Workshop: February 6 (8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.)

Networking Social: February 5 (5:30 - 7:30 P.M.)

Register today for a special workshop just for you - Advocating on the Hill with Your Stories! The Iowa ASCD Board and the first 50 registrants for this professional opportunity on February 6 will learn how to leverage change with legislators. ASCD Director of Public Policy, David Griffith, will be leading our preparation for quality conversations with legislators!

Registration is $50 for members of Iowa ASCD and $90 for non-members. Upon registration you will receive access to tools for advocacy and influence, including talking points for major issues (e.g., competency-based instruction, readers by third grade, kindergarten readiness, instructional time,teacher and principal evaluation), sample letter and telephone script for contacting your legislators, and a rubric to evaluate your skills in advocacy. Iowa ASCD will also provide you with contact information about your legislators so that you may schedule visits "on the hill" as part of this opportunity.

A block of rooms has been reserved for February 5^th at the Renaissance Des Moines Savery Hotel [(515) 244-2151]. Be sure to ask for the Iowa ASCD block of rooms.   

Agenda

February 5, 2013  -  5:30 - 7:30 P.M.

Informal reception at the Renaissance Des Moines Savery Hotel, 401 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa.  Talk with ASCD Director of Public Policy David Griffith and network with your colleagues around advocacy and influence.  Hors d'oeuvres and cash bar.

February 6, 2013 8:00 A.M. - 12:30 P.M. 

Iowa Historical Building, 600 East Locust            

Continental breakfast and Working Lunch

Professional Learning with David Griffith

February 6, 2013, 1:00 - 3:00 P.M.             

Visits "on the hill" (Capitol - East 12^th and Grand)

February 6, 2013, 3:00 - 4:00 P.M.             

Informal (and optional) meeting at the Capitol for interested participants to debrief their visits with legislators and share possible next steps for Iowa ASCD and our members around advocacy and influence.

To register - Contact Bridget Arrasmith with name(s) of registrant(s), district and mailing address, e-mail address(es), phone number as well as check or purchase order. She can be reached at the following address: 

• Iowa ASCD, Drake University, School of Education, Room 123, 3206 University Avenue, Des Moines, IA  50311  
• Phone: 515.271.1872
• FAX: 515.271.2233
• E-mail: Bridget.Arrasmith@drake.edu

You may register online as well with a credit card at the following URL on the Iowa ASCD website: https://iowaascd.org/index.php/events/event-registration/ 

Register Now! Limited Space!

In 1998, 72% of eleventh-grade students in the Sumner-Fredericksburg High School reported on the Iowa Youth Survey using alcohol in the last 30 days and nearly 80% stated they had smoked cigarettes in the last 30 days.  The 2010 data from Iowa Youth Survey showed that 74% stated that they had never used alcohol in the last 30 days and 19% used tobacco in the last 30 days. Seventy-seven percent stated that they never used tobacco.

While many factors contributed to these factors, there is agreement among parents, students, and faculty that Get-A-Grip was a major factor in changing student attitudes and behavior about alcohol and tobacco use.

The Sumner-Fredericksburg High School organization Get-A-Grip grew out a seminar of the same name designed to reduce substance abuse and risky behaviors among teens provided by the Iowa Department of Transportation in the 1990s.

The seminar involved a variety of activities and speakers to build leadership skills and challenge students to "break their personal barriers" when making decisions and reaching goals. The workshop also provided students with opportunities to have fun and experience a healthy life-style without substances.

Students at Sumner-Fredericksburg have continued the project based on principles or leadership, service, and integrity for 14 years. Each year ninth grade students and students new to S-FHS are invited to attend a night-long workshop in which they experience team work activities, hear from upperclassman about the importance of setting goals and tracking progress towards goals and do a variety of fun activities. The highlight of the evening is a workshop where students are asked to write down on a board a personal goal that they want to achieve and list the barrier that prevents them achieving that goal, and then they are challenged to "break" the barriers. The power of the event is often shown at graduation parties where among the awards rests a broken board with a hand-written barrier and goal for all to see.

After the workshop, students are invited to join and remain in the group as long as they remain committed to be drug, alcohol and tobacco free. More than half of students remain in the group for all four years. During high school Get-A-Grip plans and organizes activities includes a swimming party, movie nights, paint ball tournaments, and themed overnights, trips to AdventureLand, service projects, haunted house, and dances - all that are substance free. Each year, the high school group puts in a day-long retreat for 6^th grade students in which they share and publically re-affirm their substance free commitment. At least every other year, the group sponsors a a school-wide activity to re-affirm the drug free message and build student leadership skills.

