Sheeew-weee!

This week FLEW by!  I'm glad I had the timeline to guide me through those 4 short days.  I might have missed something if not.  I got off to a running start, my Letter of Consent was sent home and those that returned it signed the Letter of Assent (which can be found along with the Letter of Consent link).  I only had one student whose mother didn't want to sign it and the other 5 were either absent or said they forgot to show it to their parents.

After I handed out the Letter of Consent and talked a little bit about my research question, not going into too much detail, I had my students complete the Student Survey.  I wanted to capture their attitudes on homework the way we had been doing it, when it was mandatory.  Once they completed this survey, I told the class more about our new homework policy and my action research.  When I told them that our principal said we would no longer have homework, you would have thought I told my kids that they won the lottery!   They thought that was the absolute coolest thing in the entire world!

There sure was a learning curve for me this week!  Roll with it might have been last weeks theme, but data, data, data was the theme for this week.  I found myself without things that I needed as I went through the each day.  I got to thinking that I might be able to look at how many students took homework home verses how many actually returned it.  I had not originally planned for this, but then again, I had not planned to make taking the homework a choice.  For starters, I needed a way to document what homework was taken by each student.  Tuesday after school I thought I created just the document, then... Wednesday rolled around and I was at a loss for how to document what was returned.  Wednesday after school I went back to the drawing board; I thought it was great, until Thursday rolled around.  I found myself wondering how in another couple of weeks I would know if I had actually handed out math homework on a certain day or if it was just that no one took it.  Those things are important to document.  I also had one student ask for spelling homework on Thursday.  Reading and spelling are always handed out on Mondays in my classroom.  But my record keeping document didn't account for someone taking reading or spelling homework mid-week.  This student got me to thinking that in the weeks to follow I will offer reading and spelling everyday, not just on Monday (which is what I did this week and have previously done).  The finished product to record such things can be found here.  I made this two sided so I could record what was taken on one side and what was returned on the back for easier comparisons.

I felt so rushed this week with a 4 day week and our entire school attending a ladies basketball game on Friday (all morning long).  Without the adequate tools (the record sheet for what was taken/returned), getting permission forms signed, the regular rigmarole of our job as teachers and so on I didn't have a lot of time to be the OBSERVER this week.  I made a form to help me be a better observer next week which can be found here.  I would say that was the most trying part of this week for me, trying to be the observer when things are rushing by at 90 MPH.  I was so excited about what student reactions would be and I found myself using time after school to complete needed things instead of sitting for a moment to truly reflect on what had happened, how the students felt and what they commented on each day.  I collected a lot of data this week, I will be back to talk more about that, but for now I think it was a successful first week!