The web conferences are very helpful in clarifying questions that we have.  For students who don't have that many questions it is an excellent reassurance that we are on the right track.  I am loving the online classes and the way that Lamar does things.  The web conferences are definetly an added bonus for us to be able to get some face time with the instructors and these question and answer sessions are wonderful. I personally think that it's really cool to get to put a face with the name of our instructors.  I love the way that Dr. Jenkins is so laid back about things he seems like a cool guy! The web conferences that I listened to for my previous course were done by Dr. Abernathy and she was wonderful as well! It was nice to find out that we are not going to be penalized for the TK20 assignments being posted right away.  I am doing good to keep my head above water and am glad to know that I can handle the TK20 work during the week we have off between this course and the next one that starts April 9th. Thank goodness!!!! I was also glad to find out the exact dates for the summer courses.  I also found out that I am supposed to email my ILD Cetificate that I get this summer to Sandy Rucker.  Good to know = )  I have got to get on this google site that they are talking about and check it out! Lots of good information is discusssed that applies to many of our lives.

Discussion Board - Week 2 EDLD 5326

Mrs. Noland, a popular special education teacher, credits her student's high success rate on the state assessment to consistent parent involvement.  Mrs. Cherry, a 3rd grade teacher, is confused because inspite of an 80% parent participation rate, her student success rate pales in comparison to that of Mrs. Noland's students. 

What suggestions can you give Mrs. Cherry?

The first thing that Mrs. Cherry needs to do is some self-reflection. She needs to think about what she is doing in her daily practices compared to what Mrs. Noland is doing. Is there anything that she could possibly change to make improvement? Another factor that needs to be evaluated is what Mrs.Noland's parental involvement actually consist of and how that measures up to what she has been doing. There are many factors that play a role in students success and performance on high stakes testing. I feel as though parental involvement definetly plays a role in that, but is by no means the deciding factor. You would have to take in to consideration the amount of sleep that the student has been getting on a regular basis and the night before the test. Does the student regualarly receive adequate nutrition? Did they get to eat or drink anything before showing up to your class to take this test or are they going in with no fuel and a growling tummy? Of course the delivery of the instruction through out the year is huge, but another important factor that plays in to all of that is the relationships that you have built with your students and their parents. Is that rapport there to where your students trust and believe in what you are teaching them? Majority of the time once those bonds are formed with your students they will do whatever they can to learn and please you because they know that you sincerely care about them. For some students, the time that they spend in your class each day may be the only time in their entire day that they feel that safe and welcoming feeling. Good rapport with the parents from the beginning of the year can pretty much guarantee you that you will have their support shall a behavioral or academic situation arise down the road. Another thing that Mrs. Cherry needs to remember is to make sure that she is comparing apples to apples. I hate to say this, but it is the truth. Depending upon the particular needs of the SPED student they get various accomodations throughout the year on their work as well as on test day. Some of them receive oral administration, can use a calculator, and/or have 3 answer choices as opposed to 4. Once Mrs. Cherry has thought all of this over and jotted down some notes regarding some things that she might consider changing, I would recommend that she schedule a time with Mrs. Noland in which they can sit down and talk about everything that has been discussed above. Sometimes as teachers we may tend to get tunnel vision and need some outside perspective to broaden the scope for us and help us see things that we may be overlooking. I would also like for Mrs. Cherry to keep in mind that no two kids are exactly the same, so it's hard to compare her class to that of Mrs. Noland's due to the diversity in each of the classrooms.

