Week 5 Reflections

This course started out as being my most dreaded course because I had a preconceived notion of research. Though this course has certainly not been easy as I have had to stretch myself and my abilities to new levels, I have learned so much. My schema of research has been forever altered. I have gained a wealth of knowledge from this course that will not only affect me in this program but will affect my leadership ability in future positions. I have incorporated so much from all aspects of this course because the lessons blended so well together and built on each other. I am always looking for relevance in what I do and ask myself how I will apply what I am learning to my career. This course has significant importance to my current position as a teacher as well as my future position as an administrator.

Final Draft of My Action Research Plan - A Work in Progress

First of all I'd like to say thanks to all of my peers that offered suggestions last week. What a help! I actually took the comments to my site supervisor and we talked about ways to improve my Action Research Plan with those in mind. Some suggestions we talked about and weren't able to change anything on my plan due to his restrictions for the PLC. Below is my corrected Action Research Plan...keeping in mind that it's a living document and will most certainly be changed throughout this process:

Goals and Objectives:

• Implement Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at Cater Elementary for the first time, by first having a voluntary PLC
• Grow Professionally as individuals and as a campus
• From the PLCs realize an increase in testing scores

Activities:

• Research other schools that use PLCs. Decide how my school can utilize research findings to fit our needs for a PLC.
• Create a small PLC of volunteers the first year on a trial run basis.
• Create and implement a PLC of volunteers for year 1, to explore the researched plan.
• Pending successful implemtation of the voluntary PLC, see PLCs required all over campus.

Resources/Research Tools Needed:

• Computer and in-person research of other distircts that employ use of PLCs.
• Interviews with teachers and administrators of selected PLC districts to ascertain the effectiveness of their PLCs and to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their PLCs.

Timeline:

• 1 school year voluntary PLC
• Meetings once a week in the beginning, to be dropped to once every two weeks or once a month as deemed necessary by the PLC and principal.
• Meetings will be after school, or during conference periods as available.
• Principal will only be at meetings once a month at first, then backing off and becoming available to us if we request him or come to him. This way it is more staff led instead of principal led.
• 2nd school year (pending success of voluntary PLC) implementing PLCs campus wide.

Persons Responsible for Implementation:

• Lindy Welborn and other volunteer members of the 1st PLC
• Our principal, administrator guide to the 1st PLC

Process for Monitoring Achievement:

• Our principal will be our guide for the first voluntary PLC. We will discuss our findings, thoughts, and wonderings with him.
• Various assessments will be given to monitor student growth as a result of the teacher's participation in a PLC.
• Also during the year the teacher will be able to note their growth on their informal and formal evaluations from the previous to current years.

Assessment Instruments to Evaluate Effectiveness:

• Our principal will guide the effectiveness of the 1st voluntary PLC on campus. He will guide us to make changes, and challenge us and direct us in a manner to improve our PLC. After our trial run, our principal will make necessary changes and evaluate the whole process for a potential campus wide implementation.
• Visibly see teachers constantly evolving their teaching strategies to demonstrate best practices. Improvement in teachers' PDAS scores. Greater teacher interaction as evidenced by group participation and vertical alignment.
• Test data - local benchmarks and state tests several times a year as a checkpoint.

Week 3 Action Research Course

This has been a very busy week researching. I have again gained so much in this week. I am getting very pumped about my research project. This week, week 3, I have created an action research plan.

My goals and objectives are:
To implement Professional Learning Communities at my campus for the first time.
To grow professional as individuals and as a campus.
Increase testing scores.

Activities:
Research other schools that use PLCs.
Decide how my campus can utilize these findings.
Create a small PLC formed from volunteers for the first year.

Resouces/Research needed:
Computer and In-person research for other PLCs.
Interviews from other schools with PLCs to determine what they deem are their strengths and weaknesses.

Timeline:
1 school year - voluntary PLC
2nd school year - pending success of voluntary PLC, create PLCs campus wide

Persons responsible for Implementation:
L.Welborn and principal
Volunteers for first PLC

Process for Monitoring Achievement:
My principal will be the guide for the 1st PLC. We will discuss our findings and wonderings with him.

Assessment Instruments to Evaluate Effectiveness:
My principal will assess the success of the voluntary PLC and make necessary changes to implement campus wide.
Visibly see teachers constantly evolving their teaching strategies to demonstrate best practices.
Test data - local benchmarks and state tests.

Research Class Week 2

This has been a very busy week in this course. I have been reading and analyzing the Dana textbook for most of the week, as well as trying to decide on 3 potential ideas for my action research project. My site supervisor and I came to a consensus on one reserach idea towards the end of the week. I have also been going to my 30 hours of G/T training this week through my district. I started the week out fairly stressed, but it turns out the G/T training was beneficial to my research project and I was able to bounce ideas off of other people from my district and campus. Veteran teachers especially were able to help me refine my ideas. Also this week I was able to read everyone else's ideas for research projects on the discussion board. That really helped kick start my thinking for my research project idea. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but the discussion board and brainstorming with my site supervisior really inspired me this week.
Until next time...

How Educational Leaders Can Use Blogs:

Action Based Research suggests that you question your practices as an educational leader. How better to question and reflect on your practices than to write about it. A blog is basically an online, public journal. Not only can the educational leader reflect themselves as in the sense of a traditional journal, but they can invite other educational leaders to reflect and offer suggestions thus encouraging best practices.

What I have Learned About Action Research:

Action research is not at all what I expected entering my new Master's course. My preconcieved notions included a dark room with old musty books and spider webs in the corners. What a surprise I got when I started delving into this topic. Action research is a new spin on research. Instead of the typical imagery that pops into ones mind, it is actually research that makes sense. Hallelujah! Action research requires eduators to think and question their actions. This helps develop a sense of ownership and increased knowledge. You are learning things that are applicable to your situation. I am going to use action research this year in creating a professional learning community (PLC) at my campus. I, along with many other teachers, feel like we are islands unto ourselves. We are not sharing our ideas and best practices with each other and growing together as a team. We noticed that this year with us not working together our TAKS scores have suffered. My campus has had a reputation for working as a team in the past, but the last few years that has gone by the wayside. This year was a wake-up call to our staff and I feel that we are ripe to begin some changes. One such change I believe would tremendously benefit my campus is having PLC's. I think if we begin small and have staff volunteer to begin a PLC instead of forcing the change, others will see how beneficial it is. I am creating a PLC with two other teachers on staff for this next year. We want to use action research to show how PLC's can be used most effectively, how other schools have used it in the past, and how we can use our PLC to benefit our classrooms and our campus. This will give us a guide as to how to construct our PLC. I think once others see the support system we have created with each other and how we are growing professional and how our students are benefiting they will be encouraged to join a PLC.