Web conference

I really enjoyed the web conference for week 4.   I though it had some great insight on different programs that schools have going.   I like the pack of hope idea, because I could see that helping my campus.   We have a bunch of students who get to school hungry everyday.   I know our school isn't title 1, but we are heading that way rapidly.

Action Research Progress

The progress on the action research project has went as smooth as possible so far.   I met with the principal and we discussed the project and talked about names of good candidates to add to the project committee.   I then reached out to the parents and teachers that we discussed and asked if they would be willing to get involved in the program.   I was fortunate that everyone was on board when I just told them a little about the program.   Everyone of them said they where willing to give it a try, because we needed a change.   They all talked about how the behavior model we were using wasn’t working anymore.   I then sent out a short survey asking them about which days during the summer would work best for them to meet.   I then used that data to come up with some dates for meetings and sent out an e-mail informing the group of the people involved and the dates we were going to meet.   The meeting went well.   I was fortunate that we had an Instructional coordinator that had just move to the campus right before the meeting that had a program similar at their previous campus.   I invited her to join the committee and she was a great asset to it.   We looked at matrix’s from other campuses and then came up with a behavior matrix that would best fit our campus.   We discussed incentives to award students for positive behavior, which we came up with several things that didn’t cost any money.   I wish I would have thought more about the financial part of it because it is still breaking the bank though.   After we finished taking about the incentives, we decided to meet one more time as a group before presenting the information to the rest of the staff.   We talked about any new research that people found out and we made signs for the campus to remind the students of things we are expecting.   We also created lesson plans for the teachers to teach short lessons on the expectation for around the campus.   We then met with the rest of the staff and had a short staff development on how to do implement PBIS in the classroom and around the campus.   I have to say that, it is going great so far and we have had nothing but praise from all the teachers and even parents.   We have currently cut our principal referral by quiet a bit.   We had our first monthly meeting to analyze data about referrals last week and noticed this.

future implementation of your action research project

I plan on working with a staff of teachers to gather information in order to come up with a plan that I can place into effect during the school year.   I have a meeting at the end of this month with the rest of teachers on the board, principal, counselor, and our new instructional coordinator who was at a school that already had a PBIS model in action.   The demographics are different so I will survey the teachers on things from that plan that we need to include into our plan.   I will also use the quality indicators from this weeks lessons to keep me focused, to make sure that I keep things organized, and to help me be as clear and detailed as possible.

approved action research plan, Does anyone have any ideas?

The plan is coming together slowly, but I can see where it will help.   After meeting with my site supervisor, he noticed that I forgot to include the RTI part of the process, which is a big part of the model.   He also gave me another contact in order to collect information from someone who has been at a school that had the program in action.   If anyone has any issue, concern, or suggestions, then it will be greatly appreciated.

Action Research
Goal:   I plan to use positive reinforcement to motivate             student behavior.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Research some schools that use PBIS in their schools, in order to find out what kind of things work. Research can be done through the internet, phone interviews,  journals, and face to face interviews	Principal, counselor, instructional coordinator and grade level leaders.   I will represent the fifth grade and assist the principal	Now-July 31st	Internet, phones, journals, face to face interviews	Did everyone bring some type of information with them?
Meet with the discipline committee to review the findings.   We will then create a PBIS plan that is modified to fit our campus using the findings along with suggestions throughout the campus	Principal, counselor, grade level leaders	July 31-August 20th	Findings from the research	Did we come up with a plan that meets all needs across the grade levels?   We will take a vote.
Have and teach a staff development on the new plan for behavior that our committee has adapted and created for the campus	Me	August 22nd	Computer and a PowerPoint.   We will discuss our reasons for the changes and findings.   (journals, interviews, (deputy dog) which is the discipline referral site.	Create a survey that people will have a chance at the bottom to ask additional questions or state concerns
I would evaluate the program using three  methods: 1.   Look and compare the discipline referrals for each six weeks the past couple of years.   Then compare that number of referrals to the current year referrals to see if the program is working 2.   Create two different surveys to question the program.   I would create one for the students and one for the teachers/principal. 3.   Check RTI information to make sure teachers are following the tier system involved in the process	1.   principal and I 2.   Me 3.  Counselor, principal, and me	1.   The beginning of each six weeks to the end of the six weeks 2.   I would have them do them at the end of each semester 3.   ARD’s and end of the year	1.   Deputy dog   2.   Students and teachers/principal data from the surveys 3.   RTI folder	1.   Data comparisons between this year and the past couple of years.    Deputy dog would create a great way to evaluate the progress and the program. 2.   Survey data This could help us see if we need to tweak or change some of the plan.   It would also tell us stuff to determine if the teachers are still having the same problems, but no longer sending the students to the office 3.   Was documentation kept?   Did the student get resources that they need?

action research and challenges

I feel that my action research could be important for the school I'm at as well as me.   We have seen a difference in how the kids are reacting to discipline the past two years.   The challenge of this action research is going to be getting all the teachers on board to try something new.   I was wondering if anyone could give me help on their concerns or advice on this topic

