It Just Keeps Getting More Enthusiastic in Here!

Another week down and our enthusiastic teachers are hard at work! As we continue to make way with our action research, our teachers have been able to tweak and fine-tune their research questions. In addition, with our ample snow days and delays, we have also been able to further delve into our research and methodology. Our teachers have been working to determine the appropriate forms of measurement as well as the most helpful methods of collecting data. We even have some awesome links for you to check out! As we steam along with our plans, we look forward to drafting the design of our research and finalizing our methodologies. Now, let's take a peek into each of our teacher's classrooms:

Pre-K Hallway- Ms. Kelly Bryant

As I continue my research, I am finding it hard to pin point a particular “go-to” person in regards to Conscious Discipline. While Lorrie Hoffman is a main author in two of the articles I have used for the literature review, it is difficult to establish her as the “father” of Conscious Discipline research. Technically, Lorrie Hoffman is the “father” as she is the creator of the program; however, I cannot depend solely on her data without a sense of bias. In other words, in many respects Lorrie Hoffman knows best about the program because she created it, but her research will most likely be biased towards supporting her program as she is the one profiting from it. This left me with the challenge of finding another reputable researcher knowledgeable of Conscious Discipline who has an outside perspective. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any direct research on the program and therefore, was forced to look for related concepts. This caused me to search for a variety of related topics all under the umbrella of classroom management and student behavior. The articles I reviewed provided an array of perspectives on the matter and allowed me to notice trends in the literature; however, there was no particular researcher responsible. While Lorrie Hoffman is able to provide me with a first-hand explanation and understanding of the program, it’s effectiveness has yet to be proven by anyone else. This, I have found, is a very significant factor for the implementation of my action research plan because what the data shows in my study could potentially lead to a longitudinal study or a further investigation of the program’s effectiveness.

As for methodology, I have been able to determine the basics of how my plan will be implemented. The participants will be the 13 students in my classroom. Of the 13 students, one student has been previously diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In addition, there are 5 other students who have been recognized as having other learning disabilities or challenges; although none of which have proven to be significantly, cognitively debilitating.

My action research plan will be both quantitative and qualitative and will utilize recorded observations as its main source of data collection. I will look for the quality of interactions between students and teachers (positive v. negative), as well as whether or not students were independently able to solve problems or resolve conflict with their peers. In addition, I will also make note of the number of occurrences certain behaviors happen, such as negative and positive interactions, and whether or not these occurrences are decreasing or increasing over time as the program is being implemented. Furthermore, I will also look at statistical differences between students with special needs and students without.

1st Grade Hallway- Ms. Aprell Adams

As I add more details to my methodology section my overall action research is starting to become clearer to me. I have a stronger view of my problem statement and how I will approach it in order to get the concrete results I’m hoping for. Having a sufficient amount of data is something I am conscious of as I determine the methods I will use to collect and analyze the data. I’m finding that I may have to refine my research questions to ensure my results answer my problem statement. I’m currently brainstorming the details that will make up the different instruments I will be using such as surveys and assessments. Once I compile this information I will be able to move on with my data collection and analysis. I am looking foward to finalizing my metholdogy and moving on to the next step of my research.

3rd Grade Hallway- Ms. Stacey Seiler

This week I was able to really solidify the methods I will use in collecting data for my action research. My action research approach is quantitative. The research is a quasi-experimental one-group pretest and post-test design.  The selected group (my current math students) will be pre-tested on their understanding of mathematical skills and fluency by completing a paper and pencil assessment. The assessment aligns with the Baltimore County Curriculum, which cooperates with the Common Core State Standards. They will also complete a survey assessing their perception of their own understanding in mathematics, and attitudes toward mathematics class.

The treatment, or independent variable, is the implementation of the collaborative small group centers, and the small group instruction. The dependent variables will the students' achievement, and attitudes toward mathematics class. The treatment's impact will be assessed by a post-test that will be similar to the pretest, but using different wording and numbers, to ensure that students do not remember the pretest. The same attitude and perception survey will be administered before and after the treatment. 

