Action Plan

10 x 10 Rule

Action research is something that I control. I get to decide what I want to attempt to improve and continue from there. One of the things that I want to work on in my class in the amount of time every student spends within the class. We all have those students who have to leave the room to go to there locker, restroom or nurse every single day. Half of the time they want to leave when I am introducing the lesson to the class. Well, I just do not believe they are putting in the effort they need to and are finding ways of getting out of work. I want to implement a rule that I will call the 10 x 10 rule. This rule will simply state that no student can leave the class the first 10 minutes of class or the last 10 minutes of class for any reason. I believe this will greatly decrease the number of students leaving class and thus they will receive more instruction time on a daily basis. I teach 7th grade students and there is no reason that they cannot take care of their business in between classes. I just think more time in class will equal an improvement in grades and also cut down on the amount of hallway discipline referrals.

How Educational Leaders might use Blogs?

How many times do you think a campus principal has sent out a staff e-mail only to have 30 responses with the same question or questions back? My guess is several times every six weeks. This is where I think blogs have a place in education. On my campus the staff receives a staff e-mail every Monday know as the "Monday Memo". The Monday memo let's us know about events taking place during the week, deadlines, and other important information that we need to stay on top of. I think the Monday memo would be much more effective if it were sent out in blog form. Then the staff could comment and the principal could answer questions for all to see instead of the same question in 30 different e-mails. Even if you sent another staff e-mail to clarify a question you would still have to open, read and delete all of the e-mails. Also, I believe that blogs are going to be part of the classroom within the next 5 to 10 years, so why not get teachers used to working with the blog. Blogs are here to stay and I truly believe that they can be a great tool for administration.