Reflection on the course

This course has been an interesting one. This is only my second course that I take online and to be very honest I am still a little scared on whether or not I am doing the work correctly. At the beginning I was very scared because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. When I found out I had to do an action research I started to freak out. I knew what a research was, but not how to do one.

            The video lectures given by the professors were very helpful. They were very clear on what was expect from us and gave us ideas on how to go forward on doing it. At first I am going to be honest I had a hard time understanding the lectures sometimes I had to watch them more than once. But, as time passed by they came clearer.  The lectures scripts were also very helpful because if I didn’t understand something the professors where talking about I could go and look at the script.

            I really enjoyed the readings that were included with this course.  Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as an Action Researcher by Nancy Dana Fichman and Examining What we do to Improve our Schools: 8 Steps to Improve our Schools by S. Harris, S. Edmondson, and J. Combs. Both books were very interesting and informative, but I learned more from the Dana Text.  In the book Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as an Action Researcher, “Administrator inquiry refers to the process of a principal engaging in systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns as a result of the inquiry.  Inquiring professionals seek out change and reflect on their practice by posing questions or “wondering”, collecting data to gain insights into their wonderings, analyzing the data along with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others (Dana p.2-3).” This is a long process and will take a long time to do so. As action practitioners we need to find the time and energy to do the action research. Yes, it is going to be very time consuming, but it will all be worth it at the end.

            The tools and research that I have done during this course will really help my action research run smoother and probably save me some time. Trust me we teachers need all the time we can get especially if you are a parent. Teaching is my passion and I believe that by doing this action research I will help many students and teachers.

 The assignments and activities for this course were very time consuming and a little frustrating at times, but with the help and aide of the discussion board, I felt more relaxed.  The discussion board was truly a beneficial tool when working on assignments and activities.  It allowed for current feedback from other students in the class to make positive and effective changes to my assignment or activity. This has been my second online course I have ever taken and the discussion board has really made my journey of online courses a lot easier.

            Blogging was a tool that I had never considered to use before. I didn’t even know how to use it and how beneficial it can be for teachers. It is an amazing way to communicate with others in my class as well as followers outside my class and rely on reactions and feedback from them. As well on any suggestions or changes that needed to be made to my Action Research Plan. Even though I didn’t get that many feedback I tried to give my feedback to my classmates. I hope that next time that I check my blog I will have some feedback on my action research.

Week 4 Assignment:Challenging in implementing my Action Research Plan

A challenge that I might foresee in implementing my action research study is the participation of parents and student. It is really hard for my school to get any parents volunteers in our school for when we are having specific events. I am afraid that if I sent the surveys home to get filled out they never will. The students also are not very responsible in bringing papers signed back to school. I know this is going to be a setback on my action research.  

I plan on solving this issue by motivation my students to bring their surveys back by giving them a incentive if they bring their surveys back. I also plan on having the entire staffs help on getting all the information that I will need. I believe this will help for the students. Now for the parents I plan on doing some home visits along with the school counselor and phone calls to get the necessary information. That is only if I don’t receive it back. I hope all of this will help.

What do you all think?

SIP/PIP Plan of Action

Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation-
I would like to answer the questions How can I create a sense of warmth in my students and prevent them from being involved in bullying situations in school and/or related to school (i.e. the bus, playground, and after-school groups)? Do the students recognize a bullying situation? Do they know how to act to stop the situation? Can a once or twice-weekly class meeting create a sense of empathy in a classroom? Will that sense of empathy carry over to others who are not in our classroom (on the bus, etc.)?
Activities designed to achieve the objectives- I hope to implement a plan that will have a positive impact on bullying in my students. I will like to annually survey student concerning the prevalence and severity of bullying also to communicate a clear moral position against bullying and harassment. I will also like to implement bullying prevention principles with students, parents and educational staff.

Resources and research tools needed for data gathering- Debra Marquez- School Counselor- Principal at R.P. Harris Elementary, School District

Draft timeline for completion or implementation of activities- Start date: January 2012 – End date: May 2012

Persons responsible for implementation of the action research plan- Shawna Punch Administrators- Debra Marquez school counselor, Sharon Sims Behavior administrator, all teachers 3rd to 5th grade teachers

Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives- Debra Marquez will provide printed data on students and parents survey.

Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study- Myself and my site supervisor will make a comparative analysis of the results that we find after implementing the positive system and the data we had prior to putting the action research project in place. We will use the data collected by the counselor and the feedback from the classroom teachers.

