Action Research Update

In July I was able to meet with my administrator to present my action research plan to her, which she excitedly accepted except for her concern in staff cooperation. (1 hour)  She felt like some staff would not follow their designated route or dismissal time, but I encouraged her that with accountability in place, teachers would be more compliant to the expectations.  I created clear and specific maps of the dismissal route for each hallway, had them authorized by the principal and assistant principal and then made color coded copies for each hall. (4 hours)  Each hall was given a color and colored signs were posted to clearly indicate where students should line up.  (1 hour) With the help of a friend, I created a dismissal song where he called out each hall to leave and in between each hall is a 40 second wait time. (1 hour) Within the first week we had practice each afternoon and little by little everyone started getting adjusted to how the new program would work. (3 hours total)  In the second week I met with my administrator to discuss hiccups and we made a few adjustments to routes (2 hours).  I also had to adjust the song to increase the interval song because the students in each hall were not getting to where they needed to be before the next hall started dismissing. (1 hour)  I have received very positive feedback from teachers and staff (2 hours) and will be sending out a survey soon to gather feedback and comments. 

Action Plan REVISED!

Here is my revised plan... I made changes mainly to the EVALUATION column.  After seeing other research plans, I realized my section did not have the appropriate information.

Action Planning Template
Goal: Reduce discipline problems and bus referrals on campus
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Design an organized dismissal system	Administrators, coworker and Jouleen Dering	August 1-19, 2013	School schedule, school map, number of students and class rosters, and a binder to keep records of action plan details and changes	Discuss with principal the best plan of action for dismissal routes.  Create a map for teachers to know where to stand and which direction to proceed.  Create a song to play to cue when students should pack up and when each grade level should start dismissing.
2. Review previous discipline records and bus referrals	Administrators and Jouleen Dering	August 1-2, 2013	Discipline records	Create a graph to organize discipline records.
3. Present new dismissal system to campus staff with detailed expectations, timeline and instructions	Jouleen Dering and coworker Allyson Baker	August 20, 2013	Prepared presentation including 2012 discipline data, Handouts: created schedule, detailed map of school and dismissal route, expectations	Principal has decided I will be presenting the plan to all staff during staff development. I will need to prepare a presentation.
4. Model and practice new dismissal system	All campus staff led by Jouleen Dering and Coworker	August 20, 2013	Dismissal Cues and map of dismissal route	Teachers will walk through exactly how the new dismissal system will work.
5. Inital evaluation of functionality of new dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	August 30, 2013	Teacher evalutations, discipline data, and observation data	Gather discipline records and compare to previous year, gather administrator and teacher feedback by word of mouth, take notes on observations. Make any necessary changes to the system.
6. Evaluation of dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of First Six Weeks (September)	Teacher evalutations, bus driver evaluations, discipline data, and observation data	Gather discipline records and compare to previous year, gather administrator and teacher feedback by word of mouth, take notes on observations.  Make any necessary changes to the system.
7. Evaluation of dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of First Semester (December)	Teacher evalutations, bus driver evaluations, discipline data, and observation data	Gather discipline records and compare to previous year, gather administrator and teacher feedback by word of mouth, take notes on observations. Make any necessary changes to the system.
8. Evaluation of dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of year (May)	Teacher evalutations, bus driver evaluations, discipline data, and observation data	Gather discipline records and compare to previous year, gather administrator and teacher feedback by word of mouth, take notes on observations. Make any necessary changes to the system.
10. End of year teacher survey	Jouleen Dering	End of year (May)	Survey on Survey Monkey	Analyze survey data to see teachers opinions of the success of the discipline system
11. Final evaluation meeting	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of year (May)	Discipline records	Analyze discipline data and compare to previous school year to understand system’s success.  Make any necessary changes to the system for the following year.
12. Sharing results	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of year (May)	Presentation (either oral or written)	Share results with campus in order to inform them of the success of the new dismissal system.

