"It is not what is poured into a student that counts, but what is planted." -Linda Conway
Two weeks ago I thought that I was finished collecting data for my action research case study. I was ready to move on to the next step in the action research process and begin analyzing my data. Although I had some doubts about my intervention implementation and its positive affect (or lack there of) on my students behavior, I was not anticipating what happened once I stopped it. After the first day back at school without the intervention, things with my student took a turn for the worse. We are talking full meltdown mode for three whole days. He was disrespectful towards peers, teachers, and anyone else who happened to run into him. He was very weepy and appeared to be overly agitated and in a bad mood. He also got in trouble at recess twice and was written up for physically harming a peer. Now, I understand that there are a great many factors involved in the behavior and mood of my student, but over the past 6 weeks or so, this behavior was rare. At fist, I blamed it on lack of sleep. He just appeared to be so tired and sad, and I have seen him like this before at the beginning of the year. My initial thought was to start problem solving with his team. His classroom teacher and I discussed possible factors that could be contributing to his unexpected behavior. We brainstormed what we could do to support him, and also what we could do to reverse what was happening after all of the work we had done together in order to give him what he needed to succeed. It was at that time that it hit me.........
My student thrives on a structured routine. The past 6 weeks have not only been incredibly structured for him, but he was used to his daily routine with the inclusion of the behavior self-reflection intervention that I had implemented for my project. I started to get a little excited, even though i was so bummed out that everything had fallen apart. Did my intervention plan really have a positive effect on my students behavior outcomes? Did I implement a strategy that is meaningful to the behavioral success of my student? I couldn't be sure because I also had to take into consideration that I had changed his routine abruptly after 6 entire weeks. Maybe i should continue collecting data for a few weeks while the intervention is not in place in order to show any difference in behavior (positive or negative). I decided that I needed some help with this conundrum, so I looked to my professor for some guidance. With her help, I have decided to collect data for two more weeks, which makes my data collection time frame 8 weeks long. I am hoping that this extra data will help me to truly see if the intervention that I implemented in the hopes of changing my students behavior worked in a positive way.
"Learning is finding out what we already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers." - Richard Bach