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmark	Assessment
Create a sense of warmth on my campus.	Create different surveys to find out how the students feel about the subject of bullying and how they take it  into consideration and the importance of it.	Survey the 3,4,5 grade students.	Ms. Marquez school counselor.	January 2012-June 2012	Meet with the school administrator and review the information collected from the surveys.	Meet with the leadership and talk about what work and what didn’t from the action research and find out what will be done the next school year.
Can a student recognize a bullying situation?	Interview a student that has already been bullied by another students and ask them if they knew they were being bullied and why or how?	Interview the 4th grade girls who recently suffered an incident with bullying.	Ms. Marquez school counselor.	January 2012-June 2012	Meet with the school administrator and review the information collected from the interviews.	Meet with the leadership and talk about what work and what didn’t from the action research and find out what will be done the next school year.
Stopping bullying from occurring.	Have weekly class discussions on bullying and on how we can help prevent it in our school.	Get together once a week with the fourth grade girls and just talk about how we together can make bullying stop.	Ms. Marquez school counselor	January 2012-June 2012	Meet with the school administrator and review the information collected.	Meet with the leadership and talk about what work and what didn’t from the action research and find out what will be done the next school year.

Setting the Foundation:
To improve the student understanding about the importance of not being a bully. To make them understand that bullying is very dangerous not only emotionally,


but also physically. An important belief that I have as an educator is that students need a safe, comfortable environment in order for learning to occur. I believe that if a student is being bullied his primary concern is not education, but his/her safety or the situation going on around them. I hope that by learning more about the danger of school bullying, I can take measures to prevent bullying in my own classroom. These measures include fostering positive attitudes and empathy in my own classroom to reduce the occurrence of bullying that my students face and teach the coping strategies with which they feel comfortable using when they are
bullied.
Analyzing Data:
I have looked the incidents reports of bullying going on in our school in the last three years. Most of the incidents have occurred in the upper grades mainly in 5th grade. This made me wonder if I should focus on 5th grade or on the lower levels to help prevent bullying from happening in the 5th grade.
Activities/ Deeper Understanding:
To get qualitative data, I interviewed the fifth grade teacher to get a better understanding of the situation in their grade level. I also interviewed a fourth grade and third grade teacher. After the interviews I started to look in the students files to find out how many times had the incident with the same students had happened. Mainly because during the interviews the same students names kept coming up. The students bullying in third, fourth or fifth grade ended up being siblings. Which made me wonder if the problem of these siblings being bullies was coming from them seeing it at home? My next step will be interviewing the students to find out their feeling on bullying and ask them a few question on how things are at home.
Engaging in self-reflection:
Will I be able to find a solution to this problem? Is bullying going to get worse worldwide? Is my work here really going to have a positive impact on the situation?
Exploring Programmatic Pattern:
The only pattern that I have found while doing my research is that it all starts by the girls orally offending another girl mainly because of a boy. Also, that the problems start outside of school and then it is brought into the school by one student to another. Then once it is brought out not only do more than one student get involved, but the bullying gets grater.
Determining Factors:
The action research project will end in June 2012. I would like to continue to monitor the student’s behavior and to keep contact with the students I interviewed to make sure they are still on the right track.

Taking Action For School Improvement:
We will participate in a school against bullying program. We will also keep good track of the incidents on bullying and make sure we talk personally to students and make them understand the danger of bullying.

Sustaining Improvement:
To sustain improvement we must find out what is working and what is not. We need to constantly keep and eye on those students who we might think are being bullied or who might be bullies. Also, to hold and assembly every year to make sure the whole campus get the information about bullying.

Bullying in schools

I have decided to do my action research on bullying in schools. The significance of this action research will benefit teachers, administrators, and students. If bullying in school decreases it will improves behavior which means classroom management will improve. If behavior improves everyone in the school is happier. If we have happy teachers and students we have a great learning environment. An awesome learning environment will have better student achievement. Also great classroom management means there is more time for teacher to teach instead of dealing with misbehaved students.

Action Research

So far I have learned a lot about what is an action research. The action research focuses on the concern of the practitioner and engages the practitioner in the design, date collection, and the interpretation of the data around their question. In an action research the practitioner creates a question regarding a concern with his/her school and finds the solution and collaborates in the planning. I believe that an action research is a great way to find the solution to a problem in a campus.