Teacher Softchalk Lessons Chosen as Lesson of the Week

Congratulations to Deborah Smith-Henry, high school Science teacher from Des Moines Roosevelt High School  and Lexi Schafer, high school  Business teacher from Johnston High School whose Softchalk lessons were chosen as Softchalk's Lesson of the Week.

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.

In Deborah's lesson, "Community Interactions", students explore what community ecology learning about co-evolution, predation, mimicy, competition and symbiosis of organisms.  See Deborah's Lesson: https://softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/H4v30dn9bzQyr2/html.

In Lexi's lesson, "Types of Investments", students will explore importance of diversity of investment, investment options ( stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds, target date funds and risks associated with them.  See Lexi's lesson: https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/K8s3rhynxauTQM/html



Deborah and Lexi learned how to use Softchalk and best practices about lesson design in the Blending/Flipping Your Classroom Cohort professional development. Learn more about this professional development at (https://instructor20.wixsite.com/aealearningonlinebf).


Softchalk is available at no cost to Iowa teachers teaching in the State of Iowa. If you are interested in learning more about this tool and getting access to it, contact us via email: eabbey@aealearningonline.org, dkrefting@aealearningonline.org or mwicklund@aealearningonline.org.

Johnston Teacher's Softchalk Lesson Chosen as Lesson of the Week

Congratulations to Jessica Dowell, high school Social Studies teacher from Johnston High School whose Softchalk lesson " Decolonization Around the World: Africa" was chosen as Softchalk's Lesson of the Week.  In this lesson, students explore what is meant by the term "decolonization", the affects of decolonization in Africa, and the challenges that African countries experience after their European colonizers left.  Jessica learned bow to use Softchalk and best practices about lesson design in the Blending/Flipping Your Classroom Cohort.


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. 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.

You can learn more about using Softchalk and blending your classroom in our Blending/Flipping Your Classroom cohort professional development.  Learn more about this professional development at https://instructor20.wixsite.com/aealearningonlinebf.

Professional Development: Blending Flipping Your Classroom Cohort

Several Blending Flipping Your Classroom cohorts will be available for teachers this summer in Great Prairie AEA, Green Hills AEA  and Heartland AEA.  Course 1 "Blending/ Flipping Your Classroom 1: Introduction" the start of the four course series will begin in June in Great Prairie at Van Buren CSD, July at Heartland and August in Green Hills.


These cohorts consist of 4 courses that teachers and administrators can take through out a 1 1/2 year period.   Credit is available at a significantly reduced rate.

• The first course (Blending/ Flipping Your Classroom 1- Introduction is a three day face-to-face training on "Blending/Flipping your classroom 1" for one license renewal credit.  There is a secondary and an elementary version
• The second course is a fully online course "Blending/Flipping 2- Blended Instruction" as well as an elementary option for two credits (license renewal and graduate) which is available to those who have completed the first course. 
• The third in the series is "Blending/Flipping Your Classroom 3: Designing Online Lessons" which will take place as a blended model with two days face-to-face and the rest online for those who have completed the first two courses. This course is also two credits (license renewal and graduate).  
•  Finally the fourth in this series is "Blending/Flipping 4: Activities and Assessment "which will take place as a blended model with two days face-to-face and the rest online and is also 2 credits (license renewal and graduate) for those who have taken the three other courses.  

The last three courses in the series (six credits) can also be applied to the Drake Online Teacher certification for those that are interested.  Learn more about the cohort here.

If you are interested in signing up or finding out more about the first course in the series offered at
Great Prairie AEA @ Van Buren June 2018 click here.
Heartland AEA July 2018 click here
Heartland AEA Elementary Version July 2018 click here
Green Hills AEA August 2018 click here.

As other AEAs develop their summer schedule, their cohort courses will be added.  Please note that several school districts are also offering the cohort as part of their professional development.  Find out more by contacting Denise Krefting or Melissa Wicklund.

6th Grade Illustrative Mathematics from Open Up Resources on Student Personalized Learning System

We are excited to share with you that the content from Open Up Resources 6th Grade Illustrative Mathematics has been added to AEA Learning Online's Student Personalized Learning System ( http://learning.aeak12online.org/ ).  The content comes from Open Up Resources (https://im.openupresources.org/index.html) and is available for teachers to use with their students.  

