In my opinion, March is one of the best months of the year. Daylight length increases, nature blooms around us, and the NCCA March Madness tournament begins. Even those who do not follow basketball fill out brackets to select the champion, celebrate the Cinderella wins, and secretly smile when the powerhouse teams lose. The games are full of ups and downs. Emotions are high with buzzer-beater wins and disappointment and shock for others. Besides watching or listening to games, I love the unexpected heroes and stories that surface.

Like basketball, books take us down a road we may not have expected, open our eyes and hearts, and elicit a wide range of emotions. Books allow students to see themselves in the characters and relate. I highly encourage you to read this brief article connecting storytelling and social-emotional learning.

In honor of March Madness, feel free to use the March Madness book bracket with a range of multiuser ebooks available on MackinVIA.

• Primary- PreK-3
• Intermediate- 3-6
• Middle- 6-8
• High School: 9-12

• Template- pdf
• Template- Google sheets

Check out the resources available below.

• The Library of Congress, National Archives, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. They have created teaching resources to support this work. Access them here.

• The United Nations celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8. Click here to see their resources.

• AEA Digital Library

• ALEXANDER STREET
• FREEDOMFLIX
• LEARN360
• MACKINVIA
• TeachingBooks

On March 3, Dr. Joan Taylor from the University of Northern Iowa will be providing superintendents information about proactive practices related to school libraries.

• The overarching premise of intellectual freedom
• The value of ensuring a public-facing online catalog
• An overview of media-related policies, specifically selection and reconsideration
• The benefits of establishing a district-wide media advisory

Following her overview, I will share information about ILA, IASL, and The State Library of Iowa's March intellectual freedom webinar for teacher librarians and future webinar opportunities for school boards and the opportunity on March 28 and June 10 for teacher-librarians to evaluate and revise media-related board policies and develop or expand upon guidelines for media advisory groups.

March 28 is our last media academy session of the year. If you are not registered for the Media Academy and plan to attend, email hwhitman@mbaea.org to plan for seating.

Votes from students around the state will be compiled and winners will be announced later this spring. The Iowa Goldfinch, Children's Choice, Teen Choice, and High School Award Books provide an opportunity for all grade levels to let their voice be heard. Not every book on the list has to have been read by student voters. There is still plenty of time to get involved. The deadline for voting is March 30, 2022!

Here are the newly released IASL 22-23 order forms. With delays in printing and shipping, I encourage everyone to order by March 31st to guarantee availability and the free poster(s). Be on the lookout for an update on the IASL site to purchase spine labels, posters, or medallions for next year's books. I would also like to do a quick shout-out to Iowa AEA Purchasing as they work hard to secure the best pricing for schools and all the IASL committee members and volunteers who do the behind-the-scenes work.

Mystery joins Teachingbook's collection of Multi-Leveled Lessons! The mystery genre encourages readers to look for details, keep track of evidence, and ask questions. With these multi-leveled lessons, students are encouraged to review mystery elements and document details to support comprehension. Each level includes two customizable spaces to respond to questions or add reflections to meet learning targets. Mystery lessons are available on each title within our Mystery Collection.

In the fall of 2022, RAND and Common Sense Media are looking for public school teachers interested in participating in research about digital citizenship at the 6th grade level for 6-8 weeks.

Benefits for the School:

• Individual consultation on an implementation plan
• Data about the impact of digital citizenship lessons on students
• Contributing to a body of knowledge that benefits students and supports their digital lives

Read more information about the study here.

Core Collection books, created for librarians by librarians, assist the busy librarian in a wide variety of ways:

• Purchasing Guide. The Core Collection is designed to assist in the selection and ordering of titles. Annotations are provided for each title along with information concerning the publisher, ISBN, price, and availability.
• Readers’ Advisory The work of readers’ advisory is furthered by the information about sequels and companion volumes and the descriptive and critical annotations in the List of Fictional Works, and by the subject access in the Index.
• Cataloging & Information Support. For this purpose, full bibliographical data are provided. Entries also include recommended subject headings, editions available, awards, publication history, and other titles in the series.
• Curriculum Support. Subject indexing, grade levels, and annotations are helpful in identifying materials appropriate for lesson planning and classroom use.
• Collection Maintenance. Information about titles available on a subject facilitates decisions to rebind, replace, or discard items.
• Instructional Aid. The Core Collection is useful in courses that deal with literature and book selection.

