December Update

I thought I would post an update for December.  Things are rolling quicker than I thought they would.  I've already found a master schedule that I think will work for my elementary school.  

In November, I met with all of the district coordinators and our assistant superintendent to share the proposed master schedule.  All parties were interested in the proposal.  

I scheduled a trip to tour an elementary school in a nearby district that uses the master schedule I found.  This past Tuesday (12/14), fourteen district leaders toured the nearby school to see the "proposed master schedule" in action.  The response was great!  One of our elementary schools has decided to pilot a modified version of the master schedule beginning in January.  

The remaining two elementary schools (which includes mine) will wait to begin the "new" master schedule change in the fall.

Lessons learned from Week 5

I decided it was easier to meet individually with the district coordinators than all together as I had originally planned to do.  My meeting with the G/T Coordinator didn't go quite as well as I had hoped.  She seemed a little protective of the way she runs her program and wasn't quite as open to looking at change as I had hoped.  But, I'm not ready to give up, yet.

I met with our Dyslexia Coordinator this week, as well.  We made great progress and worked out how we think we can get our MTA program to work with a more inclusive master schedule.  She's very open to working with me.  She's going to run some numbers next week to see how this type of change would affect her staff.

Next week, I meet with our ESL Coordinator to introduce my action research plan to her.  I think she will be very receptive to the idea.

Lessons learned from Week 4

My revised Action Research Plan is posted below.  

I made one minor change to the original plan.  I met with the other elementary instructional coaches this week to share my action research plan.  They decided that they would like their campuses to benefit from my research.  Whatever changes are made on my campus will be made on their campuses, as well.  So, when I send out my initial survey next Friday, they will be sending out the same survey to their campuses.  This is all so exciting!  The ball is rolling!

Action Research Plan
Goal: Investigate a master schedule that incorporates special programs (resource, ESL, speech, G/T, dyslexia, etc.) into the daily schedule resulting in fewer pull-out programs and less transition time lost for students and teachers.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Survey classroom teachers (district-wide) to see how they feel regarding the number of pull-out programs students participate in and amount of time that all students are present in the regular education classroom.	K. Blevins	November 5, 2010	Survey	Gather data from surveys
2. Meet with other elementary instructional coaches to share goal of research action plan and gather input on current scheduling concerns from their campuses.	K. Blevins	October 28, 2010	Action Planning Template	Meeting Notes
3. Meet with District Coordinators to discuss their program needs:  ESL, Dyslexia, Special Education, and G/T.  Share scheduling concerns from meeting with campus coaches and teacher surveys and principal survey. Introduce idea of action research plan and trying to include district programs in the campus master schedule, as opposed to operating as separate pull-out programs.	K. Blevins Instructional Coaches District Coordinators	November 2010-December 2010	Survey data from teachers, principal, and coaches.	Meeting notes.
4. Research schools in surrounding districts – Focusing on elementary schools that use a master schedule that incorporates special programs (resource, ESL, G/T, speech, dyslexia, etc.) into the daily schedule, reducing the number of pullout programs.	K. Blevins	November –December 2010	Websites for surrounding elementary schools	Sample master schedules from elementary schools similar to ours.  These schedules would be examples of what I am hoping to provide for our campus – schedules with less pull-out programs.
5. Schedule visit to nearby elementary school to see sample master schedule in action.  Take district coordinators, elementary principals, instructional coaches	K. Blevins Instructional Coaches District Coordinators 3 Elem. Principals	January 2011	Paper to take notes during visit and note any questions.	Debrief after meeting to share insight during school visit.  Meeting notes.
6. Reconvene after site visit to nearby elementary school to discuss how LDISD programs can work using this change in master schedule.	K. Blevins Instructional Coaches District Coordinators 3 Elem. Principals	February 2011	Paper to take notes	Meeting notes. Proposed Master Schedule for 2011-2012 school year
7. To gather enthusiasm with staff, take grade level lead teachers out to visit nearby school to see how their master schedule works.	Grade level teachers from SSE K. Blevins	March 2011	Team Lead Teachers	Meeting with teachers following visit to gather opinions about how the schedule will fit SSE and reduce pull-out concerns.
8. Share proposed 2011-2012 Master Schedule with teachers during PLC time	K. Blevins Principal Grade level Lead Team Teachers	April 2011	Proposed 2011-2012 Master Schedule	Feedback from teachers
9. Implement improved master schedule at SSE for 2011-2012 school year.	Principal	August 2011	2011-2012 SSE Master Schedule	2011-2012 SSE Master Schedule
10. Survey teachers (district-wide) about how they feel about the number of pull-out programs students participate in and amount of time that they have where all of the their students are present in their classroom.	K. Blevins	September 2011	Survey	Gather data from surveys

Lessons learned from Week 3

Putting together the Action Research Plan was a little harder than I thought.  I knew what I wanted to do in my head, but getting it down on paper proved to be a bit more challenging.  What I realized when I was finished was that I needed to get started pretty quickly!  I know - that seems so obvious, right?  When I think about my action research project impacting the next school year, it seems like I have so much time.  However, when I put my plan on paper today, I realized that it is a long process.  That was my aha for the week!