I am happy that what once felt like a somewhat confusing project to explain, is become much clearer! 

4th Grade Hallway- Mrs. Jamie Lambrinos

As I begin to think of the methodology for my action research project.  Up to this point, I have decided to utilize ex post facto group comparison since the mathematics classes were previously created by the fourth grade teachers in November 2014.  The mathematics classes were created to homogeneously group the students based on their academic abilities.  Classroom A will serve as the experimental group who will be receiving the treatment of utilizing an interactive notebook during class instruction.  Classroom B will represent the control group in the action research who will utilize the traditional three ring binder during mathematics instruction.  As the week progresses I will continue to refine my methodology and take a closer look at the way in which I will conduct my methodology.  Till next time…

5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young

As another week comes and goes I find myself making more changes, and hopefully improvements to my action research project.  The first change I made was combining two of my research questions into one.  My revised research question is now, “How does integrating nutrition education into a fifth grade fractions mathematics unit, through the use of MyPlate and Let’s Move! affect students attitudes towards healthy foods?” My revision of Step 1 came as I became more familiar with Step 3, designing the methodology. My original research question one and three could both be accomplished through pre and post surveys so it seemed easier to me to combine questions and tighten things up.

 As of this week my methodology for my research will utilize two types of quantitative data.  In order to address my first research question I will utilize the Nonequivalent Control Group.  The entire class will be given a survey about their attitudes towards healthy foods prior to the treatment.  Two groups will be formed.  One group will be a control, not receiving the treatment of nutrition integration lessons during the fractions mathematics unit.  These students will utilize tools like fraction bars and non-food related word problems. The treatment will be administered to half of the students via lesson plans from Let's Move! and online resources from MyPlate. Students will utilize tools like measuring cups and food related word problems.  At the end of the treatment, a posttest in the form of a survey will be given to gage students’ attitudes towards healthy foods. In this design it resembles Glanz's (2003) M ---> T1 ---> M and M ---> T2 ---> M.  In order to collect data on my second research question involving student's attention during small group, an observation data sheet will be used to make tallies when students exhibit off task behaviors.  This data will be compared with the number of students participating in NSLP.

I have also really enjoyed becoming more and more familiar with the copious amounts of resources that the MyPlate and Let’s Move! websites have to offer.  Any teacher could access the curriculum that Let’s Move! has put together and implement  the entire lesson plan or bits and pieces to incorporate nutrition education in reading, language arts, science, and math.
http://www.letsmove.gov/schools

It's All Coming Together Slowly But Surely...

Our teacher's wish was granted and were given the day off due to inclement weather. This was a great opportunity for the teachers to collaborate and dive deeper into their literature reviews. They took advantage of the extra time and explored many resources that supported their research topics and questions. However, this task came with its challenges. One things for sure nothing will get in the way of our enthusiastic teachers! They were all up for the challenge and very anxious to share their progress. I can't wait to hear all about the many scholarly articles and books they've found on their various topics. I'm sure they are feeling very accomplished and more confident about conducting their action research projects.  
Pre-K Hallway- Ms. Kelly Bryant
So far, I have been able to research information regarding my action research topic that will help meexplore a variety of perspectives. At this point, I believe I have found most, if not all, of the reliable literature that I need to review; however, it has begun to make me rethink my research questions. I’m also starting to consider changing the focus and methodology of my action research and research through the lens of the teacher. My topic of interest, Conscious Discipline, originally had me measuring it’s effects through student behavior alone, but what I have discovered is that Conscious Discipline is first a program for teacher behavior and students’ second. Therefore, I’m thinking it may make sense to measure any personal changes and try to gather information on whether or not my personal changes with using the program have any effect on student behavior. This would not only change my data from mostly qualitative to mostly quantitative, it would also shift focus away from the student and onto the teacher. I can only hope that with further review and analysis of my literature, I will be able to cement the design and methodology of my action research plan. 

