Monday, July 30, 2018

Van Buren Teacher's Softchalk Lesson Chosen as Lesson of the Week

Congratulations to Randy Clennan, high school math teacher from Van Buren High School whose Softchalk lesson " Euclidean Geometry" was chosen as Softchalk's Lesson of the Week.  In this lesson students explore the concepts of Collinear, Coplanar, Opposite Rays, and Intersecting lines and planes. By the end they should be able to identify, correctly label, and sketch those geometric figures. Randy learned how to use Softchalk and best practices about lesson design in the Blending/Flipping Your Classroom Cohort Course 3: Designing Online Lessons.

Each week Softchalk selects a stand out, top notch, lesson from SoftChalk Share and features it across their social media platforms. SoftChalk Share is an Open Education Resource (OER), learning object repository with thousands of free learning materials created by educators.

Softchalk is available at not cost to Iowa teachers teaching in the State of Iowa and part of the Blending Flipping Cohort Course 3. If you are interested in learning more about this tool and getting access to it, contact us via email: Evan Abbey, Denise Krefting or Melissa Wicklund.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Teachers at Heartland AEA and Great Prairie AEA complete Blending Flipping Cohort

Congratulations to these teachers from Heartland AEA area schools, Johnston Schools and Van Buren Schools who have completed the 4 courses in the Blending Flipping in your Classroom Cohort.

Left to Right are: Lexi Schafer (Johnston CSD), Mark Augspurger (Johnston CSD), Doug Mossengren (Van Buren CSD), Kris Steingreaber (Van Buren CDS), Ann Wiley (Johnston Integrationist), Denise Krefting (BF Course Instructor), Elizabeth Whitver (Urbandale CSD), Deborah Henry (Des Moines CDS), Catherine Hines (Heartland Instructional Technologist), Everett Charlson (Gilbert CSD), Kyla Burns (Johnston CSD), and Kyle Lehman (SE Polk CSD).  Not pictured: Jessica Dowell and Justin Lewis (Johnston CSD), Cheryl Voelker and Jim Schutt (Dallas Center Grimes CSD).

These classes which are offered at several AEAs and even as PD for school districts (such as Johnston CSD) are : Blending/ Flipping Your Classroom 1: Introduction (Elementary and a Secondary version), Blending/Flipping 2- Blended Instruction (Elementary and a Secondary version), Blending/Flipping Your Classroom 3: Designing Online Lessons and Blending/Flipping 4: Activities and Assessment.  They are offered for license renewal credit, graduate credit or no credit depending on what credit type the participant is interested in.  6 of these credits also qualify for the Drake Online Teaching Certificate. Learn more about the cohort here.

If you are interested in learning more about the Blending Flipping in your Classroom Cohort you can check out this site or contact Denise Krefting, Melissa Wicklund or Craig Mohr at AEA Learning Online.