“ One discipline always leads to another discipline.”
~Jim Rohn
Rationale
Although each teacher has a style of their own, they do not work in isolation. The concept behind this Action Research Project was to standardize the sixth grade arrival procedure in three separate classrooms in an effort to cut down on transitional inefficiencies and the settling down time at the start of class. It was also designed to blend the content of consecutive classes and demonstrate how teachers of different disciplines were curious and knowledgeable about all the disciplines.
Reflection
Two fellow interns and I had a unique opportunity to work together as part of a sixth grade team this spring. Between us, we had all 45 sixth grade students in our classrooms for Math, Science, and Humanities. We collaborated on this Action Research Project, which we designed to standardize the arrival procedure to our classrooms to highlight the simple, yet fading expectation that students would arrive to class prepared and on time.
One thing I discovered was that it is more difficult than it would seem to achieve classroom management consistency among teachers. One system, even when narrowly defined, is quite open to interpretation. It was a challenge to coordinate and compare notes to stay on the same page often enough amidst the bustle of a normal day. The other discovery here being that the ritual of taking even five minutes to quickly review at the beginning of class can be very hard to maintain , given the plethora of other forces contending for teachers' classroom time.
However, the takeaway from this for me was appreciable. I intend to continue using a beginning-of-class procedure, as well as to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines to make my middle school students aware that what is learned in one classroom is useful in others, and even outside of school!