Action Research Week 2 - Are you interested?

This week the importance of passion in research was reenforced.  When I go to work I try to take all my passion and interest in life with me.  Otherwise, I'm working without living.  I'm not about to live a day with eight hours less than usual.  Life is too short and the work day is too long not to love your job.

In guitar class, I share the songs I'm writing.

In gymnastics, I do the tricks.

In my English classes I show the students my own journal.  I share with them the books I'm currently reading.  I tell them, "I teach because I love people.  I teach English because I love reading and writing.  When they are reading and journaling I remind them, "I don't ask you to do anything I don't do."

If I'm going to do action research it's going to have to be over a topic I'm passionate about.  Thankfully, my site supervisor and three out of three interviewed Lamar Doctorate holders agree with me.

I am passionate about student's experiencing life in the classroom.  I bring my personal interests to the classroom and encourage the students to create, build, design, and live their passions out at school.  What I have found at the alternative campus that I work at is that many of the students who continually have discipline issues and severe motivation issues in the classroom are the same students who cannot identify a passion, interest, hobby, dream, or any tangible hope for the future.  I try to get these students to build things, play guitar, learn chess, etc.  I spring a myriad of opportunities at them and hope something sticks.

I have decided to conduct action research on the relationship between outside interests and their effect on discipline and academic achievement.  In my internship plan I am developing an after school program that will extend my classroom efforts and give the students a safe and knowledgeable environment to learn new skills and hobbies.  As a researcher I will document the shift (if any) in their GPA and referral rates over the course of their involvement in the after school program.