On the Road with John Speer - Grant Wood AEA

See how Grant Wood Area Education Agency helped get Iowa into the top ten in computer science education in the country!

Grant Wood AEA Chief Administrator Speer hits the road to Marion Iowa where he answers the age old math question "When am I ever going to use this?"AEA staff have developed training and supports for Contextual Learning, a new and innovative way of teaching math by applying it in the context of the real world.

John Speer hits the road to Lisbon Iowa where he learns how to use a unique piece of PE equipment, Longboards! Join John, PE teacher Phil, and Grant Wood AEA Adapted PE Consultant Rhyanne as they discuss how to make physical education accessible to all students.

Chief Administrator Speer hits the road to Iowa City West High School where he interviews a Grant Wood AEA SLP and a special education teacher with 30 years of experience.

Grant Wood AEA is dedicated to supporting the education of all students, and works hard for ESSA designative schools!

Teachers at Prairie Crest Elementary in College Community School District have GWAEA staff in their ears! Just like in spy movies, instructional coaches assist teachers using a microphone and earpiece, allowing them to create better connections with their students.

Grant Wood AEA's Vans deliver media library resources and science kits to districts across our service area! John Speer hits the road to discuss these supports.

John Speer hit the road to Alburnett Iowa during their big homecoming football game! This got John thinking about another winning team, the lesser known staff at Grant Wood AEA.

We hope you've been enjoying the recent episodes of our new podcast/video series On the Road with John Speer. This week we're saving gas and NOT hitting the road for special episode with the full interviews of a few of Grant Wood AEA's retirees. (Shortened versions of the interviews of Katy Lee, Glen Schmitz, Cindy Seehusen and Betty Stiefel were already shared in this year's banquet video.) If you saw their interviews during the banquet, you'll want to hear their unabridged reflections AND see the end of this episode in which we share reflections and old photos of retirees who gave them.

In this new episode, John hits the road to Tipton where he interviews Grant Wood AEA staff Amber Bridge and Mindy Cairney, who currently support Tipton Middle School teachers as they blend and personalize learning for students. Blended and personalized learning helps give students more voice in their education, so it only made sense that John ALSO interviews a few middle schoolers in this episode as well!

On the last episode, we spoke with Rich McGrath about the power of co-teaching. We found that students gained a lot from a teacher who was supported by just one additional educator. What do you suppose happens when a teacher gets support from not one, but over a DOZEN AEA staff members? Quinn is a 9 year old student with significant learning disabilities attending school in a general education setting at Highland School District in Riverside, IA.

On the last episode, we spoke with Rich McGrath about the power of co-teaching. We found that students gained a lot from a teacher who was supported by just one additional educator. What do you suppose happens when a teacher gets support from not one, but over a DOZEN AEA staff members? Quinn is a 9 year old student with significant learning disabilities attending school in a general education setting at Highland School District in Riverside, IA.

AEA staff support some of the best work happening in school buildings all over the state. We're going to take our listeners on the road into these buildings and talk to AEA and district staff about partnerships making a difference for kids. In our newest episode of On the Road with John Speer, John joined Rich McGrath, a Grant Wood AEA Literacy consultant who is demonstrating this spirit of teamwork in a writing classroom through the power of co-teaching. Rich and John then hit the road and visited Lincoln Upper Elementary School in Washington, Iowa. On the Road is now available in Podcast or video! (Details on accessing them.) Learn more about how their new curriculum process might help produce Washington's first rap artist. Hear from a district how Grant Wood AEA helps ensure that our partnership helps ensure they're focused not just on a new writing curriculum, but about quality instruction. And hear more about the 'why' that matters to teachers and AEA staff: "Any time you can have discourse that happens student to student, they're talking to partners... to see the student to student interaction is exciting to me." "When you look at kids' faces and they look like they're interested, excited and they want to do it, that fires you up as a teacher.' "Any Grant wood staff has been willing to jump in and co-teach with us and give us feedback and ask us questions..." I feel like it's a true partnership."