Reflection thus far: Due to a recent tragedy at my school, my
action research and internship plan has kind of been put on the back burner. Student
safety has become number 1 priority. As we get a new safety plan in place, we
are able to get into a normal routine and go back to normalcy. I am able to go
back to focusing on my internship plan and my action research plan. Due to
these events, we have decided to change my action research plan a little bit. Instead
of having bi-weekly meetings that involve the entire academy (staff and students),
we have decided to have weekly meetings with the staff of the academy first. We
are trying to get used to the academy change and understand how it works still.
I’m still hoping to go back to my original plan of meeting with all of the students
and including them and their input in the meetings, but I am not sure if it
will be able to happen soon. I have decided to gear my action research toward
having weekly staff academy meetings and having academy showcases to increase student
engagement and create positive school culture. At the meetings, we are able to
discuss our students and their needs and interests. We are also creating
academy showcases where the students, parents, and community will be able to
come see what all is going on (positive) within our academy at our school. We
will be displaying students work and have information for the parents coming
from the school and the community. We are trying to gear their learning toward
their career interests. We are really needing to improve our student culture,
so we are starting with these showcases. Our staff academy meetings are to
discuss ways to incorporate our academy into our classrooms. I am a little behind
in comparison to where I wanted to be with this, but I am still optimistic that
these showcases will really help to create a positive culture. I have updated
some of the plan and highlighted the parts that I have updated and put it on my
blog.
Updated Action
Research Inquiry / Planning Template 7.1 / Process Overview KHelton
Background information
leading to inquiry/Purpose
In
our reading last week, I read about a school that had weekly school meetings.
They treated this time to go over general information/expectations, have
staff/student development, and recognize students/staff. The goal was to create
a positive culture throughout the school. I have been talking with my students
on how they feel about our school and its culture. I heard only negative
things, so I knew we needed to improve our culture and work to increase our
student’s achievement/engagement. I felt as if having meetings at least every
other week would be beneficial at my school, but we are too large of a school
to have our whole school fit into one place to meet. Next year we are moving to academies where
students are placed based on their career pathway. I felt as if it may be
possible to have regular meetings with our academies. My supervisor thought
this was a good idea, so we will be having at least two meetings a month with
our whole academy (staff and students). The goal would be to create a positive
school culture where students are engaged and motivated to succeed.
After going back over the plan, we have
decided to have weekly academy meetings with the staff of the academy. We will
also be having academy showcases that the parents and community will be invited
to. The showcases are for everyone involved in the academy to see what’s going
on at our school. Our goal is to get more involvement from parents and
community and to create a positive school culture.
Sample using
I
will be researching and collecting data on the academy that I am in. I am in
the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) Academy. These will be
the students and teachers that I am interviewing and collecting data on.
Question/Subquestions
What
role do weekly academy
meetings and academy showcases play in creating a positive and caring
school culture?
- In what ways will the weekly meetings help to create a positive and caring school culture?
- In what ways will academy showcases bring a positive culture back on to our campus?
- How will improving school culture motivate the students and staff to achieve and succeed in the class room?
- How do the meetings improve student behavior? Are teachers able to discuss what works with different students to help each other?
Methods/Data Collection
- Field notes will be taken during the academy meetings to capture what is going on and jot down the staff and student reactions.
- Interviews will be conducted with students and staff of the academy.
- Artifacts will be collected. (emails, parent newsletters, correspondence to and from parents, meeting agendas…possibly more)
- Video may be taken at several meetings to observe nature of interactions and behavior.
- Weblog will be used recalling my personal experience and thoughts.
- Surveys will be conducted at various times throughout the year to get the perception of the students and staff members regarding the academy meetings and school culture.
- Correspondence will be collected from principals conducted walk-throughs to look for student engagement.
Data Analysis
- Ongoing
Timeline
May – Survey Staff and Students to get
their opinion on our school culture, possible motivation techniques, and
thoughts about having regular academy meetings.
June-August – Meet with Campus Improvement
Committee / Principals to develop a plan of action and discuss meetings and
agendas for the meetings
August – Staff development over new
academies and the academy meetings…interview teachers to get their opinions
End of August /
September – Begin
academy meetings…write field notes and video first few meetings. Start planning academy showcases
October/November – Interview students and staff
members to see how meetings are going/get info out about academy showcase…Is school
culture changing? What else needs to be done? Re-evaluate plan/agenda if
needed.
