Due to the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases, EXTERNAL Face to Face Professional Learning has been suspended through the month of December. Virtual opportunities are still available for registration! Stay healthy. Stay safe.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities
Access to Education: Meeting and Exceeding Requirements (Virtual)
January 4, February 8, March 22, April 19, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Register HereParticipants will learn how to create a variety of accessible materials so students will be able to access core content and different learning environments. Participants will develop knowledge and skills to meet the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) which requires assistive technology (AT) be considered at the yearly individualized education program (IEP) meeting of every student in special education.
Restorative Practices Using Circles in Classrooms (Virtual)
January 4, January 11, January 18, January 25, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.Register Here
This course will allow participants to use the basics of Restorative Practices in the classroom and school. Participants will learn by participating in circles with other attendees, taking turns to learn how to facilitate. By the end of the day, participants will be prepared to return to their settings and run circles!
Materials Note: Participants are required to purchase the book themselves prior to the course starting date: Restorative Circles in Schools: A Practical Guide for Educators - Second Edition - available through www.amazon.com.
This course will allow participants to use the basics of Restorative Practices in the classroom and school. Participants will learn by participating in circles with other attendees, taking turns to learn how to facilitate. By the end of the day, participants will be prepared to return to their settings and run circles!
Materials Note: Participants are required to purchase the book themselves prior to the course starting date: Restorative Circles in Schools: A Practical Guide for Educators - Second Edition - available through www.amazon.com.
Substitute Authorization Courses
Substitute authorization courses continue to be offered virtually throughout the state. LINK to available courses.
Thank You for Attending the Rachel's Challenge Kickoff!
Green Hills AEA held the Rachel's Challenge kickoff event on Wednesday, November 4th in Red Oak. We were overwhelmed by the positive response we received both from superintendents and school teams who participated in the event. We look forward to seeing how Rachel's Challenge impacts the schools in our service area for years to come. If you have any questions about Rachel's Challenge or would like to get involved, please contact Dr. Jenny Barnett.
America's Farmers Grow Ag Leaders Scholarship
America's Farmers Grow Ag Leaders, sponsored by Bayer Fund, is offering more than $500,000 in scholarships to high school seniors and college students pursuing an ag-related field of study. Students can apply for a $1,500 scholarship now through January 14, 2021.
2021 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest
This contest is a way to teach students about waterfowl and wetland conservation throughout the United States for all grade levels. This program strives to encourage children to investigate the importance of conservation of our natural world and what it means to them.
The following is a list of the requirements to enter the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest:
- U.S. citizenship (In order to receive the national prizes the student will need a SS# or Visa #).
- Currently in schooling from K-12
- Create an original piece of artwork (This may use other pieces as a reference but cannot be a copy of the reference)
- Depict a permitted species, the list is within the JR Duck Stamp Brochure
- Be submitted or postmarked by March 15th, 2021
- Be submitted with an entry form and a reference form (Reference form is required for students in grades 7 and up)
- Entries can be drawn, painted, or sketched
- Styles can include hyper-realism or abstract, etc.
Please send all entries to:
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge
Attn: Junior Duck Stamp
1434 316th Lane
Missouri Valley, IA 51555
Entries will be judged in late March and all participants will receive the judging results as soon as possible. All winners will be invited to an award ceremony in late April.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge
Attn: Junior Duck Stamp
1434 316th Lane
Missouri Valley, IA 51555
Entries will be judged in late March and all participants will receive the judging results as soon as possible. All winners will be invited to an award ceremony in late April.
LEARN MORE HERE
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Winter Blood Drive
U.S. History Primary Source Posters
You can order 50+ posters provided by the Library of Congress. Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place. In addition to the posters, you'll find teaching guides.
Go to https://csonline.ghaea.org and log in with single sign-on (username/password used in AEA Learning Online for mandatory reporter and bloodborne pathogens.) Enter primary source in the search box to see all resources. In addition to the printed poster versions, we just added the option of downloading a PDF so you can share the primary source virtually with your class.
Learn more about how to teach with primary sources.
Examples:
Go to https://csonline.ghaea.org and log in with single sign-on (username/password used in AEA Learning Online for mandatory reporter and bloodborne pathogens.) Enter primary source in the search box to see all resources. In addition to the printed poster versions, we just added the option of downloading a PDF so you can share the primary source virtually with your class.
Learn more about how to teach with primary sources.
Examples:
- Abolitionist Movement and John Brown
- African Americans and the Civil War
- African-American Suffrage
- Agriculture in a Global World
- American Indian Removal and Relocation
- American Indians and Westward Expansion
- American-Indian Suffrage
- Buxton: A Lost Utopia
- Caucuses and Elections
- Children's Lives: Comparing Long Ago to Today
- Civil Rights: Before, During, and after the World Wars
- Cold War
- Dust Bowl
- Environmental Impact
- Great Depression and Herbert Hoover
- Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
- Holocaust and America's Response to Other Genocides
- How States Get Their Shapes
- Immigration to Iowa
- Immigration: Regulation, Response, and Attitudes in America
- Innovation in Agriculture
- Innovation in Transportation
- Iowa Weather and Its Impact
- Iowa: Leader in Civil Rights and Equality
- Iowa's Connection to the World
- Korean War
- New Deal
- Railroads in Iowa
- Reconstruction
- Refugees in America
- School Desegregation
- Schools: Comparing Long Ago, Today and Other Cultures
- Underground Railroad
- World War I: America's Involvement
- World War I: Evaluating America's Role
- World War II: America's Motivation and Impact
Professional Learning COVID-19 Update
Due to the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases, EXTERNAL Face to Face Professional Learning has been suspended through the month of November. Virtual opportunities are still available for registration! Stay healthy. Stay safe.
