Ajdjusted Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To improve the master scheduling at our high school therefore improving teacher production and student performance by limiting the number of teacher preps and balancing the class sizes.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.Speak with the Principal to discuss some of the problems I see and have heard about in regards to the Master Schedule Clear all future steps with my campus supervisor.	Robert Sikora And Shannon Saylor	December 2011	Action Plan Template	Have my campus supervisor evaluate my plan
1. Interview Counselors on how they create the master schedule and what they consider for pairing teacher to subject(s) and how student’s schedules are made.  How do these work together?  Let them know I am here to help not pick on them.	Robert Sikora And Counselors; Rona Balderas and Donna Jansen	January 2012	A set of specific questions to ask the counselors to find out more  about the process of making a master schedule	Have Campus supervisor evaluate questions before hand and answers attained.
2. Create a survey to give to all faculty members with the goal to find out if they feel like any improvements can be made, what improvements can be made, and if they are considered in the project.	Robert Sikora And The faculty at SHS.	March 2011	A detailed survey that allows teachers to answer multiple choice questions and a place for them to give their individual thoughts and any opinions or ideas they may have to improve the situation	Compile Data and meet with our counselors and the campus administrator to review my findings.
2/3. Look for data and analyze student grades and test scores of students that have classes from teachers that teach one class subject area compared to those that teach 2 or more.  Look at the average grades of students and compare numbers based on class size.	Robert Sikora and Shannon Saylor, Permission will be needed to look at current or past classes to perform research	March/April	Access to school class sizes, teacher information, and student grades in those classes Permission will be needed to look at current or past classes to perform research	Compile Data and meet with our counselors and the campus administrator to review my findings.
4. Develop a plan with the counselors and administration to improve the current planning and structure of the master schedule based on data received and analyzed.  What should our priorities be and what is possible to improve given our resources	Robert Sikora And Rona Balederas and Donna Jansen.	April 2012	Data and information found from research in above steps.	Have plan evaluated by our principal and administrator
5. Review our plan with trusted members of staff that do not have an agenda and have the best interests at heart.  Review plan with former peers that have worked on master scheduling before.	Speak with former administrators at KCHS.	April/May 2012	Time to meet with, permission to share data, and info with those outside of our district	Bring back ideas and discuss with our scheduling team.
6. Double check plan and make sure we have enough time to get done what we need to.  List priorities and work together to get plan rolling	Robert Sikora And Counselors	April/May 2012	Time to meet and get schedule rolling	Have our principal double check our plan and timeline.
7. Implement Plan and begin master scheduling for 2012-2013 year.  Double check with the human eye what is needed for student success and match it as best as possible to teacher preferences with balanced class sizes.	Work with the counselors to develop the best master schedule ever completed at SHS.  This will lay the foundation for optimal student and teacher success.	May/June/July	Permission to be involved in the process and access to the computer program used for class scheduling. Be sure to include the top 15 Seniors schedule choices and work form those classes first	A follow up survey very similar to the year prior to see if staff morale has improved and a look at data to assure that student success has improved.
8. Use results from follow up survey to improve any need areas and make further changes.	Discuss what has worked and any failures to the new scheduling plan	August/September 2012 and April/May 2013	Survey Results and a possible team to discuss	Self Evaluate among planning team members.