Action research outline and things I think I need more help with

Action Research Project Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports or PBIS 1.   SETTING THE FOUNDATION:   I would use collaboration with the grade level       leaders that are on the discipline plan committee to discuss the need for a change in       the way we handle discipline.   I would use one-on-one meetings,  phone interviews       or conferences, and e-mails.   I would do this in the action research to discuss and       identify the problem of to many referrals happening the past couple of years. 2.   ANALYZING DATA:   There is a number of different data gatherings out there to       use for research.   You can use deputy dog (districts discipline computer data base),       surveys, journals, and interviews from people who already have PBIS in place on       their campus. 3.   DEVELOPING DEEPER UNDERSTANDING:   I would interview campuses that       have demographics similar to ours that is using PBIS to get ideas that might need to       be included in ours to help it work smoothly.   I might interview or question a few       selected students to see there concerns with the program.   I would always look for       new ideas through blogs or educational resources. 4.   ENGAGING IN SELF-REFLECTION:   I would ask myself question throughout the        Process like ·        Is there a way to increase the results? ·        Is there a way to get the parents more involved by using the PBIS method? ·        What are some other ways to better evaluate the plan in action? ·        What other resources or data is out there to be examined? ·        Can PBIS affect anything other then promoting positive behavior? 5.   EXPLORING PROGRAMMATIC PATTERNS:   After a year of the program, I plan       to meet with the committee and principal to discuss the plan to see if we need to       tweak it or scrap the whole program.   We would need to ask for advise from the       other veteran teachers on the campus for a more educated collaborative decision.       We would have had time at this period to answer questions containing to       self-reflection and digging deeper. 6.   DETERMINING DIRECTION:   We will decide if the plan needs to be kept in place       or scraped and we need to look at other solutions to correcting or improving the       behavior of the students. After looking into the information I think the plan is pretty sound, but I need to look for other sources to help us make sure the plan is modified to fit our campus the best it can.   I think we need to look into other ideas for evaluation of the plan as well as just the data, interviews, and research.

Action Planning

Action Planning
Goal:   I plan to use positive reinforcement to motivate             student behavior.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Research schools that use PBIS in their schools, in order to find out what kind of things work. Research can be through the internet, phone interviews,  journals, and face to face interviews	Principal, counselor, and grade level leaders.   I will represent the fifth grade and assist the principal	Now-July 31st	Internet, phones, journals, face to face interviews	Did everyone bring some type of information with them?
Meet with the discipline committee to review the findings.   We will then create a PBIS plan that is modified to fit our campus using the findings along with suggestions throughout the campus	Principal, counselor, grade level leaders	July 31-August 20th	Findings from the research	Did we come up with a plan that meets all needs across the grade levels?   We will take a vote.
Have and teach a staff development on the new plan for behavior that our committee has adapted and created for the campus	Me	August 22nd	Computer and a PowerPoint.   We will discuss our reasons for the changes and findings.   (journals, interviews, deputy dog which is the discipline referral site.	Create a survey that people will have a chance at the bottom to ask additional questions or state concerns
I would evaluate the program using two methods: 1.   Look and compare the discipline referrals for each six weeks the past couple of years.   Then compare that number of referrals to this years referrals to see if the program is working 2.   Create two different surveys to question the program.   I would create one for the students and one for the teachers/principal.	1.   principal and I 2.   Me	1.   The beginning of each six weeks to the end of the six weeks 2.   I would have them do them at the end of each semester	1.   Deputy dog   2.   Students and teachers/principal data from the surveys	1.   Data comparisons between this year and the past couple of years.    Deputy dog would create a great way to evaluate the progress and the program. 2.   Survey data This could help us see if we need to tweak or change some of the plan.   It would also tell us stuff to determine if the teachers are still having the same problems, but no longer sending the students

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

Action Research (finding a wandering)

During this week the lesson help me think of all the different types of thing people could possibly do their action research on.   The options are endless.   During your time as an administrator you may start think of haw to improve or wandering what would happen if something happens.   Then this can lead to you wandering and in order to find out the answers the administrator could research information and create an action research.   I also learned that teachers and administrators need to always apply and research data to make changes in the schools.   Teachers need to understand how to analyze the data so that they can get to understand their students and help them get the most of their education.  The three interviews and text keep preaching the importance of data collection is on the school and programs.   The main thing I did learn is when I decide to use action research I need to make sure it is practical to you, because it will make you interested more in it, more focused on the outcome, and that the students will benefit from it more. (Dr. Kirk Lewis)

Educational leaders use of blogs

I could see educators leaders using bloggs in order to share ideas with other educational leaders.   They could use the information to help with action research in their own school.   This would give them more outside data on processes  they were thinking about trying.

Action Research

Action research (administration inquiry) is the process that allows teachers and principals to try something in the school and then evaluate it to see if it needs to be changed of continued in the school.    Action research is working from the inside-out.   It gives the schools the ability to create programs that fit it into the individual school.   Action research is where the teacher or administrator gathers data to analyze, questions information, and researches in literature to find things to help the school.   This process will give the administrator the ability to come up with better informed decisions.   The principals can use data from test scores, teachers, students, or other information to come up with a solution.   The negative part of action research is the time restrictions, which I learned you just have to make the time. Action research can also help in the fact that it forces the principal to be more organized to fit the time in their tough schedule.   It can help the individual who is doing it by showing them growth and or changes they need to make in order for the students to get the best out of the school atmosphere.   This would challenge teachers and administrators to be their best.   

I think our campus discipline team that I'm on could use action research to create a PBIS discipline style using information and data from other schools and teachers in our school.   This will be a way for using positive reinforcement instead of always having to use negative discipline in everything we do.   Hopefully by creating the PBIS style for our campus, we will be able to eliminate some of the office referrals at the school.