WEEK 4 - the big review

After meeting with my site supervisor, we agreed that my action plan submission and outlines were very planned out from week 3.  He did encourage me, as did Jamie Alverez-Calderon to maybe use some other districts with more lenient policies as baselines for a new change.  This will simply be an extension of my first step in data gathering and will not change my overall plan.  My action plan is still the same, posted on June 29th. 
I do encourage you to spread the word about my cell phone plan and to please start giving me some pros and cons regarding cell phone use in class.  I will use some of your comments and data in my final evaluation. 
I am actually “wierded out” to say that I am enjoying the process of action research.  I never in my life thought I would like the research part of this course.  I hope that my research will at least serve as a basis for a new policy in any district.  That is my ultimate goal. 

Updated plan in template form - Week 3

I did not include this plan last week, but I have simply inserted the information from my last post to fit the table template.  Hope this helps out to better understand my plan.  Enjoy!

Tool 7.1  Action Planning Template
Goal:  Smart use of Smart Phones: Is the zero tolerance policy of cell phone use applicable in today’s student learning?  What are the impacts of this policy and can it ever be changed?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Acquiring data from district regarding previous discipline write-ups regarding cell phone usage in classrooms	Jake Prince/Dr. Hall – Klein ISD Assist. Sup.	8/1 11/1	District Discipline information from Student Information services.	Data analysis/ charting and numbering amount of cell phone violations.
Use district data to interview principals to determine amount of timer spent per week on cell phone violations	Jake Prince/ Assistant Principals – Klein Oak	11/1-12/1/2012	Conference period, principal scheduling	Have principals complete a small evaluation form to have a copy of each question.  This will allow for charting of answers.  Determine amount of administrative time spent on cell phone policy violations.
Interviewing Para-Professionals to determine time spent on clerical issues regarding phones in classes	Jake Prince Dolly Gonzales- AP Secretary over Cell phone collection	11/1-12/1/2012	Conference period, secretary scheduling for time	Have secretaries fill out form/survey to chart results.  Enter results in table.  Hopefully come up with an idea of amount of time dealing with cell phones.
Survey Students	Jake Prince James Dristas – Site Supervisor	January 2013	Surveys, Student handouts, access to student information	Have students fill out surveys with amount of time spent on cell phones.  Evaluate data on answers.
Survey Affected Parents	Jake Prince James Dristas Dolly Gonzales	January 2013	Surveys to parents, Access to student/family records	Assess current parent/community view of the cell phone policy and any suggestions that may arise from the survey.
Teacher Surveys to determine amount of class management time spent on cell phones	Jake Prince Dept Chairs for 3 Departments	January 2013	Access to staff meetings to give brief surveys, take opinions and record any suggestions	Data collection of amount of time spent on class management.   Also to record any suggestions/directions
Peer Review- Campus based committees	Jake Prince James Dristas Heather Cook Campus Based teacher committee	Feb 2013	All data in a compiled and evaluated format.  This will allow the committee to make better judgments and determinations	Peer review – Meeting with teachers for and against a new policy.  Also compare data with current literary reviews.
Self reflection of data to determine next course of action	Jake Prince	March/April 2013	Compilation of all data collected.  Survey snapshots for/against policy	Assess and evaluate the current policy to see if a recommendation is in order. If so, what are some of the ways the new policy would affect all aspects surveyed.  (Classes, Admin, Paraprofessionals, Students, Parents)
*New Policy writing? Trial Basis if accepted by district	Jake Prince James Dristas Ron Webster (building principal) And Central Office	May 2013-May2014	Small scale implementation of new policy in “Test Classes” to see if a new policy is better than old policy.	This evaluation will be done by assessing all aspects of current research but on a smaller scale to compare data.
Sharing of data with teachers	Jake Prince Staff of Klein Oak	May 2013	Professional Development	Give short presentation on findings, publish results.  Share on blogs and staff website.

Action Research Project

Smart use of Smart Phones: Is the zero tolerance policy of cell phone use applicable in today’s student learning?  What are the impacts of this policy and can it ever be changed?

Process overview

Review of district policies on cell phones in class.  Would a supportive cell phone policy benefit student learning, classroom management and disciplinary (administrative) time management?  Is it possible to intertwine school appropriate smart phone usage into teacher lessons, and will there be an impact on student behavior, discipline, and classroom management?

Setting the foundation –

I plan on meeting with administrators, site based campus committees, and a sampling of teachers to determine the impact of inappropriate use of cell phones in classes.  My goal is to asses if the district policy on cell phones (zero tolerance) is working, and if not, what are some of the ways that the policy can be reviewed for better student management?

Analyzing data –

I plan on acquiring data from the district on how many cell phone write-ups were handled by administration on a campus and district wide level.  Using this information, I will interview principals to determine the amount of time spent per week on cell phone violations. 

I will then interview campus paraprofessionals to determine the amount of clerical time spent on processing all the cell phone violations and take into account their views on the current district policy.

The next step in the data collection will come from a sampling of teachers, to determine the amount of time spent correcting inappropriate use of cell phones (classroom management) and their views on the district policy.  I will also take into account any suggestions at this point for research improvement and or district policy improvement.

The last step in data collection will be the sampling of parents and students who use cell phones in class.  What is their main usage of the cell phones, how many have been affected by district policy, and if given a set of constraints, how many would use their cell phones in a constructive way for classroom learning?  The parent sampling will hopefully shed light on the public perspective of the current district cell phone policy and whether a change is warranted. 

