Saturday, December 21, 2013

Web Conference Reflection

I attended three web conferences towards the end of the course. I felt these sessions were mostly for questions. Many students repeated questions due to unclear directions on the overview. I just do my best to follow the rubric so the web conferences didn't help me. If anything they made me more confused. The professor was telling us one interpretation, our IA was telling us another, and the assignment itself would have something different. I chose to send my questions to the IA instead of asking during the web conference. They are the person who actually grades the assignments so I prefer to message them. The only beneficial part of the web conference was hearing about the changing of the site supervisor that will take place in January. I am glad I will now be prepared.

I was also very frustrated that 2/3 conferences I attended did not start on time. I sat around at my computer waiting for 30 minutes before they actually started. I did not like wasting my time when I had other work to finish.Overall, I would have preferred to have not attended the web conferences.

Friday, November 22, 2013

EDLD 5363 Week 1 Reflection

This week's assignment was fairly simple for me. I make many videos similar to this for our end of year kindergarten slideshow. I put a bunch of pictures together with transitions and music in the background. I also recently made a going away video for our principal. I took videos of all the kindergarten classes saying a line of a poem and then inserted the line as a caption with the video. We are going to play it for her at a going away party. The big difference making the video this time was adding the audio. I had to record the audio in small chunks to make sure it lined up to the pictures. I also had a difficult time writing the script without looking at pictures. I decided to skim through my pictures first to get an idea of what I would like to write about. Overall, I found this project to be pretty simple. I enjoy using Windows Movie Maker.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Reflection

As I look back through this course I realize how far I have come in my understanding of action research. When I began with the week one assignment, action research was just a topic I was reading about in a textbook. I learned it was a process used to implement changes and involved evaluating your own practice. I read about how it involved seeking out relevant data and asking questions to guide the data collection (Dana, 2009). These words did not have meaning to me when I was reading them at first. Dana (2009) also mentioned action research was a way for administrators to continue to be a learner and model life-long learning. I have always strived to better myself as an educator and did not see the significance of action research in the past.
In the next part of the week one assignment I had to look at why action research was important. After reading the Dana (2009) text I realized the many contexts where action research can be used including district meetings, staff development, and leadership teams. I learned action research is important in order to improve student learning, increase staff reflection on their own practice and build teachers’ self-confidence and self-efficacy (Dana, 2009). I want to increase student learning and continue to reflect upon my own practice so I took interest in how to actually proceed with an action research study.
The week three assignment challenged me to look into nine areas where many school leaders have wonderings. It opened my eyes to the many places action research can be used. I particularly enjoyed reading about curriculum development and individual student wonderings because those relate to me as a teacher right now. The wonderings I read about in the Dana (2009) text lead me towards my own wonderings. The three initial areas I wanted to explore with action research are how to improve reading scores in my kindergarten classroom, how to increase student engagement, and how to decrease the number of discipline referrals. I was able to share these ideas on my blog and on the discussion board and received excellent feedback from my classmates about my ideas. The person who had the most impact my topic choice was my principal, who is my site supervisor.
My site supervisor seemed very interested in my idea to increase student engagement. After meeting with her I realized I needed to take that topic and figure out a way to develop an action research study. Assignment three really helped guide my ideas and allowed me to develop my action research study. I thought about which subject area would best benefit from increased student engagement. I decided to focus on writing time because it is an independent activity for my students and they struggle to stay engaged while writing. From there I began working on developing my action research plan. The template from the Harris, Edmonson, and Combs (2010) text was very helpful in helping me shape my ideas. I also looked through the action research plans of my classmates on their blogs. Looking at their action research plans showed me steps I had forgotten in my own action research plan. I was able to add in those steps and make changes based on their action research plans before I submitted mine.
After I completed my action research plan, I posted it on my blog. I really enjoyed being able to receive feedback on my plan and collaborate with my classmates on how to make changes to my plan. The positive comments gave me confidence I had developed a great plan and the comments with suggestions made me defend what I had written or look into how to make a change to my plan.
Overall, this class has helped me realize what action research is and how powerful it can be when it is used in schools. I am excited to begin my action research plan and see how it impacts my teaching practices and how it benefits my students. I look forward to keeping up with my classmates’ blogs as well to see how they progress with their action research projects as well. Their plans may lead me towards another action research study in the future.
References
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.
Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. P. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
R., & Morehead, E. (2013, July 30). Re: Action research plan template [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://katieactionresearch.blogspot.com/
Wells, K. (2013, July 25). [Personal interview].

