Week 5 Action Research Reflection

As I reflect on this course I will have to take you back to my thoughts when I realized this was going to be a research course.  That word “research” was a word I found to be intimidating and something I had always dreaded since grade school.  Regardless of the way I felt about it I also realized I was going to have to do it if I wanted to get through this course. 

One area of this course that helped me on this journey was the reading assignments from the Dana text.  This textbook pulls you through step by step.  Chapter 2, The Passions that Drive Your Journey”, in my opinion, was the most enlightening.  I think the most important sentence in the whole chapter is this. “If you find your wonderings beginning to focus on controlling or changing teacher behavior, try reframing them in ways that help you understand teacher behavior and allow you to discover what you can do as an administrator with those new understandings.” (Dana, 2009)  We as leaders have to understand the behavior to determine what our next step will be.   

For me the video lectures worked well.  They allow us to see the professors involved behind the scene and lay a good foundation for what to expect from the week’s assignments. They also helped me to feel at ease. 

Another highlight for me in this course would be the discussion boards and blogging.  My previous experience with discussion boards was not always very good.  That could have been due to the criteria set for previous discussion boards.  With that being said, I feel this time was quite different. I looked forward to seeing what others had to say. Conversing with my peers on their topics, as I have mentioned, was enlightening and inspiring.  Having their input and feedback on my questions and comments was very helpful and insightful.  As I continue this journey, I look forward to hearing from my peers on their topics of research as well as feedback on my own.

Week 4 2nd Revision of Action Research Plan

Week 4 is over. What a week! I have had some great discussions this week with my classmates. Cohort17 is so insightful at times it scares me. I have learned alot about action research this week. On to week 5. Below is my 2nd revision of my plan. I was not able to meet with my mentor this week so final word on it will come next week. I did however, take some of my classmates suggestions and made a few changes. Please give me some feedback. I look forward to reading your comments. Thanks all.

Week 3 Action Research Plan and Reflection

This week has been a difficult one. Not just because of the weather but also in the attempt to narrow down and finalize my action research plan. Where it started is not really where it ended up. I guess this is a part of the process but not sure I like where it ended. I first began wondering about technology staff development trainings being effective enough to enable teachers to actually implement the newly acquired ideas into their lessons which would result in an increase of technology use in the classroom. This all came about because of our campus not meeting a district requirement involving technology as I discussed in discussion board this week. When first posting my wondering I had the question stated as “Does technology staff development help teachers become more comfortable and increase the use of technology in the classroom?”  After reading and reviewing the questions I realized I did not have an open ended question taking me to another revision. My question then became, “How can we ensure technology staff development assist teachers in implementing and increasing the use of technology in the classroom?” Well, that one didn’t really work either because we can’t ensure anything when it involves the actions of another.  After several discussions with my mentor and others my wondering took a sharp turn. In trying to achieve a deeper understanding I realized that it may be more about what teachers do with the information and their own perceptions of effectiveness. Where one teacher may find something effective another may not. So I had to re-think and came up with a new inquiry.  “How can we assist teachers in effectively implementing the newly acquired ideas from trainings attended and increase the use of technology in their classrooms?”  Below is my latest revision of my action plan. I would love some feedback from you. Oh and did I mention, research is really not my thing so finding this really difficult. J