I have to admit that when I saw that I was going to be taken a course called EDLD 5301 – Research, my heart and jaw dropped.  In all honesty, I was dreading it and was really worried about writing a research paper.  Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed the class and felt a sigh of relief as we got started on the work during Week 1.  I was very in to it and enjoyed doing the data driven research and I look forward to continuing my action research plan for the remainder of my course work here at Lamar.  It is much more interesting and enjoyable to do research when it is something that you actually care about.  The lectures were good, but I feel like I got much more out of the web conferences.  During this course was the first time that I had every logged on to a web conference.  The readings that we were asked to do were always relevant to the assignments and work that we were asked to do.  I also enjoyed the fact that the readings were so direct and straight to the point.  I hate receiving a reading assignment that is long and very wordy; except for small parts of it, irrelevant for me to spend the time reading.  I never once felt that way with any of the assigned reading in this course.  I love learning new things and so to do the electronic searches for my research was very educational as well as entertaining. The activities assigned for this course were very reasonable and served a specific purpose, which was to teach us how to do action research and how to reflect upon the research that we have done by using the five indicators that we learned about this week, to ensure that we have addressed everything the way that we should.  I think the discussion board assignments are such a great way for us to be able to express our ideas, read those of our peers and communicate with one another on ideas and feedback that we have to our classmates’ ideas. I have never really been the technology type person and was very apprehensive and nervous about making a blog.  I am so thankful that we were asked to do this.  It is a great tool for communicating and expressing your ideas, as well as receiving feedback from your readers. I enjoyed making the blog and was very pleased with the way that it turned out.  I plan to continue posting to my blog even after this class has finished.  I also shared the link to my blog with my principal and invited her to check it out if she ever gets time. I am actually pretty proud of myself for creating a blog and keeping up with it.  I know that blogging came about quite some time ago, but in all honesty, I would have never gotten involved with reading them and especially not designing my own, had it not been for this course. I am thankful for all that I have learned and know that I will continue to apply this knowledge throughout my course work at Lamar as well as throughout the years on my principal journeys.  I sincerely appreciate the fact that Dr. Abshire was so straight forward with her answers and instructions throughout the duration of this course as well as during our web conferences that she conducted.  Thank you to a wonderful staff of professors and instructional associates for making this class that I thought was going to be so dreadful such a wonderful and fun learning experience.  This course has influenced me beyond belief and I plan to use these strategies and knowledge that I have acquired the past 5 weeks for years to come in my career.

Action Research Plan - Revised 2/15/12

Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template

 Goal: Aquire a full-time SRO (School Resource Officer) for the Pampa Junior High School campus and monitor affects of student behavior via discipline referrals, once tickets are being issued to students for their offenses.

                                     

Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.) Collect data indicating the type and quantity of referrals that have been submitted for the 2011-2012 school year at PJHS, as well as the discipline actions that were taken in accordance with the diverse referrals.	Cassandra Cambern	August 2011 to May 2012	PJHS Secretary to pull reports as needed.	Skyward Discipline Offenses report broken down by the type of offense.
2.) Type and quantity of consequences (Principal Conference, D-hall, Lunch D-hall, School Service, Ticketed, Expulsion on Campus DAEP, In School Suspension, and Off Campus DAEP) assigned to students for their referrals.	Cassandra Cambern	August 2011 to May 2012	PJHS Secretary to pull reports as needed	Skyward Discipline Action report broken down by the action type.
3.) Contact the Juvenile Probation Office and find out how many of our students are currently on probation or are awaiting trial to be placed on probation.	Janet Hancock	August 2011 to May 2012	Juvenile Probation Staff to give info on students as needed.	Juvenile probation report for PJHS students.
4.) Contact other schools in our region with similar demographics and total student population to see if they have a full-time SRO on their junior high campus, and if so, how do they support this financially and what benefits/ improvements have they seen since they implemented this practice.	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to May 2012	Secretaries at other campuses in our region to provide requested information regarding their school and its current practices.	Contact information for schools in our region with similar demographics and total student populations.
5.) Find written documentation and testimonies online of diverse schools that have implemented the full-time SRO on their junior high campuses and notate what the affects have been.	Cassandra Cambern	March 2012 to April 2013	Computer with internet access to use Google to find information.	Data collected is relevant to the research topic and indicates valid information regarding the experiences of others that have a full-time SRO on their campus.
6.) What are the effects of the quantity and types of referrals when students are receiving tickets from the SRO, as well as their school consequences?	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to February 2013	PJHS Secretary to pull reports as needed.	Skyward Discipline Offenses report broken down by the type of offense and the Skyward summary number of occurrences report.
7.) What is the annual salary for a full-time SRO?	Cassandra Cambern	April 2012 to April 2013	Human Resources Department for the Pampa Police to give payroll information	Annual salary quote for a full-time SRO

*** My Action Research Plan ***

Goal:  Acquire a full-time SRO for the Pampa Junior High School campus and monitor the

           affects on student behavior, via discipline referrals and feedback from students and staff,

           once tickets are being issued to students for their offenses, along with the consequences

           they will receive in accordance with our discipline plan that we have in place.  

