Mississippi Bend AEA Media Montage

Teacher Appreciation Week is celebrated the first whole week of May and is when all educators get the extra credit they deserve. I hope you were loved this week! Please take a minute to watch this video that reminds us why we are in education. Who doesn’t have fond memories of a teacher who somehow inspired us?

We are pleased to bring back the unique opportunity for educators who are already using Pear Deck to become building or district champions for the platform this summer. Space in this training program is limited, so we invite curriculum directors and individuals who are regular Pear Deck users to consider nominating themselves or an educator from their district for this opportunity.

This champion program helps recognize Iowa educators using Pear Deck and brings them together to share best practices, quick tips, and ideas for content area integration and SEL support. These educators can be ambassadors to support other educators in their buildings and districts. This opportunity is similar to the one offered during the summer of 2021.

The workshop is from 9:00 am-3:30 pm at the following locations:

• June 22, 2022 - Heartland AEA, Ames

• July 11, 2022 - Mississippi Bend AEA, Bettendorf

• July 25, 2022 - Northwest AEA, Sioux City

Nominate a Pear Deck Champion to join by completing this form by June 1, 2022!

• Intro to Pear Deck for Teachers (Heartland AEA)

• Making Pear Deck a More Inclusive Experience Blog Post (Grant Wood AEA)

• Pear Deck Orchard (templates for a variety of subjects and topics)

• Pear Deck for Progress Monitoring (Central Rivers AEA)

• Pear Deck Handbook (Grant Wood AEA)

• Pear Deck One-Pager (Grant Wood AEA)

• Pear Deck Takeaways Blog Post (Grant Wood AEA)

• Pear Deck Micro-Credential for Teachers (Green Hills AEA)

• Perfect Pear Deck Presentations- Ed Tech Takeout Podcast (Grant Wood AEA)

Additional information is available on the Iowa AEA website.

Iowa's AEAs provide students and educators with no-cost access to high-quality, vetted digital resources. We are proud to announce our lineup of instructional resources for the 2022-23 school year, including six new offerings! Students, educators, and parents have 24/7/365 access to these ebooks, streaming videos, encyclopedias, reference materials, and more!

You can make the login process more accessible and secure and save valuable instruction time by giving teachers and students single sign-on access to critical instructional resources with MBAEA OneClick!

Easy to implement, this resource provides teachers and students across the state consistent single sign-on access to digital resources and systems provided by Iowa’s AEAs. Managed entirely by Iowa AEAs, MBAEA OneClick (powered by ClassLink) is also a low-maintenance solution for school administrators—no on-site district management is required to use this high-impact resource.

Reach out to Heather, hwhitman@mbaea.org, for further details.

Iowa’s AEAs will offer Britannica ImageQuest as one of its digital resource offerings beginning Aug. 1, 2022. Britannica ImageQuest is a digital product that offers over 3 million images for educational, non-commercial use for assignments, projects, and lesson plans. Stay tuned for more information!

At the same time, Iowa’s AEAs will discontinue offering the Clipart.com resource on June 30, 2022. As Iowa’s AEAs sunset this product, there are two items to keep in mind:

● Any images users have downloaded and used during the subscription term can continue to be used after the subscription expires.

● Any images users have downloaded should be deleted from the user’s device.

Eastern Iowa Community Colleges and Black Rocket, a national leader in tech education, have partnered to deliver virtual STEAM camps for kids ages 6 - 14.

Camps run from June to August and are taught in real-time by instructors in subjects ranging from coding to game design and content creation to virtual reality.

All classes are endorsed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), so parents-guardians can breathe easy knowing their child can follow their passions in a safe and fun online learning environment!

Class examples include:

• Make Your First Video Game!
• Minecraft Designers
• Python Programmers
• ROBLOX Coders & Entrepreneurs!
• Video Game Animation
• YouTube Content Creators
  
  

Parents-guardians can browse camps based on start date, category, age, and course, making it easy to determine their pupil's best option(s). Registration closes at 7 p.m. ET, three days before the camp's start date.

Visit blackrocket.com/online/eic to learn more.

Questions? Please contact the Office of Continuing Education at cegeneral@eicc.edu or 1-888-336-3907.

A nine-member Board of Directors governs the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency. We want to thank and recognize their dedication and hard work in supporting our Agency.

Laura Williams from AEA Learning Online has been networking with a fellow #changeagent from Scotland. Both are very interested in organizing some "Across the Pond" networking or collaboration around authentic learning with PK-6 Iowa educators! It might start as a simple meet and greet, having students in similar grade levels virtually connect to learn about each other's cultures/schools/geography, etc., or it may evolve into something more project-oriented.

