Friday, August 6, 2010

My Revised Plan

After reading everyone's feedback and consulting with my site supervisor and PBIS team, I came up with a few revisions of my plan.  It turned out to not be very feasible to provide a ride service for parents but the childcare idea was well received.  Everyone also really liked the idea of opening up the library to parents during specific hours.  I also added recruiting a parent liaison to the plan.  All the other changes were pretty minor.  I decreased the amount times we would offer parent classes and crash course events.  Take a look and feel free to add your comments:

My revised plan

Action Planning  

Goal: To increase student achievement through increased parental involvement

Action Steps(s): 

Person(s) Responsible: 

Timeline: Start/End 

Needed Resources 

Evaluation 

Increase the amount of information going home (email sign up lists, posting on the web, letters home through students and through the postal system, and utilizing the automated phone caller)

Administration, office staff, campus technology staff 

Start: 2 weeks after school begins (Sept. 6th)


 

End: two weeks after the last day of school (June 16th)

Materials: Paper, envelopes and stamps


 

Server space for parent email sign up

Webmaster to post information

Automated phone service 

Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding information sent home. 

Set up a parent night to ask them for suggestions on how they can increase their involvement and discuss different options they may not realize are considered parental involvement.

Administration, PBIS team 

This should be done during the first full week of September (6th-10th)


 

This is a one-time only event.

Lecture Hall

Snacks and drinks (cups and plates)

Administrator

PBIS Team members

Power Point Presentation to show different types of parent involvement

Sign-up sheet

Immediate feedback from attendees through question and answer session and a confidential survey at the end of the presentation


 

Collect data on how many participated and how they heard about the meeting. Figure out the percentage of parents that participated vs. how many letters were mailed.

Set up a monthly calendar for teachers to post important dates and assignments that parents can sign up to receive information about.

PBIS team

Campus technology staff

Freshman teachers 

This should be implemented by the third week of school and should continue throughout the school year. 

Server space

Google or yahoo group that will be shared with freshmen parents 

Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding the shared calendar.

Collect data on parent participation. 

Depending on areas of need, offer parenting classes such as how to deal with teenagers, getting your student ready for college, etc.

Counselors

Start: First week of October (4th-8th) and continue once every quarter until the end of the year

This will depend on the session type but there will always be refreshments available 

There will a confidential evaluation survey at the end of each session and questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey

Collect data regarding parent participation. 

Set up specific times parents may come to the campus and make use of our library and all of its resources.

PBIS Team

Librarian

Administration 

This will begin right after the first meeting with parents in September and will continue throughout the school year

Stipend for the librarian and the extra hours that she may incur

Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey.

Collect data regarding parent participation over time. 

Include a general session at the beginning of Open House night so that PBIS can talk about parent involvement and other important topics.

PBIS Team

Teachers

Administration 

This will occur September 20th and is a one-time event

Refreshments

Posters

Mailers

Automated phone calls 

Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey


 

There will also be a sign up at the end of the night for parents to sign up for an automated survey to be either done over the phone or through email


 

Collect data on parent participation 

Offer crash course nights for parents to learn what their kids are doing in class so that they may assist their kids at home. 

Freshmen teachers 

Offer once a quarter throughout the school year

Take home materials for parents

Refreshments 

Informal evaluations done through questioning from the teacher

Surveys at the end of the year from teachers, parents and students

Collect data on parent participation and student achievement

Offer childcare during parent events

PBIS team

Student clubs/organizations 

This will be offered at all parent events starting with the parent information meeting in September and continuing throughout the school year 

Each club will provide their own activities for the children

None required 

Recruit a parent liaison to help get information back and forth to parents

PBIS team

This can be accomplished at the first parent information night

Mailers about parent information night


 

Flyers for parents about being a parent liaison

Feedback from the parent liaison in the form of an informal interview or questionnaire

 

Friday, July 30, 2010

Preparing for Parental Involvement


Action Planning
Goal: To increase student achievement through increased parental involvement
Action Steps(s):Person(s) Responsible:Timeline: Start/EndNeeded ResourcesEvaluation
Increase the amount of information going home (email sign up lists, posting on the web, letters home through students and through the postal system, and utilizing the automated phone caller)Administration, office staff, campus technology staffStart: 2 weeks after school begins (Sept. 6th)


End: two weeks after the last day of school (June 16th)
Materials: Paper, envelopes and stamps


Server space for parent email sign up
Webmaster to post information
Automated phone service
Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding information sent home.
Set up a parent night to ask them for suggestions on how they can increase their involvement and discuss different options they may not realize are considered parental involvement.Administration, PBIS teamThis should be done during the first full week of September (6th-10th)


This is a one-time only event.
Lecture Hall
Snacks and drinks (cups and plates)
Administrator
PBIS Team members
Power Point Presentation to show different types of parent involvement
Sign-up sheet
Immediate feedback from attendees through question and answer session and a confidential survey at the end of the presentation


