EDLD 5326 - AR Project Summary

Action Research Project Title: radKIDS

Blog URL: http://kellytboswell.blogspot.com

Number of AR Project Documented Hours: 134 hours

AR Project Summary:

 

My school district teamed up with some local organizations to bring the radKIDS Personal Safety Empowerment Program to all elementary schools in our district.  The plan was to implement the program through the Physical Education classes.  All of the P.E and Music teachers in the district went through 30 hours of intense training to learn how to implement the program.  My co-worker and I decided to get the ball rolling right after she got back from her training and we were the first elementary school to get started on the implementation of radKIDS. 

I worked at a Title I school and the campus was one of the lowest socio-economic schools in the district.  We knew that this program was something that our kids really needed based on their home environments.  The program is set up for small groups so we had to adjust it to fit our needs.  We decided to start with our 3^rd and 4^th graders as we knew they would be easier to start with.  Once we finished empowering the first groups of students, we then began teaching the 5^th and 2^nd grade students.  We did not teach the 1^st graders or Kindergarteners due to not having extra staff members to help monitor students.  With our 5^th grade students, we decided to teach the girls and boys in separate groups.  This ended up being a great decision. 

In late July, I was given the opportunity to transfer to a new campus to become the P.E teacher.  My new campus is one of the top performing elementary schools in the district and one of the most affluent.  The only students who went through the program last year were the 5^th graders.  My new co-worker this year and I decided to empower all of our students in 1^st-5^th grades.  The Kindergarteners are learning certain important components of the program.  We have completed two lessons with our kids.  They are enjoying it and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to teach them these life saving skills.  I will be meeting with the school counselor next week to discuss the program as she would like to emphasize the concepts with students she is seeing.