EDLD 5301 comes to an end

Throughout EDLD 5301 I have learned a great amount about the process of action research and how valuable it is to an administrator. The areas I found of greatest interest to myself were how to find my wonderings to begin the process of action research, the advice of my fellow students as I was trying to finalize my topic for action research and learning about the different strategies for sustaining improvement that I will find from doing action research.

Trying to determine what topic I would like to research was overwhelming at first. I felt like I had no idea where to start, so the book “Leading with Passion and Knowledge” by Nancy Fichtman Dana was extremely useful in helping me narrow down all of my thoughts into a wondering worthy of an action research project. She writes “Wonderings materialize at the nexuses of the real-world observations, dilemmas, felt difficulties, and passions that you develop in your work as an administrator (Dana, 2009, p. 30) After reading her thoughts and looking at the list of areas of passion that she gives the reader, I felt like I had a great place to start. After using her ideas for a place to start and conferencing with my site supervisor about the needs of our school, I came to the topic I will be conducting my action research over. This will be a very helpful piece of literature to reference in the future as I complete my action research project. Trying to narrow down what research needs to be done does not seem as hard now that I have learned these great techniques.

Throughout this course I have learned that advice from fellow students is priceless. Through the discussion board I have received some great insight about my action research topic and as a result I have started to think about my project in a different light. The comment; that was given to me by a fellow student on the discussion board; that helped me to thinking about things differently was ”What could be done to reduce the amount of prep?”. Up until this point I had not been thinking about the time that these interactive science bulletin boards would take to create. This comment reminded me that I am not doing this alone, I am working with a team of teachers and I want to keep them happy, so I must respect their time. Thinking about the little details like that are not my strength, through this course I have learned that if action research is going to done to its fullest potential you must listen to those around you and hear what they have to say. Everyone sees things differently and those different perspectives will allow us to help more children be successful.

I have enjoyed learning different strategies for proposing change and for sustaining it as well. In the book “Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools” by Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson and Julie Combs it was very interesting to learn about the Force Field Analysis, Delphi Method, Nominal Group Technique and CARE Model. As an administrator I will be proposing changes and working to sustain changes from the past, so having these strategies will prove to be very useful. The Delphi method really spoke to me as a great technique for teachers because of the way it respects teachers busy schedules. For smaller group meetings the Nominal Group Technique seems like a great way for everyone’s voice to be heard and a true discussion to happen. I look forward to using the techniques in the future as I conduct committee meetings on my campus.

Overall the EDLD 5301 has been a tremendous experience. I look forward to using all of the information that I learned in this class this year in the field as I conduct my first action research project.


References

Dana, Fichtman Nancy. (2009). Leading with Passion And Knowledge: The Principal As Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Harris, Sandra, Edmonson, Stacey, & Combs, Julie. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, Inc.

Stop......No not Hammer time....it's Revision Time!

The conference that I had with my site supervisor went very well. The meeting involved just the two of us and was held in her office at M. Robinson Elementary school. We discussed the rough draft I had come up with for my action research project and she gave me some very helpful advice.

The revision my site supervisor made to my action research template was to the people responsible column. She wants the project to include more people, so we will be forming a committee at the beginning of the school year that will have a representative from kindergarten through fifth grade. She wants this to involve the entire campus that way students from every grade level will benefit. The committee will meet to discuss what topics each of the grades levels will put on their interactive science bulletin boards. She believes that with every grade level doing a different topic, teachers from all over the campus can take students to these boards and use them for review of older material for older students and also for a better understanding of new curriculum for our younger students.

The other parts of the plan she approved of and she seems extremely excited about beginning this project. I believe our conference went very well and we plan on meeting the first week of school to discuss the forming of a committee, as well as tips on how to run a committee meeting effectively.

Paste the following link in your browser to see the updated plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1qrcsqMldPabXwSjbeVLjow0P8MkzbpP7l-DFAhSRtK4&hl=en&pli=1#

My Action Research Plan

We are getting closer to finally starting the action research at my school. This week we came one step closer because I have completed the beginnings of my action research plan. Here it is for you to look at. Copy and paste the link below into your browser to see it.

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1bDfd8BLBqPa7bW2Ns4-cUkk6KPPHqVMHHSMsAu1l5jc&hl=en#

Russell

Week 2 and what did I learn?

As I dug deeper into the idea of action research this week, I saw a tool that is going to be extremely powerful for me as an administrator. As I watched the interviews from several administrators in the state of Texas, I could see that they are very invested in the idea of doing action research and just how much they depend on it. As I discussed possible action research topics with my principal I found myself getting very excited about the information I will collect and how it will help improve my campus. I am excited to find out more about action research and even more excited about starting my own action research project in the new school year.

Action Research - What I Have Learned

What have you learned about action research and how might you be able to use it?

What I have learned about action research so far is that it is probably going to be one of the most valuable tools I have in my bag as an administrator. I can see now that the answers to my questions are not always going to be able to be answered by someone else's study, but by my own research. If I really want to find out how to improve my campus or learn how to work better with those around me, action research will be what I use. I think that in the upcoming school year I will be able to practice this as a teacher in the area of student performance on district science tests. In the past year I found that my students were not grasping the concepts that I was presenting so this year I will be using action research to find out how to make scores improve. I believe that action research will really help me find answers to my inquiry. I also am looking forward to working with my site supervisor, I know that she will be assigning me jobs and I am sure that action research will help me find the answers she is looking for.


How can administrators use blogs?

Well I think they can do what you are doing right now, reading and gaining insight from my findings without having to schedule a meeting or even talk on the phone. Posting information is a quick and easy way for principals to gain insight from each other without having to miss time on their campus. I know that my principal is always going in fifteen different directions so I can assume that she isn't able to sit down and talk with other principals about the current issues of the campus. For her to be able to post her findings or read about a fellow colleagues research is a real convince that would help spread lots of knowledge, without costing a principal valuable time.