1st Grade Hallway- Ms. Aprell Adams

As I began to dig deeper this week into my research and find literature that will help me answer my research questions, I came across many challenges. I was able to find literature on various topics in regards to reading fluency and sight word recognition, but I’ve struggled to find meaningful ways to make the information I’ve found connect to my overall problem statement. My goal is to organize the information in a way that will allow me to address the components that define reading fluency, problems associated with reading fluency and the effects of teaching sight word knowledge to struggling readers. As I continue to dissect my literature I will look for information that will address these areas in order for me to clearly conduct my action research. When I initially approached this assignment, I imagined it being me searching for scholarly material to support my research topic and finding information that would be relevant. Little did I know the thought process that had to go behind sequencing your literature, so that it will flow and allow the reader to clearly understand the major points I want to magnify in my action research. Now, that I have done my research and have a clearer understanding of my direction, I feel more confident approaching the next step in my research. I can finally see the light!    

3rd Grade Hallway- Ms. Stacey Seiler

As I talk to my colleagues about their literature review for their action research, I can conclude that we all have a similar feeling. It kind of feels like the day that I realized I would need glasses for seeing long distance. I had trouble seeing far away, everything was a little blurry, it was hard to find the perfect pair, then I felt a little excited, but as soon as I wore them I had doubts that they were the right ones. Finally the glasses felt natural, and I could see everything so much clearer!  I’m past the, “I think I picked the perfect pair phase” and so now I’m trying to make all the literature flow naturally in a piece of writing.

 I’ve chosen to organize my literature review around the big concepts and structures that my action research will require in the classroom. The major ideas are small group instruction, work stations or centers, and cooperative learning. Even though my project focuses on mathematics, the majority of my literature review comes from literacy studies.  This is interesting because the structure of my English Language Arts block is what inspired my project. It makes me wonder why there hasn’t been as much research done on this type of instruction mathematics. It also makes me wonder if my search in the area of mathematics was not thorough enough. Either way, I like that my project will potentially transfer ideas that many of us associate with the English Language Arts classroom to the mathematics classroom! To the rest of us teacher/researchers, It might be hard to see right now, but our “glasses” will provide clarity soon enough!

4th Grade Hallway- Mrs. Jamie Lambrinos

This week I have been focusing my action research on gathering relevant literature to support the research that I wish to conduct.  This part of the process has been challenging for me for several reasons: 1. I have found that finding the go to “person” for my topic is a challenge.  I have discovered that AVID and TCI are the roots for interactive notebooks in the content area of science; though the "go to" person for mathematics has been left undetermined at this point for me. 2.  I have also found that finding 5 sources of literature can be challenging because I want to avoid being redundant.  There is research out there to be read on my topic but they all seem to say that the use of interactive notebooks has a positive effect on student achievement. By finding this it caused me to open my literature a bit more to include and connect best learning and teaching strategies, description of interactive notebooks, and the importance of note taking to the use of interactive notebooks in mathematics. 3.  Finally, I was challenged with the relevancy of my action research this week. I searched for literature for my action research I found other action research projects with topics very similar to my own.  It made me question, if I was able to find literature based on research conducted on my question what is the relevancy of conducting my action research.   This past week has most certainly challenged me.  From pushing through this part I have learned from the challenges and learning from just doing….I just certainly hope that I am learning the right things! Till next week….

