District Featured in Professional Journal for Work with Collaborative Learning Teams

The Dallas Center-Grimes (DC-G) district was featured in the April edition of the JSD Learning Forward Journal about their work with collaborative learning teams. The district is finding that collaborative learning teams are improving teacher practice and student learning results.

The article also mentions the partnership between the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa’s Area Education Agencies to pilot the work. To ensure district leaders had the skills to support collaborative learning teams and building leadership teams, Iowa’s AEAs provided professional development on how to structure, manage, and facilitate them. What’s more, a team of Heartland AEA staff attended professional development sessions with DC-G district team members and worked side-by-side with them during the first year of implementation. Click here to read the article featuring the district.

Empowering Students through Technology

Anna Mikkelsen is a very bright, energetic third grade student from southern Iowa who enjoys learning about technology and iPads. Her mom, Stephanie, is an instructional technology consultant at Green Hills AEA, and empowered Anna to do her own creative learning. Anna is now using her passion for technology and learning to help others. She creates tutorials for Green Hills staff members as they learn how to use the features of their iPads.

Anna is in the generation often referred to as “digital natives.” She was born and is growing up in a world where technology and global awareness is key. Anna is a perfect example of how educators can channel students’ innate technology skills into something positive and helpful.

Meet Anna in the video below and find her tutorials on the Green Hills AEA Instructional Technology Google site at goo.gl/77hvw.

Thanks from Malichi

Notes like this are the best reward for our efforts! This student from RRMR Community School District wrote to share how much the ebooks provided by Area Education Agency 267 have literally changed his life!

Grant Wood AEA Emergent Literacy Initiative supports early learning

Grant Wood AEA is in the third year of providing support for emergent literacy instruction in early learning classrooms. Priscilla Polehna, Grant Wood AEA speech-language pathologist, explained that the Emergent Literacy Initiative uses a curriculum supplement called Read It Again authored by Dr. Laura Justice, director of Ohio State University’s Preschool Language and Literacy Lab and Anita McGuinty.

“The curriculum involves 30 weeks of systematic, explicit instruction in emergent literacy skills,” she explained. It focuses on precursory skills that provide a foundation for children before formal reading instruction occurs in kindergarten.”

“Read It Again incorporates lessons that develop print knowledge, phonemic awareness, narrative skills and vocabulary,” Polehna continued. “Teachers provide these lessons to their whole class twice weekly. In addition to these whole group lessons, Grant Wood AEA support staff help to provide focused small group instruction for special education students. The lessons are built around 15 different children’s storybooks, which provide a context for the program’s objectives and have the added benefit of providing students with a quality shared reading experience.”

Agency consultants with the Special Education Literacy Team and Grant Wood AEA speech-language pathologists help to provide small group instruction two times a week to special education students in some districts. In the Cedar Rapids School District, teachers and the Grant Wood AEA speech-language pathologists provide this support for students with IEPs.

The Emergent Literacy Initiative has expanded during its three years of existence, beginning during the 2010-2011 school year with two classrooms, adding the entire Cedar Rapids Community School District the following year, and then adding 13 more districts during the 2012-2013 school year. Districts that started during the current school year receive support from Emergent Literacy Special Education Literacy Team (SPEL) team members. These consultants assist teacher with collecting data, analyzing the data and making instructional decisions. The initiative will expand to include six new districts during the 2013-2014 school year.

Dr. Justice presented “Big Ideas in Emergent Literacy” to area educators and Grant Wood AEA staff on March 8. During her presentation, she commented, “Grant Wood AEA is cutting edge and very unique in its approach to and support of early literacy development.”

“As an agency, a major goal is closing the achievement gap between special education students and their general education peers,” Polehna explained. “The Emergent Literacy Initiative is our effort to prevent the achievement gap. Research supports that providing explicit, systematic instruction in emergent literacy skills at an early age can prevent reading issues in later years. We want to send these young children, who are at risk for reading difficulties, to kindergarten with a strong foundation.”

Data Team Success at Keota

Chris Detwiler, Angela Snakenberg, Lisa Brenneman, Deidra Baker, and Schuyler Snakenberg (not pictured, Jenny Hobbs)

Lisa Brenneman, Keota Jr/Sr High School Principal, writes about the school’s working relationship with Great Prairie AEA to implement positive change in the school.

Keota Jr/Sr High School has made some noticeable changes this year. These changes are having a positive effect on motivation, how kids learn and overall positive culture throughout the building.

We began by developing a data team structure during the 2011-2012 school year. A team of lead teachers was identified and worked with Lisa Brenneman, 7-12 Principal, Cory Johnson, then Great Prairie AEA School Psychologist and now School Improvement Specialist, and Sharma Parlett, Great Prairie AEA Regional Director to read and discuss Leaders Make It Happen. As our team read the book, we began to apply the Data Team principles and developed a plan for implementation of Instructional and Building level teams. In June 2012, we used Teacher Quality funds to hold a two day retreat for our building leadership team. During this time, we used a variety of data sources to identify areas of focus as well as individual student needs; we also used this time to finalize our plan for Instructional Data Teams which included the creation of 9th Period.

When classes began in August 2012, we implemented our Data Team structure. Instructional Teams (Language Arts/Social Studies, Science/Math, and Building Culture and Climate) began to meet on a regular basis, approximately twice per month during 9th period. Our Building Leadership team also met as part of this cycle. Using our 9th Period structure, our teams were able to begin their meetings at 3:00 (during the regular school day) and end at 4:00 while students were assigned to teachers whose teams were not meeting. During 2012-2013 our entire staff also received the Data Team training provided by Great Prairie AEA’s Cory Johnson and Jennifer Adams.

