Week Five Action Research

Well here it is week five and I have submitted my assignment and completed my course completion survey. It feels good to be done. I have learned so much in this course and am pumped to get started on my action research project. Met with the site base team at school this week and they have agreed to assist with the project. Now my principal wants me to present to our staff on Monday when we go back to school. One of my favorite quotes from the text was if you are not moving forward you are moving backward. In Science terms if I'm not in motion then I'm inactive or at rest. Loved the course and loved blogging. I plan on using blogging with my kids this year at school. I am ready to go on a positive note for this school year. Stand by as I journey through middle earth and beyond this year. I hope my little hobbits and I have a great year.

Fourth Week Action Research Plan

Well I have completed week four and have revised my action research plan following a meeting with my site supervisor. My plan currently involves improving the TAKS Reading scores of our Hispanic sub group by using "hands on" and moving from very concrete to abstract thoughts and strategies. Many of these I learned this summer during a four day ESL Academy that was led by two ESL teachers in our district. They are also our language diagnosticians and they had some excellent research and strategies. We will also use vocabulary in Spanish and English starting at the early grades and progressing. Win win no matter what ethnicity as the Hispanic group is the fastest growing group in the United States. I would love to post my entire action research plan but have not quite figured out how to do that. Does anyone have any tips for how to do that? Thanks so much and signing off from middle earth.

Cheryl

Action Research Plan

This third week of my action inquiry involved making an action research plan. My goal is to improve the Reading TAKS scores among the Hispanic sub-group investigating what is working in Science and incorporating into REading. I plan on using ESL techniques that I learned at an ESL Academy this summer and also techniques of going from vocabulary to vocabularioo and concrete experiences. It is also important to build relationships with Hispanic students which will help to build success. I will use DMAC scores on Benchmarks and TAKS released tests. If required I will tutor students over each assessment following the objectives. I will use walk-throughs to help with observational assessments. I will also use a lot of concrete activities and move to abstract testing. Then I will also move from journaling with informal language to a more formal language. The final assessment will be the improvement of this sub-group on the TAKS test. This seems like a lot to do but as I went through the plan I realized how much of this we are already doing at our school but now just taking an area that works/Science and trying to use some of the same techniques in Reading.

Week two action research

I found week two lectures/videos/readings very interesting. I especially liked the nine areas of action research for a leader to be helpful. I felt that many of the areas crossed over into other areas so when doing an action research project you may actually be doing two or three areas at once. An important word that kept coming out of each video and reading was "data". It is the driving force for an action research model.

Action Research for Inquiring Minds

I've just started my fourth class for Educational Leadership through a University in the south of Texas. So far I have had some really great classes and gained new insight into why my district and my principal sometimes do what they do. I hope that doesn't s0und negative, wasn't meant to be negative. Anyway, now I am in my fourth class and I am learning about Action Research. It almost sounds like a new way to work out while hitting the books. I am really enjoying what I have learned about this topic; however, as it exemplifies how my brain already works. Action Research is taking a problem that they call a "wondering" and then determining what is needed to solve the problem. The teacher or principal involved determines a problem that needs to be addressed for their school such as "Why are the fourth grade reading scores lower than the third and the fifth?" Then doing research. This may involve determining how many new concepts are taught during fourth grade. Developmentally what are 9-10 year olds going through that could affect their performance. Does the teacher require some training in a specific objective. Then taking the information to develop a plan to improve performance. Setting a time line and assessments to monitor progress. The benefits of this system is that it is designed for what ails the school. It is very specific so that teachers are concentrating on something vital and worthwhile to them. They are not having to sit through training on "Writing Skills" when that is not the problem.
Anyway the reason I like Action Research so much is that it is very similar to inquiry Science which I have taught long enough to have the children of the first children I taught. In inquiry Science there is a problem that may come from a key question then a hypothesis is developed, an experiment is created and performed. Trial and error come into play, sometimes the experiment must be changed, sometimes the hypothesis. When concluding analysis of all data, tables, graphs and charts are evaluated and the hypothesis is either proven, modified or disproven. The old saying "Inquiring minds want to know", definitely comes into play here.
I can use Action Research in many ways but what is on my mind currently is how to get a particular sub-group to do better on the TAKS test so that they will excell in Science and also in school. Can't wait to try this out this year at school.

Now for the next part of my assignment, how could an administrator use blogging? In our increasing technology based world blogging has become a part of everyday life for so many people. I know many famous people find it easy to do on a daily basis to get out their message. An administrator could use it to elicit feedback and suggestions from the staff or from peers. There would have to be some rules established for this before it is done. The rules would need to be established by a committee also so that it would not look dictatorial. Also blogging could be done to inform parents of upcoming events at the campus, also like a newsletter with snipits of information. I'm sure as the year would progress that there would be other situations arise where blogging would be great. One I can think of is returning late from a field trip. The administrator could blog up to date information that could be accessed by parents.

Signing off from middle earth,
Cheryl