The American Osteopathic Association states that, "Maintaining a regular yoga practice can provide physical and mental health benefits."

This month's FREE Wellness event from IDEA is all about striking a balance between our profession and our mental health. Whether you are an accomplished Yogi or newbie, we encourage you to take the leap for yourself and follow along as we stretch our practices and our bodies.

This January, join us for a weekly Yoga Pose aligned with the ISTE standards. Tap into your courage and confidence as you use your strength to inspire and empower your students and colleagues.

We know what Google's Applied Digital Skills Curriculum is, so now what?

In this session, we will explore recent updates and new lessons in the Applied Digital Skills Curriculum as well as strategies for leveling up the user experience with advanced lessons and lesson collections that you can assign and learn from. We will also explore the NEW Applied Digital Skills Ambassador Program.

Attendees will meet virtually on January 11 and again on January 25 for a virtual office hour

Illinois educators can earn 2.5 Professional Development hours

How many times have you heard the phrase "better together" in recent years? There's a reason this phrase has become so popular and it's because it's true!

This months playground is all about developing and maintaining your professional learning network or PLN.

A PLN is a personal and professional construct of learners that leverages social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time. Participating educators, worldwide, share in a virtual think tank. In January's playground, come learn how to tap into your PLN in the most meaningful ways.

Watch (or listen!) up to 6 pre-recorded sessions.  The Playground opens at 8am on January 17 and lasts until January 31. Learn what you want, when you want to! 

Topics include:

• My Story: A new teacher's journey to 11K and the lessons learned.
• Cracking the Egg: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Twitter
• Insta, Facebook and Twitter, Oh My!
• Unique Collaborations Using Clubhouse and Voxer
• Power Up Your PLN
• Creative Collaborator

Challenging times call for creativity and divergent thinking. How can we engage students in this way of thinking when they are feeling stressed?

Thrively has created a Well-Being Index in partnership with Turnaround for Children. Learn how to use this new tool to check-in on a daily basis with your students and really get to know how they are feeling and functioning.

When we check in on our students, allow for time to connect, and opportunities to learn from one another, we overcome struggles together.

Illinois educators can earn 0.5 PDHs for attending this webinar live. 

In a recent teacher survey, two of the top sources of stress for teachers were trying to engage students and supporting students’ social and emotional learning.  Building a strengths-based culture starts with knowing your students and celebrating what is strong with each of them.

Join us for an exciting interactive session! Teachers will learn strategies to better know their students and help their students to be known. Teachers will then learn multiple strategies to engage with their students through Thrively’s robust suite of assessments, its new Well-Being Index, and its CASEL-aligned SEL programs.

Illinois educators can earn up to 1 PDH for attending this webinar live. 

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that we need to cultivate problem solvers and computational thinkers. Our critical thinking skills have been put to the test and we strongly believe that it’s important that we go back to better.

To do this, IDEA has developed a 3 workshop series focusing on the newly adopted computer science standards. Empowering ourselves, empowering our students.

Leveraging the CS standards and re-framing your thinking regarding computer science will allow you to reach more learners in a deeper, richer way!

This session consists of debunking misconceptions of computer science and design thinking in general. Computer science is so much more than just coding and cannot be a one and done lesson. Developing critical thinkers is essential for all areas of study.

Attendees do NOT need to attend all sessions and do not need previous CS experience.

This professional development workshop offers coping strategies for at-risk students facing the combined elements of academic performance, high achievement standards, media messages, peer pressure, and family tension.

As a result of participating in this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to:

1. Recognize risk factors and employ protective factors for students at-risk

2. Apply effective methods to teach personal resilience to students

3. Foster academic resilience and emotional intelligence to increase student achievement

4. Teach students to demonstrate resiliency after making a mistake or an unfortunate situation

Attendees will have access to the Monday IDEAcon keynote.

Illinois Admins can receive 7 PDHs OR 1 Admin Academy credit for this workshop.

Join IDEA and IETL as they host their annual leadership summit in conjunction with IDEAcon 2022!

Attendees will have access to the IDEAcon keynote and exhibit hall as well as the social event that evening. Lunch is included and AA credit will be given (AA1782).

The Leadership Summit will be "Pearl Harbor On-The-Road Leadership Workshop" provided by Diamond6 Leadership & Strategy, LLC speaker, Jeff McCausland.

Workshop Description:

December 7th, 1941 is an iconic date- the attack on Pearl Harbor. The actions of leaders on both sides of this historic battle made the difference in the turn of events on that day—for better or for worse. During this leadership workshop, a leadership facilitator and Pearl Harbor historian will virtually lead participants to various sites where critical decisions were made and actions taken on the island of Oahu. At each stop we will examine key aspects of the attack and leadership lessons that apply as much to us today as they did on that fateful Sunday morning. The day concludes with an active discussion about how all leaders can learn from the good and the bad leadership decisions made on this historic date. It is no overstatement to say that Pearl Harbor is one of the most important and intense “leadership laboratories” in our history.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the actions of leaders on that day and what tools they used for decision-making

• Identify effective leadership strategies in complex, high-pressure environments

• Open discussions around strategic leadership, strategic vision, innovation, effective communications in an organization, “leading the boss”, and organizational culture and change

Illinois Admins can receive 7 PDHs OR 1 Admin Academy credit for this workshop.

Do you want a better understanding of the day to day life of your district's technology department?  If you answered "yes!", then this is the workshop for you.

During this workshop, you will explore the options for staffing and organizing a district technology department. Participants will get an understanding of needed security measures a District must undergo to protect the district and its student’s data. You will dive into technology finance to get an understanding of the budgetary needs of a technology department along with getting a general understanding of E-Rate.

When you leave this workshop you will have the needed information to have meaningful conversations with your technology department to move your district forward.

Participants should bring or know how to access your district's organization chart, SOPPA agreements, and technology plan if you have one.

Attendees will have access to the Wednesday IDEAcon keynote along with the exhibit hall. 

Illinois Admins can receive 7 PDHs OR 1 Admin Academy credit for this workshop.

Join us as we hear from THREE IDEA members (and IDEAcon presenters!!) on what they learned at IDEAcon.  

Attend live and receive 1 PDH!  The access link will be in the confirmation email.

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that we need to cultivate problem solvers and computational thinkers. Our critical thinking skills have been put to the test and we strongly believe that it’s important that we go back to better.  Leveraging the CS standards and re-framing your thinking regarding computer science will allow you to reach more learners in a deeper, richer way!

For our second session in the CS Standards series, we will take a deep dive into unpacking and understanding the CS standards. What are they and how can we break them down in meaningful ways? Get familiar with the new standards in this session and begin to recognize how they fit into your subject matter.

Attendees do NOT need to attend all sessions and do not need previous CS experience.

**Date/time is still being finalized**

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that we need to cultivate problem solvers and computational thinkers. Our critical thinking skills have been put to the test and we strongly believe that it’s important that we go back to better.

In this session, join us for the opportunity to learn how to meaningfully integrate CS standards into your practice. Learn strategies for marrying the CS standards to your learning targets and unique ways to successfully implement a well rounded lesson.