Upcoming Webinar: Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Today's Students and Digital Learning

The NROC Project is hosting a free webinar titled "Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Today's Students and Digital Learning".  Join Project tomorrow CEO, Julie Evans, for an overview of the annual Speak Up Research Project.  This project is designed to provide schools nationwide with insights into how today's students want to leverage digital tools for learning. This year's study focused on the views and attitudes of students in four specific types of digital learning environments:

• Laptop initiatives
• Blended learning
• Online learning
• STEM initiatives

Come to learn and consider the impact on new strategies you may be considering to engage 21st Century learners.

This webinar is on June 25, 2015 at 2:00 pm (central time).  Click here to Register

Keystone TIC Session - Personalized Learning & Digital Citizenship

Our last presentation at the Keystone AEA's TIC conference is on Personalized Learning & Digital Citizenship.  We will be overviewing the progress we made on our personalized learning system in 2014-15, showcase this year's pilots (including the work completed in the Digital Citizenship pilot), and give you a glimpse of what is to come next fall.  We are in Meeting Room 5 at 11:15.

Handouts for the session

Personalized Learning System
Summer Cohort Registration
Excellence & Ethics Curriculum handout
Facilitated v. Personalized
System Functions & Features

Webinar overview of the system

Presentation Slideshow

Personalized Learning & Digital Citizenship from Evan Abbey

Keystone TIC Session - Blended Learning Supports

We are presenting again today at the Keystone AEA's TIC conference.  In fact, we have two presentations today.

At 10:00 in Meeting Room 5, we will be showcasing the ways schools are benefiting from our supports for blended learning.  We partner with Keystone AEA, who provides blended cohorts for teachers on how to implement blended learning.  For districts outside of Keystone AEA, we offer the same supports.  This includes:

• Help with local vision
• Support for technological infrastructure
• Rapid e-curriculum development
• Ongoing tech support
• Assistance moving towards best practice
• Professional development

Blended Learning Supports from Evan Abbey

Handouts for the session:
How it All Fits
The "Zero-Entry Pool"
Learning System Hosting
OLLIE & MOLLIE

Keystone TIC Session - Moving Your District's PD Online

We are presenting tomorrow and Wednesday at Keystone AEA's TIC conference.  First up tomorrow at 2:45 in Salon B is a must-see session for any administrator in attendance.

We will take a look at what 6 different groups are doing to deliver online professional development to teachers.  Districts across Iowa are challenging the traditional delivery models for professional development, finding new ways to utilize the resources provided by AEA PD Online to offer on-demand and just-in-time PD for their staff.

We'll take a look at:
• Panorama - Tapping into self-paced courses
• Prairie Lakes AEA - Developing HR trainings for employees
• Woodward-Granger - Taking those trainings to the next level
• Gilbert - Going deeper with a facilitated course
• Statewide TLC - Using an online community of practice
• Cedar Rapids - Using train-the-trainer with facilitated courses


Handouts for the session:
Self-Paced Courses
Training System
AEA PD Online - Course Catalog
Facilitated v. Personalized

Upcoming Courses: July 1-Aug. 15, 2015

See below for a list of upcoming online professional learning opportunities. To register, click on the activity number listed with each course. To conduct your own search for professional development classes, download the AEA PD Online app at myapp.is/aeapdonline or click here to go to the AEA PD Online catalog.

