Campus Climate and Culture

The purpose for my proposed action research project is to gauge how we are doing in terms of our campus climate and culture at our secondary campuses. There are several different areas that I am wanting to look into in terms of what we are doing to create a more positive learning environment for both students and teachers. With the PBIS initiative in place this year, I would like to take a look at the number of office referrals that have been received so far this year and compare that to last year. I would also like to evaluate the extra curriculum programs, events, etc that have been put in place for the purpose of creating a more positive environment. Lastly, I will conduct surveys and face-to-face interviews with students, teachers, and parents in order to get a true sense of how they feel about their campus climate and culture and (for those who have been here for more than one year) what changes have they seen.

The significance of this project will hopefully be felt by all stakeholders for both our high school and middle school campuses. After evaluating the data we can determine if we are truly creating the type of campus culture that is conducive to student achievement. I will have the opportunity to meet with the campus administrators after collecting the data and discuss with them the findings. My hope is that if changes need to be made, based off of student, teachers, and parent responses, they will be willing to take a deeper look it to ways in which we can create the type of campuses that we all want.

Using Blogging in Education

I have been an active blogger for many year. I started my first blog in 2006 prior to getting into public education.

Throughout the years I have found it to be a great platform for getting information out. I believe in this process so much that I started a blog for our district this year. Specifically it is for our special education department. It is call "Our TRIBE". You can check it out by clicking on the link.

If you have any questions, you can post them as comments either on this blog or on the TRIBE blog.

Happy Blogging!
ZSnow

Action Research

I am truly excited about this course because I have really grown to appreciate the part action research plays in education.

In my current position in Community ISD, we are going through a couple of years of great transition. From coming out of a special education coop to bringing all services in house to better serve our students (this directly affects me because I am a special education teacher), to hiring a new superintendent...it has been almost two full years of transition for our district.

I feel that most would agree that the changes have been good and necessary. I have seen a real commitment to moving our district forward. I know that there are meetings and conversations on a weekly basis in which the old order of doing things are being challenged. Not change for the sake of change but to determine what is in the best interest of all stakeholders.

A big part of the decision making process for the administration has been in looking at the data (research based data) and determining the best direction based off of the findings.

This has been encouraging because, while I am not in all of those meeting, I can see the evidence of them and I truly feel like taking this approach to decision making is in the best interest of all involved. While change can be hard, those who are truly here because they are passionate about students and seeing them successful, we (teachers) can accept change when they see results.

That is why I am so excited about this course, I want to be an affect action research for the betterment of my district and more importantly for our students.