5326 Week 5 Reflection

I recently changed schools and now have had to make adjustments with my action research plan. I originally planned on examining literacy and its effects on all core subjects, via examining state assessment data and comparing years prior to the year we implemented a literacy program for all core subjects. However, now I am not focusing on literacy. Instead, I am using the work that my current school asked me to participate in. I am now working with the assistant principal of science, and COREWORKS data to evaluate our science teams performance. We are looking into our current practices and redefining what we should be doing better, what we are already doing well, and how we can improve our success. The COREworks program is something I have never worked with prior to this year. How it works is the team members individually answer a survey and the responses are recorded, but remain anonymous. Then the teachers met as a team to examine the COREworks initial survey response. We went through and evaluated each question as a team. Then we met again and examined our results. The results revealed areas of strength and areas of weakness. It also identified things that we should start doing, and things we should stop doing, in order to become more successful. I feel that this has been a very helpful tool for the teachers. As well, the students will reap the benefits of the teachers implementing these changes. One of our main areas of focus, after evaluation results, is to really focus on using formative assessments more often. 

Reflection (5301)

I found that the videos throughout the course were very helpful. They allowed a “tone” to be applied to the work for the week, and created more of a classroom atmosphere for the online course. I greatly enjoyed the videos in conjunction with the assignment information, and felt that they answered questions that I would have had with the assignment sheet only. The assignments themselves were very straight forward. I was able to look at the rubric and determine where the emphasis was being placed on the task, they were broken down into individual (usually four) parts, and were always graded in a timely manner.

I learned very much, and enjoyed much, from the Dana text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge. My favorite part of this text was the nine passions. I felt like those intrigued me, and lured me in to want to know the answers to the questions asked in the book. I can see how developing a passion in each of those areas can enable your inner leadership qualities, and motivate you as an administrator.

I used the Lamar library to create a folder on literacy action research programs that have been done in the past. I really looked to these for insight when trying to create my draft plan. I have archived several articles in those folders, and will have them to look into whenever I may need to pool more resources.

The assignments were intriguing, and created a wonderful outline of the expectations. I was able to look at the rubric to determine the emphasis for the task. I liked that they were broken down into parts, because that made them seem easier to complete rather than overwhelming. The activities were sometimes hard to do, though, ONLY because it is summer break and timing has not been opportune. First, I changed schools. Then I changed schools, again. I went out of the state on a summer vacation that was planned long before this course date was set. Upon returning, in the final week of class, the 4^th of July holiday has allowed for the entire school office to be closed for the week. That being said, in the future, this class may not be as compatible with students and administrators schedules during the summer.

I felt like at times the discussion board was very helpful. I enjoyed being able to discuss the tasks, concerns, and questions with other students. However, once we began blogging, I don’t understand how both were beneficial. I think the discussion board, or the blog, would’ve been great separately. When put together, it creates monotony, and makes things seem tediously like busy work. If the discussion board post, and two responses are required, then why are the blog and blog comments also required?

I enjoyed blogging! There were times that I had much to say on the blog, and other times that I did not. I enjoyed looking through the blogs of the other people in class, and seeing their work. I think I will try to incorporate blogging into my classroom at some point this year.

Concerns

There are a few challenges that I think could arise. Nothing ever goes perfect, but hopefully with enough planning things will run smoothly. 

My project require all core teachers to participate, and implement the new vocabulary program into their classes. This will take a group effort, and will only be as effective as the presentation of the material. EVERY core teacher must be using this tool in the same way, and allowing this change to enter their classrooms. I am afraid that some teachers will resist the change, some will not use the program at all, some won't use it every day, some won't implement it in an effective way, and some will do everything they are supposed to do at first, but slowly fade away. I've seen this happen with the staff at my campus, and I am fearful that it will happen with this program as well. I hate to say it, but some teachers want to do what they've always done and not change a thing.

If the teachers do not take whole part in this project, the data will not be correct. 

Students must also see this as a POSITIVE change in the school, and not as more work. I am hoping that the motivation and creativity that is instilled in all of our educators will shine through to the students and they will cooperate. 

STAAR is new and we are still figuring things out with it. I'm sure there will be changes made in response to any new information we receive about STAAR.

Draft Plan

I've created a draft of my action research plan. I'm sure that plenty of changes will be made, things will be added in, and things will be taken out. But, it's nice to have a starting place.