My School Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To improve the master scheduling at our high school therefore improving teacher production and student performance.  When possible limiting the number of teacher preps and balancing the class sizes.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.Speak with the Principal to discuss some of the problems I see and have heard about in regards to the Master Schedule Clear all future steps with my campus supervisor.	Robert Sikora And Shannon Saylor	December 2011	Action Plan Template	Have my campus supervisor evaluate my plan
1. Interview Counselors on how they create the master schedule and what they consider for pairing teacher to subject(s) and how student’s schedules are made.  How do these work together?  Let them know I am here to help not pick on them.	Robert Sikora And Counselors; Rona Balderas and Donna Jansen	January 2012	A set of specific questions to ask the counselors to find out more  about the process of making a master schedule	Have Campus supervisor evaluate questions before hand and answers attained.
2. Create a survey to give to all faculty members with the goal to find out if they feel like any improvements can be made, what improvements can be made, and if they are considered in the project.	Robert Sikora And The faculty at SHS.	March 2011	A detailed survey that allows teachers to answer multiple choice questions and a place for them to give their individual thoughts and any opinions or ideas they may have to improve the situation	Compile Data and meet with our counselors and the campus administrator to review my findings.
2/3. Look for data and analyze student grades and test scores of students that have classes from teachers that teach one class subject area compared to those that teach 2 or more.  Look at the average grades of students and compare numbers based on class size.	Robert Sikora and Shannon Saylor, Jackie McBroom. Permission will be needed to look at current or past classes to perform research	April/May 2011	Access to school class sizes, teacher information, and student grades in those classes Permission will be needed to look at current or past classes to perform research	Compile Data and meet with our counselors and the campus administrator to review my findings.
4. Develop a plan with the counselors and administration to improve the current planning and structure of the master schedule based on data received and analyzed.  What should our priorities be and what is possible to improve given our resources	Robert Sikora And Rona Balederas and Donna Jansen.	June 2012	Data and information found from research in above steps.	Have plan evaluated by our principal and administrator
5. Review our plan with trusted members of staff that do not have an agenda and have the best interests at heart.  Review plan with former peers that have worked on master scheduling before.	Speak with former administrators at KCHS.	June 2012	Time to meet with, permission to share data, and info with those outside of our district	Bring back ideas and discuss with our scheduling team.
6. Double check plan and make sure we have enough time to get done what we need to.  List priorities and work together to get plan rolling	Robert Sikora And Counselors	June/July 2012	Time to meet and get schedule rolling	Have our principal double check our plan and timeline.
7. Implement Plan and begin master scheduling for 2012-2013 year.  Double check with the human eye what is needed for student success and match it as best as possible to teacher preferences with balanced class sizes.	Work with the counselors to develop the best master schedule ever completed at SHS.  This will lay the foundation for optimal student and teacher success.	July/August 2012	Permission to be involved in the process and access to the computer program used for class scheduling.	A follow up survey very similar to the year prior to see if staff morale has improved and a look at data to assure that student success has improved.
8. Use results from follow up survey to improve any need areas and make further changes.	Discuss what has worked and any failures to the new scheduling plan	August/September 2012 and April/May 2013	Survey Results and a possible team to discuss	Self Evaluate among planning team members.

Lamar Week 2 Thoughts - Wonderings

I learned quite a bit from my reading this week. Chapter 2 from the book Leading with Passion and Knowledge was very insightful.   What I enjoyed most about my learning was reading many topics of wonderings that I can relate too.  After reading the chapter I even changed some of my own choices for wonderings from my previous discussions on our classroom board.  What I found particularily interesting were the wonderings surrounding alternate means of behavior consequences.  The goal was to keep kids in the classroom and out of ISS.  At first I did not think this was possible, but after reading some of there ideas I feel like they can work and am excited to share them with our principal.  I especially liked the idea of parents spending time with them in saturday school and friday afternoon classtime.

Educational Leaders and Blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs for multiple reasons but I believe the best use for blogs is to share ideas and to communicate with one another.  One thing I read in Nancy Dana’s book Leading with Passion and Knowledge was that administrators suffer from isolation.  This makes perfect sense since schools only have one Principal and they do not have many peers on campus that they can discuss their job with.  I feel like the use of blogs and technology in general can and will help principals in the future share ideas and success stories in an easily accessible and free way. 

Action Inquiery

What is action research and how might I be able to use it.

Action research is taking research to a whole new level and putting the research in our hands.  It gives us the ability to look in our own schools and communities, and to address our problems and concerns.  I believe that it allows us to maximize our time, take ownership in what we are doing, and involve others in our school community to work collaboratively to improving our schools. 

Action research gives us the ability to get the most out of our time.  Instead of reading about other school problems or attending conferences about issues that are not a problem in our community we can look directly at what is affecting our school community, find the data, analyze the data, and then if needed seek out research for solutions from schools that had similar problems.  We are maximizing our time and focusing on the task at hand.

Another great thing about action inquiry is that the leader and his/her team can take ownership in their research topics.  They know that they are real items that affect their school and their students.  By working to learn more about their problems and what can be done to fix them they will directly improve their school.  This is why they chose to get into a leadership position, so that they could help their school and directly help their students.

Last but not least others in the school community, teachers, students, and parents are more likely to be on board and to work towards goals when data can be pulled and shown directly from our school community.  It shows them directly what we are or are not doing well, not a problem someone else faced.  They like the leader are a lot more likely to take ownership of the situation when the can see that this is all about their school community.