The Practice of Authentic PLCs: A Guide to Effective Teacher Teams, will be a featured speaker at the SAI conference on Thursday morning, August 9.

Iowa ASCD is sponsoring a "value-added" opportunity for Iowa ASCD members the afternoon of August 9, 12:00 - 3:00 P.M.  For $15, members will have the opportunity for a focused conversation with Venables around authenticating your PLCs. Each participating member will receive lunch as well as a copy of Venables's book. Non-members are welcome to attend at a fee of $45; they, too, will receive lunch and a copy of this practical book for implementing PLCs.

Daniel R. Venabables will address specific questions of the participants as well as the following:

• Lessons learned regarding the "nuts and bolts" of PLCs.
• Suggestions for getting the most from three basic tasks of PLCs - examination of teacher and student work, development of common formative assessments, and review and response to student learning data.
• The role of principals and/or central office staff in establishing the vision for improving learning.
• Tips and suggestions for addressing PLCs that fail to collect, analyze, and present evidence of work beyond simple, self-reported, anecdotal observations.
• Recommendations or strategies for training facilitators of PLCs.  

Individuals may register with a credit card on the Iowa ASCD web site or call (515.271.1872)/FAX (515.271.2233) Bridget Arrasmith with purchase order information. Participants will be asked to complete a short survey to focus the work on August 9 with Venables.   

You may also contact Kevin Vidergar with questions regarding this opportunity. 

This lively interactive workshop by Rick Smith provides K-12 teachers with practical strategies based on current research on the brain that help boost student involvement, motivation, and retention.  Teachers will walk away with strategies that help their students achieve the Iowa Core. 

Participants will explore how the brain learns, with focus on the MEANS for making a difference:

Memory - key ways to increase your students' retention
Emotion - its critical role in student learning
Attention - how to get it and maintain it
New Meaning - how to "wire it" into long-term memory
Strategies - Dozens that are Brain-Compatible

Participants will leave with:

• "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lecture" - how to break up a lecture and provide multiple opportunities for active student engagement
• Nine strategies for increasing student participation in class discussions
• Two dozen ways to increase student attention and retention, especially for your reluctant learners
• Classroom Management Strategies that are geared primarily for the at-risk student
• Lesson Plan Ideas That Work

Rick Smith is an international education consultant and  presenter. He has shared practical teaching strategies to tens of thousands of teachers and teacher-trainers worldwide, including two years training American Peace Corps Volunteer Teachers in Ghana, West Africa. Rick was a classroom teacher for over fourteen years, focusing primarily on students-at-risk. He's been a mentor/support provider and mentor coordinator for many years, and has taught in both Elementary and Secondary Credential programs in northern California.

Rick has conducted hundreds of workshops and keynotes on classroom management and instructional strategies that  are consistently praised for both their motivational and practical value. 

• Statewide Educator Evaluation System: Michael Fullan, in "Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform,"  shares:  "Teacher appraisal and feedback would seem to be a good idea (CCSSO, 2011; Gates, 2010; Jensen and Reichl, 2011). This strategy is justified on the basis that feedback improves performance.  The logic is reinforced by the finding that focused feedback to students has the most powerful impact on student learning of all pedagogical practices (Hattie, 2009).  It should be the same for adults.  Note, however, that student feedback only works when it is embedded in a classroom culture that is supportive of learning.  The same is true for teachers.  Teacher appraisal will not work unless it is embedded in a school culture of learning where teachers are motivated to learn from feedback.  Hattie's findings are over-interpreted if you just take the literal notion that all good feedback is automatically beneficial.  As he puts it, "it is the willingness to seek negative evidence (seeking evidence where students are not doing well) to improve the teaching . . . the keenness to see the effects on all students, and the openness to new experiences that makes the difference' (p.181).  This is a cultural phenomenon, not a procedural one. The practice of integrating feedback into actions that result in improvement is embraced by teachers and their leaders essentially because their culture values it.  That is why it works.  Throw a good appraisal system in a bad culture and you get nothing but increased alienation.  When the Grattan report says that their proposed appraisal system 'will require a change in culture,' it is fundamentally correct (Jensen and Riechl, 2011).  This innocent little phrase 'change in culture' is the Elephant in the room.  This is the very Elephant that the four right drivers are dying to ride. Culture is the driver; good appraisal is the reinforcer, not the other way around."
• As you meet or write your legislators, be sure to site key points and then share the stories from your district about the very issue for which you are contacting them.
• Find out your legislators by entering your zip code at this site:  http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/ASCD 
• Watch The Source each month for ideas/research supporting educational issues important in Iowa. 