5th Grade Hallway- Mrs. Rebecca Young


This week in 5th grade I've been reviewing the literature that will help guide the methodology I will design for my action research project.  I decided to organize what I was looking for into three different areas of focus.  Those areas include a historical background of the National School Lunch Program as well as NSLP's implementation in our school district, pros and cons of nutrition integration in schools, as well as some of the organizations that are currently advocating for the education of children on healthy eating habits.   I quickly found multiple studies complied by the United States Department of Agriculture on integrating nutrition education in schools as well as the impact school meals have on students' attention.  After reading through several studies it became clear to me that there are mixed results on the effects of nutrition integration and students attitudes towards foods. However, what I became more fixated on is the research and data lacking on the correlation of attention with students that participate in NSLP vs. those that do not.  Initially this was disheartening to me.  I felt like maybe my research question was a poor choice. However, I quickly realized that this could be an exciting opportunity to conduct research and get data in an area where both of these are lacking. I am looking forward and am anxiously awaiting the design of my methodology.  I want to dive into, what feels like, new territories related to school nutrition research.

Putting On Our Reading Glasses

After beginning the week with a freezing rain delay, our enthusiastic teachers got right back into the swing of things (though I know they are really hoping for at least one small blizzard). Last week when our school improvement team met the teachers were excited to share updates about the development of their problem statements. After we helped each other clear up questions about the action research problem statements, we discussed the next steps in the process. We decided that each of the teachers should begin their literature review this week. I hope you are as anxious as I am to read what these teachers have learned since last week!

 Pre-K Hallway-Ms. Kelly Bryant

This week, I have continued to narrow my focus on my action research topic. I have begun to fine-tune my research questions and have further contemplated the type of research that I will conduct. As I further my knowledge on methodology and the various designs for action research, I am able to assess which method and design would be most appropriate for my plan. Thus far, I have concluded that the best design or designs would most likely be observation, perhaps with some interviews or surveys of other teachers and school personnel. I foresee my action research plan having mostly qualitative data; however, I do see room and purpose for quantitative data as well. The qualitative data will most likely be of student observations before and after certain methods or changes are implemented, whereas the quantitative data will most likely cover occurrences of certain target behaviors. I hope to finalize my research problem and questions as I continue with my action research progress and hope that my questions will be further clarified once I begin searching for related literature.

1st Grade Hallway-Ms. Aprell Adams

 "Buckle Your Seat Belts" As I enter into phase two of my action research I am finding myself faced with many accomplishments as well as challenges. Through my research I have found many articles that give valuable information on topics such as reading fluency and reading interventions. However, I have come across limited resources solely on the benefits of sight word recognition and how it may connect to a students overall reading fluency and comprehension. My hope as I continue my research is that I will find a variety of resources that will allow me to fully address my problem statement. I have a long road ahead and this is just the beginning!

 3rd Grade Hallway-Ms. Stacey Seiler

Like Ms. Bryant, this week I have been working on refining my research questions and problem statement. As a teacher who employs Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe), I try to keep the end in mind.  Though this has taken a lot of time and reflection is helpful and important to understand what exactly I am trying to do before I begin!

 4th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Jaime Lambrinos

 At this point, I think some of our teachers might feel like this....

After revising my problem statement this past week I have begun to “hit the books” and search for literature to support my quest for understanding the effectiveness of interactive notebooks in mathematics. This search for literature has taught me several valuable lessons:
1. I have learned that Google Scholar is a valuable search tool for finding academic literature and research. Seriously, how have I gotten this far into my graduate program without using this search engine before? By using this search engine I was able to find a plethora of resources for my action research.
2. I have learned that as you begin to search for literature that supports my action research I may need to think outside the box. My problem statement focuses on the effectiveness of interactive notebooks in mathematics but there is not much literature out there to support this. Therefore, I have begun to collect literature on the effectiveness of interactive notebooks in the science classroom, the importance of note taking in order to increase student achievement, and literature on best teaching practices for mathematics. My goal is to bridge this literature with my research of interactive math notebooks.
3. The final lesson that I learned this week is that you must ALWAYS print the literature you find before you shut down your computer. Yes, I found many articles of literature to review this week and felt a sense of satisfaction until….in my haste to head home I shut down my computer and all my open internet windows of literature were lost. Oh, what a fabulous lesson that was to learn! With all the successes and yes, failures of this past week I am still enthusiastic about this next step of the action research process. I look forward to reading the literature to support my project and using this knowledge to better the project and success of my 4th grade students. Till next week….

