Poster making AND 2nd to last week

The last PA session went too quickly and I didn't help things by arriving a few minutes late to my group.

I told my group the days agenda to include:
1) Check-in
2) Poster making
3) Decide where in their community they wanted posters
4) Whether we wanted to have three posters publicly displayed with MCTC's addiction counseling group on the day we present

The first thing the students wanted to know was whether we had a meeting with the principal. No one had gotten back to me when I left messages with them the previous week and the students wanted an immediate answer. This became the first thing on the agenda after we did check-in.

We trotted up to the office and waited after the graffiti group met with the temporary principal. He and the students talked about what they wanted to do and what statements they had on their posters. He agreed that they could be up if they brought some next time that were laminated.

When we returned to the class, I brought out two maps of the neighborhood. The students thought that the best locations for placing posters would be near parks. Specifically, Phelps park and Powderhorn park were chosen. They also wanted to place one poster near the Dairy Queen across the street from Bancroft because they saw enough pedestrian traffic there.

The next thing the students decided was that they wanted to be meet the addiction counseling group at MCTC and provide posters to display. No one thought this was an issue. I think they will find it to be a pretty interesting time on the day we present.

Our last focus was to work on posters. Thankfully there were other markers in the classroom available to use. I also discovered the colored pencils, which they also wanted to use.

One thing I thought took up excessive amount of time was the stenciling. When I made a poster for a college project, it took as much or more time than it would have to write a draft paper. This time consuming act could easily be simplified if I bring in some pre-printed letters and commonly used words. If we are to create more posters next week, it would be best to circumvent extensive stenciling and coloring in of letters.

I also doubt we will have enough time to make most posters if we leave the school to put any up. This is something I will have to talk to our group about next time. The students will need to prioritize what they want to do and I will let them decide. Also, next time I would like to video each group member in preparation for our group presentation. We only have an hour left, so I hope to use it as effectively as possible.

Poster Creation Day #1

Honestly, this was probably the best day ever for my group. I think they could all tell it was great, too because they were able to spend more than 40 minutes (our usual group time) on creating posters! What we do with the other 15 minutes or so?

1) We went to the office to set up a time to meet with the principal so we could put up posters. I will get a phone call about which day this will be, since no one could confirm this then.

2) We created a list of words and phrases that students thought would be useful on posters.

3) Some wanted to use paint on their posters, so we met with their art instructor who asked us to outline what we would paint on our posters first. Then, if they wanted to paint them, I have the e-mail address of the instructor to schedule a time to meet.

Interestingly, none of the students wanted to paint after they began to make their posters. They wanted to use markers instead. I asked them at the end of our session if anyone wanted wanted to paint their poster the following week, none of them wanted to.

4) Posters were made.

At first, the students broke into two groups: boys and girls. However, the boys found that they all had different ideas about what they wanted to put down and so they splintered off until they were each working on their own poster. They were all focused on making posters, except one student who was at a loss as to what he wanted to do - he was the last to break off onto his own.

He was usually quite active in the group but towards the end of today he really wasn't. I didn't realize this until I saw he had stopped working on his poster. We talked for a bit about this because he said he did not know where to start. He started working on draft ideas on a piece of paper a little after and was the only group member not to start a poster.

Everyone else was mostly finished with their own posters by the end of our time. Most felt that our time together went very well and was quite effective. However, my most active group member was a bit jumpy and disruptive. I had to intervene with him and another student a few times when they were harassing/disrupting other group members. I had to use a warning as well for the one student who was not respecting another student.

Other ways I helped cool things down and redirect students' attention was moving students (I arranged seating at the beginning and revised it after another student arrived).  I also moved next to two students who were not getting along for a moment.

While it probably sounds like things did not go well, they really did. When they were working on their posters, they were so engaged that they were fairly quiet and busy. I moved around to see how their progress was. This was also when I helped them find supplies they needed, added words to our word list for spelling, chatted with them, and intervened for behavior reasons.

At the beginning, check-in went very well also. I really feel it has helped every member of the group open up a lot more than they otherwise would have. Everyone is looking forward to next Friday.

Next week:

1) We will continue work on posters

2) Possibly meet with the principal (or know when we are)

3) Have more discussion about the project presentation

4) Have a larger discussion about where in their community they want to put up posters 

Project Chosen

This week was pretty difficult, yet rewarding. Even though I am conscious of how little time we have, I still start with check-ins because I feel it helps with group cohesion. It also gives me insight into how each of the students are doing. One student told me about a personal health issue he was dealing with before class and did not share it with the group. This could be why he was pretty quiet the entire session, and more so than any of our other prior meetings.

I had the students write down their ideas for the project after going over possibilities and directions they could take it. Also, I felt it smart for them to refresh their memories about what facts, problems, and solutions they heard from our two visitors. They really could not remember until I reminded them of a few of their points, then more came back.

Each student, after given time to write down their thoughts, stated what they thought. We then discussed each of these points. The boys in the group came up with ideas for a project that they talked about the first day, things that were not practical or legal, like vigilante justice in taking on drug dealers. However, the idea of having a poster prevailed and the students mentioned that they wanted these not only in the school but out in the community. I didn't foresee them wanting to do this and now have to think about how to get this done effectively.

For instance, we will have to decide where we want to put posters in the community and I will have to get student permission slips to make that happen for that specific day. If we are to put posters up in the school, we will need to get permission from the principal and have a meeting. We also have to make the posters and ensure that they convey what we have learned and a message we feel would have the intended effect of reducing drug abuse and addiction.

