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1. I have identified the instructional challenge as the lack of defined and equitable handling of behavior issues within my school as something that needs to be evaluated and improved upon. (See Evidence B)

I used the results of a survey that our district sent to staff members. This is a survey the district has used before to receive staff feedback, though I have not seen or heard much being done with the results. The survey, dated 11/11/2019, is divided in four sections: School-wide, Nonclassroom setting, Classroom, and Individual Student. I will be using results from the School-wide section to inform and drive my project.

2. My learners for this project are the students and staff members in grades 4 and 5, as those are the grade levels in the building I teach. My hope would be to eventually expand to include grades PK-3, which our housed in the other building on our campus. Overall, stakeholders include staff, i.e. teachers, paras, admin, and other support personnel, as well as students and parents.

3. It is important that this challenge be addressed to promote more equity within our school. This would ensure that there is consistency in terms of what behaviors are and are not acceptable, what the consequences are and where the consequences are dealt with. Currently, some teachers may send a student to the office for any misbehavior, while other teachers keep a student no matter what, which then causes disruption to the entire class. The survey I refer to for this project indicates that there is a high level of need for improvement to clearly define problem behaviors( 44% out of 24 responses), what the consequences of those behaviors are( 50% out of 24 responses), and if the office or classroom will manage the problem behavior(53% out of 24 responses).

4. I believe addressing this challenge will promote more equity within our school by maintaining consistent expectations for all students, irregardless of grade level or teacher. Expectations will certainly be age and skill level appropriate but will promote equity by consistently reinforcing expectations of students. Promoting this equity and consistency will ideally also help eliminate some of the bias that exists toward certain students, who then staff may focus on more, which in turn results in more behavior referrals than other students.

5. My intention is to add to an existing program. While we do have an MBI(Montana Behavior Initiative) team that works to promote positive behavior in our buildings and we do have T charts that list common expectations for certain areas of the buildings, those behaviors and expectations are not enforced consistently or in the same manner, which leaves both staff and students frustrated and confused. In addition, the posted expectations are limited to common areas and do not provide expectations for larger problem behaviors that staff may encounter.

6. I believe that adding on to an existing program already in place will make it easier to implement and gain buy in from stakeholders who may be resistant. For example, since we already use T charts for common areas, we could create T charts to provide the information regarding the more clearly defined behavior expectations and consequences.

7. I will be focusing on Reflective Practice and Personal Effectiveness while addressing the challenge I have identified. Focusing on Reflective Practice while working to address the inequity of how behavior is handled within our school will allow me to search for leadership opportunites inside and outside of my classroom. Providing leaderhsip outside the classroom is critical for a topic such as equity regarding the handling of misbehavior among students. It is also important because it will require me to reflect on my own growth and role when addressing the identified challenge.

Personal Effectiveness is relevant to this challenge, as it will push me to explore opportunities to lead others, which is what I will be working to to do engage others in the discussion and implementation of more defined problem behaviors and consequences. I will also be learning to acknowledge and respond to adversity in a professional manner, as I know that any time someone attempts to change or expand the status quo, there is resistance and adversity which will need to be addressed and hopefully overcome in order to do what is best for students.

8. Within the Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competence, I will be focusing on the Collaborate Purposefully compentency. This competency is important because it will require awareness of differences among different stakeholders and groups involved, as well as creating an environment where differences are included and respected. Specific to my selected challenge, each person involved will have a different opinion and viewpoint regarding the definition of misbehavior, as well as appropriate responses. We will need to honor differences and then identify shared goals in order to provide more equity for our students.

9. I will be focusing on Coaching and Mentoring in the Instructional Pathway. I believe this is relevant to my challenge because in order to facilitate a conversation and change about student behavior and responses in our school, I will need to promote an environment of trust and respect where all stakeholders' skills and abilities are valued. Creating an environment of trust and respect will allow for a more open exchange of ideas, leading to more buy in and support for any changes or adjustments that occur.

10. To begin with, I will work with my building principal. I would then like to take this to the MBI team, as that team includes a staff member from each grade level K-5, and the primary goal of the team is to create systems to promote positive behavior within our school. ( See Evidence C) The next step would be to include a wider variety of school staff, such as paras, bus drivers and our cafeteria staff.

11. Currently, I have my building principal to help address this challenge. We also have the MBI team, which is designed specifically for promoting positive behavior. There is time and space to come together and define desired and undesired behaviors and how those are addressed. This would not take money necessarily. However, it would take teacher buy-in to be most effective, which can be challenging to obtain.

Evidence C: MBI Meeting notes from the beginning of the school year. The goals we initially started with were not accomplished for a variety of reasons, but fit nicely with my plan of action.