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.
Katie's Action Research Blog
Saturday, December 21, 2013
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.
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 Practice, 4(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
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