25th Annual MIEM Support Staff Conference for Administrative Professionals

The MIEM Crystal Award recognizes and celebrates the outstanding performance, achievements, and contributions of individuals who work in support staff positions within Michigan school districts.

Crystal Award Categories:

Customer Service Award: Recognizes outstanding service to internal and external customers, including: students, teachers, administrators, parents, other groups or individuals.

Student Services Award: Recognizes outstanding assistance to students through mentoring, leadership, student organizations, or advisement that extends beyond the bounds of normal job responsibilities.

Best Practices Award
Recognizes initiated and successfully established new methods, practices, or plans which have saved the school district money, time, or staff. This may include innovative and efficient solutions to problems.

There’s still time to sign up for Marketing Your School – the online learning opportunity that allows you to work at your own pace and around your current work schedule. The dates have changed this year to accommodate the new learning system being implemented at Learn Port. The new dates are Monday, October 10 thru Friday, November 4.

This four-week class helps you understand what marketing is and how image, customer service, and communication all fit into the concept of marketing your school and your role in creating the best image you can create for your school.

Weekly marketing themes include:

• Week 1: What is Marketing? What marketing is and isn’t. What is branding?
• Week 2: Who is Your Audience? What is communication? Learn about communication styles.
• Week 3: Consistency, Alignment and Branding: What is professionalism? How does this translate into marketing your school?
• Week 4: Customer Service as a Marketing Tool: What is customer service and how does it apply to you? What is an ambassador?

Last fall, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) organized a series of regional meetings to introduce Michigan educators to the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics and ELA, and the proposed assessments of these standards.

This fall, the MDE is planning another series of regional meetings that build on last year’s introduction by delving deeper into what it takes to prepare students to be Career and College Ready. Topics will range from systems to classroom supports and will include panel discussions as well as voices from the field. Please plan to attend the event scheduled for your area.

• Monday, October 31, 2011 • DeVos Place, Grand Rapids
• Tuesday, November 1, 2011 • Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti
• Friday, November 4, 2011 • Northern Michigan University, Marquette
• Thursday, November 10, 2011 • Northwestern Michigan College Hagerty Center, Traverse City
• Monday, November 14, 2011 • Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw

Registration in now available for these meetings.

Register online.

Register by fax.

Do you have something you would like to share at one of the meetings? Please contact Kellie Flaminio (flaminiok@michigan.gov) to request a speaker form.

Michigan ASCD Experienced Instructional Leaders Series Set

Part of the Michigan ASCD Curriculum Leaders Institute, the Michigan ASCD Experienced Instructional Leaders Series is a four-part professional development series for seasoned curriculum leaders. The series will provide a forum for curriculum leaders to gather together and dialogue about current issues in the curriculum field, as well as provide each participant with the most current, effective and relevant practices and tools available.

The overall purpose of this year-long seminar for experienced central office instructional leaders is to strengthen their confidence, efficacy and competence for the important work they do in their districts. All sessions will run from 8:30am until 3:45pm, light breakfast and lunch included.

Registration Form

Online Registration

Location: MELG Building, Lansing 
Presenters: Nancy Colflesh, Consultant, Colflesh & Associates; Debbie McFalone, Consultant, McFalone Consulting
 
Session 1, Communication and Relationships
MELG Building, Lansing, November 4, 2011
This session will focus on strengthening skills in communicating with others, seeking and using feedback, and cultivating collaborative relationships. Recent research has shown that relational trust in schools is imperative for meaningful change to take place. 

Session 2, Maximizing Effectiveness 
MELG Building, Lansing, December 12, 2011
One of the major responsibilities for central office instructional leaders is to ensure effectiveness and productivity across systems and schools. This session will focus on ways leaders can encourage, support, and hold accountable members of the organization as they learn and implement promising practices in their classrooms and schools. 

Session 3, First- and Second-Order Change
MELG Building, Lansing, Tuesday, January 25, 2012
Keeping a global overview of their district and its priorities in mind, central office instructional leaders must understand how to move people through the process of change, balancing urgency with support for administrators, faculty and staff.
 
Session 4, Time and Resource Management
MELG Building, Lansing, February 23, 2012
Time is a finite resource that must be managed well by central office instructional leaders. This session, the final learning experience in the seminar, will focus on planning and decision-making processes, which will maximize the time and resources available to continuously improve learning for all in a district.