                           

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Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.) Collect data indicating the type and quantity of referrals that have been submitted for the 2011-2012 school year at PJHS, as well as the discipline actions that were taken in accordance with the diverse referrals.	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to May 2012	PJHS Secretary to pull reports as needed	Skyward Discipline Offenses report broken down by the type of offense
2.) Type and quantity of consequences (Principal Conference, D-hall, Lunch D-hall, School Service, Ticketed, Expulsion on Campus DAEP, In School Suspension, and Off Campus DAEP) assigned to students for their referrals.	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to May 2012	PJHS Secretary to pull reports as needed	Skyward Discipline Action report broken down by the action type
3.) Contact the Juvenile Probation Office and find out how many of our students are currently on probation or are awaiting trial to be placed on probation.	Janet Hancock	February 2012 to May 2012	Juvenile Probation Staff to give info on students as needed	Juvenile probation report for PJHS students
4.) Contact other schools in our region with similar demographics and total student population to see if they have a full-time SRO on their junior high campus, and if so, what benefits and improvements have they seen since they implemented this practice.	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to May 2012	Secretaries at other campuses in our region to provide requested information regarding their school and its current practices	Contact information for schools in our region with similar demographics and total student populations
5.) Find written documentation and testimonies of diverse schools that have implemented the full-time SRO on their junior high campuses and what the affects have been.	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to April 2013	Computer with internet access to use Google to find information	Data collected is relevant to the research topic and indicates valid information regarding the experiences of others that have a full-time SRO on their campus
6.) What are the effects of the quantity and types of referrals when students are receiving tickets from the SRO, as well as their school consequences?	Cassandra Cambern	February 2012 to February 2013	PJHS Secretary to pull reports as needed	Skyward Discipline Offenses report broken down by the type of offense and the Skyward summary number of occurrences report
7.) Conduct a survey to obtain feedback as to how students and staff would feel about having a full-time SRO on our campus next year in regards to behavior and their safety.	Cassandra Cambern	March 2012 to April 2012	Computer to create an online survey, e-mail the link for the survey to the staff, and print the results	Printed documentation indicating the overall results of the online survey.
8.) Conduct a survey of how students and staff feel regarding behavior and their safety now that we have a full-time SRO on our campus for the 2012-2013 school year.	Cassandra Cambern	October 2012 to November 2012	Computer to create an online survey, e-mail the link for the survey to the staff, and print the results	Printed documentation indicating the overall results of the online survey

In week two of EDLD 5301 I have learned a great deal about action research and how helpful and beneficial it can be for teachers and administrators.  Some of the reading this week gave light to fitting action research in to the chaotically busy schedules that we have as administrators.  The reading gave an excellent comparison that really hit home with me.  It basically stated that just as we make it a priority to schedule exercise in to our week, the same should be done with action research.  It doesn't have to be for extremely lengthy periods of time or anything, but quality time and consistency are the key.  I had decided that I was going to do my action research project over the need for standardized dress in our district, but after meeting with my site supervisor this morning, we both feel as though doing it over the high need of an SRO (School Resource Officer) on our campus would be better and more beneficial to our campus at this time. We need an SRO on campus full-time as opposed to the SRO on call that we currently share with the high school.  Sharing an SRO with the high school is just not working due to the amount and levels of discipline that we deal with on a daily basis. Every time he is on our campus handling a situation he gets called away by the high school.  I had to reschedule a parent meeting three differnt times because he kept having to answer his phone and eventuatlly leave all together. I felt terrible to have to make the parent wait that long to be able to have a meeting with us. We need an officer to be on campus full- time. I will be gathering and comparing data regarding the total number of students that the junior high has compared to the high school, as well as the comparison of the different referrals and number of fights that are occurring in the classrooms as well as the hallways. I will be contacting the Juvenile Probation Office and getting information regarding the numbers of students that are on probation at the junior high compared to the number that are on probation at the high school. I also plan to contact different schools in our region with similar demographics and total student populations to inquire what their practice is and if they have a full-time SRO on their junior high campuses, as well as how it has/is affecting the amount of fights and referrals. We will also be holding assemblies to let the students know that when they are given different referrals such as classroom disruption, insubordination, profanity, and fighting, that they will be issued a citation by the officer as well as the consequences according to the level that they are on for our discipline plan that we have in effect on our campus. I am interested to see if and by how much referrals decline once we have the assembly and make them aware that they will be ticketed. I plan to track that data as well. My principal advised me that once my research is complete and she has looked over it that we need to create a power point and present the information to our Superintendent and Vice Superintendent as our formal request for a full time SRO on the Pampa Junior High Campus.  I am really looking forward to this!  When I saw that this class was called "Research" I was thinking ahhhhh man really.  This is going to be hard!  In all honesty, it is very interesting, time consuming of course, but inreresting. I am enjoying doing the course work and am looking forward to the results and changes that could be brought to our campus.

How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs....

Educational leaders could use blogs as a way to get feedback from staff.  It’s a great way to communicate!  The primary form of communication on our campus is e-mail, but blogging would be beneficial as well because everyone could see the diverse opinions of their colleagues and questions that they may have.  Instead of a principal responding to a bunch of different emails, she could post feedback to the questions on the Blog for all to see.