Action Research Plan

Here is my Action Research Plan:

Action Research Plan
Goal: Investigate a master schedule that incorporates special programs (resource, ESL, speech, G/T, dyslexia, etc.) into the daily schedule resulting in fewer pull-out programs and less transition time lost for students and teachers.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Survey classroom teachers and principal to see how they feel regarding the number of pull-out programs students participate in and amount of time that all students are present in the regular education classroom.	K. Blevins	November 5, 2010	Survey	Gather data from surveys
2. Meet with other elementary instructional coaches to share goal of research action plan and gather input on current scheduling concerns from their campuses.	K. Blevins	October 28, 2010	Action Planning Template	Meeting Notes
3. Meet with District Coordinators to discuss their program needs:  ESL, Dyslexia, Special Education, and G/T.  Share scheduling concerns from meeting with campus coaches and teacher surveys and principal survey. Introduce idea of action research plan and trying to include district programs in the campus master schedule, as opposed to operating as separate pull-out programs.	K. Blevins Instructional Coaches District Coordinators	November 2010-December 2010	Survey data from teachers, principal, and coaches.	Meeting notes.
4. Research schools in surrounding districts – Focusing on elementary schools that use a master schedule that incorporates special programs (resource, ESL, G/T, speech, dyslexia, etc.) into the daily schedule, reducing the number of pullout programs.	K. Blevins	November –December 2010	Websites for surrounding elementary schools	Sample master schedules from elementary schools similar to ours.  These schedules would be examples of what I am hoping to provide for our campus – schedules with less pull-out programs.
5. Schedule visit to nearby elementary school to see sample master schedule in action.  Take district coordinators, elementary principals, instructional coaches	K. Blevins Instructional Coaches District Coordinators 3 Elem. Principals	January 2011	Paper to take notes during visit and note any questions.	Debrief after meeting to share insight during school visit.  Meeting notes.
6. Reconvene after site visit to nearby elementary school to discuss how LDISD programs can work using this change in master schedule.	K. Blevins Instructional Coaches District Coordinators 3 Elem. Principals	February 2011	Paper to take notes	Meeting notes. Proposed Master Schedule for 2011-2012 school year
7. To gather enthusiasm with staff, take grade level lead teachers out to visit nearby school to see how their master schedule works.	Grade level teachers from SSE K. Blevins	March 2011	Team Lead Teachers	Meeting with teachers following visit to gather opinions about how the schedule will fit SSE and reduce pull-out concerns.
8. Share proposed 2011-2012 Master Schedule with teachers during PLC time	K. Blevins Principal Grade level Lead Team Teachers	April 2011	Proposed 2011-2012 Master Schedule	Feedback from teachers
9. Implement improved master schedule at SSE for 2011-2012 school year.	Principal	August 2011	2011-2012 SSE Master Schedule	2011-2012 SSE Master Schedule
10. Survey teachers about how they feel about the number of pull-out programs students participate in and amount of time that they have where all of the their students are present in their classroom.	K. Blevins	September 2011	Survey	Gather data from surveys

Lessons learned from Week 2

This week I learned about nine areas that could be used as starting points on the journey towards action research.  I reflected on each of those nine areas and thought about possible action research topics within those areas.  Many of the research topics I used for my assignment came from personal experience.  I'm finding that my role as Instructional Coach on my campus is providing me with experiences that are very beneficial to this class.

I also met with my site supervisor this week to talk about my action research plan.  We decided that my action research plan would be to work on the master schedule.  How can we rework the master schedule so that teachers and students experience less pull-out programs throughout the day?  I'm excited about looking into this.  All three elementary schools will benefit from this research!

The Purpose and Significance of my Action Research

The Purpose

The purpose of my action research project is to investigate a master schedule that incorporates special programs (resource, ESL, speech, G/T, dyslexia, etc.) into the daily schedule resulting in fewer pull-out programs and less transitional time lost for students and teachers.

The Significance 

The key stakeholders that will benefit from my study will be the elementary students and staff at my campus.  Often we have students that are in several pull-out programs and are pulled out of class several times per day several times per week.  Not only does this cause an interruption to the classroom teacher’s daily routine and teaching schedule, it also causes an interruption to the student’s daily schedule.  If I could incorporate a more inclusive schedule, one in which students’ needs were met within the general education setting, less instructional time would be lost due to transitional time with students constantly coming and going from the general education classroom.  In addition, the general education teachers would benefit from having the majority of their students present during their instructional time.

Why Blog?

Educational leaders can use blogging to share thoughts and experiences with other leaders in the field of education.  Blogs can be used as an online forum for educational questions/answers and professional advice.  In addition, blogs can be used as a means for sharing action research with professional colleagues. 

What is Action Research?

Action research can be a powerful means to self-discovery about one’s practices and beliefs and serves as a catalyst for professional development and school improvement.  Action research first begins with a period of self-reflection, one in which a topic or area of inquiry is defined.  Once the inquiry topic has been defined, the next step is systematic data collection, centralized around the inquiry topic.  The goal is to gather as much information about the inquiry topic as possible.  After the data gathering and collection process, data analysis is completed in an effort to look for patterns and trends that may emerge from the data. 

Following the process of data collection is the review of professional literature.  Reviewing professional literature can offer possible solutions and clarity toward addressing the topic of inquiry.  Many times there is quality research found in relevant literature that can provide beneficial insight towards the topic of research.  The next step is to develop a plan of action that is based upon the new understandings gained from the data analysis and the literature review.  The plan of action should incorporate changes in practice that move towards school improvement.  The final step of action research is the implementation and sharing of the plan.  This fosters professional and collegial dialogue, resulting in deeper insight and understanding of school improvement.