Updated Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan
Inquiry: Will the implementation of motivational strategies improve and sustain school attendance in a primary school? Goal: Determining if the implementation of motivational strategies will improve and sustain attendance in a primary school.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Meet with site supervisor and principal to discuss current and past motivational strategies used, as well as attendance policy.	Tammie Hewitt Barbara Maresh Mary Crawford	April 2013	SISD student handbook	Determine what motivational strategies have worked in the past for the students. Review attendance policy.
Conduct a survey from staff members about the current attendance strategies in used.	Staff Members Mary Crawford	May 2013	Survey about current strategies used regarding attendance	Review data collected from the staff members about their opinions concerning motivational strategies currently used to improve school attendance.
Collection of attendance records for the 2012-2013 school year.	Peggy Lewis Mary Crawford	June 2013	Attendance records.	Collection of the school attendance records for review.
Disaggregate attendance data for the 2012-2013 school year.	Mary Crawford	June 2013	Attendance records	Review and disaggregate attendance records to see where improvements need to be made pertaining to certain months and students.
Research of relevant literature	Mary Crawford	June 2013- July 2013	Internet, Lamar Online Library	Research and review literature relevant to strategies used to improve school attendance.
Present motivational strategies to site supervisor and principal for approval.	Michael Caudill Tammie Hewitt Mary Crawford	July 2013	List of motivational strategies to be implemented	Approval from site supervisor and principal.
Present new strategies that will be used during the 2013-2014 school year at the BOY faculty meeting.	Mary Crawford	August 2013	List of motivational strategies to be implemented, Action Research Plan, Internet	Provide staff members an opportunity to give feedback.
Implement new motivational strategies throughout the school.	Staff Members Tammie Hewitt Michael Caudill Mary Crawford	August 2013-June 2014	Motivational strategies, the materials needed to implement the strategies	Monitor the staff implementation of new motivational strategies. Provide an opportunity for staff feedback at faculty meetings.
Conduct a survey from staff members about the new strategies implemented.	Staff Members Mary Crawford	May 2014	Post-survey regarding implementation of new strategies	Collect and review data collected from the post-survey. Compare results to the survey given in May 2013.
Collection of attendance records for the 2013-2014 school year.	Peggy Lewis Mary Crawford	June 2014	Attendance records from 2013-2014 school year	Collection of the school attendance records for review.
Disaggregate the attendance records for the 2013-2014 school year. Compare to the previous school year.	Mary Crawford	June 2014	Attendance records from 2012-2013 and 2013-2014	Review and disaggregate attendance records for the 2013-2014 school year. Compare to the 2012-2013 school year to see if improvements in school attendance were made.
Present the results to the site supervisor and principal.	Michael Caudill Tammie Hewitt Mary Crawford	June 2014	Surveys from faculty members, attendance records	Discuss with the   administration the results of my action research.

Update!

I haven't been able to really work on my action research plan because I wasn't able to start implementation of the plan until school started. I am excited to say that I have been making advances in my action research plan! I have read multiple articles about the implementation of strategies to increase school attendance. I have developed strategies that I will be implementing this year, to honor great attendance. I will be honoring classes both weekly and each six weeks, and I will be honoring individual students on their perfect attendance. Honoring the classes each week and six weeks include whole group incentives. Each week a sign will be given to the class with the highest attendance percentage. The students will also receive a school tiger animal that will travel with the sign. Each six weeks, the class with the highest attendance percentages from each grade level will be able to eat lunch with the campus administrators and other special guests. For each individual student with perfect attendance, they will receive a "brag tag" that they will keep on a chain on their backpack. These tags will be different each six weeks, so that the children are able to collect them. We are in the process now of finding funding for the "brag tags". My principal will be approaching our booster club next week to ask for the funding. I am excited to be able to implement these strategies and see if these strategies increase student attendance!

Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan
Inquiry: Will the implementation of motivational strategies improve and sustain school attendance in a primary school? Goal: Determining if the implementation of motivational strategies will improve and sustain attendance in a primary school.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Meet with site supervisor and principal to discuss current and past motivational strategies used, as well as attendance policy.	Tammie Hewitt Barbara Maresh Mary Crawford	April 2013	SISD student handbook	Determine what motivational strategies have worked in the past for the students. Review attendance policy.
Conduct a survey from staff members about the current attendance strategies in used.	Staff Members Mary Crawford	May 2013	Survey about current strategies used regarding attendance	Review data collected from the staff members about their opinions concerning motivational strategies currently used to improve school attendance.
Collection of attendance records for the 2012-2013 school year.	Peggy Lewis Mary Crawford	June 2013	Attendance records.	Collection of the school attendance records for review.
Disaggregate attendance data for the 2012-2013 school year.	Mary Crawford	June 2013	Attendance records	Review and disaggregate attendance records to see where improvements need to be made pertaining to certain months and students.
Research of relevant literature	Mary Crawford	June 2013- July 2013	Internet, Lamar Online Library	Research and review literature relevant to strategies used to improve school attendance.
Present motivational strategies to site supervisor and principal for approval.	Tammie Hewitt Barbara Maresh Mary Crawford	July 2013	List of motivational strategies to be implemented	Approval from site supervisor and principal.
Present new strategies that will be used during the 2013-2014 school year at the BOY faculty meeting.	Mary Crawford	August 2013	List of motivational strategies to be implemented, Action Research Plan, Internet	Provide staff members an opportunity to give feedback.
Implement new motivational strategies throughout the school.	Staff Members Tammie Hewitt Barbara Maresh Mary Crawford	August 2013-June 2014	Motivational strategies, the materials needed to implement the strategies	Monitor the staff implementation of new motivational strategies. Provide an opportunity for staff feedback at faculty meetings.
Conduct a survey from staff members about the new strategies implemented.	Staff Members Mary Crawford	May 2014	Post-survey regarding implementation of new strategies	Collect and review data collected from the post-survey. Compare results to the survey given in May 2013.
Collection of attendance records for the 2013-2014 school year.	Peggy Lewis Mary Crawford	June 2014	Attendance records from 2013-2014 school year	Collection of the school attendance records for review.
Disaggregate the attendance records for the 2013-2014 school year. Compare to the previous school year.	Mary Crawford	June 2014	Attendance records from 2012-2013 and 2013-2014	Review and disaggregate attendance records for the 2013-2014 school year. Compare to the 2012-2013 school year to see if improvements in school attendance were made.
Present the results to the site supervisor and principal.	Tammie Hewitt Barbara Maresh	June 2014	Surveys from faculty members, attendance records	Discuss with the administration the results of my action research.

Week Two Reflection

I learned a lot during this week about the role action research can play in a school and district. I really enjoyed watching our assigned videos. After watching the videos, I came away with many new ideas and a solid answer as to why we must continually conduct action research as school leaders. Time is the only downfall to implementing any new idea. I am finding it difficult to figure out how my fellow teachers are going to feel with the implementation of my action research project. It involves a few minutes of their time each month and I want to make sure that they understand how important their time is to me, and most of all, the students! I know that I will have to come up with a way to introduce my action research to the staff, that will get them as fired up about my topic as I am! I am excited to begin further research into my project and cannot wait for the beginning of next year, so that I can begin implementing some new strategies within our school and school community! 

By the way, my current question is: Will the implementation of motivational strategies increase and sustain primary school attendance? Again, I am so excited! I have become very passionate about this subject with the more I research I conduct!

-Mary

Facebook Groups

I created the Facebook Groups for both of the different cohorts! Here are the group links:

Ed. Tech Cohort Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/EdTechLU0814/
Ed. Admin Cohort Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EdAdminLU0814/

I hope that this will give us a communication outlet to discuss problems, concerns, and praises we have throughout the weeks and months to come!

-Mary

A Blog About This Week

 This particular blog post won't exactly be about my Action Research Project. This week I have had an exhausting week physically and emotionally. I have been going through some pretty rough health issues and it all seemed to come to a head this week. I work so hard to save as many "sick leave" days as possible throughout the school year, since it seems like when budget cuts come, they take away our "sick" days. After tomorrow, I will be down to one. I hate that! I have had to use two sick days in less than a week. But when you are sick, you are sick. I am very thankful that my family leaves semi-close to me so that they are able to help me whenever I need them. I think that I will be getting some very important blood results back tomorrow, that I have been waiting on for two weeks now, that will shed some light on many of the problems I am having. Fingers crossed! Tomorrow I hope that I can sit up and look at a computer screen longer than 15 minutes without feeling as though I am going to pass out. I still have to finish week two assignment and post my reflection on here. All will get finished, I just need this dizziness and pain to go away! In conclusion, this is my week two blog reflection until I can put up my official one, which will hopefully be tomorrow.

Have a blessed and healthy week everyone!
Mary

Educational Leaders+Blogs= Redefining Education

I am an advocate for incorporating technology into different aspects of education. I believe that teachers should have and actively update class web pages to stay connected with students and parents, I have seen the positive use of a Facebook page for a school to update parents, and the idea of educational leaders blogging almost makes me giddy! I was excited to see that one of the elements of this week's assignment was to create a blog. I am excited that I will be able to share my successes with colleagues and Lamar University professors.

In our last class, we had to interview two educational leaders. Both of them said that the negative side of being an administrator was that it could be very lonely. I believe that being able to blog and connect with others would create an environment where you could share successes, failures, ideas, and create a support network. This would be a very positive way that educational leaders might use blogs.

I am excited to interact more with my colleagues in this class, since I wasn't able to interact with them much during the previous class.

Mary