Digital Resource Interactive Notebook Now Available!
The Green Hills AEA Digital Learning team has recently designed an interactive notebook that contains digital resources that can be of benefit to your districts as you support learners. The notebook is divided by tabs and within each topic you can learn about the digital tool. If you choose the "click here" on each note page you will find a one-page sheet that explains how to get started and uses of the tool. We have also provided connections to previously released Return to Learn documents to help in implementation planning. Our interactive notebook will continue to evolve with new resources and supports.
And don't forget about our CLICKABLE CLASSROOM
Our digital learning team has put together a clickable classroom for the universal webinar series that they created. The clickable classroom helps users navigate the webinar series and provides a library of resources.
Occupational and Physical Therapy Universal Tools For Success Resource
The GHAEA Occupational and Physical Therapists have developed a Universal Tools for Success resource, including a 4-minute screencast explaining the process (click on the heading to access the screencast). This document covers universal intervention strategies in the areas of Active Engagement, Environment, Functional Motor Movements, and Self Help Skills. The universal interventions were developed to provide educators with strategies to implement within various school routines and educational settings. Specifically, it discusses:
- Active Engagement: basic self regulation strategies and ways to address transitions
- Environment: positioning, posture, and accessibility
- Functional Motor Movement: fine motor skills (including strategies on the motor aspects of handwriting) and gross motor skills (including strategies for mobility and transitions in and outside of the classroom)
- Self Help: routines such as mealtime, toileting, dressing and recess
If you have any questions regarding this resource, please contact Michele Harrison, Julie Stessman, or Andy Ruff.
UNI College of Education to Host Virtual Conference on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
The University of Northern Iowa invites you to join them for the fifth Bill and Linda Tubbs Teaching Connections professional development workshop hosted by the UNI College of Education. This year's virtual event, entitled "ACEs: Building Trauma-Sensitive Communities," will take place on November 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Offered as a free Zoom webinar this fall, the schedule will include guest speakers from local and statewide organizations - led by keynote Jen Ulie Wells, with Please Pass the Love - as well as UNI faculty. See the full agenda!
Offered as a free Zoom webinar this fall, the schedule will include guest speakers from local and statewide organizations - led by keynote Jen Ulie Wells, with Please Pass the Love - as well as UNI faculty. See the full agenda!
Green Hills AEA Awarded Over 1 Million Dollars in Federal Grants
Green Hills Area Education Agency received two Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence grants, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, that will allow them to greatly expand their supports and training in the areas of crisis planning and prevention and school violence.
The first grant of $669,000 will be used to collaborate with area school districts, fire departments, and sheriff’s offices to establish threat assessment teams and implement high-quality safety plans designed to prevent and mitigate emergencies and crises.
School personnel training and student education will also be provided on preventing student violence against others and themselves. Additionally, this project will include the promotion and use of anonymous tip lines as a way for students, parents, school staff, and the entire community to report behaviors confidentially and support teams in communicating and coordinating responses to these tips to quickly intervene.
The second grant of $500,000 will be used over three years to provide training and education to students and educators on preventing student violence, including anti-bullying and mental health crisis response training through the implementation of Rachel’s Challenge. This nationally recognized program exists to inspire students, educators, and parents to replace acts of violence, bullying, and negativity with acts of respect, kindness, and compassion. In partnering with Rachel’s Challenge, Green Hills AEA’s 43 school districts will each have the opportunity to engage and participate in ongoing student programs, professional learning for educators, and community awareness events at no cost.
Andrew Strait, a representative from Rachel’s Challenge spoke about the positive impact this will have in our community stating, “For over 20 years, Rachel’s Challenge has helped thousands of schools and leaders lay the groundwork for safer, more connected school culture. The partnership between Rachel’s Challenge and Green Hills Area Education Agency is a unique and dynamic collaboration that will positively impact schools across southwest Iowa, without expense to the schools or districts. In these times of new and challenging complexities, this joint effort comes at a critical point in which meeting the social and emotional needs of our students is of the highest importance.”
These grants will continue to increase public safety, as well as positively affect the climate in our schools and communities. For questions, please contact Dr. Jenny Barnett, Green Hills AEA Executive Director of Targeted Services and Supports at jbarnett@ghaea.org.
The first grant of $669,000 will be used to collaborate with area school districts, fire departments, and sheriff’s offices to establish threat assessment teams and implement high-quality safety plans designed to prevent and mitigate emergencies and crises.