 

Action Research Project

Action Planning Template
Goal: Reduce discipline problems and bus referrals on campus
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Design an organized dismissal system	Administrators, coworker and Jouleen Dering	August 1-19, 2013	School schedule, school map, number of students and class rosters, and a binder to keep records of action plan details and changes	Administrator approval
2. Review previous discipline records and bus referrals	Administrators and Jouleen Dering	August 1-2, 2013	Discipline records	Discipline records
3. Present new dismissal system to campus staff with detailed expectations, timeline and instructions	Administrators, coworker and Jouleen Dering	August 20, 2013	Prepared presentation including 2012 discipline data, Handouts: created schedule, detailed map of school and dismissal route, expectations	Administrator approval
4. Model and practice new dismissal system	All campus staff led by Jouleen Dering and Administrator	August 20, 2013	Dismissal Cues and map of dismissal route	Teacher Feedback
5. Inital evaluation of functionality of new dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	August 30, 2013	Teacher evalutations, discipline data, and observation data	Administrator and teacher feedback, discipline records
6. Evaluation of dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of First Six Weeks	Teacher evalutations, bus driver evaluations, discipline data, and observation data	Administrator and teacher feedback, discipline records
7. Evaluation of dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of First Semester	Teacher evalutations, bus driver evaluations, discipline data, and observation data	Administrator and teacher feedback, discipline records
8. Evaluation of dismissal system	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of year	Teacher evalutations, bus driver evaluations, discipline data, and observation data	Administrator and teacher feedback, discipline records
10. End of year teacher survey	Jouleen Dering	End of year	Survey on Survey Monkey	Analyze data to see teachers opinions of the success of the discipline system
11. Final evaluation meeting	Jouleen Dering and Administrator	End of year	Discipline records	Analyze discipline data and compare to previous school year to understand system’s success

 

  

Week 2 Reflection

So I've noticed that action research can pretty much be anything!  Which is good and bad all at the same time...

Good in the sense that, really, especially for this class, you could choose anything!  The possibilities are endless-- technology, procedures, leadership, after-school activities, small groups, curriculum... on and on the list goes.

But also bad in that... on and on the list goes!  It's never going to end... I never knew that when I became a teacher I would also have a career in research!

But for all of us, the floodgates have opened and we are diving in face first.  Thankfully, with how action research works, I think it's going to be really difficult to belly flop!  Anytime we work towards making something better you're taking at least one step forward, it's practically impossible to take a step back.

You in?!?

Blogging.

Considering my personality, I'm surprised I don't already have a blog!  A place where I can ramble on and on about whatever I want? Yes, please! :)  Blogging, especially for the educator, can be such a great tool.  Educational leaders are constantly coming up with, searching for, and testing out new ideas- and a blog provides leaders with an avenue to let others know what they are doing.   Blogging communities that focus on the same goal, in our case helping our classrooms and schools, allows groups to bounce ideas of one another, give each other suggestions, and interact with people cities and states away that share in the same hopes you have of improving education for the students.

Learning about action research.

Well this week has been slightly revelational!  I'm not going to lie, I texted a friend as soon as I saw the name of the course and told her that I was already dreading it simply because of its name- Research! How terrible is that!?!? Thankfully, I'm sure Dr. Abshire saw this coming and our first assignment was to literally define action research.  I quickly realized that my freakout may have been a little on the  dramatic side...  Action research is simply seeing a problem and then creating and implementing a plan to solve it.  The ACTION part is vital- you're doing something, and that something is not just marching yourself to the library to dig through dusty books!  The action part includes coming up with a way to change something on your campus to help your students, your colleagues and make your campus an overall more successful learning environment-- who wouldn't want that?! This is not to say that action research is easy, I'm actually pretty sure that action research will take more work that just traditional, library research, but it is automatically better because you have a hand in every step of the process and in working towards its success.  I am a 4th grade teacher at my campus and I am highly involved in being there for the kids at my campus.  I volunteer often, help whenever it's needed, and even sponsor an after-school club.  I am invested in the lives of the students at my school, and those of you that are like me, we are already doing parts of action research.  So many of us educators see a need and immediately do our best to fix it.  However, by learning about action research, we are able to be better problem-solvers.  Action research gives us the steps to be more prepared, focused, direct, and successful at resolving problems on our campuses.