Linda Wright, group moderator, emphasizes the importance of building relationships with and among students and providing time for students to get together in a safe place and the power of the breaking barriers activity, noting with pride, that now, the social norm at school is be have fun and be drug free.

You may contact the high school principal, Allan Eckelman, for additional information. 

Creating college/career ready students who are creative problem solvers is a challenge that schools face in every classroom across America. Muscatine Community School District is like all other districts seeking ways to prepare students for an unknown future that is fueled by changing demographics, technology and globalization. Changes of this magnitude require strong and committed partners where schools are prepared to rethink some of the conventional thoughts in the current system.

MCSD is entering into a K-12 Professional Learning Community (PLC) process that will provide a platform for teachers to focus on a collective purpose - student learning. The PLC framework allows faculty to work in a collaborative environment that supports innovative practices based on data. New initiatives in recent years include creating multiple pathways for students to not only excel academically, but to address 21 Century Skills and prepare them to be knowledgeable citizens, with higher-order skills capable of learning and adapting to an uncertain future.

Progressive practices in Muscatine bolstered by evidence of students success, include East Campus, an 8-12^th grade program designed for students needing an alternative pathway to ensure secondary success. Students thrive in an environment that encourages teachers to fuse English, Science, Math, and Social Studies classes while integrating technology, art, culture and more importantly a human element.

Additional innovative practices playing an active role in the quest for success for all students include a new internship program, 1:1 technology initiative that provides a laptop for all students in grades 6-12 and Competency-Based Education (CBE). The CBE pilot in Muscatine began as a grass-roots effort with teachers leading the way. CBE is a philosophy as much as a methodology and it, too fosters students' ownership of student learning.

As you walk into schools throughout MCSD, you'll see how classrooms are being transformed in ways to connect learning to real life. The first step in this process is the ability to create a culture that supports innovation. Evidence of this connection occurs in the project-based classrooms called g� (global generation). This inquiry-based learning is where students take real life issues, ask questions, and make inquiries and work together to find possible solutions through critical feedback. The student-centered approach provides a personalized engaging environment.

An additional method of supporting innovation is demonstrated through the Investing in Innovation Grants, which began during the 2011 school year. Teachers at MCSD have the opportunity to apply for small grants that will allow them access to dollars for innovative practices in their classrooms. This small grant opportunity was developed to support new ideas and practices to strengthen teaching and learning. The goal is to fund and share successful strategies to educate and prepare students for their future.

The Leader in Me™ program in the elementary schools is based on Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and is a model for students to take ownership of their own lives. This empowers young people to make good choices in the classroom that impacts other aspects of their lives. The infused common language helps to unlock each student's personal potential.

Each of the innovative practices described have the core common belief that student learning is the central focus, and creating a collaborative culture is essential. Innovation is continually supported, as all stakeholders become active participants in helping each other deliver and evaluate the learning process.  Education isn't a one-size fits all model ... it's about multiple pathways to learning and exploration. MCSD is committed to look at the educational system for sustainable growth through organizational change that is supported with new structures and new ways of working collaboratively.

• Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullan is a 15-page "must" for you and your learning team.  This "must-read" article was released August 15, 2012, and is available on the Iowa ASCD website. 
• You can access an interactive map of all the 1:1 schools in Iowa.  This site identifies grade levels using 1:1 as well contact information.   
• Success at the Core offers you and your leadership team  these free as you implement the Core in your district: 
  • 7 Modules:  Leadership Teams and Quality Instruction, Using Data Effectively, Common Formative Assessments, Professional Development, Instructional Expertise, Implementing New Programs, and Aligning Curriculum 
  • 24 Classroom Strategies (Addressing content, instruction, assessment, and supportive structures) 
  • 47 Documentary - Quality Videos
• Iowa ASCD really appreciates your membership.  Let us know how we can best serve you!  

• gain understanding, insights, and practice in effectively leading PLCs.
• learn how to identify, address, and mitigate obstacles that are common, including dealing with challenging interpersonal dynamics.
• practice using and facilitating protocols for looking at teacher and student work, leading text-based discussions, problem-solving issues and dilemmas, setting useful group norms, giving and receiving warm and cool feedback, and unpacking standards.
• gain a clear sense of what they need to do next in their schools.

The content for the three-day institute is based on The Practice of Authentic PLCs by Daniel R. Venables.

How to Register!   

Visit authenticPLCS.com or call 803.206.3578. 

The fee for the 3-day institute is $479 per person.