Please fill out this survey if you are interested and to what level you may want to participate! This will help Laura and Marnie (Head Teach at the Torphichen and Westfield Primary Schools in Westfield, Scotland), coordinate these opportunities. Please forward this on to K-6 educators you think may be interested! I could see some great Social Studies connections to this opportunity.

Also, if you would like to take a peek into what schools in Scotland are like, here is the ALN Expo On-Demand video session.

Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. In May, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) joins the national movement to raise awareness about mental health. Each year we fight stigma, provide support, educate the public, and advocate for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.

Have you heard about the kindergarteners that have created a positive hotline for you to call?

Kindergarteners are so inspiring and remind us of all that is good!

• 707-998-8410
  
  

Check out an NPR article about learn more about how these fantastic kindergarteners.

Resources and supports are available for educators to enhance students' social, emotional, and behavioral health (SEBH).

Iowa’s Mobile Crisis

Mobile Response is an on-site, face-to-face mental health service for individuals experiencing a crisis. The mobile response staff is able to intervene wherever the crisis is occurring. With Mobile Crisis Outreach, mental health counselors are dispatched to homes, schools, emergency rooms, or public places where a mental health crisis is occurring. Response time is within 60 minutes of dispatch.

Anyone experiencing or is concerned about someone experiencing a mental health crisis can call. Below is the number available for a student that lives within these counties:

1-844-430-0375 (Cedar, Clinton, Jackson, Muscatine, and Scott Counties)

1-855-581-8111 (Louisa County)
1-800-332-4224 (Johnson County)

Iowa's Mental Health Regions
Iowa’s community-based, person-centered mental health and disability services system provides locally delivered services managed regionally within statewide standards. Local access to mental health and disability services for adults and children with severe emotional disturbances is provided by established mental health and disability services regions to residents of Iowa regardless of the location of their residence.

Regional leaders, guided by the regional management plan, coordinate quality community services that support individuals with disabilities in obtaining their maximum independence.

For more information about services provided by the county, click on the links below:

Eastern Iowa MH/DS (Scott, Clinton, Muscatine, Jackson, Cedar)

Southeast Iowa Link (Louisa)
East Central Region (Johnson)

Iowa AEA Mental Health Website
This website is a collaboration of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies and was built and maintained through funding from the Iowa Legislature and is intended to connect Iowa’s educators and families to resources pertaining to mental health and well-being. https://iowaaeamentalhealth.org/

If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, support and assistance are available through Your Life Iowa by Live Chat, by calling (855) 581-8111 or by texting (855) 895-8398.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-TALK (800-273-8255). It’s always open, and you can speak to a trained counselor.

If someone is threatening to harm themselves, don’t leave them alone. Call 911 or take them to the nearest emergency room if you can do it safely. Try to keep the person calm and get help from others.

If you or someone you know are looking for help/support in your school, contact Aaron Roome or your school counselor.

Supporting Mental Health in Iowa Schools

Media Center SEBH Resources

I am in the beginning stages of planning for next year's professional development and plan to gather input on the overall design and topics soon. If you are one of those people whose life revolves around your calendar, I wanted to give you the dates for next year.

• October 25, 2022
• December 5, 2022
• January 31, 2023
• March 28, 2023

Please forward these links to anyone you know that may be interested.

Sign Language Interpreter

District Support Administrators

School-Based Mental Health Providers

Teacher-Early Childhood Special Education

School Psychologist

Teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

MAY

Physical Fitness Month
ALS Awareness Month

Mental Health Awareness Month

May 3- National Teacher Appreciation Day
May 5- Cinco de Mayo
May 8- Mother's Day
May 21- Armed Forces Day

May 30- Memorial Day

Mississippi Bend AEA provides a wide variety of instructional tools and resources for teachers and students supporting teaching and learning.

Email media-center-staff@aea9.k12.ia.us or call us at 563-344-6225 anytime for assistance with login credentials, or other media-related questions!

Check out all our services here! We are here to support you!

Email: hwhitman@mbaea.org
Website: https://www.mbaea.org/
Location: 729 21st Street, Bettendorf, IA, USA
Phone: 563-344-6526
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missbend9/
Twitter: @MBAEA

The Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender identity, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, socioeconomic status, or disability in its educational programs, services or employment practices. Inquiries concerning this statement should be addressed to Kim Hofmann, Equity Coordinator, at 563-344-6415.