All students must be prepared to leave school ready for life. This is just as true for those with disabilities as it is for the gifted. The truth is that too many Iowa students with disabilities leave high school unprepared. In fact, Iowa has the widest achievement gap in the nation for these students.

On June 11 and 12, twelve hundred Iowa educators heard Scott McConnell share Iowa's imperative for intervention through comprehensive and integrated solutions. He reminded us that we must "make the future we seek." He advocated that expectations for kindergarten must change from "knowing letters to knowing to read." Along with that, early childhood must focus on school readiness, the skills and competencies to adjust to, participate in, and benefit from K-12 education. School readiness must focus on language development, phonological development, "kindergarten survival skills," and cognitive and social-emotional characteristics. Child competencies in these early years should include self-regulation, social competence, and "approaches" to learning, including self-motivation and interest in reading.

Paths to school readiness that were identified include natural interactions through regular Tier 1 interventions, "gently prompted' interactions, formal evidence-based practices, and validated programs. Specific actions for consideration by districts include the review and expansion on school readiness for early childhood programs, as well as assuring an inclusive setting, coordination with the general education preschools and parent/outreach programs, and monitoring impact on the students and the school community.

A panel addressed the importance of the development of safe and supportive schools for all students. The team recognized the need to stop bullying and the use of the Safe and Supportive Schools Index (IS3 index), which provides a measurement for conditions for learning, the overall picture of health of the school's climate.

Attorney David Richard focused on least restrictive environment (LRE) and reminded the audience that meaningful educational is top priority, trumping least restrictive environment. Because children placed in special education are general education children first, he advocated that schools focus on standards-based IEPs.

The "hit" of the day and a "must see" for all of us was Tyler Green, "I'm Tyler Green, Student."   His state and national emphasis on advocacy reminds us that students with IEPs are kids first - kids who deserve our best to help them create their best.  

Martin Ikeda of the Iowa Department of Education shared Iowa Core's new graphic focused on Educator Quality, Learner Services and Supports, and Standards and Curriculum. He also emphasized the importance of working with parents and helping them to communicate both hope and expectations, connecting school to life. We must break the prediction and expect success, assuring practices that accelerate learning in classrooms.

Dr. Daniel Reschly reminded us that reducing disproportionality in special education is not an assessment problem; the problem is students come into our schools behind and stay behind.   He advocates that 20-40% of the students in special education could be dismissed with intensive intervention early on.

Anne Foegen addressed progress monitoring in mathematics - collecting and evaluating data to make decisions about the adequacy of student progress toward a goal. Are you evaluating the student's rate of change? Check out the National Center for RTI on the Iowa ASCD website.  

David Koppenhaver addressed functional vs thoughtful literacy. Functional literacy is basic skills instruction while thoughtful literacy addresses independent reading and writing to enhance communication, understanding, and quality of life as determined by successful achievement of the individual. It is based on seven principles:

1. Thoughtful literacy requires thinking that strives for cognitive clarity and cognitive engagement.
2. Teachers must have a theory of reading instruction and a theory of writing instruction.
3. Learners have different strengths and needs, requiring comprehensive literacy instruction.
4. We must test much less and teach much more.
5. Educators must recognize scientifically-based instruction for what it is and what it is not.
6. We must teach literacy functions, not functional literacy.
7. We must make it our goal to raise expectations and lower standards.

Additional information about the conference may be found at the web site of the Iowa Department of Education.