Reflection - Week 4 EDLD 5301 - Action Research

Week 4 has been a week of evaluation concerning my action research plan. After reading about the four models for sustaining school improvement in the Harris, Edmonson, and Combs textbook, Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps From Analysis To Action; and after meeting with my site mentor, I decided to make a couple of changes within my plan. I am adding the Force Field Analysis strategy to the beginning of my plan in hopes of eliminating negative forces prior to meeting with teachers to determine what technology application teks they have already addressed in the school year. With a new curriculum and a new state test thrown on teachers in one school year, I feel that they may be apprehensive to incorporate technology into their lessons. Hopefully, by reflecting on these 7 questions prior to meeting with the teachers all will go as planned. My meeting with my site mentor went very well and he was very encouraging about the action research topic. He made a few suggestions that I put into the revised action plan. When all is done, he would like for this plan to be a model for the fourth and fifth grade teachers in implementing technology.

Revised Action Research Plan

EDLD 5301 Revised Action Planning Template

EDLD 5301 Week 3 Reflection

During week three we were asked to complete a draft from our action research project. In so doing, I used the workable template 7.1 found in our resource folder on Epic or in the Harris textbook. In completing this template, I was able to think through the process that I would take as I go through the plan. It helped me to focus on the timeline, the persons I would need help from, and the resources I would need to complete the project. I used the two textbooks Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher by Nancy Fichtman Dana (Corwin, 2009) and Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action by Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson, and Julie Combs(Eye on Education, 2010) as well as the downloaded example Student Use of Cell Phones (unknown, n.d.) to guide me through the process. After looking carefully at the plan I saw several areas in which I need to strengthen the plan. I felt like getting the plan down on the template was helpful to me in looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and being able to make adjustments.

EDLD 5301 Action Research Plan

EDLD 5301 Workable Action Planning Template Based on Harris Et Al Text[1]

Reflection - EDLD 5301 - Week 2

From the videos I watched, the recurring theme for me was that all decisions made in a distric and on a campus must be data driven. I felt that Dr. Kirk Lewis from Pasadena ISD was helpful when he said that action research should be practical for you.

After reading the assigned chapter in the Dana text and looking at all the passions, I agree with the statement under passion. Principals do look like deer in the headlights. Every district is under the gun to improve student permformance. As a leader of the school, the principal bears the burden along with the teachers.

Lastly, I found the cautionary notes at the end of chapter two to be a great reference:
*Research should not focus on controlling or changing other people's practice (p.64)
*It takes time to discover a true passion that will sustain you through the process (p.67)
*Give yourself time to select the correct wording of your wondering:
-clearn, concise, and specific
-one whos answers youi do not already know
-free of judgement language
-phrased as open-ended
-doable (p.67)
*Allow your wondering to change and evolve over time as you engage in inquiry (p.68)

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

EDLD 5301 Research Discussion Board Week 2:

Purpose:
In regard to my action research plan, I will research the instructional application of technology TEKS throught the 6th grade curriculum at Lumberton Intermediate School.

Significance:
The key stakeholders that will benefit from my research are the 6th grade students and teachers as well as the Lumberton Middle School teachers. This research will insure that 21st century learners are prepared for their future.

The advantage that LIS will gain as a result of this study is the identification of technology application TEKS that are not currently being addressed. From this data teachers will be more informed about unaddressed TEKS so that lesson plans may be adapted accordingly. As lesson plans are updated and the unaddressed TEKS are implemented student learning improves. According to Cradler, McNabb, Freeman, and Burchett "Research and evaluation shows that technology can enable the development of critical thinking skills" (p.49).

Reference:
Cradler, J., McNabb, M., Feeman, M., & Burchett, R. (2002). How does technology influence student learning. Leading and Learning, 29(8), 46-49. Retrieved October 5, 2011, from https://k20portal.ou.edu/k12/leaders/Document%20Library/1/Article.StudentLearning


Mary Johnson
EDLD 4301/ET 8038

Reflection - EDLD 5301 - Educational Leaders and Blogs

How educational leaders might use blogs:

Before communicating with a blog one must determine what the ultimate purpose of the blog will be. In David Warlick’s book Classroom blogging: a teacher’s guide to the blogosphere he suggests that first the audience needs to be identified and secondly what is the goal of the blog. In communicating with school stakeholders Warlick gives several examples of how to use blogs effectively. One example is current events. Teachers could focus on technology by blogging about how they are using the technology in their classrooms. Superintendents could blog to the community about the current events going on within the school and making real world connections for parents and students alike. The second example Warlick talks about is curriculum. Teachers can communicate the importance of what students are doing inside the classroom. And lastly, Warlick suggests that internal blogging within school personnel is an excellent way for employees to share what is working in their classroom, what is not working, where they have celebrated successes and how they have learned from their failures (Warlick, 2005). In the text Leading with passion and knowledge:The principal as action researcher, Dana suggests that principals use blogs as a way to post the latest information gleamed from the current action research taking place on a campus. She suggests that it is a great tool to use in modeling the love of writing with students (Dana, 2009).

Reference:

Dana, N. F. (2009) Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Warlick, D. (2005). Classroom blogging: a teacher's guide to the blogosphere. Raleigh: Landmark Project.

Blog Reflection – Action Research - EDLD 5301

What I have learned about Action Research:

My eyes have been opened to the effectiveness that action research principals and teachers can have on student achievement. Going into this course I had preconceived notions about “research”. I thought that I would be assigned a technology related topic and would have to produce a term paper in five weeks. After only a few days and a few pages of text, I am actually excited about the class. Through my twenty years in education I have had multiple “wonderings”. Now, I know what to do with those wonderings and how effective I can be on students and other teachers when I collaborate and reflect on the findings from an action research plan. As Dana points out in Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher, research about school improvement, as we have known it up to this point has been from collegiate experts who are not in the day to day grind of school business (Dana, 2009). Because action research is going on by those who are educating or supervising the educators, it is real time and can make a real difference in student outcomes. The downside, if there is one, would be the time factor. Dana addresses this issue in her book and gives several examples on how to juggle action research within the role of a principal. The best advice Dana gives in regards to the time issue “is to make inquiry a part of your daily practice rather than a separate part of it” (Dana, 2009, p.16). In the readings from Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action, the authors issue a warning concerning time as well. They warn not to rush through the steps of the action research plan as this may cause shallow results (Harris, Edmondson, Combs, 2010).

References:

Dana, N. F. (2009) Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y. :Eye on Education.