Update on Action Research Project

In 5301 my action research project was to install a mentor program to help students with everyday challenges that they may have in school.  During the summer I talked to my site supervisor about how he wanted to approach the mentor program this school year.  Originally we had said that teachers were going to meet with approximately 10 students in the morning during the 1^st period class for 20 minutes.  We are taking the first 20 minutes of the 1^st period to talk to the students and have discussions about social skills.  We also decided to let the teachers build their own relationships with their students.  We can do this though mentoring a few of our academically unacceptable students.  We felt like those students are the ones that need that extra attention.  We mentor them through extra time in the morning and in the afternoon.  The site supervisor still wants us to talk with these students about grades and behavior.  In our data periods that we are given we pay attention to these “AU” students so that we can bridge the gaps so that they will be able to succeed.  Our school has seen great changes in the attitude of our school and the mentor program is part of that reason.  Teachers are held accountable of their mentees.  We also brought in a community member to help with mentoring of some at-risk students.  It is a program through the boys and girls club.   It is called IMPACT.  They have mentors that come to our school once a week to talk to these students about how school is going and how their grades are.  It is a wonderful program that has seen success and is growing to help more students each year.  The action research project has a few changes but the overall project is still to mentor students to help them achieve success.