Adding more... Is this getting too big for me?

I met with my site supervisor, Sam Hicks, on November 1, 2012 after observing a team leader meeting in the conference room in his office regarding my Draft Action Research plan. I had emailed him my draft before we met so he had some time to look over the plan before we met.

​When beginning our conference, Sam Hicks said that he thought my idea was very good. He mentioned that the more brains he had working on this new program, the better. Mr. Hicks wanted to make sure that I knew that Stephanie Winfrey, our counselor, was heading this program up as far as implementation, so she would be the best point of contact and resource for any questions or concerns I had. He also recommended that I begin attending any Olweus Committee meetings that may be held. He commented that he was glad that I was focusing my research on a specific area of the entire program, but questioned how I would know if any progress was made specifically because of the classroom meetings. I agreed that I may need to rethink how I can survey students to more accurately pinpoint how they feel the classroom meetings benefit them in relation to the bullying.

​After discussing the entire draft, Mr. Hicks had no revisions or changes to make for the program, other than more specifically assessing how the classroom meetings impact decreasing bullying issues.  He said that he thought the plan was well thought out. After this discussion, my draft research plan did not change from the week three draft assignments I completed, except to add a more specific survey of students in regard to classroom meeting implementation.

Since the meeting, I have been brainstorming ways to pinpoint assessing the benefits of classroom meetings. Since one of our goals of the Olweus program is to essentially have students take over and run the anti-bullying campaign, I decided that I would take a video survey of students asking their opinions of classroom meetings. I will ask the teachers to each send me a boy and a girl, and I will ask them four questions to answer on video. 1) How do you feel about the classroom meetings in your class? 2) Do you feel that these classroom meetings gave you a deeper understanding of how bullying affects others? 3) Do you feel that classroom meetings helped you to understand what to do if you are bullied or witness bullying? 4) Do you feel that the number of bullying incidents have increased or decreased since the classroom meetings have started?

After the video interviews are compiled, I will show them to the staff. From there, the Olweus committee may decide that we are on the right path, or that we need to make changes to our classroom meetings for the next school year. I can foresee that students may feel that bullying is increasing, but I don’t think this will be because there are more incidents. I think that students will be more aware of what bullying is, and therefore will notice it more.   

Here is my updated plan, complete with the student video interview surveys. I will also keep the end of year anonymous student surveys as part of my plan.

Action Planning Template
Goal: The goal of this action research project is to determine if classroom meetings positively impact the goals of our new anti-bully program, Olweus.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Initially survey the students using the Olweus survey to determine their feelings on how often they feel bullied, where the bullying is occurring, and how the bullying is addressed by adults.	Stephanie Winfrey (counselor) myself	October 2012	Computer lab, Olweus survey	Analyze survey results to determine how often, to what extent, and where the bullying is occurring.
2. Training teachers on implementing classroom meetings.	Stephanie Winfrey, Olweus Committee	August 2012-May 2013	Olweus materials (Olweus Guide, Olweus DVD, PowerPoint, Handouts)	Provide practice on conducting classroom meetings, watch model meetings on video, answer questions the teachers may have about the process.
3. Implement weekly classroom meetings	Classroom teachers	October 2012-ongoing	Space to form a circle for the meeting participants, anchor charts	Use the meetings to provide a safe respectful environment to: emphasize the anti-bullying rules, the Mustang Code, and team-building exercises.
4. Survey of teachers relating classroom meetings to class atmosphere, discipline, & difficulty, and amount of meetings actually conducted.	Myself	January 2013	Survey developed by myself for the teachers to fill out anonymously.	Analyze the results to determine if meetings are being conducted on a regular basis, the amount of discipline referrals in relation to bullying issues, and teacher feelings relating to classroom meetings.
5. End of year Olweus Survey the students to determine their feelings on how often they feel bullied, where the bullying is occurring, and how the bullying is addressed by adults.	Stephanie Winfrey (counselor) myself	May 2013	Computer lab, Olweus survey	Analyze survey results to determine how often, to what extent, and where the bullying is occurring. Compare the results to the beginning of the year survey.
6. Conduct a video interview of randomly selected students across LWE grade levels to answer questions regarding classroom meetings and bullying.	Myself, classroom teachers	May 2013	Video Camera, List of questions	Share the video with the teachers and staff to reflect upon.
6. Survey of teachers relating classroom meetings to class atmosphere, discipline, & difficulty, and amount of meetings actually conducted.	Myself	May 2013	Survey developed by myself for the teachers to fill out anonymously.	Analyze the results to determine if meetings are being conducted on a regular basis, the amount of discipline referrals in relation to bullying issues, and teacher feelings relating to classroom meetings.
7. Share the findings with the campus personnel.	Stephanie Winfrey (counselor), Olweus Committee, myself	May 2013	Condensed and analyzed survey results	Share results at two different locations: final staff meeting and course blog site.
8. Reevaluate what further steps need to be taken to reduce bullying on our campus.	Olweus committee	May 2013	Olweus Literature	Collaborate as a committee to decide based on our findings, what could be done to further reduce any negativity resulting from bullying on our campus.
9. Share the new current course of action with the campus personnel.	Sam Hicks (principal), Stephanie Winfrey (counselor), Olweus committee, myself	August 2013	Any new literature needed, training materials (if necessary).	Use this time for further encouragement and reminders that our efforts are for a very good purpose- defeating bullying at LWE.