Week 5 reflections

When I first started this course, I was thinking “Oh great!”  “We are going to discuss some leading researchers in the field of education and they have no clue about the kids in my school, but they will tell us this works and that works.” Then I get my week one assignment and start reading Leading with Passion and Knowledge by Nancy Fichtman Dana.  I start thinking why in the world have we, schools, not been using this philosophy?  Asking questions, collecting data, analyzing data, and making changes based on their findings to better “our own” students/staff.  This makes sense.  I think the biggest impact for week one was the fact that administrators are doing their own research on their campus and making the necessary changes so that the students and staff are always challenged and successful at school.  Dana states that action research is so beneficial because theories and knowledge are generated from research grounded in the realities of educational practice, practitioners investigate their own problems and practitioners play a part in the research process, which makes them more likely to facilitate change based on the knowledge they generate.  For week one the most intriguing point was that principals and school districts are starting to conduct their own action research plans instead of relying on “outside” researchers. Week two was very interesting as well.  We were able to listen to three different administrators from three different districts that have been using action research on their campus or in their district.  Even though each administrator used action research for different reasons there was a common theme amongst them.  Each one of them stated that action research was done to increase student success in their school or in their district.  It was all about the students.  For our reading this week we moved on to Chapter 2 in Leading with Passion and Knowledge.  This chapter covered the first step in the action research plan:  finding a wondering.  Dana gave us nine areas where we may find our first wondering.  The area that I focused on the most was curriculum development.   Newberry Elementary School principal had a great plan for developing writing.  Her goal was to increase writing in her school.  Her plan involved many people in the school.  She provided professional development about the teaching of writing.  Her school collaborated across grade levels so the curriculum would stair step from one grade level to the next.  She wanted the writing to be aligned with ideas from leading experts.  I think the most important part of her plan was including multiple grade levels and using ideas from multiple experts.  Often we get consumed by one philosophy and tend to only do that philosophy.  She was very smart taking different ideas from different writing experts and making a plan for her school.  Once again it goes back to making the action research relevant to your campus. For week 3 we were able to create a plan for our action research project.  The first thing we needed to do was create a wondering.  The phrases that were given to us in the Dana text were great starters:  “I wonder…….,”   “I think…..,” and “What if……”  I had talked to our campus math coach and our campus language arts coach.  Our campus language arts coach wanted some data on our tutoring program.  The past few years we have done a few different things.  Three years ago teachers taught tutoring.  Last year we hired a tutoring teacher to pull groups during the day and let teachers teach tutoring.  This year teachers are teaching tutoring and they created their own groups and own schedule.  So our goal was to collect data to see how effective out tutoring program is twice a week for the students who scored below level on our reading benchmark in October/November. The interesting part is each grade level is tutoring at different times, using different strategies, some are using incentives, and some have mixed groups and some kept their own students.  So we are hoping we can collect some data so we can make our tutoring program more structured in the future. During week 4 we discussed the force field analysis, the Delphi method, and the nominal group technique for sustaining improvement for the future.  These strategies came from the Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools by Harris, Edmonson, and Combs.  I thought all three strategies had valid points.  I like the force field analysis because it looks at the pros/cons of the action plans and creates a plan that addresses the cons.  I liked the nominal group technique because it takes place with small groups.  However, my favorite is the Delphi method.  I really liked the Delphi method because it consists of a panel of people who would be affected by the change.  It also provides confidentiality, so I feel people would express their concerns/needs more openly.   I like reproducing everyone’s comments, sending it back out to create a synthesized list, and then ranking everyone’s comments/concerns in order to narrow down our ideas to form a consensus.  The Care Model was another example for sustaining improvement.  I like that it focused on good things we are doing now, but it also focuses on identifying future concerns.  So far this course has had the biggest impact because the research plan is RELEVANT to our campus/students.  We are the researchers.  We create the wondering.  We collect the data and we make the appropriate changes. References: Dana, Fichtman Nancy. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge.  The Principal as Action Researcher.  Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin. Harris, Sandra, Edmonson, Stacey, Combs, Julie.  (2010).  Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools.  8 Steps From Analysis to Action.  Larchmount, NY: Eye on Education.

Week 4

We read about 3 new strategies to support and sustain action research.  I am finding each week that reflecting on the best practices is a very common theme.  I think the reflecting questions at the end of each strategy were great for guiding questions.  Also, the more and more I look at my research plan the more questions I ask myself.  For instance, this week I asked the tutoring teachers if they used any incentives during tutoring.  3 out of 9 teachers use incentives to motivate students during tutoring.  So, will the use of incentives motivate students while they are in tutoring.  This is just one more factor I will look at when I send a survey to the students after tutoring is completed.  I liked the Force Field Analysis because it help you create a pro and con checklist and you create a strategy based on those pro's/con's.  The Delphi method seemed like it allowed for open communication because most responses were confidential but it also seemed like a lot of sitting at the computer for long hours.  I am learning more and more about action research.  This class is great.

Action Planning Template

Action Planning Template
Goal: Our goal is to offer tutoring to students who scored below standard on our October/November reading benchmark in an effort to help them score above standard on the next benchmark in April and ultimately the STARR test in May.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Tutoring after school based on concepts/strategies	5th grade	Jan, 2012-May, 2012	5th grade teachers	*Reading benchmark Feb. 27th STARR- March 28th
Tutoring before or after school- keeping their own students	4th grade	Feb., 2012- May 2012	4th grade teachers	*Reading benchmark Feb. 29th STARR- April 25th
Tutoring before school with ESL students using specific concepts/strategies	Tamie Fons- Head ESL campus teacher	Jan.,2012-May, 2012	ESL teacher	Depends on grade level
Tutoring before school, keeping their own children, using specific concepts/strategies for tutoring *denotes change from original dates	3rd grade	Jan., 2012-May 2012	3rd grade teachers	*Reading benchmark March 1st STARR-April 25th

Week 3
I am really liking the structure of this action research plan/inquiry.  To me the Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template was very organized.  It seemed easy to state your goal, action steps, person(s) responsible, timeline, needed resources, and evaluation.  I like it because this can be an easy accountability/reflection chart along the way.  We can always go back to this template,check it, and make sure we are following our plan.  I also like this template because it allows us to make changes along the way.  With our action steps written down, we can reflect upon our next evaluations and ask ourselves, "Are our action steps working or do they need to be changed?"
The readings this week have been great.  I am finding myself writing notes everywhere, wanting to share them with our principal.  The readings have offered great common sense ideas for our plan/inquiry project.

The one aspect of this project/plan, I find crucial is the ability to constantly monitor the progress and make necessary changes based on the data that you have collected along the way.

I think as educators and administrators if we learn to monitor progress along the way then we will always be able to make changes to our teaching strategies so our students feel successful in the classroom and in life.  I really enjoyed our reading this week that discussed the different ways to collect data.  We need to be able to look at the data during the process and make changes accordingly.