical representation of Iowa. If you have seniors who will be voting in 2020, they are welcome to register and attend. Find more information here, including a link for students to register for the event.

Algebra Progress Monitoring Probes (AAIMS)

This training is for teachers of mathematics or special education in grades 6th- High school. Please take a look at the samples of each probe found below. These probes may be used as a screener for 7th+ as well.

Algebra Basics
Algebra Foundations
Algebra Content Analysis

See flyer here!

Green Hills Area Education Agency Named One of Iowa’s Top Workplaces

The Des Moines Register named Green Hills AEA one of Iowa’s Top Workplaces of 2019 on Sunday. The Iowa Top Workplace Awards take place annually and serve to recognize workplaces where employees feel appreciated, inspired, and productive.  Any Iowa organization — business, nonprofit or government — with 35 or more employees is eligible to participate in the free program. Energage, the Register’s research partner for the awards, conducts Top Workplaces surveys for 50 major metro newspapers. It surveyed 3 million employees at more than 7,000 organizations in 2018.

This year was Green Hills AEA’s first year using the Energage employee survey to conduct their annual survey about employee engagement, work culture, and employee job satisfaction.

“We hoped that someday, in a future year, we would be so fortunate as to earn the Top Workplace Award. We were surprised and thrilled to learn that our employees helped us earn this award in our first year!” said Dr. Lolli Haws, the AEA’s Chief Administrator.

Green Hills AEA is one of nine Iowa AEAs that was established by the Iowa Legislature in 1974 to be an effective, efficient and economical means of identifying and serving children, birth to age 21.

For more information about Green Hills AEA, please call 712-366-0503 or visit www.ghaea.org.

At-A-Glance Moves to Twice a Month

Currently, the At-A-Glance blog is issued every Friday. We have decided to alter the timeline to the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month. In changing the release date, we hope to save some you some time by ensuring each issue is packed with rich, information. Be on the lookout for the next issue to arrive in your inbox on September 20th!

What's Going on at Green Hills AEA

This past fall, Green Hills AEA began a strategic planning process. We looked specifically at our mission, vision, and core values. We made some revisions to ensure these statements were a true reflection of who we are, what we do, and where we are headed. Then we began to look at our organizational structure and made some revisions to better align our services and supports to accomplish our agency goal of helping all of our schools achieve a Universal ESSA designation by fall 2022.

In order to help us achieve our goal, we have adopted the 4 Disciplines of Execution strategies. One of these strategies is the creation of Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) and WIG teams. Every Green Hills AEA employee belongs to a WIG team and they meet once a week for about 15-20 minutes. IF you hear Green Hills AEA staff refer to a "WIG meeting," please know that they are using that time to work collaboratively with their colleagues to progress toward our agency goal.

We are excited and energized for this new opportunity and look forward to celebrating your universal scores with you in 2022!

Green Hills AEA Organizational Structure

 

Iowa Communications Network's Cybersecurity Session

ICN's Network Service Bureau Chief, Ryan Mulhall, provided security expertise in a recent KCCI Ransomware story.

FBI: 10 reports, data held for ransom in Iowa, number could be higher.

Hear more from ICN's security team when you register for an upcoming roadshow!

Session Topics:

• Security Programs
• Security Fallacies & How to Avoid
• Group Discussions:
• Endpoint Security
• Network Security
• Identify & Access Management
• Threat Intelligence
• Cloud Security
• Email Security

Register Today for a Roadshow!
An Informative & Open Security Discussion

Ottumwa
Oct 3, 1 - 4 PM

Des Moines
Oct 22, 1 - 4 PM

Council Bluffs
Oct 29, 1 - 4 PM

RESPECT Training

RESPECT is a free, four-day workshop focused on relationship building and conflict resolution.  Participants will learn skills and strategies that can be applied universally when addressing professional and personal conflict.

Where:
Country Inn and Suites, 17 Arena Way, Council Bluffs

When:
October 8, November 12, December 3, December 10
8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Learn more HERE
To register visit this link

Heart of Innovation Summit

Heartland AEA's instructional tech team has a lot going on this year, including their Heart of Innovation Summit. Pk-12 Educators and Teacher Leaders from across the state are welcome to attend. Learn more here!

NEW Iowa MTSS Data System Workshops

We want to make you aware of an upcoming “Train-the-Trainer” workshop recommended for building administrators and leadership teams. Iowa's New MTSS Data System, called “Student Success,” will be available to schools that serve any of grades K-6. We are sending this to you now as a “Save the Date.” Additional information and registration links will be available over the next few weeks, but we wanted you to know the dates, times, and locations of the training options ahead of time. These workshops will be co-led by Panorama staff and AEA School Improvement staff.


MTSS Data System Workshop Opportunities:

• Oct. 11th from 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Creston SWCC
• Oct. 14th from 12:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. AEA Red Oak Office

Description:
Participants (Administration and lead teachers) will understand how to use the new Iowa MTSS Data System, Student Success, for tracking interventions and progress monitoring, using screening data, and viewing Healthy Indicator reports. We encourage all districts to attend one session. If you have questions, you can contact Tina Wahlert (twahlert@ghaea.org).