A few bumps in the road of action research....

As the craziness of the beginning of the new school year is finally starting to subside a little, I'm now really starting to kick my action research plan into full swing.  I do have one issue going on that I'm currently dealing with.  Hopefully it's just a little bump in the road and  will be resolved soon.  When I originally wrote my plan, I was at a school that had a great tracking system for behavior and specifically could track how many instances of bullying and harassment were reported daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.  When I transferred to my new school, my site supervisor originally thought that my same plan would work for my new school setting.  The plan was approved.  But now that we actually started to accumulate the data from last year and analyze it, it is just not working out.  The system at this school is different and we are having trouble getting the specific data needed.  My site supervisor / assistant principal wants me to use survey type data, which I have already taken, rather than the more formal data like originally planned.  I agree with him and still think that this will give me an accurate picture of whether or not my work is a success.  I need to get formal approval on this, though I am unsure of who to get permission from.  I have sought permission from my IA who referred me to my Field Supervisor, who is unsure of whom I should get formal permission from.     This is the task that I am working on researching now, though I am a little confused and unsure what to do next.  THIS WORRIES ME!!!  Other than the data, I am working hard on my project and implementing weekly character education discussions and activities into my ELA class lessons.  The students are responding well, participating actively and overall enjoying the lessons.  The students will be surveyed monthly and data will be compiled soon for the first month to see if any change has been noted so far. I'm quite curious of what the results will show in the next few months and anxious to see changes starting to happen!  I don't expect much change yet, other than kids being more aware.  I know it will take time.  I'm hoping that by Christmas, there will be drastic changes made and students will be treating each other better. 

The first few weeks of this Research course were so tough, involving so many hours of work!  But, thankfully the last two weeks have been considerably less.  I do think that balancing out the coursework more evenly over the 5 weeks would be a better plan, but it did work out in my favor since we started back to school last week.  I feel that I gained plenty of knowledge to be effective in my action research project, but will still need that continuous guidance from my administrators.  Lucky for me, I have two young administrators who haven't been out of grad school that long.  They are still very familiar with the process, while they do have some experience under their belts.  Perfect mix!  I can't wait to get this year started with my action research and already have plans to give my pre-test and start collecting baseline data in the next two weeks.  I'm anxious to start my interventions, but know that I need to get my baseline data first.  Exciting!!!

My plan is finally finished! Feel like I should win an olympic gold medal now!

For my action research plan, I plan to focus on bullying, but in a non-traditional sense. I plan to use character education lessons embedded in my ELA lessons (stories that teach about different character traits, writing prompts that promote thinking along the same lines, ...) Rather than just calling kids in and having assemblies and traditional anti-bullying lessons, that kids block out and resist actively participating in, I think this way will be much more effective.  My goal is for the number of incidences of bullying by 7th grade students to decrease, both office referrals for bullying and student-reported cases that are taken care of by teachers. 

Action Planning Template
Goal: To reduce the incidences of bullying through positive character education embedded in students’ ELA coursework.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Pre-Test Students will take part in an online or written survey, which will provide their baseline knowledge of character education traits as well as knowledge and experiences with bullies or bullying.	Kaci Vinson	August 2013	Online survey and/or written surveys, 7th grade students	Surveys will be tallied and I will be able to see which areas are most critical to focus on and which areas students are already familiar with or have adequate knowledge about.  This will guide the focus and the topics that I will include in the character education throughout the year.
Each week, stories will be included in the reading lessons that have connections to character traits such as sympathy, empathy, compassion, and acceptance.  As we come across those topics in the text we will go into in-depth discussions of those traits and real-life examples (both positive and negative) that students have with those specific traits.  We will discuss ways that they should be used and how they should be a part of students’ everyday lives.	Kaci Vinson	August 2013 – May 2014	Various fiction and non-fiction books such as: Chicken Soup for the Soul Middle School, Character Counts!, All About Character Various online sources to find stories or scenarios	Students will receive their regular grades for comprehension, or the specific reading skills that we are focusing on that specific week. But, students will also have a short-answer question focusing on the specific character education trait for that week, as part of their regular test questions.
As part of our monthly writing assignments, one of the writing topic choices will focus on character education.  Students will be able to choose to express theirself through writing about the character trait that we have been discussing.  They will share their personal experiences, which may be either positive or negative.	Kaci Vinson	August 2013 – May 2014	Writing topics, writing materials, evaluation rubric	Students’ writing will be graded according to a writing rubric.  Students will also conference individually with the teacher about ways they could improve their writing in this specific paper, positive aspects of their paper.  This will also give me the perfect opportunity to have a one-on-one discussion with the student about the character education trait we have been discussing and how it applies to their life.
Movie clips from popular movies that students like will also be incorporated into the character education discussions.  Students will be able to see the interaction between people either practicing being a good person or not being a good person.  We will discuss things that were good/bad and ways that the character could have been better.	Kaci Vinson	August 2013 – May 2014	Movie clips from: Coach Carter, The Truman Show, and Ray	Students will write a short reflection on their exit ticket of either something that they learned from the video or a way that they can use what they learned if they are being bullied or thinking of bullying someone else.
Meetings with the school counselor will occur monthly.  I will meet with her to share my progress, get suggestions of books or topics to focus on, learn new tips that she has learned from other counselors, and share with her about specific students that I feel she should meet with more in-depth.	Kaci Vinson & Sherry Fournet	August 2013 – May 2014	Counselor books and materials, list of students who the counselor might want to meet with and contact information	By meeting with the school counselor monthly, we will be able to share matters that are confidential or things that the students have shared in their writings or discussions that might need further attention.  This will enable the counselor to more effectively target students with issues.  I will also gain more knowledge and tips for teaching strategies from the counselor.
Obtain research providing ideas for character education or anti-bullying activities that have been proven to be successful.	Kaci Vinson	August 2013 – May 2014	Internet databases and professional journals	Read various articles about character education and the effects of it on bullying.  Use knowledge gained from the research articles to guide my teaching activities.
Utilize a “mailbox” where students can write me a note anonymously about any issues they are having dealing with bullying, or topics that they would like me to focus on in our stories.	Kaci Vinson	August 2013 – May 2014	Mailbox in my classroom, note paper and pens	Students are often afraid that they will be tattling if they tell a teacher of a problem they are having with another student, or they are worried that they might get bullied even more.  Students will be able to drop me a note in the mailbox and I can address the issue as a regular part of our ELA lessons.  The bully or the bullied student will never be identified and hopefully a greater understanding will come out of it.
Analyze the discipline referrals from the office periodically throughout the year.	Kaci Vinson, Max Caldarera, Marc Jardell	August 2013 – May 2014	School discipline referrals, teacher write-ups of students	Periodically throughout the year I will meet with the Principal and/or Assistant Principal to check on the number of discipline referrals for the 7th grade students.  We will analyze the data and see if the referrals related to bullying are increasing, decreasing or staying the same.
Post-Test Students will take part in an online or written survey, which will provide their knowledge of character education traits as well as knowledge and experiences with bullies or bullying.	Kaci Vinson	May 2014	Online survey and/or written surveys, 7th grade students	Surveys will be tallied and I will be able to see which areas that we focused on were really beneficial to the students and that they really comprehended.  This will help guide my teaching the following year.  I expect this data to closely mirror the behavior referrals.  If a student has a thorough understanding of the character education traits that we have learned all year, they should not be a bullying issue.
Formulate my findings about the effects of integrating character education into the ELA lessons to try to reduce bullying.  Use the data obtained from the pre/post tests, research findings, data from office referrals, teacher statements, meetings with the counselor and principal.	Kaci Vinson, Sherry Fournet, 7th grade teachers, Max Caldarera and Marc Jardell	May 2014	Pre/Post tests, research articles, referral data, teacher statements, logs from meetings with counselor and principals.	After analyzing all data and meeting with supervisors who were a part of the project, provide a written report summarizing the project.  Share the data and ideas for other teachers to incorporate into their classrooms at a faculty meeting or a PLC meeting.

