Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/401002
October/November 2014 isea.org • ISEA Communiqué 4 FIRST-CLASS MEMBERS Camera crew follows Siskow The Teaching Channel traveled to Wilton, Iowa, to film elementary school teacher and Wilton Education Association member Rebecca Siskow as she taught her ELA class. She presented a lesson on Speaking and Listening for a segment on formative assessment. Siskow also serves as an educational consultant for Smarter Balanced. Her work with the consortium includes assessment evaluation and reviewing the resources Smarter Balanced houses in its digital library. In addition to the classroom instruction, the Teaching Channel crew also filmed segments with Siskow in peer evaluations and through student group performance evaluations. McCormick is outstanding Art Educators of Iowa selected Andrew McCormick as its "Outstanding Art Teacher of the Year." McCormick teaches eighth- and ninth-graders at Holmes Junior High School in Cedar Falls. He's been teaching K-12 for 10 years and has also taught as an adjunct at the University of Northern Iowa. AEI is a statewide organization of roughly 170 art educators. Wendy Miller, who was named AEI's "Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator" told the Waterloo Courier McCormick is an inspiration to his students. "He is an advocate for the arts, and it shows in his work," she said. "As a teacher, Andrew works hard to provide assignments that challenge our students to help them develop personally as artists, to improve their technical skills to help them prepare for student teaching and finally to reflect on their work to help them become quality teachers. His work is invaluable." Eddyville's Bohlmann gets grant The National Education Association awarded Eddyville- Blakesburg-Fremont Community School District's Donna Bohlmann a $2,000 Learning and Leadership grant to attend the Confratute Institute at the University of Connecticut to improve enrichment-based differentiated teaching in several regional school districts. Bohlmann, a talented and gifted coordinator, will then lead a consortium to help small school districts develop lessons that align with the core curriculum. The districts will then combine staff and resources to complete a comprehensive plan for gifted populations. The NEA Foundation awards two levels of grant funding, $2,000 or $5,000, for two primary categories of grants to public education professionals: Student Achievement Grants for initiatives to improve academic achievement, and Learning and Leadership Grants for high-quality educational professional development activities. Application forms and a video with step-by- step instructions on how to apply can be found in the Grants to Educators section of the NEA Foundation website. www.neafoundation.org Cornally has BIG ideas A science teacher at Solon High School, Shawn Cornally is one of the creators of the BIG Ideas school in the Cedar Rapids School District. The project-based school lets students take the lead in pitching, designing and building interdisciplinary projects. The three guiding tenets are: the student must chose and love the project; the project must be interdisciplinary; and the project must have a participatory third-party audience. Find out more about the program and it's projects at the website www.iowabig.org A pair of rising journalism stars The Journalism Education Association awarded Cedar Rapids Education Association member Kyle Phillips and Des Moines Education Association member Natalie Niemeyer rising star awards for their efforts on behalf of student journalists in their schools. With more than 2,500 members, JEA is the largest scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers in the country. Rising Star recipients have demonstrated a commitment to continually improve the medium or media involved, empower student editors and a passion for the First Amendment and journalism education. FIRST-CLASS MEMBERS AGE of ISEA MEMBERS Three-quarters of working Iowa State Education Association members are between 31 and 60 years old. This mirrors national civilian labor force data with the bulk of workers in the same age range, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, the U.S. Department of Education predicts shortages in several disciplines for Iowa in the coming years. Subject shortages include Agriculture, Mathematics, English as a Second Language, Health, Industrial Technology and several Special Education areas. 21-30: 31-40: 41-50: 51-60: 61+: 14% 26% 25% 24% 8% 3% No info: *Source: 2013-14 ISEA FTEs by Individual ID. Rebecca Siskow Andrew McCormick Donna Bohlmann Shawn Cornally Kyle Phillips Natalie Niemeyer Continued on page 10