Spanish for Educators Online

Register at 22000799991601

Dates: July 2-Aug. 13, 2015

Credit(s): 3 (Renewal Only)

Combining Character Education and Curriculum Content

Register at 22028299991601

Dates: July 6-Aug. 5, 2015

Credit(s): 1

Elements: Moving to Mobile Learning

Register at 22023099991601

Dates: July 6-Aug. 11, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Google in the Classroom

Register at 22028899991601

Dates: July 6-Aug. 16, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Standards-Based Teaching II: Assessment and Grading

Register at 22025899991602

Dates: July 6-July 30, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (Renewal Only)

Total Participation Techniques

Register at 22020199991601

Dates: July 6-Aug. 7, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Using Agriculture to Teach Concepts & Skills in an Engaging Way - Siouxland

Register at 22026799991601

Dates: July 6-Oct. 1, 2015

Credit(s): 1

Using Blended Learning to Teach Comprehensive Musicianship

Register at 22026599991601

Dates: July 6-Aug. 10, 2015

Credit(s): 2

OLLIE: Introduction to the Online Learner

Register at 22001399991602

Dates: July 8-July 28, 2015

Credit(s): 

Personalized Learning: Helping Your Students Take Charge of their Learning

Register at 22027099991601

Dates: July 8-Aug. 4, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Introducing Asian Literature

Register at 22011099991601

Dates: July 9-Aug. 13, 2015

Credit(s): 2 (Renewal)

Professional Learning Communities/Data Teams' Role in Assessment/MtSS/RtI I

Register at 22025999991601

Dates: July 9-Aug. 10, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (renewal)

Data Collection for Critical Thinking

Register at 22025399991601

Dates: July 13-Aug. 24, 2015

Credit(s): 3

Learning Central Asia: Beyond the Headlines

Register at 22010199991601

Dates: July 14-Aug. 12, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (renewal only)

Agriculture to Teach Concepts & Skills in an Engaging Way - Jefferson Co.

Register at 22026899991601

Dates: July 15-Oct. 15, 2015

Credit(s):  1

MOLLIE: Blended Learning

Register at 22015099991602

Dates: July 15-Aug. 18, 2015

Credit(s): 2

OLLIE: Online Facilitation

Register at 22009699991601

Dates: July 15-Aug. 18, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Powerful Project Based Learning

Register at 22024699991602

Dates: July 15-Aug. 21, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Effective Teacher Mentoring and Coaching

Register at 22025799991601

Dates: July 16-Aug. 17, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (renewal)

Using the iPad in the Science Classroom

Register at 22013199991601

Dates: July 17-Aug. 31, 2015

Credit(s): 2

Incorporating Quality Questioning for Student Engagement and Learning

Register at 22024499991601
Dates: July 23-Aug. 17, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (renewal)

ICDA 2015 Promoting Choral Heritage

Register at 22028999991601

Dates: July 27-Aug. 10, 2015

Credit(s): 1

iEvaluate

Register at 22017299991601

Dates: July 27-Sept. 18, 2015

Credit(s): 2 (renewal)

iMovie: Digital Video in the Classroom

Register at 22000399991601

Dates: July 27-Aug. 16, 2015

Credit(s): 1

MovieMaker: Digital Video in the Classroom

Register at 22000699991601
Dates: July 27-Aug. 16, 2015

Credit(s): 1

Multi-tiered System of Supports II: Implementation and Monitoring

Register at 22025599991601
Dates: July 27-Aug. 24, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (renewal)

Incorporating Bloom's Revised Taxonomy to Increase Learning

Register at 22025699991601

Dates: July 28-Aug. 24, 2015

Credit(s): 1 (renewal)

Methods of Teaching Elementary Fine Arts

Register at 22027899991602

Dates: Aug. 3-Aug. 24, 2015

Credit(s): 1

iEvaluate

Register at 22017299991602

Dates: Aug. 10-Oct 2, 2015

Credit(s): 2 (renewal)

Mackin VIA: Curriculum Integration

Register at 22015499991601

Dates: Aug. 10-Oct. 15, 2015

Credit(s): 1

The Alvo Institute's Blended Learning Practitioners' Circle 101: Overview of Blended Learning from Theory to Practice

The Alvo Institute, Grantwood AEA, and AEA PD Online are excited to offer another

session of The Alvo Institue's Blended Learning Practitioners’ Circle 101:  Overview of Blended Learning from Theory to Practice. Join us for an eight-week exploration of blended learning with a focus on moving from theory to action. Whether you are new to blended or refining your current blended model, this exciting collaborative will help you deepen your practice, expertise and vision. Alvo’s Practitioners’ Circle brings together researchers and educators from across the country to form a virtual innovators’ roundtable. We are fortunate to be joined by the blended practitioners from around the country who will share their experience from the field.

