Action Research Update

The first part of the project was started up last year with myself and a few other teachers who were admin assistants and we came up with questions to use for when we were shadowing students whose needs at school weren’t being met.  We used the research questions to collect data or information and we reported back to our principal with a report on what we found out.  After that we as a team had to make a presentation to our faculty on what we were doing and why.

The second part of my action plan was to see about getting the media involved with the community.  The particular situation happened this past summer when we as a school staff was spilt up into teams of 3-4 and we all went around to the incoming freshmans homes to give them a gift bag and some school supplies and the local tv stations joined in with us and reported us on the news.

As for the third piece of the puzzle, a few incentatives have been created for the students and by student council on selecting gifts to give to students who have maintained perfect attendance during the six weeks along with the entire school year.  Each six weeks all the names are thrown into a pod and one lucky winner is given a special incentive prize.  At the end of the school year, we are going to draw for an iPad in each grade level.

Towards the end of the school year last year administration and counselors got together to see where some problem area students were and assigned teachers to be their mentor.  We are still in the process this school year in seeing if the whole mentoring will benfit students or not.

For the fifth piece of the puzzle, I was able to talk to our lead attendance clerk and help my understanding in how important attendance is for students and for our school when receiving grant money.  What the lead attendance clerk has done was create a way of having teachers take attendance during the class time.  She explained the importance of accurate attendance and why we had to keep such records.  This part of the project will be something that will continue to be worked on throughout the school year.

As for the rest of the project, the 0 & 9^th hours of having students come in for tutorials paid dividends somewhat this past year, but not like what we as a school had hoped for.  0 & 9^th hours are no longer a part of our schedule, so students aren’t being asked to stay after school or before for EOC prep.  What has happened is that teachers have been asked to change some of their normal assignments from last year and co-teach some classes this year.  Core teachers have been taken out of their normal duties from the previous few years and have been asked to step into a new role and help promote student success.  Along with new teacher assignments, new circulum personal has been hired to help these teachers further along their skills in helping students become successful.