What I did have a difficult time with was with the behavior of two of our group members. They were distracting the others throughout our time. I redirected them back to what we were doing, but they continually made random comments completely unrelated to what we were doing. This is something I need to work on, but I do not want to have these two members leave the group as was suggested at our meeting. Michelle and I spoke about this on the bus ride after and felt that we should do what we can to make sure students aren't holding back others but also not excluded entirely. We didn't feel this should be an option or a "way out" of our more troubling students - especially when they were actually interested in these projects.

So, I will include this as a part of my research project and find a way to ensure all members of this group are included. I could definitely do more to make sure that this happens, as Kristy mentioned to me. I could amend seating arrangements and use my tone more effectively in speaking to them.

So, this was a challenging week but we now have a project to move forward on. The previously quietest group member asked me after our session what materials we might use on the posters. She wanted to bring some markers and other items the next time we meet. Clearly there is some excitement brewing to get this project going! 

Action Research Project

I have been coaching students at Bancroft for  seven sessions now. Something I would like to focus more on is adequately engaging all of the students in my group. This is a pretty all-encompassing goal, because it includes getting the quieter students involved as well as those who are much more distracted/distracting in our group. I feel like I have improved on getting one student more engaged and interacting with the group, but have lost another student. Then I have two who have the opposite issue, they talk and interrupt what we are doing with off-topic conversation points that it take us off-track. Sometimes they aren't paying attention and ask exactly what someone else already has.

What I will do to keep track of my progress, will take some notes during and especially after our sessions. I will take some video and also blog about my challenges in working towards progress in this area. I will also do some online research (likely school databases to start with) to find techniques are strategies pertinent to this skill set. I will reflect and assess how well I implemented these strategies and whether they were or could be effective. Much of this will be posted on this blog. 

Now's the time to focus on choosing a project

This last week's PA went remarkably well, which I had predicted. We had an excellent conversation about drug rehabilitation thanks to our visitor whose job was an addiction counselor. Everyone participated in the conversation, except one student who normally isn't completely quiet. Still, I found everyone to be quite engaged in the conversation - more so than when we had our community policing specialist visit a couple weeks ago.

Also, this week my students walked up the steps instead of running the halls. I asked them before we left the classroom where our group meets to walk together instead of what happened last time - and it worked.

Another excellent point was that my previously quietest student came up to tell me her week was going well (we didn't do a check-in due to lack of time) and that her notebook needed replacement. She said its pages were falling out, so I'll bring more next time - especially if we are going to have a specific project.

I want to have a brainstorming session where we discuss what potential PA projects we can take on. The PA site says these brainstorming discussions and planning take an hour each, so I am hoping that this next meeting we can in 40 minutes - which is likely unrealistic.

I want to show them a video first of what another PA group did. It has excellent production values, except a bit weak on original substance. The "just say no" line seems worn and could be added or amended. Still, I like that an individual asked his friends to back him up in not accepting drugs - even if the situation also seems contrived.

There are a great many things we could do to focus on preventing or reducing drug abuse in our community. It all depends what focus these students choose to go after. To make it easier, we could list all potential targets, all potential projects that would focus on them, and which ones we feel could be done most effectively given we only have a couple more sessions. I would like to meet with them more once we have chosen something, which is difficult but not impossible to do as the end of semester projects start taking greater precedent. I'd like them to be able to do something and enjoy having accomplished it.

A meeting with Karen Notsch

This week, our group met up with Karen Notsch a community policing specialist with the Minneapolis Police Department. She spoke to my "No drugs" group in addition to the  "No Gangs" group which chose to organize this.

Most of my personal time with my group was spent before and after the meeting. Before the meeting I told them we would be moving to the media center for the meeting, instead of the classroom. As soon as we left, I realized that I should have stated that we would walk together and not run down the hallways - which is what happened with half of my group. The remainder stayed with me and were able to find our meeting spot at the same time.

I felt like she wanted to say a great deal more, but wasn't sure what to say or not say to pre-adolescents. She let us coaches know beforehand that she had looked for information that was relevant to this age group, but could not find a whole lot. She considered our PA groups could work on creating at least one piece of literature directed to this age group, which she would help distribute city-wide. This sounds like a potential project, but her pitch to the students didn't seem to go over as well as she had wanted. We will see if either of our group's will be interested in doing this during our last few sessions.

After class, I let my group know that we would also be speaking with an addiction counselor the next time we meet. Speaking individually to some of my group members who were participated less, they each said they liked the speaker coming. I am hoping thy are more enthusiastic next time.

No PA this week....

The biggest bummer this semester had to be when Kristy told us we would have two fewer PA sessions than we had originally planned for. We only get 40 minutes a week with students, which I do not think is sufficient given that we now have fewer sessions. How do we get a project going and done in this time?

The issue with my group at the moment isn't that we haven't discussed the issues of drugs and how it affects the community, society, and world in multiple different ways. What we cannot seem to get to is finding something we want to do about it. There are some things mentioned by other PA coaches like making posters, but I would rather not suggest an explicit project. I want the students to think more about this problem and how they want to address it.

So, I really want them to get a lot from having two individuals visit our group to talk about the problem of drugs in our community from two different perspectives: one from the Minneapolis Police Department and one from a chemical dependency counselor. These are being arranged for two different days. To me, setting up two different days of the five we have left for these visits is a risky gamble. But given where my group's conversations have gone and what these two visits could mean, I am willing to take the risk. If these students are to hit the jackpot of ideas, it could very well be after they are exposed to the statements of those with first hand knowledge of the problem and solutions.