Collect data on parent participation
Set up a monthly calendar for teachers to post important dates and assignments that parents can sign up to receive information about.PBIS team
Campus technology staff
Freshman teachers
This should be implemented by the third week of school and should continue throughout the school year.Server space
Google or yahoo group that will be shared with freshmen parents
Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding the shared calendar.
Collect data on parent participation.
Depending on areas of need, offer parenting classes such as how to deal with teenagers, getting your student ready for college, etc.PBIS Team
Administration
Start: First week of October (4th-8th) and continue once every six weeks until the end of the yearThis will depend on the session type but there will always be refreshments availableThere will a confidential evaluation survey at the end of each session and questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey
Collect data regarding parent participation.
Set up specific times parents may come to the campus and make use of our library and all of its resources.PBIS Team
Librarian
Administration
This will begin right after the first meeting with parents in September and will continue throughout the school yearStipend for the librarian and the extra hours that she may incurQuestions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey.
Collect data regarding parent participation over time.
Change Open House night to more of a parent social event where there would be food and drinks for the parents and they would have the opportunity to meet their child's teacher in a more relaxed setting.PBIS Team
Freshmen Teachers
Administration
This will occur September 20th and is a one-time eventRefreshments
Posters
Mailers
Automated phone calls
Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey


There will also be a sign up at the end of the night for parents to sign up for an automated survey to be either done over the phone or through email


Collect data on parent participation
Set up ride service for parents to come to the school for events such as open house, parent classes and the library times.PBIS Team
Administration
Durham Transportation
Central Administration
This will begin with the first parent information night and will continue throughout the year as neededDepending on how many people need the service, we would need either a bus from Durham transportation or use of the two Suburbans from central administration
Liability waivers would also be necessary
Collect data on parent participation and add questions to the end of the year surveys
Offer crash course nights for parents to learn what their kids are doing in class so that they may assist their kids at home.Freshmen teachersOffer once a month at the beginning of the school year and continue throughout the school yearTake home materials for parents
Refreshments
Informal evaluations done through questioning from the teacher
Surveys at the end of the year from teachers, parents and students
Collect data on parent participation and student achievement
Offer childcare during parent eventsPBIS team
Student clubs/organizations
This will be offered at all parent events starting with the parent information meeting in September and continuing throughout the school yearEach club will provide their own activities for the childrenNone required

Friday, July 23, 2010

Further along the exploration

     This week I was required to identify the 9 common topics for action research in school settings, reflect on video interviews discussing action research and come up with three topics of my own for action research and discuss with my site supervisr which topic would be the most beneficial and feasable for my campus. 
     Identifying the 9 common topics was very informative and helped me start to think about how to break down ideas into categories so they are easier to interpret.  The interviews were also quite helpful because I could literaly see action reasearch in action.  They discussed how effective the action research was and how it had helped each of their situations.  The most interesting to me though (and ironic because it is supposed to be more interesting; that's the whole point!) was develping my own topics for action research and conducting an email dialog with my principal about those topics.  I found her insight to be quite helpful and an interesting perspective because she has primarily worked in a reform type setting.  She made some interesting points that I had not considered and I look forward to talking with her again about my plan.  Which, by the way, is In what ways can I contribute to increasing parent involvement on my high school campus?

Friday, July 16, 2010

Blogs and Educational Leadership

Part of being an effective administrator is being able to communicate with their stakeholders.  Blogs can be a powerful onine communication tool when used to its full advantage.  Not only can you share information about what is happening on campus and around the community but you can also use them for collaborating on ideas, creating an online book study, host question and answer sessions for parents and students and setting up individual blogs for student organizations such as student council or art club so that they can communicate with their members.

What is Action Research?

To simply put it, action research is self-evaluation. It is when a principal, committee, or teacher studies their own practices and takes steps to change based on the results of their research. It differs from traditional research because the inquiry is done as more of a self-analysis rather than from the outside-looking-in approach. The practice of action research can be a valuable tool that allows for in-depth self-inquiry. One example would be a professional learning community doing a self-inquiry about how effectively they are improving their math TAKS scores by evaluating their data, analyzing the effectiveness of their current program and taking steps to improve their process. Benefits of conducting action research include increased collaboration through in-depth inquiry of their own problems. This increases a sense of ownership and willingness to make changes based on their research. It also allows for theories to be made that are derived from real-world practices. The process can be extensive and many administrators do not feel they have time to perform such a task. But, if you are willing to put in the work the rewards can be great.

I am currently the chair of our Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) team and one of our goals is to decrease the amount of referrals written by teachers. We could use an action research plan to evaluate our current referral data, analyze the types of referrals being written, and create a discipline action plan that addresses our needs. After the first semester, we could use the action research inquiry to evaluate the effectiveness of the discipline action plan we developed.