 5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young

Check it out ChooseMyPlate.gov

As I dive into the next step of action research, review the literature, I could not help but take another swipe at my research questions before deciding what literature to review. I wanted to get more specific about how I will integrate nutrition education and what I will measure as success. I was very impressed by the government's ChooseMyPlate website. The website itself is very kid friendly as well as having useful resources for teachers. I was able to find a 4th&5th grade nutrition integration curriculum on the website. My next math unit is on fractions and fraction operations and the curriculum guide had a few ideas for integrating nutrition education using fractions. I also decided that I wanted a research question to address the attention and participation of my students during small group math time at the end of the day. At the end of the day I would like to see if students that pack lunch as opposed to buying the school lunch are more likely to participate and maintain focus during small group math instruction.

 After this third revision to my research questions I am now going to look for literature that makes any connections between NSLP and attention in school as well as how and even if nutrition education affects attitudes towards food. I also know that I will be returning to ChooseMyPlate.gov and looking into any research they have in nutrition education in math.

 Time to put my reading glasses on...

1 problem, 2 problem, 3 problems Oh My!

The hallways of Enthusiastic Elementary have been quite busy this week!  Over the last week our fearless action research teachers have jumped right into the world of "defining the problem."  All our teachers have already identified that this is a critical step that takes hours of reflection. Below you will gain a glimpse into their reflections.  I am confident they will make even more progress by the next update.  Keep up the great work Enthusiasts!

Pre-K Hallway-Ms. Kelly Bryant

As I wonder about what I could focus my action research project, I am leaning towards something to do with the development of the pre-k program at my school. The program is a newly constructed program as of this year and is really still going through transition, so possibly I could work with something to do with curriculum, assessment, or subject programs. We have been trying a LOT of new things and I'm wondering if some of them are effective or redundant- are we doing too much? For example, for assessment right now we have a developmental checklist, a portfolio, a report card, and we do comments. I feel like some of it really is just extra work with no real purpose. I could also focus on this behavioral program we've been implementing called Concious Discipline. It seems very effective, but it is also in the beginning stages and I'm really wondering if it's as great as they say. I also wonder how is works for children with special needs. All great possibilities.

1st Grade Hallway-Ms. Aprell Adams

"The Bigger Picture" As I reflect on the many issues facing today's society I can't help but to ponder on how those issues affect education and children. Issues such as poverty, health, lack of a stable family support system, nutrition, and violence all play a role in how we educate children and how they learn. I challenged myself to focus more closely at my own school and how the many outside variables affect the students in my grade one class. One major goal for all first grade students is that they leave first grade knowing how to read fluently and comprehend what they have read. The many dynamics that affect a child's educational experience hinder most students from being strong readers. One major difference between my students that leave reading and those who don't is their knowledge of the 220 sight words. I am considering doing an action research project on the affects of sight word knowledge on reading fluency for first grade students. Students having the ability and access to learn all of the sight words is dependent on the support, well being and safety of each individual student. When students are given the resources and support that they need can this change the number of high school graduates that leave grade school not knowing how to read fluently?  

3rd Grade Hallway-Ms. Stacey Seiler

Choosing an action research topic is no easy task. The biggest challenge I faced (and I imagine the other teachers felt this way too) is that there are so many areas that I want to improve. This is where the idea of kaizen, the Japanese term for continuous improvement, really resonates with me. I realized that while it’s a curse to be indecisive about my topic, in terms of kaizen, it’s really not a bad thing to have many areas that you wish to improve. I think that’s what makes a teacher effective! Those who are stagnant in their pedagogy are the ones in danger of losing their effectiveness.