December-May – Continue to write in weblog, write
field notes, and video at least once a month to document process. Keep any
emails and artifacts that involve academy meetings. Conduct another survey to
see how students and staff members feel about the meetings. (What we they like
to see incorporated in to the meetings?) (Do they feel motivated? If not, what
would help them feel motivated?) Look at student’s grades and test scores to
see how they are changing. Continue to have principals looking at student
engagement in the classrooms.
Action Planning Template
(7.1)
SCHOOL VISION: New school vision focused on building a
strong SHS culture where engaging, meaningful, creative learning can take place
and where college and career readiness is emphasized.
GOAL: To create a
positive school culture where students are encouraged to be actively engaged in
their classes through regular staff academy meetings and academy showcases that
motivate and involve students, staff, parents, and community.
|
Action Steps:
|
Person(s) Responsible:
|
Timeline: Start/End
|
Needed Resources
|
Evaluation
|
|
Meet with leadership team and campus improvement
committee to discuss academies and meetings (goal/agenda..etc.)
|
Principals / teachers
|
May 2013-ongoing
|
Background information, proof of positive influence
to create buy in
|
Take field notes to document meetings, keep
artifacts from meetings
|
|
Provide information to students, parents, and staff
about academies and meetings
|
Principal
|
April / May 2013
|
Computers / way to communicate, documentation of
success from other places to show the positive effects of meetings and
academies
|
Conduct informal interviews to collect opinions from
others.
Conduct a survey after the information is given to
get more opinions from a larger group.
|
|
Have Staff and student development to teach them the
procedures
|
Principals / Improvement Committee
|
August / September 2013
|
Places to conduct development, tools needed to
conduce (paper, utensils, computers..etc)
|
Interview staff and students to get their opinions,
document field notes about staff development.
|
|
Begin academy meetings (these will be held at least
twice a month)
|
Academy
principals / counselors / coordinator / teachers
|
August 2013 – May 2014
|
Access to technology, funds, places to conduct
meetings, possibly hire guest speakers
|
Take video to evaluate reactions… take field
notes…keep artifacts (agendas, handouts..etc)
Conduct survey to see how people are being motivated
and to see if the culture has become more positive. May conduct two-three
surveys throughout the year.
|
|
Principals conduct walk-throughs to document student
engagement
|
Academy Principals
|
August 2013 – May 2014
|
Computers, documents, program for walk-through
submission and viewing
|
Collect these to see if there is a trend between
teachers, classes and student engagement
|
|
Have academy
showcases
|
All involved
in academy (students and staff)
|
September-May
|
Projects,
computers, school access after hours, time planning, funds for ideas
|
Create survey
for all to take after they attend to see its benefits/what needs to be
updated
|
Process
Overview:
- Setting the foundation – Meet with the principals and campus improvement committee to discuss academies and having regular meetings with academies. Talk about the school vision and what needs to be done to meet the vision. How can we improve our school’s culture?
- Analyzing data – Use a variety of data as well as electronic searches for articles and other schools that have academies and/or regular whole school or academy meetings. Other data may include surveys, field notes, video, and interviews. Findings might include different topics to include during meetings or motivational activities.
- Developing deeper understanding – After gathering data, we will need to evaluate and possibly do more research or use a variety of different research strategies (as mentioned above). We will need to continuously meet to re-evaluate and tweak some items in the plan.
- Engage in Self-Reflection – We will need to continuously self-reflect throughout the year. Are we using the skills and resources that are needed? Have our students and staff “bought into” the meetings/showcases? If not, what needs to be done? Has our school culture changed? What could we be doing differently? What are we doing right?
- Exploring programmatic patterns – Meet with principals and improvement committee to discuss solutions and pros/cons of the possible solutions. Try to identify all the negatives before coming up with solutions.
- Determining direction – This would be where we would double check everything before our plan goes into action. Have discussed and come up with all of the solutions to the problems. Are the timelines and agendas in place for the meetings. We need to be sure we have a plan to monitor the project and determining its level of success.
- Taking action for school improvement – Be sure to have the plan written with steps.
Sustain Improvement – Be sure to
maintain the positive aspects of the projects. Also, share the results with
colleagues and others in the teaching/administration profession.
