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OverviewIn schools around the nation, the learning process is routinely interfered with by disruptive students.This harms all students at the school, particularly those who are working diligently to self-advancethemselves. Poor learning environments at school also have a negative effect on the economy, becausewe are living in a knowledge economy. The traditional way of addressing serious student disruptions isby suspending students. The traditional way does not work. The problem is ongoing and at times seemsto be getting worse. Here in Maryland, the statistics for classroom disruption are very concerning.These statistics, from the Maryland Department of Education (2012), show that there were more than35,000 attacks/threats/fighting in one single school year. That adds up to more than 500 incidents perweek. Each week in 2012, there was 36 weapons incidents in Maryland classrooms. That is a very
scary statistic for any student, parent, teacher, principal to hear. Source - Maryland Public School Suspensions by School and Major Offense Category In-School andOut-of-School Suspensions and Expulsions 2010-2011 Revised. Maryland State Department ofEducationNeed for Change
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Students in classrooms are acting up too much, disrupting the class and engaging in fighting in school.At the same time, teachers are experiencing a high degree of stress trying to maintain order in theirclassrooms. Something different must happen so that schools can be a calmer and safer place forlearning. Research must be done to find out how other schools and school districts are handling thisproblem. A decision needs to be made to implement some or all of the changes that other schools havereported as being successful.Goals/ObjectivesThese are the three goals:1. Have calmer and more focused students in the classroom.2. Have less stress on teachers so they do not leave the profession.3. Have boosted morale for both students and teachers.All possible ideas need to be explored, even ideas that might appear to be counterintuitive. A search ofthe web has revealed three different successful strategies for tackling this problem. A description ofeach of these strategies will now be given and an assessment of which is the best one to adopt will alsobe made. The three successful strategies that were found are -1. Multiple recesses breaks in a single school day2. Teaching of meditation twice a week3. Stationary bicycle devices under student desks in the classroomAn elementary school in Ft. Worth, Texas, has had success bringing four 15-minute recesses into theschool day. The teachers are this school were first afraid that they would be losing too much teachingtime with all this recess, but the teachers soon realized that they can fit more teaching into the schoolday when the students are more calm. In a Sept, 2016, article in Business Insider publication, reported:“Some five months into the experiment, McBride’s fears have been alleviated. Her students are lessfidgety and more focused, she said. They listen more attentively, follow directions and try to solveproblems on their own instead of coming to the teacher to fix everything. There are fewer disciplineissues. ‘We’re seeing really good results,’ she noted.” This successful approach is counterintuitive –it’s the opposite of what you might first expect. When I first read this article, I started wondering tomyself: “Maybe five recesses every day would be even better than four.”Another successful solution identified was bringing meditation sessions into the school day. NBC Newsreports that a public middle school in San Francisco has much fewer fights now that the students domeditation twice a day for fifteen minutes. After the school started meditation sessions, schoolsuspensions were reduced by 75 percent. (Source -”San Francisco Schools Transformed by the Powerof Meditation,” NBC News, Jan 1, 2015) This is a dramatic improvement in the classroom climate.Teachers are no longer so highly stressed showing up for work at this school. The San Franciscoschools partnered with a nonprofit organization to receive meditation trainers at the schools. Now thatstudents can feel the power of meditation at school, some might choose to do meditation outside ofschool, which can spread this calming influence throughout the community. When you consider thehigh cost of violence in society, the cost of paying for meditation trainers becomes a very cost-effectivesolution.A third way of bring calm and focus to the classroom has been seen at a North Carolina middle school.
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At that school, each student has a small stationary bicycle underneath their desk. (Source - “Pedalpower boosts N Carolina pupils' performance,” BBC News, 20 Sept, 2016). During class, the studentspedal. This makes them more calm and it also increases blood flow to the brain. When I read thisarticle, I quickly understood the benefit of having moderate physical exercise right within theclassroom setting. The one disadvantage of this approach is that each stationary bicycle device costs$160. Unlike the meditation trainers, which are a repeating annual cost in the San Francisco schools,the stationary bicycles are a one-time cost that will be used over many years by hundreds of students.The teachers in the North Carolina middle school was able to find a private donation to pay for thestationary bicycles, but other schools and school districts might not have the funds for this.Surprisingly, one student reported that he bicycled 5.5 miles on the stationary bicycle during one classperiod.RecommendationAfter researching and reading these three successful solutions to the problem of classrooms with toomuch student energy, I recommend that the first two solutions be tried with a three month pilotprogram. The first solution, multiple recesses in the school day, has no added financial costs to startingthis. The second solution, meditation sessions in the school day, can be tried with the help ofprofessional meditation trainers. However, if the practice successful, schools should try to have thissolution occur using only current teaching staff. Perhaps some teachers would be interested in receivingtraining on being professional meditation trainers. Also, the school library could purchase somemeditation training CD’s that students could sign out for use at home. This can help establishmeditation as a regular and “normal” community practice and students and their families willappreciate the value of meditation time at school. Some high school students might also be encouragedto do research and writing about the benefits of meditation. These school assignments would have theeffect of promoting conversations about meditation throughout the community.To implement these changes at a school, it is important that the school principal involve the teachersand students in choosing to pursue these changes at the school. When a principal “dictates” thechanges, the school community will probably not be eager to adopt the changes. In some schooldistricts, the school superintendent might choose to make a short YouTube video about the benefits ofmeditation. This short video could be a powerful way for all teachers and students in the school districtto think about the importance of this school change.In terms of the stationary bicycles underneath the student desks, this seems to be a very good idea, andmaybe it could be done at a lot less expense than the school in North Carolina that purchased the“DeskCycles.” Students in a school district could be challenged with an invention contest to invent astationary desk bicycle that is affordable and durable. The goal would be to try to invent a device thatcosts $75 or less – rather than $160. The very best solution would be to have the students generatingelectricity with these stationary bicycles. This electricity could power the lights in the classroom,reducing the electric bill for the school. Taxpayers would always appreciate a school having a lowerelectricity bill. A school could partner with the engineering department at a nearby university to workon this invention contest so that students are benefiting from STEM (Science Technology Engineeringand Math) project-based learning.School violence and classroom disruptions can be reduced in several different ways. School suspension
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is the traditional and mostly ineffective way of handling this problem. Better ideas for handling theproblem are now seen at schools in different states. In fifty years time, we might look back and say,“Why didn’t we try those other methods a lot earlier?” We should never be afraid of trying a differentapproach to solving a difficult problem. Sometimes the solution is counterintuitive – it does not makesense at first – and that is just fine, so long as the solution works. When students can see and feel asuccessful solution to a difficult problem, this will give them hope and confidence to search for othercreative solutions to difficult problems these see in the world. This is the purpose of all education, tocreate community members who are solving personal, community and world problems.SolutionThe classroom that's functioning properly will have students who are calm and focused on learning.The teacher will speak in a quiet voice, using displinary words only on rare occasion. The teacher willbe happy to be in the classroom. Their stress level will be low. Students will show respect for oneanother in what they say and how they physically interact. Student confrontations will be weakenedbefore they become violent. The teacher will very rarely send students to the principals office fordiscipline. Morale of all students and teachers at the school will be a lot higher than it was before.
Your Overview describes the situation instead of summarize the report.
Header is missing labels.
Solution is misplaced. you offer ideas to fix the situation in the Goals rather than the Solution.
your introduction of Goals doesn't provide any insight about the section. your goals are not well defined.
Comparison, Feasibility, and Decision Matrix are missing.
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missing citations for borrowed content.
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