At the start of the process there were so many things that interested me. Originally I wanted to focus on team building and collaboration because of my experience working in teambuilding for outdoor excursions and ropes courses was extremely fun and positive. However, after following the process of narrowing down our topic, it became clear to me that I most importantly and immediately need to improve my student’s understanding in math. This school year I have a class of mixed ability, but a large number of them would be considered low-average. My math class is sweet, but very active and times extremely inattentive. Many students’ lack foundational skills like number sense, place value, addition, and subtraction. As the curriculum moves forward skills are only becoming for difficult. Students have trouble multiplying if they still add incorrectly, or don’t know how to skip count. Teaching this class has been very difficult, and there have been days that I’ve felt absolutely useless, and ineffective.

Over the past two years we have been transitioning to a more learner centered approach to reading instruction that has been quite successful. The English language arts block allows only a short amount of time for whole group instruction and then goes immediately into small group meetings with the teacher. While small groups are being pulled the students are choosing meaningful independent work centers on various related topics like word work and writing. With the success of this I thought this model might be useful in math class too. This led me to my revised action research topic and question: How can implementing small groups and centers in math improve understanding and fluency in math? And now comes the fun part! Here we go…

4th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Jaime Lambrinos

As I began to think about the direction of my action research I reflected on the pedagogical practices that are currently in place in my classroom.  The latest teaching strategy that I have begun to implement is the use of interactive notebooks in my ELA and Science classes.  I truly enjoy using this methodology in my classroom.  If you were to look at a student's interactive notebook you would be taken by the individuality of this resource.  Each notebook is a colorful expression of student learning.  The purpose of the interactive notebook is to enable students to be creative, independent thinkers and writers. Interactive notebooks serve as an organizational tool for the multiple intelligence activities in which students are able to express their own ideas and process the information presented in class.
With my interest and the interest of other teachers within our school I have decided that the purpose of my action research will be to determine the effectiveness of interactive notebooks in the elementary classroom setting.  Within the confines of my action research I will explore the following research questions:
1.  Will the implementation of an interactive notebook in math class increase the motivation of fourth grade students?
2.  Will the implementation of an interactive notebook in math class increase the academic achievement of fourth grade students?

Check out this link about interactive notebooks...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmzQNUos0Vk


5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young

I am looking forward to beginning an action research project that will benefit myself as an educator and the quality of education my fifth grade students receive.  An area that has interests me throughout my career is nutrition in education.  I have long been fascinated by the legislation that brought about the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the Free and Reduced Meal program (FARM).  I enjoy looking at all the accomplishments that have come out of this program, originally begun by President Harry Truman, as well as its recent scrutiny by critics like First Lady, Michelle Obama.  So how do all the acronyms apply to my possible action research project? Well, it is well documented that child obesity has been on the rise for a number of years.  In an attempt to curb these issues the lunch and breakfast programs have attempted to address these issues by incorporating more whole grains into meals, including dairy at every meal, as well as a serving of fruit.  However, in the now infamous debate over considering ketchup a vegetable, the program is still lacking in strict guidelines.  As a firm believer in the Jesuit ideal of Cura personalis, I believe my students cannot be successful in school if their basic needs are not met.  One of those most basic needs is fueling up with the right foods.  I believe my students are not fully educated on how to make the appropriate decisions in the lunchroom when it comes to picking a lunch that will allow them to meet the demands of the fifth grade curriculum.  Also, I know the potential is there to influence a possible change in eating at home.  Children are always practicing their skills of persuasion on their families.  If students learned how to make health conscious choices at school they would be able to take this information home.  At this early stage I am juggling two potential research questions.
1. How does integrating nutrition education in the classroom once a day for 15 minutes affect students’ attitudes towards food?
2. Does integrating nutrition education in the classroom change what student’s pack for lunch or the selections they make in the cafeteria?
3. How does integrating nutrition education in the classroom, which may lead to different choices in the lunch line affect student attention and participation during small group math.

The beginning of something new is always one of the hardest times.  I need to continue to look at adapting the questions to make sure they lend themselves to something that could have quantitative or qualitative results.