Update on the Journey

A teacher’s verbal and nonverbal actions affect student’s behavior in a fundamental way. The way a teacher speaks and acts around a student can break them down and discourage them or uplift them and encourage them to do the best they can. The teacher should be reminded that they are the role model in the classroom and should use constant praise to persuade students to be successful. In order for these techniques to be effective, teachers and administration should be involved. Through my research thus far, I have found that the data correlates to the attitude that the teacher has towards the who and the what they are teaching. On the “who” hand: as the teacher is teaching, a few students aren’t paying attention, laughing and talking and, overall, distracting other students. The teacher responds with a harsh, overly loud tone that tears down the students a little more and more each time. Eventually, the student doesn’t want to participate in discussion and when it is time to perform, the student has no idea what to do and doesn’t care because of the way they were treated. This results in negative scores and low expectations from the teacher. On the “what” hand, I have found that if the teacher does not enjoy the subject that they are teaching or doesn’t make it enjoyable to the class, in return, the class will not enjoy learning the subject. Over time, they start to dose off and daydream, thus resulting in a lack of understanding and frustration towards the subject for a possibly lasting period of time. 

Process... thus far.

This week’s meeting was cut short due to an emergency meeting called by the district due to the tragedy in Connecticut. However, the short time that we did meet we discussed the changes we could make and the implementations that will need to happen from here to make my research successful. Because I am choosing a topic that requires lots of observation times and with a teacher that is unaware of what it is that I am observing, we decided that I would do my observations throughout my off period twice a week for the remainder of the next semester. The next semester, I will change into another classroom in the same grade, particularly the teacher that has the highest test grades. Therefore, I may see a correlation between my observations and the data I will be collecting.

As I was discussing my plan with her, she thought that it was critical that I analyze students’ grades from the previous two years. We pondered the idea that a teacher could “ruin” a student in a single school year and if so, was it the attitude of the teacher, the teaching/learning styles or the way they present the information the students. I will definitely be interested in seeing if my findings are consistent across grade levels or changes based on age because of maturity or developmental changes.

Action Planning Template

Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template
Goal:	How does a teacher’s attitude and verbal actions affect an inclusive multicultural third grade classroom found in a  semi-rural community located in northeast Texas?
	Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources:	Evaluation:
1	Develop questions to be answered and desired outcomes	Researcher	Nov 2012-March 2013	Concerns from administration and former testing data	Analyze given data and evaluations from administration (if possible)
2	Research the affects the a teacher's attitude has on students and student performance	Researcher, Administration, Teachers	Nov 2012-May 2013	Sources from both print and online	Read and organize research supporting or arguing goal
3	Observe classroom teacher	Researcher, Classroom teacher	Nov 2012-May 2013	Consent from classroom teacher and support from administration. Documentation materials and objectives to look for.	Analyze findings and obeservations. Interview students and analyze their feelins in the classroom. Lastly, correlate data to research findings.
4	Self-Reflection	Reflections and review of my observations and how it aligns with the research.	Nov 2012-May 2013	Journal, information from observations and research	Determine if what reseracher is doing helping to reach goal or if changes need to be made. Allows time to reflect on findings and develop deeper understanding and clarity.
5	Organize all findings through paper.	Researcher	April 2013-May 2013	Access to internet and Word program, data from classroom and sources.	Present findings in a Staff Development
6	Present a Staff Development	Researcher/Presenter	When Available per administration	Power Point ready to present findings, and handouts for teachers and staff to have.	Survey completed per staff and administration.

Reflections on Interviews

         This week we were assigned to watch two interviews of administrators or superintendents. I was not looking forward to watching videos online that weren't of people doing stupid things or that weren't on Brain Pop Jr! What can I say, I hang out with 8 year olds all day! :) However, I did find some of the things very helpful and interesting. 
         Throughout the videos, there were some things that stuck out. They stressed the importance of researching what you are struggling in and what you are interested in and not to reinvent the wheel. Don’t shy away from problems but attack it and save the stress in the long run. Often times, if you want to beef up rigor in the classroom, you must beef up your expectation and change the way your deliver instruction. By asking higher order thinking questions, you are ensuring that you students understand at a deeper level. Research and read research that other successful campuses and districts are doing and try to make it translate into what you are doing. Look at demographics; academic needs or other things that will help your campus become more successful. Find what is practical to you and apply it directly to your classroom. Stay consistent and enforce the practical change. 

How Administration Can Use Blogs

Administration can use blogs for school use and professional use. It would be easy to create a blogger account  and share the URL to parents in the school. This could be used to keep parents updated and in the loop of things that are happening at the school. Professionally, an administrator can use blogs to find information and ideas that can improve their school. They can find other principals blogs do generate ideas for their own campus.

Action Research and Implementation

Action research is the process that a principal takes in order to have a methodical and purposeful study to benefit their own administrative duty and taking an action to change it based on the findings. This includes creating questions and collecting data to answer them appropriately in order to gain insight. In order to fully acquire pertinent information, one may research journals and other literature, gain insight from other principals make changes to systems in the school and share their information with others. This is a powerful gateway for school improvement. As an administrator, I will be able to use this to find weaknesses in student education, teacher instruction or everyday processes such as the cafeteria line or dismissal procedures. There are many ways that you can implement an action research project throughout your school and school district. For example, instead of sitting in a boardroom and listening to someone talk during Superintendent/District Meetings, some school districts are organizing principals into smaller groups where they are given tasks to perform in order to identify an area of need in their school. Another way to implement is through leadership teams at your school. Leadership teams build a culture of collaboration that helps reform education, accountability, and improve standards of the school. The team shares problems, responsibilities, and decision making with the administration. Lastly, you can implement action research through, Professional Learning Communities. When a part of a PLC, you are learning from practice. This is a group of faculty who meet regularly to study more effective learning and teaching practices. PLC’s enhance the possibilities for conducting an inquiry and cultivating a community of inquirers.