Thursday, December 20, 2012

Final Thoughts on Research Class 2012


When I first started this course, I had little training on action research. I was fortunate enough to be working on an action team for the district, in regards to our graduate profile. The team I worked with had a focus on improving interpersonal relationships with the students. Throughout this course I have gained a greater insight on what it means to do action research. I thought the blog was a very interesting way to share ideas and comments on my plan. I have always marveled at teachers who blogged about different subjects. I thought it was something that was too technical for me to accomplish. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to create and do. I am very grateful for learning a new strategy on how to communicate with others.

Reflection was a big concept that kept recurring in the book, the videos, and webinars with Dr. Abshire.  I learned that an effective administrator takes the time to reflect on action research projects both on their own and with collaborative groups.  I know in a lot of our science professional developments, we are asked to do a reflection form at the end for an evaluation. To be honest, most of the teachers just write ”Great job today,” so they can leave. I admit, I have done this many times. However, after this course, I now understand why they want us to use the reflection form for evaluation. Reflection time allows you or a group to really stop and think about the process or plan fully. It gives you the time to think about what is good in the plan, but also what needs to be changed. We need to take this time to think through potential problems, and be able to  plan accordingly.  Reflection is also a good thing to do collaboratively to be able to bounce different ideas and opinions off each other. During this process, if you  are working with a group, then you need to have a strong leader that allows everyone to share their ideas . The leader of the group should be a good listener, speak when needed, and guide the conversation in the correct direction.

The strategies such as; Force Field Analysis, Delphi Method, Nominal Group Technique, and the CARE model were of particular interest to me. As a teacher, I am always interested in learning new strategies to teach my students, so learning new strategies is always something that I have been interested in . These strategies for sustaining improvement in an action plan, were both easy to implement and helpful. I really liked the CARE model because it not only identified concerns, but also positive policies going on at a school. I feel when implementing a change, we sometimes look so closely at the negative we forget the positive.  This model has you look to the positive aspects in your school that will help make those changes.  Again, when I used the CARE model to write up my plan, it was very straightforward and not at all hard to do. I think this is a major benefit of these strategies.

I feel that I have gained a greater understanding of what action research is and how to complete a plan. I know that as I continue to reflect and revise the plan, I will grow to understand it even more. The best way form me to continue my understanding is to ask to be involved in action plans in the district and on my campus level.

 

Citations:

Dana, N. F. (2009). Administrator Inquiry Defined. Leading with passion and knowledge the principal as action researcher ;Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. P. (2010). Sustaining Improvement. Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action (pp. 94-96). Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Action Research Plan


CHAMPS Action Research Plan
Goal: Measure the effectiveness of CHAMPS, since the implementation of it this school year.
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation
 
Compare the data of office referrals from the 2011-2012 and the 2012-2013.
  • Compare the overall number of office referrals per semester and the total for the year.
 
 
Hayley Fraser
December 2012- May 2012
 Our online data base that stores the discipline records.
The data will be compared for the overall number of office referrals and types of office referrals
Create a short online survey.
-Hayley Fraser
-Principal
April 2013
Survey Monkey
Create a short 5-7 question survey. Have the principal review this before I send it out to the staff.
Conduct a short online survey for the teachers complete.
 
Hayley Fraser
May 2013
An online survey.
The survey results will provide data from the teachers’ perspective. It will show if they feel the program is effective or not.
Use Literature resources about school wide discipline plans. This will include literature about CHAMPS and/or programs used on other campuses.
 
 
 
 
Hayley Fraser
April 2013
Internet articles
Use the articles as an additional resource for my research part of the project.
Share information gathered from the project with the principals and leadership teams.
Hayley Fraser
July 2013
Office referral data
Survey data
Share the data gathered from the project with our principals leadership teams at the summer retreat meeting. This information will later be shared with the staff at the beginning of the year. Also, this information will help guide what staff development will be needed during the upcoming year for CHAMPS.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

My Action Research Plan


CHAMPS Action Research Plan
Goal: Measure the effectiveness of CHAMPS ,since the implementation of it this school year.
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation
 
Compare the data of office referrals from the 2011-2012 and the 2012-2013.
  • Compare the overall number per semester and total for the year.
  • This data can be broken down into what types offenses the office referrals were submitted for.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hayley Fraser
December 2012- May 2012
 Our online data base that stores the discipline records.
The data will be compared for the overall number of office referrals and types of office referrals. The data will be shared with the principal and assistant principals as well with our Academic and Operational Teams.
 