I encourage you to check these out today. The latest editions of the Senior High Core Collection and Graphic Novels Core Collection are planned for release this fall and will be purchased.

Are you looking to build your capacity with AEA Scout? If so, the AEA Scout Online Module is a great opportunity. It will quickly onboard educators to AEA Scout's benefits, features, and functions.

The module showcases:

• details about AEA Scout's curation of high-quality content
• how AEA Scout's predictive functions streamline the research process for students
• how AEA Scout's accessibility features will support diverse student populations
• easy to follow tutorials that illustrate how educators can easily leverage AEA Scouts features and functions with students
  
  

It has never been easier to leverage the power of AEA Scout.

Frequently I use header sizes to emphasize text or for design purposes. However, it is not the best practice for people that use screen readers and could impact website search results. Google uses header tags to understand the topic, affecting the rank in search results.

All people can use the recommendations below to the greatest extent without the need for adaption.

• Use headings and use them in the proper order H1, H2, H3….

• Use tables for data (include heading rows for screen readers)

• Do not use color, italics, or bold options to stress the importance of text

• Consider a larger font size (12-point or higher for body text, 9 for footnotes)

• Sans Serif fonts work best for screen readers (Times New Roman, Veranda, Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, and Helvetica)

• Left justified text is more accessible than justified text for screen readers

• Avoid ALL CAPS (screenreaders think these are acronyms and may read each letter)

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

The STEM BEST® H.D. Program is the result of a special appropriation from the Iowa legislature to expand the STEM BEST® (Businesses Engaging Student and Teachers) Program to focus efforts on job sectors that are in high demand (computer science/information technology, healthcare professions, and advanced manufacturing). It will help build partnerships between schools and businesses, allowing educators and industry professionals to work together to develop curriculum and projects that prepare students for careers in these high-demand fields.

Congratulations to these 10 school districts and their business/community partners in the SE Iowa STEM Region that received an award for the STEM BEST® H.D. (High Demand) Program!

BCSD Burlington Community School District

Bettendorf Community School District

Central Lee Community School District

Davenport Community Schools – Davenport Central

Davenport Community Schools – Davenport North High School

Davenport Community Schools – Davenport West High School

Fort Madison Community School District

Keokuk Community School District

Linn-Mar Community Schools

Mount Vernon Community School District

Northeast Community School District

Pleasant Valley Community School District

For more information about the STEM BEST® H.D. Program, please visit: https://www.iowastem.org/besthd

REVIEW SOME EXCELLENT FUTURE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Check out the Paraeducator Opportunities below!

Paraeducator Generalist Certification Course Series

The series of three courses cover the competencies as directed by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners (BoEE). These competencies cover the skills needed for a paraeducator to succeed in the classroom. It is recommended that the courses be taken in sequential order. The series is a total of 90 hours of training blended with face-to-face (or virtual) course time and online work. Each of the paraeducator generalist courses requires 30 hours to complete. Participants will need to have access to a computer and the internet to complete all courses. The target audience is PreK-12 paraeducators currently working in a school classroom or desiring to work in the school system.

2022 SUMMER VIRTUAL SESSIONS

• Foundations Course 1: 201993

• Section# 309700 - Begins 06/22/2022

• Instructional Supports Course 2: 202107

• Section# 309703 - Begins 07/12/2022

• Behavioral Supports Course 3: 202111

• Section# 309705 - Begins 08/01/2022

Paraeducator Area of Concentration: Special Needs

#201564 - See flyer

This course, designed specifically for paraeducators, will develop skills and strategies to understand and implement IEP goals and objectives, demonstrate understanding of special instructional strategies for students with various needs, build knowledge around the rationale and use of data collection, and extend capacity with behavior reinforcement and assistive technology to meet students' needs. Overall this course will enhance skill sets in supporting students with special needs.

3 Relicensure Credits

Begins 06/20/2022

Registration ends 06/15/2022

Contact Us

staffdevelopment@aea9.k12.ia.us

MARCH

Brain Tumor Awareness Month
Irish-American Heritage Month
Mustache March
National Colon Cancer Awareness Month
Women's History Month
Youth Art Month
March 2- Read Across America Day
March 2- Ash Wednesday
March 13- Daylight Saving Time starts

March 17- Purim Jewish Holiday
March 17- St. Patrick's Day

March 18- Holi Hindu Holiday

March 20- March Equinox

March 29- National Vietnam War Veterans Day

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

Please email or call us at 563-344-6459 anytime for appointments, assistance with usernames/passwords, 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.