Week 3: Draft Action Reseach Project Report

Week 3 Assignment, Part 3 Draft Action Research Project Progress Report The purpose of my proposed Action Research Project is to create a school that promotes a community of belonging, acceptance, caring, and understanding for all through the implementation of a peer buddy support program. All stakeholders will benefit from this initiative; students, teachers, administrators, community and parents. Providing an opportunity for friendships to be developed students and general education students between special education In the secondary school settings, I have noticed students without disabilities and students with disabilities separated in the classrooms, cafeteria and other environments. As a Life Skills teacher, it saddens me to see my students being looked over or made fun of due to the lack of knowledge or unawareness. Based on research, the peer buddy program (C.A.R.E. Buddies) will increase disability awareness and benefit community stakeholders. My decision to implement the peer buddy program (C.A.R.E. Buddies) is based on two years of observation (informal data) of a true disconnect of the school, students, and students with disabilities. The vision for the Peer Buddy Program (C.A.R.E. Buddies) at Woodcreek Middle School develops a collaborative caring culture for students with disabilities, students without disabilities, teachers, administrators and parents? Individualized Benefits and Objectives Associated with peer buddy programs: Students with disabilities will learn new social, academic, and life skills while expanding friendships and activities with their general education peers. Students without disabilities will develop new friendships Increase their advocacy skills and awareness of disability issues Gain additional knowledge about people in general and those with disabilities General and Special Education Teachers will benefit by increasing their opportunities for communication and collaboration with each other as they help support students across school environments and activities. Administrators will improve the school climate by supporting practices that foster a caring school community and align school practices with school reform efforts and legislation related to inclusion Parents will find their goals of increased friendships; academic performance, community service, and character development for their children are addressed through peer buddy relationships and experiences. After reading the book, Peer Buddy Programs: for Successful Secondary School Inclusion by Carolyn Hughes and Erik Carter, I decided to implement some of the research based ideas from this book to change the culture on my campus as it relates to students with disabilities. My action plan will consist of is a critical inquiry group dealing with research and implementing best practices for the service learning peer buddy program that is outlined in the test by Hughes and Carter (2008). The critical inquiry group will have students, counselors, administrators, teachers and parents to help create and implement the program. The overall benefits of the program will increase disability awareness and make all students feel more comfortable at school. I have shared my action research project through oral presentations, school website and teacher website. I have done presentations for both the staff and for parents. Our building principal has informal meetings each month called Chat N Chews at local restaurants. I plan to share some information there and have some more formal meetings at the school for the parents. I have presented all the information to the site-based decision making team and leadership team with supporting data about the program implement and student involvement progress. As the creator of the peer buddy program, I assumed all the duties and related responsibilities to ensure that the program was running effective. During the planning stages, I collaborated with several member of the campus instructional leadership team. Fortunately, the program at this stage has not required any additional funding. The plan included taking our students with disabilities to extracurricular activities and eating lunch at the same tables with their general education peers. To ensure safety, they were supported with additional para-educators and their parents. I am fortunate to have an understanding administrative team that understands my passion for students with disabilities. After collaborating and sharing my vision for the development of the peer buddy program they gave me full reins to lead the project as planned. My parents have been very supportive and appreciative of the efforts to include their children in more school activities and the school. It is my goal to provide the students with disabilities an opportunity to feel welcome at school and opportunity to experience school as “normal” students. Peer buddy support programs will: • Increase disability awareness • Build Self Esteem • Educate students about Disabilities • Promote People First Language i.e., A student with an Intellectual Disability instead of A Mentally Retarded student. • Develop career interests through service-learning experiences with both general and special education students, • Create and develop social and life skills Help build a caring school community by linking special education students with general education students in regular school functions. Resource Carter, E.W. & Hughes, C. (2008). Peer buddy programs for successful secondary school inclusion. Baltimore, MD. Paul H Brookes Publishing Co., Inc.