In a problem-based curriculum, students work on carefully crafted and sequenced mathematics problems during most of the instructional time. A typical lesson in Illustrative Mathematics has four phases:

1. A warm-up
2. One or more instructional activities
3. The lesson synthesis
4. A cool-down

Four instructional routines frequently used in warm-ups are Number Talks, Notice and Wonder, Which One Doesn’t Belong, and True or False. Selected activities are structured using Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions (Smith & Stein, 2011), also described in Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (NCTM, 2014), and Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions (Kazemi & Hintz, 2014). 

 

Other grades will be coming soon. 

Teachers can view the content by:

1) Going to the Student Personalized Learning System (http://learning.aeak12online.org/)

2) Log in with your username and password that you use in the teacher training system (https://training.aealearningonline.org )

3) Click on Catalog

4) Click on Math and the Statewide Tab

5) Scroll down to Statewide Module to see the individual modules. Click on the far right icon from the module name to preview. There is also a  Statewide Learning Opportunity that contains all of the modules that can be assigned to students at the bottom of the page.

If you wish to use these modules with students please contact Denise Krefting (dkrefting@aealearningonline.org)   or Melissa Wicklund (mwicklund@aealearningonline.org).

28 Days of OLLIE: Denise Krefting

Denise Krefting is an instructional designer at AEA Learning Online in Johnston, Iowa. During the final days of the February she will share some thoughts on how you can start blending/flipping your classroom.

Over the next few days, check out the community here and hear Denise

•       Share information about getting started with blending and flipping your classroom

•       Discuss AEA Learning Online’s Blended/Flipped professional learning opportunities

28 Days of OLLIE Features: Megan Deyen

Megan Deyen is a kindergarten teacher, at Lawson Elementary, in Johnston, Iowa. Prior to teaching kindergarten, she taught 4th grade. During the final days of the February we will hear how she blended/flipped her 4th grade math instruction. 

Over the next few days, check out the community here and hear Megan
• Talk about her blended learning journey
• Describe her flipped classroom
• Discuss how she assessed students and provided them with feedback
• Share the benefits her students experienced 
• Describe her classroom culture
• Reflect on her blended learning “takeaways”

28 Days of OLLIE: Indianola's Online Program

On Feb. 13-16, we are highlighting Kim Grissom from Indianola High School, in Indianola, Iowa. Kim is an instructional coach who supports blended instruction in her school. She is specifically focused on developing ninth grade English, self-paced content. Students can access when they unable to attend school during the traditional school day or in instances where they need to make up work in order to meet a course requirement.

Over the next few days, check out the community here and hear Kim

• Discuss about her blended learning journey
• Describe what blended/self-paced learning looks like 
• Reflect on her blended learning “takeaways”

This week will also feature a conversation with the superintendent at Indianola, Art Sathoff. It will focus on Indianola’s Online Program and provide administrators with ideas on how to systemically support online/blended learning at the district level.

28 Days of OLLIE: Brianne Barr

On Feb. 7-11th we are focusing on Brianne Barr. Brianna is a 4th grade teacher and technology integration model teacher at Fillmore Elementary in Davenport, Iowa. Her classroom features the station rotation blended learning model.

Over the next few days, check out the community here and hear Brianne

• Talk about her blended learning journey
• Describe what blended learning in her classroom looks like
• Share student and parent responses to blended learning
• Discuss the importance of a growth mindset in a blended learning classroom
• Reflect on how to create a blended learning classroom

28 Days of OLLIE Features: Thomas Griffin

During the first few days of the 28 Days of OLLIE we are featuring Thomas Griffin. Thomas is an instructional coach and social studies teacher at Johnston High School, in Johnston Iowa. Thomas is piloting a year long, junior US history course.

Over the next few days, check out the community here and hear Thomas:

• Describe his blended learning instruction
• Reflect on his blended learning instruction
• Discuss how he ensures that learning is happening
• Share how he grades students
• Talk about how he models learning to students

28 Days of OLLIE Begins Feb. 1

February 2018, marks AEA Learning Online’s fourth annual   28 Days of Online Learning forIowa Educators (28 Days of  OLLIE). During this year’s month-long event we will be hearing from Iowa teachers who are blending their instruction and administrators who are supporting blended learning in their schools. Throughout the month watch for videos that highlight these teachers and their blended learning practices, reflections on blended learning, and their plans for the future.