Action Planning Template
Goal: Determine if students will show improvement in all courses after implementing a new vocabulary plan and focusing on literacy in non-ELA courses.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Initial Data gathering	Curriculum facilitators for each subject	Prior to 2012-2013 school year	Data from previous year’s STAAR & TAKS	Identify point of origin to provide for final comparison
Presentation of action research plan, guidelines, and how to implement new programs	Bethanee Sales Principal Janis Williams	First faculty meeting of the school year. During professional development prior to students returning. August 2012.	Presentation prepared for faculty	Teacher’s feedback on plan of action. Time to identify concerns, answer questions, and handout materials
Implementing vocabulary, reading, and writing activities	All teachers	First six weeks of school	Access to new literacy program available on database	This will provide the students with the new curriculum incorporations
Collect benchmark data for all courses (other than ELA)	Curriculum facilitator for each subject	December 2012	Access to this benchmark assessment data	Make any conclusions on implementation plan’s success so far. Identify students who qualify for tutorials.
Teacher interviews	All participating teachers	December 2012	Set up interview times	Feedback, questions, concerns
Twice weekly required morning tutorials for “bubble kids”.	Rotating teachers in each subject	February-May 2013	Access to literacy program, individualized student results, and additional materials relating to known weak TEKS.	Students who need extra assistance will be given the opportunity to work in smaller groups with many different teachers.
Collect STAAR data	Curriculum facilitator for each subject	May 2013	Access to STAAR data	Compare to data from last year’s state test assessments and identify margin of improvement.
Student surveys	All students	May 2013	Survey on surveymonkey.com	Feedback from students about the literacy program.
Teacher surveys	All participating teachers	May 2013	Survey on surveymonkey.com	Feedback from teachers about the literacy program.
Present conclusive data	Bethanee Sales Principal Janis Williams	May 2013	Teachers must attend final school board meeting. Conclusive Presentation prepared.	Conclude the research plan and identify success.

Decisions, Decisions

I am in the process of moving to a new school. That being said, I’ve had to find a new site mentor, examine my new campus’ vision, and really discuss what the areas of concern are at my new campus. I have been emailing quite a bit with my new site mentor about my action research and possible topics for this project. Initially, I spoke to her about one of my ideas for research, and she gave me two additional topics to consider. These initial ideas were:

1. Including a “tutorial” time within the school day and how scheduling could be changed to incorporate this.
2. Look at literacy and impact on science scores
3. Effectiveness of reading courses on all academics

When talking further, she said “Literacy and writing are some campus wide goals that we are focusing on so that might be an option for you. We are going to implement a campus wide vocabulary program and increase our focus on writing across all curriculum areas. You could always look at how a focus on literacy impacts performance in non ELA courses.” 

So, the final thing we agreed upon as a topic is: “How does a focus on literacy impact performance in non ELA courses?”.

I think this will be a great adventure, it seems like an interesting topic, and they have already got the ball rolling on incorporating new practices. I am hoping this opens the door to the process of gathering data for my action research plan! Maybe things will fall into place.

Beginnings of Action Research

Wow, action research has been an exciting thing to begin! At first, I was overwhelmed about the entire idea. However, after reading and researching what I'm getting myself into, I've changed more into excited and eager to get to work.

My first questions were what is action research? What is the "action" part? How is different that research that I'm familiar with? Basically, action research takes the ability of reflection on my current practices and the practices within my school and created a change from the outside in. 

Action research follows this plan:

1. inquiry 

2. data collection 

3. analysis of data 

4. implementing change

Action research begins with wonderings, ideas, concerns, and thoughts, blossoms from there into data collection and reflection, and then allows from improvement, expansion, and growth.

There are a ton of ways that I could use action research, as an educator and an administrator. For this course, I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to research, yet. I have a few ideas. My first idea is concerning tutorial time at school and how to make this more effective. My other two ideas are on a much smaller scale. I would like to look at literacy and impact on science scores, or effectiveness of reading courses on all academics.

Journaling and/or blogging are great ways to capture thinking and create a reference for reflection. As time goes on, and inquiry develops into something more, I will be able to track the thought process and see the change over time through looking back at these blogs. Also, this is a great way to share my inquiries and work with other administrators and colleagues and receive their feedback.