Action Plan: Building Community

SCHOOL VISION: RHS will meet every staff and student’s needs and create college and career ready graduates.

GOAL:

1. Build a sense of community among the staff, making everyone feels a sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency.
2. Build a sense of community in our differentiated classroom where every student feels acceptance, belonging, respect, and concern?

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE
Create a sense of community among the staff:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	Survey of Staff’s morale	Google Docs	Kim Carlton Elsie Nash	October 2012
Create a sense of community among the staff:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	PLCs: Noticing the little things		Katie Fisher Tony Strohmeyer Other members of DI Committee	November 1, 2012
Create a sense of community among the staff:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	Staff Appreciation Wall Golden Nuggets	Wall supplies and stationary for Golden Nuggets	DI Committee	November 2012 – May 2013
Create a sense of community among the staff:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	Ending Survey of Staff Morale	Google Docs	DI Committee	May 2013
Create a sense of community among the students:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	Research DI strategies to build community in Managing and Leading a Differentiated Classroom by  Carol Ann Tomlinson and Marcia B. Imbeau	Managing and Leading a Differentiated Classroom by  Carol Ann Tomlinson and Marcia B. Imbeau	DI Committee	October 2012 – December 2012
Create a sense of community among the students:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	PLC: Noticing the Little Things		Katie Fisher Tony Strohmeyer Other members of DI Committee	November 1, 2012
Create a sense of community among the students:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	Implement strategies in classroom	Managing and Leading a Differentiated Classroom by  Carol Ann Tomlinson and Marcia B. Imbeau	Elsie Nash	November 2012 – May 2013
Create a sense of community among the students:  sense of belonging, usefulness, competence, and potency	Assess students’ sense of community with comparison to beginning of school year and with survey	Survey and Research notes	Elsie Nash	January 2013 - May 2013

Steps to Follow:

1.      Examining the work: Setting the Foundation – in other words, identifying needs or topics for action research and this may emerge from the Site Based Decision Making Committee, or from needs like those identified in your intern plan.

Since our district has started a new initiative of differentiated instruction implementation in high schools, we have started a differentiated instruction committee. This year our goal is to build community in our school with both staff and students. We noticed this need after staff discussions and a district-wide meeting.

2.      Analyzing data – you have had many opportunities to do this, and you  examined at least 9 data gathering strategies from your text in Part 2 of this week’s assignments

We are completing a survey with the staff asking them the to rate on a scale of one to four ased on their agreement:

RHS feels like an established community.

I feel like a valued member of this community.

I feel acknowledged.

I feel appreciated for the work that I do.

I feel comfortable to take risks.

For the students, we are doing a book study on Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom and gathering a group of strategies to implement in our classrooms.

3.      Developing deeper understanding – these are additional data collection techniques, as well as, examining qualitative data through active listening, focus groups, etc.

As a group, we will gather data from staff through feedback and meaningful questioning. From this information we will continue to develop PLCs.

4.      Engaging in Self-Reflection – this summarizes much of what you have been doing in this course, and throughout the program, beginning with your many self-assessments of leadership in EDLD 5311

I will continue to develop my plan as I learn about Action Planning.

5.      Exploring Programmatic Patterns – This includes asking the appropriate questions, identifying data patterns and gaps, and learning to address equity issues

Again this will be done through our DI team meetings through staff feedback and classroom strategy implementation. We will continue to ask questions and develop our action plan and PLC topics.

6.      Determining direction – Working collaboratively to address action research questions, monitoring progress, and assessing achievement

As a team, we will constantly question and create ways to help our staff with classroom strategies to build community and ways to build staff morale.

7.      Taking action for school improvement – Using appropriate steps or templates like the SIP or PIP Plan of action to guide the action research

Create SIP for building community and change as needed

8.      Sustaining improvement – Learning to use the tools of action research as an on-going process for professional development and school improvement.

I will continue to learn as this class continues and as the program continues.

How Educators Can Use Blogging?

Blogging can be a powerful tool of communication for administrators and other educators. As an administrator, they can use it to motivate staff and disseminate information to staff. Many times we have pointless meetings when information could be give to staff via email or blog. It also can serve a place to praise staff and students. Administrators can also use it like we are as place to recount their own action research.

Teachers can use it as a classroom tool. It can be place for notes for classroom and a place where they can share instructional ideas and strategies.

How am I going to do Action Research on my Campus?

I am excited about the prospect of actually doing a research project. When I was going through the nine different areas for possible inquiry in Dana's Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher, I could see nine different areas that Richardson High School could benefit from action research.

The one that I am focusing on for my research project is school culture/community.

My notes after reading from Dana's text:

This is my passion. As a teacher leader in my building, I am the voice of our staff. They feel comfortable discussing their issues with me because they know that I cannot take disciplinary action. I love Richardson High School, and I love my co-workers and our students. I believe if we can build our sense of community, we can succeed even more than we already do. I think that what Gabi, the master student, learned in her study and that it lead to collaboration between grade levels is important at all levels. I think vertical teaming is just as important as horizontal teaming. We have to know what is expected in the year below and above our curriculum levels to be successful. 

In particular with my research, I am going to focus on building community with our staff and in our classrooms. Because our campus is very diverse, and we have regular classes that have inclusion, ESL, and regular education students all in one class, we have to work on differentiating the content, and in order to do that, we need teachers who feel like they are a valued member of our community and students who do as well.

My research will focus on how we do this. We already have PLCs and a committee to help me with this research, and I feel honored to work with such wonderful staff who really just want to see successful, passionate students walk across the stage at graduation.

Action Research Through My Eyes

After reading through Dana's Leading with Passion and Knowledge (2009) and Harris, Edmonson, and Combs' Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools (2010), I have a new-found knowledge on action research and realize that I have been participating in this style of research since I joined the Richardson High School staff. Action research to me is the constant inquiry and betterment of a school, and as a member of the staff at RHS, we are always doing just that. I am currently on our Differentiation Instruction team, and we are in the middle of an action research project about building community with our staff and in our classrooms. We understand that without community, our classrooms will never truly achieve differentiation, and with the new Special Education and ESL requirements, our classrooms have to be a place of differentiation.  Now that I have studied what action research is I can make our research more purposeful. We can discuss exactly what questions we need to ask our staff and send out a survey for our staff. After looking over the results of that survey, we can create action plans for our PLCs – what do we want to discuss, what ways can we strengthen our community, and how can they translate that information into the classroom setting. I am excited about the possibilities.

For other educators, I think they need to examine what are the goals for their school. Then decided how can they turn it into an action research project. Every school can use improvement, even the exemplary schools. Bottom of Form

The educational world is a constantly changing and growing place, and if schools are constantly in state of inquiry, then our schools will meet those challenges and succeed.

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 Steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.