Throughout the course, beginning on July 13, 2015, practitioners will have opportunities to learn, try things in their classrooms or schools, reflect, refine and share, each week.  Participants will have an opportunity to discuss current research, explore Alvo’s educator-designed resources, test classroom-based examples of blended practices, share their experiences and learn from the nation’s earliest and most successful blended learning pioneers.

Participants will have access to course content starting July 6, however the course does not officially start until July 13, 2015. Required readings and scheduled webinars are planned. Webinar dates and times will be announced closer to the start of the class.  All webinars will be recorded if participants cannot attend the live event. Most dates have two options for attending webinars as indicated below:

Register Online at http://thealvoinstitute.mrooms.net/login/index.php (If you have never registered with ALVO before, you will need to first create an account.)

Early Bird Registration ends June 29, 2015: $220
Registration after June 29 is $350

AEA PD Online is offering 3 license renewal or graduate credits (Drake,Viterbo, Morningside) for the course, if participants are interested. These costs are in addition to the registration fee.
$25 - License renewal
$135 - Morningside credit
$225 - Drake credit
$225 - Viterbo credit

Upcoming Webinar: WSQ Away to FlipClass Success

Designing an Effective Flipped Learning Environment

Flipping your classroom? Attend this webinar and learn about the WSQ (Watch, Summarize, Question) strategy. This strategy will assist you in:

• Organizing content and materials
• Holding students accountable for viewing the content
• Designing a structured processing activity to help students think deeply about their learning
• Gathering feedback from students about their understandings and misconceptions
• preparing for and facilitating discussion among students during class time

June 11, 2015
4:00 p.m

Register here.

Learn more about connecting ELA and Social Studies Standards

Learn more about building literacy in Social Studies with these self paced modules (not for credit) found in the AEA PD Online Teacher Training system.

• Building Literacy in Social Studies: Introduction to the Standards
• Building Literacy in Social Studies: Disciplinary Literacy
• Building Literacy in Social Studies: Overview of Instructional Shifts
• Building Literacy in Social Studies: Informational Text

Important Changes for Administrators Coming to the Training System

We have many changes coming to our training system on July 1; we will be highlighting those changes over the next few weeks, including a tour of the new site just before it goes live.  Today, we are focusing on several important new features for a local administrator to personalize the system for their own district.

1. "Favoriting"

We have several districts that heavily utilize the "district module" area, including uploading and creating their own trainings.  Now, you will be able to add statewide trainings to that area as well, so you have one area for teachers to look at all the trainings.  When logged in as and admin and looking at the trainings, you will see a "favorite" button.

Clicking on that will then add the module in the district list.  As an admin, you can easily "unfavorite" it if you would like.



Note, the system also will be updating its browsing features, making it easier to find trainings (now that our total is well over 100)!

 

 

 2. District-specific Training Information

Ever want to add district-specific information to a training, such as who the local contact person is for MSDS sheets in the Right to Know training?  Or where particular policies are posted locally?  Now you can.  Within trainings, districts can modify the district-specific pages to add their own information.  Unmodified pages will simply refer participants to check with their local school officials about those policies.

3. Customized Theming

This one is very exciting.  Each district can customize the look and feel of the system.  Here is a look at the interface:

By entering in the "hex codes" for colors (see your school's web designer or art teachers if you have not heard the term "hex code" before) as well as uploading your logo, you can transform the system into this:

And, there's much more, including the ability for districts to create their own self-pace courses, assign modules to groups of employees (e.g. custodians, first-grade teachers, custodians that are also first grade teachers), and send out notifications.  Be sure to check the blog to see more updates this month!