The focus of 9th period is not only to provide collaboration time for teachers but also support for students academically on an individual basis. During this time students have access to all their teachers except on days the teacher’s team is collaborating.

Students are required to stay with teachers that have requested them and if they don’t stay they are truant. The requests change on a daily basis and mean the student needs re-teaching, has missing work, has discipline referrals or needs individual attention from a teacher to improve attitude or level of respect shown to others.

The goal is to feed a positive culture. The positive is that all students “in good standing” earn privileges. The junior high students go to the gym for recreation/socialization and high school students may choose to leave or socialize/study with peers. Each student hangs a calendar inside their locker that tells them each day what is going on and what their options are.

One day a month all students participate in teambuilding activities. Again, this is designed to improve the culture and relationships between students as well as between students and teachers. All students participate in building activities no matter what level of standing they are in.

Through the data team structure the teachers identified last period absences for school activities as one of the building issues that needed to be addressed. The creation of 9th period also solved this problem because in the past they would miss an entire class period.

Flexibility, planning and organization have been the key to the success of our data teams and 9th period. As a staff, we are always looking for new ways to maximize learning and take full advantage of the time we have with students and teachers at school.

Heartland AEA Staff Make Caring Connection Beyond Education

Amy Lane, School Improvement Leader at East High School in Des Moines, felt compelled to write to Heartland AEA about two staff members who went above and beyond to help one of her students.

Imagine seeing the world through lenses that are upside down and inside out. For a student at Des Moines’ East High School, this was the reality. Jeffrey had the same glasses since he was a first grade student at Howe Elementary. His glasses are highly specialized to accommodate his vision needs, and therefore quite expensive.

Now a junior in high school, Jeffrey was struggling to see. Several individuals at East commented on the general appearance of his glass frames. They were rather bent, with lenses that just did not seem to be a good fit. Through further inquiry, it was learned that when the original frames had broken, Jeffery located extra frames at a friend’s home, removed the lenses and inserted his own into the pair.

Unfortunately, without the studies in optometry to support his “quick fix,” the lenses were upside down and in front of the wrong eye.

There was an obvious need for Jeffrey to receive new glasses, but there were limited opportunities to remedy the situation. In a casual conversation, Amy Lane, school improvement leader at East, shared the story of Jeffrey with two Heartland AEA staff members, Gilmara Mitchell, professional learning & leadership consultant, and Julie Hukee, math curriculum consultant. Ironically, Gilmara had been Jeffrey’s first grade teacher and remembered him well. Gilmara and Amy began calling local agencies to explore options for acquiring new glasses for Jeffrey.

When the possibilities became scarce, Julie called her brother, an optometrist, to ask for his assistance. Within the next week, Dr. Matthew Pollastrini met Jeffrey at a local clinic and gave him a free eye exam. It was determined that Jeffrey’s extreme condition required highly specialized lenses that few optical labs make. Matt contacted a friend at Midwest Labs in Indianola who agreed to make the lenses. Because of the generosity of the professionals at Midwest Labs, the cost was only a fraction of what it normally would have been. Matt also donated the frames that Jeffrey wanted.

In education the lenses are not always rose colored and often are upside down and inside out. The partnerships between our schools, our AEAs and our numerous local organizations are of great value for the continuous support of our students. These individuals add compassion and clarity to the true meaning of our profession.

Northwest AEA/Family Success: Ben’s Story

Although the pregnancy was uneventful, Ben* had difficulty reaching milestones as a toddler. He was often sick with ear infections and upper respiratory infections. We knew the impact these illnesses had on his ability to meet milestones for walking and talking, and I was confident I could address his needs based on my education and experience as a special education teacher.

When he wasn’t talking at age two, we reached out for help from the Northwest AEA. They provided support and strategies to help our son reach age appropriate developmental milestones by age three! It was a success and we were anticipating smooth sailing from that point.

Unfortunately, that was not the case as he started having panic attacks (choking sensation, low frustration level, rapid breathing, blotchy skin) during the middle of his kindergarten year. Once again, the AEA personal at our elementary school were of quick assistance and support for the teachers, staff, and us as parents. With their guidance, supports and appropriate instruction were implemented at school. They have also helped us find supports in the community and surrounding area.

The following services and support have been provided since Ben was two years old:

•    Individual Family Service Plan with early childhood special education consultant
•    Academic and Behavior intervention support and instruction for teachers
•    Psychological assessments for reading and writing disabilities
•    Speech Services within the school
•    After-school Stuttering Clinic for cluttering, stuttering, and word retrieval issues
•    Occupational Therapist for fine motor and sensory processing issues
•    Outside evaluation by the Kansas City Center for Anxiety Treatment
•    School consultation with Behavioral Psychologist from Boys’ Town in Omaha

Our son is now in 4th grade; we still encounter challenges and we foresee these challenges to continually evolve based on his diagnoses. It would be devastating if the supports provided by the AEA were not a possibility. We do not know how we would have been able to navigate the past five years and have a child who is successful in the educational setting without their support, education, and influence.

In closing, I would like to impress upon you the importance the AEA serves in our community and the future. The children that receive services from the AEA are from all kinds of families, different income levels, different ethnic backgrounds, and different experiences, but they all receive the same knowledgeable expertise from the AEA. Not all school districts can provide these necessary educational components due to the size of their district or experience of their teachers. The AEA helps to level the playing field by meeting the needs of districts, despite their size or location of the school, and their students.

Respectfully,
Ben’s Parents
Sioux City, Iowa

* Name was changed to maintain confidentiality.