Action Planning Template

	Action Planning Template
Goal: Lower discipline problems by effective behavior management strategies.
Action Steps(s):		Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Examining the work: Setting the Foundation   Let others on campus know that I will be implementing behavior management strategies research to try to find way to lower discipline problems by effective behavior management  strategies		My self Site supervisor School staff	November 2012 to December 2012	The DAEP school I work in and the students assigned   Online database, websites, and literature.	Other’s agreement
Analyzing data   Investigate history, expectations and  discipline of DAEP schools   Analyze strategies that are currently being used and their results		My self	December 2012 to February 2013	Online database, websites, and literature. Feedback from principals, other teachers and classmates	Analyze if current strategies are successful by statements in the resources used and by feedback from co-workers
Developing deeper understanding   Analyze what different discipline strategies can be added, what modifications are needed according to student’s age, how can discipline be upheld through a student’s schooling.		My self	February 2013 to March 2013	Active listening to student’s concerns   Have group intervention with students on behavior management strategies	Self refection on reasons behind why students have behavior problems     Feedback from principal, other teachers and classmates from results
Engaging in Self-Reflection   Implement different strategies   Reflect if different strategies being implemented are helping students		My self	March 2013 to April 2013	Knowing what triggers student’s What can be done to help the student gain better self control	See if office referrals and student’s strike card improve.   Observation of student’s behavior, teacher feedback
Exploring Programmatic Patterns   Observe student’s behavior after discipline strategies was implemented		My self Other teachers	Nov 2012 to May 2013	office referrals and student’s strike card    keep eye out if students show improvement but after a while they repeat the same behavior problem	See if student can self correct See if office referrals and student’s strike card improve   Time between discipline problems arising again.
Determining direction   Gain feedback from other teachers through staff meeting to see if they recognize a difference in student’s behavior		My self Other teachers	Nov 2012 to May 2013	Feedback from whether or not students discipline problems are being lowered	Counting referral and checking student’s strike card for improve.
Taking action for school improvement   Continue to Implement different strategies that work.  Document which strategies work for which student.		My self Other teachers	Nov 2012 to May 2013	Feedback from other teachers	Feedback from other teachers Share information during staff meetings  observation of each student behavior
Sustaining improvement   Share information gained to other staff members at the end of research See what can be continued Pass information to home campus teachers		My self Other teachers	Nov 2012 to May 2013	Effective communication from other teachers	See what can be applied to the next school year

 

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

Examining the work: Setting the Foundation

Through talks with my site supervisor we discussed the problems of students who come over and over.  There is a need to teach students to make better decisions, control their temper and anger.  The school’s image should of a place where students come to learn behavior management through proper discipline. 

 

Analyzing data

We are an alternative discipline school that addresses behavior.  One way to see if students improve their behavior is by a strike system that is used.  The strike system is a documentation of student’s behavior.  A student having many strikes leads to office referrals and lowering student’s score level.  Another way that is more noticeable is by observation.  When students get upset it shows at that moment.  A student can either get frustrated or self control themselves.

 

Developing deeper understanding

My goal is to investigate different behavior management strategies that can be used by DAEP schools to help lower discipline problems.  To gain a deeper understanding of what a DAEP school is and who it serves I will research the history of DAEP schools and expectations of DAEP schools.    I will start by looking for information about DAEP schools by using, online database, websites, observation and literature.  I will read about discipline strategies that are currently being used and their results.

 

Engaging in Self-Reflection

I am self reflecting on whether behavior problems can be lowered.  We are already a school for second chances but for some reason we have students that get sent more than once in a school year.  Is it possible to teach behavior management to students after a certain age? I am a teacher with my own believes while working with other teacher with their own believes.  Will my information be welcomed by other teachers?

Exploring Programmatic Patterns

The main programmatic pattern we have is students being sent more than once and others preferring to be at a DAEP school.  Many of the students we serve come from families where someone is in jail.  In order to work with students we need to understand their norms.  The programmatic pattern comes from how can we teach behavior management when their family norms are to end up in jail.  One thing we do is bring in outside organizations that help students by counseling then and doing presentations about drugs and abuse.           

 

Determining direction

There are two main priorities at the DAEP I work in.  One is the content of each subject and the other is discipline.  Each teacher teaches their subject but together we all need to teach discipline.  The first step we take as teachers is to get to know the student.  Some of the students we receive have trouble trusting people.  At getting to know the students we gain their trust.  At the same time we let the students know what the expectations are.  When a student does not meet an expectation, determining which direction to take becomes the next step.  As teachers, we can write referrals and the principal can suspended the student.  Suspending a student does not seem to be an answer.  My action research at this point will investigate what directions the school can take instead of relying on office referral and suspending students.                

 

Taking action for school improvement

 

I have thought about what steps will be needed and resources I will need.  Most of my steps and resources will have to depend on the students we have at the time.  Students stay for thirty days and then go back to their home campus.  So we change students every thirty days but not all at the same time.  Sometime the students we get will be harder to teach behavior management than others.  At times there will be one student who is very disruptive and that causes other students to follow.  When this happens results look as if they are taking a downfall.  Strategies need to be changed and discussed.       

 

Sustaining improvement

 

I am aware of the fact that students discipline will always need to change.  Students and parent’s attitude about education is changing contentedly.  Parent support is needed for discipline and it seems to be getting harder to get parent involvement.  Every year I have been hearing about school cut and teacher layoff.  Student to teacher ratio is increasing.  With more students in every class more discipline problems arise.  Continued improvement and continued education on discipline can be taken to sustain improvement. 

Action Reseach Project

“What effective behavior management strategies can schools use to lower discipline problems”.   I will investigate the following areas.  “How can school use discipline strategies to help students make correct chooses to stay out of trouble? Which discipline strategies work? How does discipline need to be modified according to student’s age?  How can schools uphold discipline throughout a student’s schooling?

Week Two

From week two I learned about nine areas of wondering and how their can be an action research topic in each.   As I was reading the nine areas of wondering I was thinking about situations that I have experience and coming up with topics that could have been researched at the time.  I will be more open to research topics when I am an administrator.  I also learn that literature is part of action research but that literature can be theory and needs to be modified for different settings.  One can use ideas from other schools but always keep in mind that the environment is different and ideas will need to be changed along the way.    

How I will use blogs

As an education leader I can use blogs to get feedback from my staff. If the school is trying something new, problems and concerns can be addressed by teacher feedback. I can also use blogs for professional development. The school can have a book study where the staff can write a reflection on the reading and other teachers can replay. In the classroom I can use blogs to see how students feel about a lesson. Sometimes students do not like to ask questions in class so I can read what questions they have and students can also answer each other's questions.

What I learned about action research

I learned what action research is and how it is useful.  Action research, which is also known as administrator inquiry, is a way of ones was of thinking or reflecting on how well they are performing in their practice and being able to change anything that is needed.  It starts by collecting data, asking questions, looking at past examples and finding a way to improve.  Before schools relied on information from outsiders who knew nothing about what was going on inside the school.  Speakers would come and give presentations on topics that sometimes were irreverent.  Books would be read about theory.  Sometimes the theory was useful but it was based on information that was not part of the school. Now action research is done within the school by people who are insiders getting information first hand.  This helps in that problems affecting the school can be resolved by people experiencing the problems and who know what resources the school can count on to help.  This avoids having to use rescources that are out of the school’s grasp and repeating mistakes.  Also if the people who are trying to solve a problem are inside the school they are able to tell if the problem is being solved and not causing other issue to arise.  I can use action research by reflecting on something I see as a problem and taking the action research steps in trying to solve it.