Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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I have felt very fortunate to have this research experience.
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While I am in my action research course, I've had
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the ability to work with my peers and collaborate around
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um research questions that directly impact my work.
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My peers work and the general climate of our school.
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I have been able to experience my own motivation in
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wanting to do this research and find a solution to
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our, to our research question.
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And I have had the opportunity to collaborate beyond our
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school building outside um to the greater counseling community and
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gotten ideas from counselors all over the state um about
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ways that they are supporting the social emotional health of
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their students.
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And so I can very much see the benefits of
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action research again, even if not paired with professional researchers,
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but being able to take the time to research and
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think about a specific problem that was facing.
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My school community has been very impactful for me and
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really and um strong professional experience to be able to
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reflect on my own practice and think about how we
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as a community can be more welcoming and encourage students
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come back to school.
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So I did.
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I continued the action research process, even though my um
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research active research project at work has come to an
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end for now, at least.
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So I I have come up with an intervention idea
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that I would put into place to test out um
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as I'm doing my research, so we have seen students
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disengage and not come back to school and from what
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we're finding from other schools and from the research um
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that students who are connected with an adult and have
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strong connections at school.
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They are the students that are um remaining engaged even
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throughout a pandemic.
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So, my intervention idea is called Advisory Cafe.
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So this is a morning advisory period that's centered around
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a group breakfast and focus on social emotional learning.
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In this time students arrive at school and the focus
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is at first is not academics.
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The focus is welcoming students into the building with a
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warm, nutrient dense meal connecting them with their peers and
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with a caring adult and ensuring that they have everything
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they need for the day before we start our academic
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practice. So to test this theory, um I would we
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would be connecting students with a caring adult via this
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advisory cafe.
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Um The goal is to build a strong community without
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a focus on academics and starting the day with a
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nutrient dense meal.
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So the goals of this program are to focus on
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that relationship building and welcoming our students in as a
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whole by connecting them.
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Can I bring them immediately with food with a caring
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adult and helping them get set up for everything else
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they need to be successful in academics.
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So to test my theory, I would keep track of
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attendance data, see if our breakfast um advisory cafe was
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having an effect on tardiness or attendance, um academic performance
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later in the day and work completion, and then we
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would interview our students to assess their connection um and
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satisfaction at school.
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So in reflecting, I feel that I will absolutely use
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action research to some capacity in my work as a
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school counselor.
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Even in my very um brief experience researching on my
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committee, it was an a very impactful process to think
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about a specific question, research, that specific issue and then
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come up with theories um and put them into practice
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to see if I can change that issue.
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Additionally, I see myself as a counselor utilizing my role
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as a coach and as a leader to coach teachers
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to conduct this type of research in their own profession,
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um, and additionally to coach and encourage administration to invest
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time in this type of research and invest, um, this
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time and their staff to be able to do this
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type of an investigation on their own to solve their
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own research questions.