Compare the data of the office referrals from 2011-2012 and 2012-2013
  • This data can be broken down to see where the majority of our offenses are taking place. For example: hallway, cafeteria, PE, classes.
 
 
 
 
 
Hayley Fraser
December 2012- May 2012
Our online data base that stores the discipline records.
The data will be compared for the overall number of office referrals and types of office referrals. The data will be shared with the principal and assistant principals as well with our Academic and Operational Teams.
Since our Operational Team is the one helped implement this at the beginning of last year, this data can provide a good point for them to see what is working with our plan and what we need to change.
Conduct a short online survey for the teachers to see what their impression is of the effectiveness is of the CHAMPS program.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hayley Fraser
May 2013
An online survey that I will create using either Survey Monkey or google docs. It will only ask 5-7 questions.
The survey will provide a way for teachers to give their opinions on the new school wide discipline plan. The data will be shared with the principal and assistant principal along with both team leaders. This survey will allow the principal to see where we need more staff development on in this area.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Week 2:

This week we read in our Dana book , nine areas where research action can take place in a school.
  1. Staff development
  2. Curriculum development
  3. Individual teacher(s)
  4. Individual student(s)
  5. School culture/community
  6. Leadership
  7. Management
  8. School performance
  9. School justice

On the week 1 assignment, I stated that I would be doing my research on a flipped classroom. However, after discussion with my advisor my plans have changed. I am going to look at the effect that our new school wide discipline plan has on office referrals. I think this will be a very interesting plan to complete and analyze . We are a very large elementary campus(close to 900 students) so this data will benefit many people .

Citations:
Dana, N. F. (2009). The Passions that Drive Your Journey: Finding a Wondering. Leading with Passion and Knowledge the Principal as Action Researcher (pp. 25-68). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.

Friday, November 23, 2012

What have I learned about Action Research ?


At first, I thought I was unfamiliar with Action Reasearch. However, I realized very quickly that this happens in our school and  our school district quite often.  It is a common practice in our district with action teams, and our schools do this to make sure we are doing what is best for our students. 

One of the most important aspects of this is the collaborative piece.  We know that working together brings about better results. Teachers tend to work collaboratively and not even think about it. I know that when you transfer over into the administrator role you will need to continue this process and bring in your staff to help problem. We need to always remember, "It takes a village to raise a child." We can't face problems alone, and working together in this process is essential.

Teachers are very good at collecting data.  In fact,we have become experts at it, especially since we have the high- stakes testing. One thing I noticed was the importance of using not only the data,  but also to review professional literature on the topic you are researching. After you gather all your quantitative data and professional literature comes one of the the most time-consuming parts.  The best way for me to describe this part of the process is  taking all your information , and passing it through a funnel. What you hope comes out is the most essential key points needed for the success of your students.  I think this has to be one of the hardest parts of this process. I am currently working on a district action team, and we have so much information on our topic, it is hard to get it down to just what is necessary.








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Educators and blogging.

Blogging is everywhere, and you can find a blog about anything . Many educators have started to post blogs about their lessons, games, and activities. Some of these teachers let you have their lessons for free, while others charge you. Pinterest has opened up a wonderful way that educators can share their idead with each other. My district has opened this site up to us to use for ideas, and you can see all the great ideas along the hallways. I am amazed at the creativity of people in our profession and the willingness to share. There are not too many professions that have this trait.
Educators can also use blogs in the class and have students blog on a particular topic. They can post a comment to a video or a question by a teacher. Teachers  use a variety of Web 2.O tools to set this up for their learners. Blogging is becoming a new method of teaching in many classrooms today. It addresses the learning styles of our 21st century learners, and their need to be connected to technology. I have not done a traditional blog in my classes per se, but I have started using Edmodo where my students can post answers to videos and such. It is new way for me to teach , but the kids really enjoy it.


Citations:

  • Dana, N. F. (2009). Adminstrator Inquiry Defined. Leading with passion and knowledge the principal as action researcher (pp. 2-7)(pp. 20-25) . Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.
  • Ringler, M. C. (2007). Action Research:An Effective Instructional Leadership Skill for Future Public School Leaders. Journal of Scholarship and Practice, 4(1), 27-44.