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Action Research Plan Template

My kindergarten students come into my classroom with a short attention span. Part of our curriculum towards the middle of the year requires us to have our students sit and write for 30-45 minutes on their own. Even with guidance, many children have a difficult time staying engaged in their writing for this amount of time. Using Schlechty’s Design Quality of “Novelty and Variety” I would like to find ways to increase my students’ engagement in writing. I would like to incorporate technology aspects into the “Novelty and Variety” to meet the technology standards.

References
Schlechty Center. (2009). Schlechty Center. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://www.schlechtycenter.org/tools/free

Action Planning Template
Goal: Increase student engagement through the use of “Novelty and Variety” during writing time.
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation

Assess student engagement during traditional writing time


Katie Gould

November 2013- January 2014

Spreadsheet to track student engagement

Results from tracking student engagement

Research ways to add “Novelty and Variety” to writing time


Katie Gould

November 2013-January 2014

Internet resources, books, conversations with others, other resources I find on the topic


List of ways to increase “Novelty and Variety” to writing time

Implement new ways to add “Novelty and Variety” to writing time


Katie Gould

January 2014-June 2014

iPad, computers, and other materials I find from my previous research

Keep documentation of the ways I try to add “Novelty and Variety”

Assess student engagement during writing time with “Novelty and Variety”


Katie Gould

January 2014-June 2014

Spreadsheet to track student engagement

Results from tracking student engagement

Compare assessment of student engagement from traditional writing time to “Novelty and Variety” writing time


Katie Gould

June 2014-August 2014

Spreadsheets with student engagement information

Draw conclusions from comparing spreadsheets and post results of action research plan

Share results with others including site supervisor

Katie Gould

August 2014-September 2014

Results of action research plan  and graphs or documents to back up the results


Final document or product to share results

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Narrowing Down a Topic--- Week 2

This week I have really focused on narrowing down my action research topic. I knew I wanted to do something with student engagement, but was struggling with how to incorporate the technology aspect I needed to include. My principal encouraged me to use Schlechty's Design Qualities to help me narrow down my topic. The school district has been pushing the staff to use these qualities to increase student engagement. After reviewing them (http://www.schlechtycenter.org/tools/free <-- you can find them here) I chose to focus on "Novelty and Variety". This allows me to compare technology options to more paper/pencil options and see if giving them variety increases student engagement.

I then chose to narrow it down to just writing time as well. I teach kindergarten and it is very difficult to ask a five year old to sit and write for 45 minutes. If I can add some variety, including technology options, to my writing time, I think I can increase their engagement in writing. Writing is very important in kindergarten along with reading and I would love to have my students more engaged in writing. I also want to show them there are many ways to write and I hope to find ways to allow all my student to love writing. I am waiting to hear back from my principal about her thoughts on my ideas.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Uses for Blogging

Blogging is a great tool for educational leaders. It is a great collaboration instrument and can be used to share work with others and receive others’ comments and feedback. It provides a larger audience than would not normally be available and can be seen by people who are not even in the same state. Blogging also allows for reflection and allows you to go back and look at previous posts as well. When others comment on your posts it may open your eyes to ideas you had never even thought of. Blogging allows for many opportunities. This information was supported by the following source:

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

Action Research

Action research is a process used to implement changes in a school. It begins with identifying a problem that needs to be fixed. For my own classroom, it may be how to increase student engagement or how to increase literacy rates. Once the problem is identified, you seek out relevant information on the topic and read through previous research done on the topic. You look for ways to make positive changes in the classroom that would lead you towards fixing the identified problem. After analyzing the results of those changes made in the classroom, you share your results with those around you.

I am looking forward to choosing an action research project to start on in the next couple of weeks. I am always looking for ways to improve my classroom. This will allow me to feel more confident in my teaching and provide my students with a better experience in my classroom. It allows me an opportunity to model life-long learning for my students as well. Classrooms are a great place for action research, but there are other areas it can be used in as well.

Action research is not just for classroom teachers to use with their own students, it can also be used in other ways. Principals can collaborate during district meetings and choose action research projects for their schools. Principals can also collaborate with staff members to choose inquiry topics for the school. Groups of teachers can work on an action research project together. It provides a great platform for collaboration among educators and a great way to deliver positive change for the school. Action research is a great tool for my future use in education.

The information I learned about action research was found from the following sources:
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.
Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. P. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Ringler, M. C. (2007). Action research an effective instructional leadership skill for future public school leaders. AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice4(1), 27-42. Retrieved July 17, 2013, from http://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/Journals/AASA_Journal_of_Scholarship_and_Practice/Spring-07vFINAL.pdf#page=27