Leapin' Leprechauns!

March is one of those months that now has so many special celebrations and opportunities to engage students with special activities. Whether you're celebrating Pi Day, St. Patrick's Day, or some form of March Madness-- whether with Book Madness, Mammal Madness, Poetry Madness, or basketball--teachers have come up with so many creative ways to connect.

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It's also a time to recognize and celebrate the middle level! AMLE has shared several ways to do this. Take time to highlight all of the good that you are doing, and consider nominating people for awards! The middle level deserves more recognition!

AMLE IS CURRENTLY OFFERING ... (. Follow on X)

A toolkit you can use to celebrate #MLEM and the awards that follow, including graphics (and your district can use to celebrate you, too!)

Middle Grades Advocate Award (for both certified and classified staff): In gratitude, AMLE will send a certificate and gift to each nominee. Nominees will continue to be highlighted in AMLE publications throughout the year. Nominations are due March 31; every AMLE member may nominate one for each category

Student SoundOff. Open to Ages 10-15

MLEM Quest for Prizes Tracking Sheet

SCHOOLS TO WATCH/NATIONAL FORUM OFFERS THESE SUGGESTIONS (Follow on X)

Celebrate Middle Level Education Month by taking part in activities that shine a spotlight on the power of the middle grades:

Recognize Educators & Students: Take time to acknowledge the teachers, counselors, and leaders who make a lasting difference every day.
Engage in Professional Learning: Participate in webinars, workshops, and conversations centered on effective middle school practices.
Share Your Story: Highlight the great things happening in your school on social media and within your community.
Advocate for Middle Schools: Connect with policymakers, school boards, and community partners to champion strong middle-level education.
Join the Schools to Watch Network: Discover how your school can be recognized for excellence in middle-level education.
Schools to Watch can also share celebrations and accomplishments with them, and they will promote you through their social media channels.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A SCHOOL TO WATCH TO ATTEND THE CONFERENCE

While the Schools to Watch conference celebrates the schools who have earned designation or redesignation in the past year, anyone interested may attend. From memorable keynotes to sessions led by outstanding schools, to the option to visit your legislators on Capitol Hill (and sightsee in D.C.), there is much to offer. The request to present and registration are now open. The early bird registration discount is good through March 31.

Rochester has made concentrated efforts to improve their testing data, which paid off greatly, and supports students in a myriad of ways. Tri-West is academically among the top schools in the state, and has been designated the most of any Indiana school! They also sustained storm damage yesterday, with roof damage and a tree that fell across the main entrance. Fortunately, it was a "Late Start Wednesday," and students were not at school yet. We will share even more about these two outstanding schools later. They will be presenting at the national Schools to Watch Conference.

Katie Powell, the Director for Middle Level Programs at AMLE, presented a webinar with Keep Indiana Learning that can serve as a preview of her sessions; she will also be a keynote speaker. While KINLCon is for educators K-12, please consider nominating middle level educators and partners for the awards presented at their conference. Nominations are due March 27 in the categories Educational Leadership, Innovative Impact, and Community Partnership.

Registration for the conference at Plainfield HS on June 9-10 is available, and is only $99 for 2 days!

AI-POWERED TRANSLATOR, COMPLETE WITH IMAGES

While no translator is perfect, vocab.top swiftly creates translations, images, synonyms, the pronunciation, and even a memory tip. This would be great to use with your MLL students, and for world language students. It's actually a lot of fun, and would be a great regular resource for anyone as a dictionary.

MIDDLE SCHOOL READ ALOUDS

MiddleWeb (one of my favorite resources) loaded up several articles on using read alouds with middle school into NotebookLM, and came up with this interesting list. (It was also checked by humans!) More and more, science of reading research is pointing to the importance of fluency for all ages, and read alouds support your students in many ways.

A GROWING SPORT AMONG GRADES 4-12: ARCHERY

Did you know that over 600 schools in Indiana participate in the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP)? While this year's state tournament is March 21 in Indianapolis, you can find out how to have your school participate in the future, which includes monetary support for equipment. One step is to identify someone in your organization who is willing to be trained. The Indiana coordinator is Tim Beck with DNR.

TIMES ARE EDT; FREE UNLESS NOTED

Many are available via recording, especially if you pre-register.

March 14- Pi Day!

March 15- Deadline to Apply to Use the Indiana Youth Survey at Your School

March 18- Make Content Stick & Cultivate Self-Driven Learners with Science of Learning Practices, 5 pm

March 24- DOE Webinar: Middle School Reading Plans, 2 pm

March 24- edWeb: Quick, Engaging Activities for Big Thinking: Games, Games, Games! 4 pm

March 26- Leslie Fisher Webinar about Mote, 7 pm

March 27- Award Nominations Due for KINLCon

March 31- DOE Webinar: Leveraging MTSS for Adolescent Literacy, 2 pm

March 31- Nominations Due for AMLE Adult Advocate Award

March 31- Earlybird Registration Discount for Schools to Watch Conference$

April 3- AMLE Student Sound Off Entries Due

June 9-10-KINLCon at Plainfield Community High School $

June 25-27- National Schools to Watch Conference, Washington, D.C. Area, $

ONGOING EVENTS

Indiana Learning Lab Workshops (Requires Sign in for Registration, Also Access to Archived Events)

Teachers First OK2Ask Online Workshops ; (Past on-demand sessions)

Keep Indiana Learning (KINL); Live Events (some $) Past Recordings/Digital Content

edWeb.net Webinars (Can watch at later date; if sponsored, "commercials" are at the end)

Leslie Fisher Webinars

AMLE Podcasts: Walk and Talk & Research to Practice

AMLE Events (some free, some paid)

Corwin Webinars, Additional Free Corwin Resources, Including Past Webinars

Please note: Webinars and events mentioned in this space are not an endorsement of commercial products; on the contrary, we try to avoid listing events that appear to be commercial in nature. Every effort is made to strip social media/tracking data from provided URLs. In many cases, you can register and receive a recording later.

ABOUT IMLEA

The only organization in Indiana devoted to promoting, improving, and supporting middle level education. We are the Indiana affiliate of the national organization AMLE, and administer the Schools to Watch program for the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform.

Join us! Membership Benefits and Application

Joint Membership, AMLE/IMLEA

Susie Highley, Executive Director

FIND US:

11025 E. 25th Street, Indianapolis, IN. 46229 (Inside IASP)

(317) 759-4344

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