With everyone on your team on a different path to success, jmc is offering a flexible, choose-your-own-adventure agenda at jmc Summer Conference ‘25, happening in MN on 6/18 and in IA on 6/20. Personalized sessions and activities ensure that you’ll get the most out of your time at ‘camp’.
Before we send you on your merry way to explore camp, we’ll share a few brand-new jmc time-savers with you. No spoilers yet! You’ll then learn about our main message of the day: As you continue to grow in your role as an education leader, jmc is here to help you along your journey — at camp and beyond.
We have two activities to help you get the most out of the day:
What do you want to get out of Camp?
Take a minute to set your goal by writing down one thing you’d like to learn, discover, or achieve at camp.
Choose your own adventure
Hear from each breakout session leader, aka, jmc Camp Counselor, on what their session is about and why you don’t want to miss out. Sign up for the sessions that speak to you the most.
Scheduling 101
Join us for a walk through of our Schedules module where you’ll learn how to quickly add courses, place students, and schedule them into sections. From easy course identification to convenient bulk-loading, it’s all designed to save you time.
The importance of state reporting
If you enter data into jmc on a daily basis, then you play a role in state reporting — and district funding. For the scoop on how it all connects, join this breakout session on the importance of timely data submissions and how jmc can help ease the process.
Getting the most out of jmc’s Tuition and Fees module
Discover time-saving tools in the Tuition and Fees module to help streamline your school’s finances and make payments easier for families. You’ll learn the ins and outs of recurring payments, family communication, real-time reporting, accurate record-keeping, and more.
Workshop: Creating an attendance form letter
Attendance form letters let families know when their child has been excessively absent and enable early intervention to steer the student back onto the path to success. Work with jmc Forms expert Sara Freid to create a custom attendance form letter that can be triggered based on a student’s behavior or action — and have that essential task knocked out before the year even starts.
The 411 on Section 504 civil rights
In this two-part session, Central Rivers AEA Section 504 Coordinator Dr. Bill Soesbe will provide guidance on Section 504 to ensure that you are providing students-with-disabilities equal access to educational opportunities. Paul Freid, Lead Trainer at jmc, will walk you through how to add and share 504 plans and accommodations with the appropriate staff members.
Advanced jmc scheduling tools for high school
Are you not sure how to meet your high school’s complex scheduling needs? Then this is the session for you. Learn your way around a few enhanced scheduling tools to help you balance student requests, teacher availability, room constraints, and course requirements.
Ed-Fi/SIF discussion and Q&A with the MN and IA Departments of Education
Get the download on the latest updates to MARSS reporting from Kari Johnson of the MDE. IA folks, Rachel Kruse of the IDE joins to share what’s new in reporting for your state. jmc developer and Ed-Fi expert Greg Gilman will top it off with a look at new state reporting time-savers and open the floor for your questions.
Grading 101
No matter how you report on student progress, be it through course grades or standards-based report cards, jmc has the grading tools to do it swiftly and successfully. Sign up for this session to learn about all of the grading options available to you via jmc.
Workshop: Developing an effective communication strategy
When your communication plan is tailored to the goals of both your district and community members, you deepen those connections. So, where do you start? Right here, with this engaging workshop. You’ll learn how to use jmc’s powerful communication tools, including Community Messenger, to target your audiences with the right messaging at the right time, in order to truly connect with your community.
10 ways you can support new staff members
When your staff know how to effectively use jmc’s tools, they can thrive along with your entire district. Join this session to learn about ten jmc resources for preparing your team for the school year, like our comprehensive New User playlist on YouTube, to in-app Support chat, and tour our brand-new eCommerce portal, General Store, from the shopper’s point of view.
Stump the counselor
Have a scenario that’ll make our counselors pause? Bring your toughest questions to this interactive Q&A, where our experts will field real scheduling, enrollment, and support challenges submitted by attendees. Whether you're looking to solve a tricky issue or just learn from the pros, this is your chance to test their knowledge and stump them to win a prize!
True or false: Tools edition
Join in to discover lesser known but highly useful jmc tools through a round of True or False. If your table has the most correct answers, you’ll win a fully covered, fully delicious Lunch and Learn on the jmc topic or tool of your choice.
Take a break from your camp activities and dig into a full spread of summertime favorites for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike, like kabobs, mac ‘n’ cheese, country-style potato salad, sugar-sweet corn (and cornbread), plus a refreshing tossed salad. Don’t forget to leave room for dessert: s’mores brownies and warm apple crisp.
Speaker, author, and advocate of empathy, Tara Soesbe, believes that in order to uplift and impact students, educators must first champion themselves by prioritizing growth, resilience, and self-love. If that sentiment resonates with you, we highly recommend attending this session, where you’ll hear engaging stories and strategies that will empower you to embrace your strengths and lead with purpose.
Student enrollment 101
Do you need help navigating enrollment procedures for incoming and outgoing students? Then add this session to your list. We’ll cover data entry best practices for creating comprehensive student records that set your team up for year-round success. You’ll also learn how to use jmc Office to accept proposed family and emergency contact updates in one click.
State reporting deep-dive with the MN and IA Departments of Education
Minnesota folks, let Karen Millette from the MDE and jmc Ed-Fi expert Greg Gilman fill you in on the types of data that your district will need to submit as part of MCCC data submissions, including deadlines. For Iowa, Connor Hood and Synthia Davis from the IDE explain how data integrations for FastBridge and Panorama work with jmc to ensure a smooth flow of student progress-related data to the state.
School health management 101
Your health office handles a lot, from keeping track of student medications to managing health visits and distributing medical emergency plans to staff across your district. Learn how jmc’s Health module can help you streamline all of those crucial tasks and more, keeping your students healthy and happy.
Workshop: New Family Enrollment vs. online registration
jmc’s online registration makes for easy collection and storing of vital student and contact info, thanks to customization, not unlike the New Family Enrollment portal. So, what’s the difference between the two tools? Sign up to find out! This workshop will also show you how to create a welcoming environment for both new and returning families.
Lollipop Leadership with guest speaker Tara Soesbe
The smallest act of kindness, support, or encouragement can have a profound effect on someone’s life — even if you don’t know it at the time. What we just described is a Lollipop Moment and it’s a core concept of Lollipop Leadership. Let speaker, author, and advocate of empathy, Tara Soesbe, challenge you to discover the Lollipop Leader in yourself and just how sweet that can be.
Meet us back at the main stage to see if you’ll leave camp with a prize. There will be multiple winners so keep those fingers crossed.
As the sun sets on our time together, we invite you to reflect on the goal that you set for the day; and, if you feel comfortable, share your progress with everyone at camp — or grab a postcard and ‘write home’ about it to your superintendent. We’ll wrap up the session with a refresher on all the ways jmc can help you along your path to success — from 1:1 training and speedy support to new dedicated resource hubs — and tease a few new jmc innovations.
We’ll wind down for the day by gathering into small groups of scout troops, where you’ll be tasked with ‘scouting out’ both shared and unique traits among each other and bond with your new friends over a roaring campfire, s’mores, and mocktails.
Experience jmc Summer Conference: Camp Edition