Week 2 has been a crazy one!

Week 2 is coming to a close and I'm just now finishing.  I do not like finishing last-minute, but sometimes it has to happen!  With the summer swim league coming to a close, last week of fun summer camps for my kiddos and moving from one school to another one for me......This week has been CRAZY!  Thankfully, the assignments this week were interesting and easy to make myself complete.   The videos were very enlightening and I think provided much insight into the direction that we will be taking.  I have finally decided for sure on my action research topic and can't wait to get started.  I even gathered a few resources, met with our school counselor and ordered some literature to use!  Excited about starting on that!   I also enjoyed reading about the possible project choices on other people's blogs.   Some of you have really come up with some interesting ideas!  While I surely won't be doing 2 projects, many of your ideas will be things that I would like to gather and analyze data on, to see how those affect my school as well.  I'm about to go read Week 3 and hopefully get a little bit of an earlier start this week.  I sure can't figure out how we're going to do this once school starts!  I start back on the 8th....YIKES!

How can educators use blogs?

Blogs are a really great tool for educators to use to aid in communication with and learning from their peers.  Who wouldn't love to have a place to go read about what others who teach the same subject as you are doing in their classroom that's effective?  I know I sure would!  I currently follow quite a few blogs of other teachers in my district that share effective teaching strategies that they have found as well as neat products or software that they have bought for their classroom.  It provides a sounding board for the blog creator as well, as they are able to receive comments from the other professionals.  These comments are a great tool to use in their reflection as well.  I'm excited to now have my own blog as well as many new blogs to follow as we embark on this journey with our action research projects!  I can't wait to read about the other students' projects and their results as I'm sure we will all learn from and benefit from each others projects. 

What ACTION RESEARCH means to me...

At first the term "action research" seemed like a simple one.  I thought, "Oh, it's just going to be looking a bunch of stuff up and reading about it and then writing a really big paper on it." I also assumed that it would be something that I would use for this class or possibly for my whole grad program, but would never actually use it in my classroom. Boy was I wrong!  What I really realized is that most effective teachers are already using action research in their classroom, with the help of their administrators.  Most schools participate in PLCs and have teachers serving on Leadership Teams.  Both of those are effective ways to implement action research into schools easily.  While other teachers are doing effective action research on their own.  So, you may ask, "What is action research?".  Basically it starts with a guiding question.  Something that you think of as a problem that you want to solve or an area that you are wondering if it is working effectively or is successful in your classroom are school.  The question gets you started, then you have to start gathering data.  The data can come from various places such as standardized test scores, teacher-made assessments, discussions with students, behavior referrals, or the school attendance system, all depending on what type of data it is that you need.  Once the data is collected, it will need to be analyzed.  Then comes the most important part of all....REFLECTION!  The reflection is the part that takes the most time but it is also the most critical part.  This is the stage where you figure out what worked or didn't work and what you can do next to make it more successful the next time.  Overall action research is a process that makes perfect sense and one that all educators should be using.  When using it effectively, your classroom/school will run more efficiently and have amazing success!