Developing deeper understanding –

This would come from peer review of the data and participation in campus committees to judge if the policy in question is flawed, or if the research topic is still viable.  I would also like to meet with various teachers (some for and some against a new policy) to better understand the pros and cons of the research topic.  Literary reviews will also be conducted in the forms of blog research, other district policy and reviews, and professional publications regarding cell phone use in schools.

Engage in self reflection –

This is a great time to play “devil’s advocate” to a new policy.  Many district resources would have to be modified to implement a new policy.  What is the monetary impact of these changes?  What would be considered the new “norm” in classroom management? Are teachers willing to use the new technologies in a way that can possibly better classroom management?  This can be done through peer review, administrative conferencing, and campus based committees.  The last thing to consider would be new teacher training on the policy should it be changed. 

Exploring programmatic patterns –

This step will entail extensive peer review and administrative meetings to determine the “fairness” of a new policy.  Would students without cell phones be placed in a burden because of financial support?  Also, some teachers who do not have smart phones may be hesitant to accept the change of a technology that they themselves do not possess.  Many other ideas will most likely come to light during this phase of the plan. 

Determining direction –

After steps 1-5, a rewrite of the research question may be in order.  The data will have to be checked and monitored using last years data to this year’s data to establish a pattern of use.  Is the pattern increasing, decreasing, or stagnating. 

Assessing the timelines of a new policy will have to be checked against district policies and do proper systems exist to monitor the new usage policies? 

As for evaluating success, a new policy would have to be in place for a small sampling of students (dual credit, or AP students) for a given term with observations taken during that term.  This would increase the timeline to determine effectiveness.

*NOTE – This step is only in practice if the district agrees to a new experimental policy. Otherwise the research project will stay on the original path of determining the effectiveness of the original district policy.*

Taking action for school improvement –

This would be done by gathering a group of teachers who also feel a need for reviewing the district policy and coming up with a staff workshop to better understand the view of teachers/administrators in regards to the current district policy. 

From the input of this committee and workshop, alongside the data I have collected, I will write a formal summary of my action research policy to present to the head Principal (Ron Webster) of Klein Oak and from there (with approval) submit to a district level policy review committee.

Sustain improvement –

The results of the research will be shared using the resources available to me.  Blogs, write-ups, district presentations, and online collaboration are just some of the ways to share the final outcome of the research. 

No matter the outcome, the entire process of reviewing a policy that has negative impacts on administrators, teachers, and students will start a conversation into what we as educators can do to positively impact students in a changing world. 

My research takes an unexpected turn - WEEK 2

One thing that I am finding out after reading all the assignments, is that you cannot stay too long on a subject without it changing.  For me, my topic changed completely after meeting with my site supervisor.  We decided that while the idea was great, and needed, to focus on the community for my first action research topic might be a little broad an big for me. 

After more discussion, I decided to go with the question: Can approved student Smartphone use be beneficial to students and teachers in today's school systems?

I believe that schools and teachers spend too much time fighting the battle of cell phones. I am not suggesting complete freedom of cell phone use in class. I am suggesting that we may better utilize a technology that IS NOT GOING AWAY, and will only become more entrenched in our students’ lives. What if it was possible for students to work together in your class, using the tools available (apps, programs, email) on their phones? How much time or energy can be saved by re-directing the student use of cell phones (discipline, classroom disruptions/management)?

I am hoping my research outcome may start to change the views of teachers and administrators in our district, and beyond. I am aware of the pushback I may receive from fellow faculty - but the number one fact is these devices are here to stay, and are used in our classes whether we like it or not. Also - Texas education needs to be able to meet more standards with fewer resources (budget cuts). We are also ranked one of the worst states in public education. The status quo is NOT working anymore. We have to find new and innovative ways to reach these students, and a fancy PowerPoint and Smartboards are not getting the job done.

Analysis of how education leaders can use action research

Educational leaders can use action research for many different reasons from classroom management to administrator problem solutions.

A couple of examples may be:  Determining the best route to bring up sagging scores for standardized testing.  Finding out a common thread in discipline to help better address the needs of the students and teachers.  Self analysis or teacher analysis on job performance.

Whatever the case, in education the case can be made to use action research.

My thoughts on Action Research

First off - I named this blog No Boxes Allowed (because thinking outside one is too cliché) because I feel that action research is a way to think outside of what you normally do.  It is a completely different mindset, to be able to accept when something is not working.  It is foreign to educators to admit fault.  We need to go beyond the box.  More than thinking outside of it, we need forget the box completely. 

To be perfectly honest, when we first started the action research project and what it means, my heart sunk.  I, like many other educators before, started thinking about the uselessness of this latest and greatest professional development method.  However, as I start digging in, I realized I was wrong.

Action research is, in my definition, self inspection of ones actions and methods using data, feedback, analysis, and planning.  Many different types exist and can be used in all fields, but for the purpose of this blog and class, we will stick with Administrative Inquiry. 

I hope to use administrative inquiry or action research to find a common thread in our high school that seems to be missing in terms of community support, involvement, and pride and to what methods may be used to combat this.  I confess that this is my first action research project, and I am worried that the task may be too big.

I hope that I can use the action research and the tools I learn in this class to come up with a plan to help fix the problem we have at our school. We are a large 5A school in Texas and are in the suburbs of a major Metro area.  We don't "belong" to a community and we are not the cornerstone high school of the district.  Our school was created out of need for expansion some 20 years ago.  Because of this, our administrators have noticed we can lose what little support we get at the drop of a hat.  Too many parents/students moving in, moving out.  So the question becomes, how does a large high school instill small town community pride, and does this pride reflect itself in student achievement, discipline, and or attendance?

I welcome your thoughts and comments to help guide me down this path…wherever it leads.