Mirror, Mirror...

Every time I write a reflection, it always makes me think of the famous line from Snow White, "Mirror, mirror on the wall..." It's the most famous mirror of reflection around! (And also because of my love of Disney movies) :) In all seriousness, I really had a good experience putting data together during this course.

When I saw that my next course would be research, quite frankly, I was nervous. When I hear the word ‘research’ I automatically think of my college English class where I had to research a topic and write a 20-page paper. That does not come with many happy memories. However, when I got into the first week of reading and talking with my site supervisor, I was quickly relieved when I realized that my first impression was wrong. What I didn’t know is that I was already doing informal action research on a day-to-day basis always trying to improve my skills and do what is best for my students. 

I have also enjoyed blogging about my plan. It helps to get it all out on ‘paper’, this also helped me see where I had holes or could improve in certain areas. I also liked it because in a silly way, I felt like it was more informal than the schoolwork, and we could relax when “blogging” about our plans. I look forward to utilizing this tool not only for learning purposes, but for all around professional development.

I have enjoyed this course and am looking forward to using the tools I learned from this class, to better my teaching and learning in my own classroom!

At the Starting Line

Well this Monday will start the new 9 week mark and I will begin with my first phase in my research plan. I am excited and nervous, but I know I need to remember it's research and there isn't a right answer. I think I am nervous more because I want to see the students participating in it, excel in what I have put together.

Someone had mentioned to survey the students participating to see what they liked and disliked, and why they thought on method was more effective. I think this is a great idea and plan on implementing one! To take it a step further, I plan tomorrow in class to interview the students about their likes and dislikes in general. This way I will get a better feeling towards what kinds of things will motivate and push them.

I failed to mention earlier that I will be doing this study on 4th graders and will be done all day, with the help of my wonderful partner teacher who has agreed to take on the task of implementing the same behavior plan the student is following is her class as well to make the data consistent.

I'm very excited to see how it all goes! :)

Plan chosen... Now time to put it into ACTION!

After going back and forth on what to do for my action research plan, I finally chose a topic. I went ahead and went with effective strategies used for students being considered for a behavior plan. I decided to go with this topic because it was something that would benefit me directly and immediately, as well as, it would be easy to carry out. I'm looking forward to doing this research because I am very interested in trying different strategies, and seeing how well they work. I plan for this research to keep growing throughout the years as new students and different cases are considered for behavior plans. This offers validity to my research that comes from this action research plan, or improvements that need to be made in the future.
Here is my draft research action plan so far...

Action Planning Template
Goal: Does positive or negative reinforcement Behavior Plans show a more significant improvement on severe behavior in the classroom?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Evaluate student’s behavior on a normal basis. Observe students without any type of behavior accommodation or modification in place.	Ms. Beckham (ELA teacher), Mrs. Taylor (Math teacher)	October 24- October 28, 2011	Teacher generated observation documents. Conduct reports	Teacher comments and observations. Conduct grades and reports for the week.
Develop and carry out a positive reinforcement Behavior Plan to complete for the duration of the 2nd 9 week period.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill (school counselor, case manager for progress monitoring program.)	October 30- December 16, 2011	Positive reinforcement behavior strategy, Behavior Plan documentation log, Teacher observations	Behavior Logs will be compared with teacher observations and comments.
Develop and carry out a negative reinforcement Behavior Plan to complete throughout the duration of the 3rd 9 week period.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill (school counselor, case manager for progress monitoring program.)	January 3- February 24, 2012	Negative reinforcement behavior strategy, Behavior Plan documentation log, Teacher observations	Behavior Logs will be compared with teacher observations and comments.
Analyze the data assessed over the two 9 week periods and determine the effectiveness of each.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill, Mrs. McCain (Assistant Principal), Mrs. Holcomb (Principal)	February 27- March 2, 2012	Positive and negative reinforcement behavior plans, Behavior logs, Teacher observations and comments, weekly conduct reports.	A spreadsheet will be created to track the students progression in behavior. Teachers will discuss what strategies were effective or ineffective. A conclusion will be made on which plan the student excelled with the most.
Brainstorm ways the chosen “effective behavior reinforcement plan”, would cause problems in certain cases.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill, Mrs. McCain, Mrs. Holcomb	March 5- March 9, 2012	Positive and negative reinforcement behavior plans, Behavior logs, Teacher observations and comments, weekly conduct reports, Spreadsheet created of students progression, Documentation on student history.	Based on the information given, the teachers will brainstorm specific cases that could be problematic with the given outcome of this study. We will discuss ways to continue with the positive information found from our current research, and continue to improve it in the coming years.
The process for monitoring effectiveness of a behavior plan system will be to simply assess, compare, and analyze the progress of the students involved in the behavior progress-monitoring program. When the 18 week trail period is completed, I should have multiple data points from each participant, teacher, and school counselor to evaluate which type of reinforcement was most effective in promoting substantial behavioral growth within the classroom. At the conclusion of my research I should be able to determine if the time to implement the behavior plan outweighs the alternative, un-accommodated behavior. This action research plan will also be an on-going improvement as new cases progress through the program each year, offering new information or validations to our study.

I'm excited to see how it all will turn out, and what I learn from this process!

Indecisive!

After speaking with my site supervisor I am STUCK! I have two research studies I might want to do.

I originally wanted to make my action research project about the RtI program at my school and look at how much students are actually progressing within the program. If they are not, what strategies and interventions are being taken place to get them where the students need to be? Then, after going through several other ideas with my principal, another topic sparked my interest... Behavior problem students. This especially sparked my interest since I currently have a student in my class that will be put on a progress monitoring behavior plan. I would find it very interesting to dig into strategies that help monitor distracting behavior within the classroom, as well as strategies that are not proficient or effective. I am leaning towards the behavior research, only because it might be more manageable, AND I could use my own findings in my classroom. I plan to choose within the next couple of days, but am having a hard time choosing.

What do you think, any suggestions?!

What Is Action Research?

Before reading on Action Research, I did not realize there was a name for what I would call "doing my job, and learning to better myself.". I feel like in most aspects in life, and in our profession, a person can always become more successful when they reflect on past experiences and personally analyze what worked or excelled, and also what could have been improved. When applying action research to the educational field, as a teacher or administrator, I feel you are always asking questions to dig deeper and find that simple understanding. Planting your own personal investigation, hoping that the outcome of your data will improve whatever it is our students or we are working on. As educators we should consistently be questioning our methods, so that we can be the most effective leader, and teacher, for our students, as well as, our peers. Constant reflection does not only make you a better educator, but a better students, it sets a great example for your staff, and you become a life-long learner. People will see that you are willing to go that extra mile to make improvements or tweak things when necessary. It will create a motivation and drive among other that will hopefully follow in your footsteps and desire to do that as well.

Educators could use blogs in a variety of ways from sharing assignments with students, answering questions, posting announcements for their department or grade-level, to sharing experiences to encourage staff members, parents, and students. Since technology is replacing so many other things in this world, blogging is just another tool that has become popular, easy, and accessible. Personally, I think blogs would be effective if they were used to communicate and collaborate with other school leaders. Not only could one share experiences and advice, but they could also receive feedback and suggestions from others in a similar position. Our students are growing up knowing more about computers and internet, than we do. We, as educators, must change as the world changes to best capture our student's minds.