• Week 1 will focus on Thomas Griffin’s high school blended social studies class in Johnston.
• Week 2 will focus on Brianne Barr’s fourth grade classroom in Davenport.
• Week 3 will focus on the Indianola School district. We will hear Kim Grissom share about their 9th grade English students. During the second half of the week we will also hear from Indianola administrators how the Indianola school district is building a comprehensive online program.
• Week 4 will focus on Megan Deyen’s fourth-grade math class in Johnston.

To cap the week off the 28 Days will conclude with innovative and practical ideas on how you can get started blending learning for your students.

To participate in the 28 Days of OLLIE, join the community found here. Once you have joined the community, you will receive an email notifications for posting that are occurring in the OLLIE community. Please be sure to join in the conversation by posting comments or questions related to the videos that are being shared in the community.

And follow AEA Learning Online on Facebook and Twitter. 

Orthopedic Surgeon, Structure of the Eye, and Skeletal System Modules Added to the Student Personalized Learning System

Today we have student guest bloggers.  Atul Chandran, Cassidy Poage, Kayla Nine, Mady Malone, Ava Nelson, Katia Wilson, Bella Anania, Ben Parks, Evian Peterson, and Asher Hutchinson who represent their teams from Waukee High School’s Aspiring Professional Experiences Program (APEX) who have been working on creating health and medical content  for teachers and students in AEA Learning Online's Student Personalized Learning System. AEA Learning Online thanks leads Atul Chandran, Mady Malone,  Evian Peterson and their teams and their instructors Ryan Lensing and Cyndi Snell for their hard work on these modules.

 The Health Sciences and Medicine class of Waukee APEX (Aspiring Professional Experience) is proud to share with you the work we have done on the Orthopedic Surgeon profession, Structure of the Eye and Anatomy of the Skeletal System placed in the Student Personalized Learning System.  Our group has created content that educates students about the following content.

Teachers and students can now check out modules

• Orthopedic Surgeon: After completing this module you will

1. know what an orthopedic surgeon does
2. know what orthopedic surgeons specialize in
3. understand the education requirements to become an orthopedic surgeon

• Structure of the Eye: This module includes information on all aspects of the eye such as…
1. The Function of the eye, here we cover what the eye does for the human and how it interacts with other parts of the body.
2. Structure of the eye, here we cover what different parts of the eye do and where they are located.
3. Pathway of the eye, here we cover the parts of the eye that are directly related with how we see and interpret image.
4. Basic diseases of and correction of the eye: In this module, you will learn about the basic diseases in eye’s that can happen at birth or develop as you grow. You will also learn how to correct these diseases.
• Anatomy of the Skeletal System: This module gives users an in-depth glance at the functions and parts of the skeletal system.
1. In the module we have defined the 4 main functions of the skeletal system, which are key in maintaining bodily skeletal health.
2. Our module gives detailed information on the different regions of the skeletal system, explaining the uses of each region, and describing the parts that make up each one.
3. Our module includes interactive games and quizzes that can be used to benefit users, helping them to demonstrate their newfound knowledge.

To learn more about these modules, you can visit http://learning.aeak12online.org/ and click on Catalog and then Science.

Teacher's Softchalk Lessons Chosen as Lesson of the Week.

Congratulations to Kyle Berg, high school Social Studies teacher from Indianola whose Softchalk lesson " New Deal Government Intervention " was chosen as Softchalk's Lesson of the Week.  In this Lesson students learn about some of the responses FDR took to battling the Great Depression and are asked to determine which system they believe would work the best if we faced another depression in modern times.  Kyle previously had another Softchalk Lesson of the week titled "Cuban Missile Crisis"

Congratulations to Troy Staudt, technology teacher at Gilbert Middle School,  whose Softchalk lesson "App Developer: Athletics and Body Systems " was also chosen as Softchalk's Lesson of the Week.  This lesson serves as the instructions for a project where students design the concept for an app about human body systems.



Each week Softchalk selects a stand out, top notch, lesson from SoftChalk Share and feature it across thjeir 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. If you are interested in learning more about this tool and getting access to it, contact us via email at eabbey@aealearningonline.org, dkrefting@aealearningonline.org or mwicklund@aealearningonline.org.

You can learn more about using Softchalk and blending your classroom in our Blending/Flipping Your Classroom cohort professional development.  Learn more about this professional development at https://instructor20.wixsite.com/aealearningonlinebf.