Action Research Planning Template

Action Research Planning Template
Goal: How will learning a musical instrument affect students with behavior/self-esteem issues?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Conference with teacher in the 3rd and 4th grade	Jacquelyn Silva, 3rd and 4th grade team, Amy Smith and Kathryn Velghe	2/11-2/12	Behavior Data Teacher Recommendations	Results of conferences will determine which students will attend the program
Notify students who were chosen for the program	Jacquelyn Silva and Students Homeroom teacher	2/18-2/22	Notification letter	Students signature agreeing on program guidelines
Meet with students on an everyday basis before school	Jacquelyn Silva	2/25-3/1	Music Classroom, Percussion Instruments, Students	Specific requirements met for program
Look at Data from the first week	Jacquelyn Silva/Amy Smith and Kathryn Velghe	3/1	Behavior, Attendance, Grading Data	Find if the behavior issues went down, attendance went up and grades were higher.
Continue program with students	Jacquelyn Silva	3/4-3/8	Music Classroom, Percussion Instruments, Students	Specific requirements met for program
Meet with students teachers and administrators to see if plan is effective or needs to be tweaked	Jacquelyn Silva 3rd and 4th grade Teams and  Administrators	3/8	Behavior, Attendance, Grading Data	What improvements were made? What do we need to work on?
Continue program with students	Jacquelyn Silva	3/18-4/5	Music Classroom, Percussion Instruments, Students	Specific requirements met for program
Student instrument assessment (Week 6)	Jacquelyn Silva	4/8-4/12	Music Classroom, Percussion Instruments, Students	See if each student can play their instrument independently
Meet with administrator to look at data	Jacquelyn Silva Amy Smith/Kathryn Velghe	4/12	Behavior, Attendance, Grading Data	What improvements were made? What do we need to work on?
Continue Program with students	Jacquelyn Silva	4/15-4/26	Music Classroom, Percussion Instruments, Students	Specific requirements met for program
Performance with Students	Jacquelyn Silva, students teachers and administrators	5/2	Stage, Audience, Students, Instruments, Staff Support	Student Performance
Meet with Staff involved with program	Jacquelyn Silva, 3rd and 4th grade teams, administrator	5/3	Data from the past 9 weeks	Was the program successful? Should it continue?

Action Research Idea (Ah-ha moment!)

This week was great reading through peers blogs, discussions, and watching videos from Scholar Practitioners. With all of the reading from our textbooks and the collaboration of material seen and heard above it gave me a better understanding about Action Research and why we use it, how we use it and how to make it practical. I think the further I read and hear about more Action Research the more in depth my research will be with my own topic.
With deciding which Action Research plan I used some wonderful advice from a video I viewed on Dr. Kirk Lewis, Superintendent of Pasadena ISD. He had mentioned to use what is practical to you and your school. A fabulous research project that does not benefit your students needs will not do any good. You must make your research practical to your environment. 
I took a step back to see if I could apply what he mentioned to my Action Research plan. Is this practical to my school? Are my students going to really benefit from this plan? I believe so! The Action Research plan that I have came up with will probably need to be tweaked but the meat and bones of it is the following: 
Will my students with behavior issues taking the STAAR test benefit from a smaller grouped environment focusing on a music instrument for a certain amount of time each day help their behavior improve as well as their test scores? Also, will this give them better self-esteem and self confidence? 
I hope to find a positive outcome with this research plan. I want these students to gain the confidence and the self-esteem that will help them soar through their classes and tests. I believe that when you find something special in each student and applaud them that they will try their best for you because you found the best in them.
Any feedback, questions or tweaks you might want to add feel free to say!

Action Research: Let's learn, understand and apply it!

Action Research requires a process. With a shared vision you analyze data while developing a deeper understanding for what it is you are researching. You must self- reflect and explore patterns determining a direction and taking action for improvement making sure you sustain the improvement. To make it a little easier to understand, you take a problem and share it with your administrator or if for educational use, your students and collect data. You use trial and error finding a solution. Once you have found a solution that works, you then continue to make sure the solution stays. You can always tweak things in the process; after all you are trying to solve problems. 

Here is an example of action research. Every day a teacher is using action research and does not realize it. There is trial and error in lessons that you teach or procedures that you use. With students that we struggle with we use action research. The vision that you share is, you want to help the child, by recognizing that, you analyze what the student’s needs are, where the student is struggling, know as much as you can about the student and hold conferences with the parents. You then set up a plan to reach certain goals with the student.  You might fail at first but then find out ways to connect to the student and you find a pattern that works. You and the student are finally headed in the right direction and have made improvements. You meet with the parents and plan another meeting in a few weeks. This keeps helps sustain the improvement with your student. 

With a good understanding with what action research is I can see areas where I could use action research around my school campus. With procedures that might be a bit outdated due to technology or trying to reach my students outside of school through technology, such a blog, or Facebook page, these can all be included in action research. Finding out what gets the attention of our students, taking surveys of how many students have a computer and internet at home, how many are allowed to access the computer from, how many students actually use the resources on the internet that have been given out can all be data for the action research process. As you go back to school this week, reflect on your day and see how many times you are using action research throughout the day.

Blogs for Educational Leaders

Starting this blog today I have discovered a whole new world out there! Educators with blogs! There are many ways to use a blog as an educational leader. The blogs can be learning tools and help guide teachers that are embarrassed to ask questions or that might need a new way to teach a concept. Teachers have blogs that show what is going on in class, recapping what they have learned for the week, showing links and tips to help their students soar through their class! One very helpful type blog is specifically designed to help fellow educators with a certain subject that they teach! This is perfect for first year teachers trying to survive! One of my favorite types of blogs geared towards parents where the principal creates the blogs explaining what new procedures, news, events and such are coming up. The way educators might use blogs are endless. As I discover more blogs I will post them for you to see.


Here are a few examples of educators using blogs in a great way:
  
http://tanyaelementarymusic.blogspot.com/

http://pineglenprincipal.blogspot.com/

http://confessionsfromafirstyearteacher.blogspot.com/

Please share any blogs you find helpful!