School personnel training and student education will also be provided on preventing student violence against others and themselves. Additionally, this project will include the promotion and use of anonymous tip lines as a way for students, parents, school staff, and the entire community to report behaviors confidentially and support teams in communicating and coordinating responses to these tips to quickly intervene.
The second grant of $500,000 will be used over three years to provide training and education to students and educators on preventing student violence, including anti-bullying and mental health crisis response training through the implementation of Rachel’s Challenge. This nationally recognized program exists to inspire students, educators, and parents to replace acts of violence, bullying, and negativity with acts of respect, kindness, and compassion. In partnering with Rachel’s Challenge, Green Hills AEA’s 43 school districts will each have the opportunity to engage and participate in ongoing student programs, professional learning for educators, and community awareness events at no cost.
Andrew Strait, a representative from Rachel’s Challenge spoke about the positive impact this will have in our community stating, “For over 20 years, Rachel’s Challenge has helped thousands of schools and leaders lay the groundwork for safer, more connected school culture. The partnership between Rachel’s Challenge and Green Hills Area Education Agency is a unique and dynamic collaboration that will positively impact schools across southwest Iowa, without expense to the schools or districts. In these times of new and challenging complexities, this joint effort comes at a critical point in which meeting the social and emotional needs of our students is of the highest importance.”
These grants will continue to increase public safety, as well as positively affect the climate in our schools and communities. For questions, please contact Dr. Jenny Barnett, Green Hills AEA Executive Director of Targeted Services and Supports at jbarnett@ghaea.org.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities
Identification of Gifted and Talented Students (Virtual)
November 18, 9 a.m. - Noon
Register Here
Roseanne Malek is the workshop presenter. Participants will learn more about legal requirements for identification of G/T learners as well as recommended district processes, tools and resources commonly used for identification.
NEW Virtual Offerings - Instructional Strategies
Roseanne Malek is the workshop presenter. Participants will learn more about legal requirements for identification of G/T learners as well as recommended district processes, tools and resources commonly used for identification.
NEW Virtual Offerings - Instructional Strategies
Sessions are available from now until January 25th!
Social-Emotional Behavior Health and Special Education Return to Learn Webinars
Webinars continue through November 30th! License Renewal Credit is available.
Statewide Science Networking Sessions
Join us beginning in November as our AEAs across the state host networking sessions to support science instruction during face-to-face, blended, and distance learning. The Zoom networking sessions will be facilitated by AEA Science Consultants and are being held to provide networking opportunities for science teachers across the state. Sessions will focus on best practices and the needs and interests of the participants in attendance.
National Dyslexia Awareness Month
October was National Dyslexia Awareness Month! Dyslexia is defined as ‘a specific and significant impairment in the development of reading, including but not limited to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension that is not solely accounted for by intellectual disability, sensory disability or impairment, or lack of appropriate instruction’. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, dyslexia affects 5-20% of people and is the most common learning disability, accounting for 80% of all learning disabilities.
During the 2014 Iowa legislative session, a new law focused on dyslexia was created. The legislation defined dyslexia as an educational diagnosis and was added to Iowa Education Code. In 2018, a Dyslexia Task Force was created to address teacher training and support for students with dyslexia in Iowa. Green Hills AEA has several resources available to assist educators and parents of students with dyslexia. Our GHAEA Literacy Website contains a dyslexia tab with links to sites such as Iowa Dyslexia Resources, Decoding Dyslexia Iowa, and Iowa’s Area Education Agencies Dyslexia Information Sheets, which help parents and educators better understand how students with dyslexia are assessed and supported in Iowa schools.
GHAEA also continues to offer the Essentials of Dyslexia course at least once a year. The course uses the book Essentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention by Nancy Mather and Barbara Wendling. The next offering of this course will be in June 2021. In addition, the GHAEA Media Center recently added a new book Conquering Dyslexia by Jan Hasbrouck. Feel free to check it out!
For further information about dyslexia, please contact Karen Hesse or Jenna Hucka (GHAEA Dyslexia Contacts) or any GHAEA literacy consultant.
During the 2014 Iowa legislative session, a new law focused on dyslexia was created. The legislation defined dyslexia as an educational diagnosis and was added to Iowa Education Code. In 2018, a Dyslexia Task Force was created to address teacher training and support for students with dyslexia in Iowa. Green Hills AEA has several resources available to assist educators and parents of students with dyslexia. Our GHAEA Literacy Website contains a dyslexia tab with links to sites such as Iowa Dyslexia Resources, Decoding Dyslexia Iowa, and Iowa’s Area Education Agencies Dyslexia Information Sheets, which help parents and educators better understand how students with dyslexia are assessed and supported in Iowa schools.
GHAEA also continues to offer the Essentials of Dyslexia course at least once a year. The course uses the book Essentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention by Nancy Mather and Barbara Wendling. The next offering of this course will be in June 2021. In addition, the GHAEA Media Center recently added a new book Conquering Dyslexia by Jan Hasbrouck. Feel free to check it out!
For further information about dyslexia, please contact Karen Hesse or Jenna Hucka (GHAEA Dyslexia Contacts) or any GHAEA literacy consultant.
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