WeekTwo: How does ISS affect a student's success?

     After reading some articles online and discussing different topics with my wife, we have decided on the topic of how In School Suspension and Alternative Education Placement affects the success of students who are assigned this as a form of punishment. We also want to try to come up with some other form of discipline that will keep the kids in the classroom, while still maintaining our high standards of behavioral expectations. This will be a big undertaking, as this is a problem that plagues most if not all Junior High and High School Campuses in our state and perhaps our nation. Marquelle and I are hopeful to affect a change in the students on our joint campuses and our administrators are on board for us to give it a try.
   I feel our biggest challenge is going to be making sure that the classroom environment remains conducive to teaching for the well behaved students and the teachers, while allowing students with behavioral problems to still be in attendance. This is an never ending problem. As much, as I want all of my students to be in class for my engaging lessons, I also do not want a disruptive student to prevent me from being able to teach or another student from being able to learn. This leads to the question: Where does one person's rights to education end and another's rights begin? This will be a portion of our research, as we will hold a group discussion/interview with a cross section of students who have had 0-2 referrals on average for the past 3 years. We want to be sure to include their perspectives in this research inquiry, as well as the teachers who will also be affected, by whatever we decide to implement. The teachers will be questioned via a survey perhaps by utilizing survey monkey.
  Overall, we have a lot of work to get done, but in the end any success that improves the education of our students will be worth the efforts. I hope you enjoy following our journey, as I share our progress and continue to keep it real!

Week One Assignment: Description of Action Research

Action Research is the process that Principals need to take to affect real change in their schools. It is a proactive process that involves leadership committees and group problem solving. Action Research helps principals set goals to move toward needed change to improve the school environment for the staff, students, parents, and community. This process also allows the principal to be fully engaged in what is going on in their school. The idea of Action Research is a continuation of what I learned during my first course in Educational Leadership. The idea of using collaborative groups to solve problems and make decisions on each campus was shown to be especially important to encourage buy in and allow those most affected by the changes to have a voice in the process. Action Research is a specific way to make this collaborative grouping more effective.

I was encouraged to see that the author does understand and address the time constraints that work against us as educators and that will continue to be a problem as we move in to the position of principal. I agree with the author that it is just a matter of making it part of your routine. I think my job as teacher and coach gives me firsthand experience with dealing with time management and making sure to fit the important things in to your routine. I truly believe, as with my coaching experience has proven, that practice makes perfect. If we as educational leaders practice action research, it will become part of our usual routine and time will no longer seem as relevant (Dana, 2006).

Blogs can be used by educators to share with other educators what they are working on in class or on their campus. They can also have their students use them to share what they are learning in class. Principals can use blogs to share information with principals on other campuses and gain insight to what is working at their school. It is a quick and easy way to disseminate information.