Action Research Proposal

GOAL:  Identify the benefit of using the Student Response System or “Clickers” on scores of 8th grade social studies students on common assessments. OUTCOMES ACTIVITIES RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES TIME LINE Benchmarks/ ASSESSMENT Revisions to SIP/PIP based on monitoring and assessments Establish control and research groups with two 8th grade Social Studies Teachers 8th Grade Social Studies teachers participation Two sets of clickers Rose Linseisen Teachers August 2012 Campus common assessments Collect pre-test data for both research and control groups. Pre-test Two sets of clickers Rose Linseisen Teachers August 2012 Campus common pre-test Have the control group to test in traditional scantron fashion Research groups will test using the clickers Two sets of clickers Campus Common Assessment Rose Linseisen Teachers August 2012 – October 2012 Campus common assessment In addition to using the clickers for test, the students will use the clickers on warm ups and quizzes Control groups will have the same warm-ups and quizzes administered without the clickers Two sets of clickers Warm-ups Quizzes Rose Linseisen Teachers August 2012- October 2012 Compare the results of the control and research groups on the campus common assessments Data from campus common assessments Rose Linseisen Teachers August 2012 – October 2012 Campus common assessment Compare the results of the control groups and the research groups on fall Social Studies common assessment Test scores of 2 control and 4-6 research classes Rose Linseisen Teachers November 2012 Fall common assessment Administer a post-assessment to both the control and research groups about what they think positively impacted their learning Post-assessment survey Rose Linseisen Teachers November 2012 Review the data with the teacher and identify strengths and weakness and help them to develop a plan to improve teaching methods Data from pre-test and district common assessment Rose Linseisen Social Studies teachers Principal Department Chair December 2012

Sharing Best Practices

Watching and listening to the educators who were sharing this week on action research it struck me that a good ideas is a good idea.  Thoughout my profession life both in education and in other endeavors I have always sought the best ideas from others.  It really struck home with me that this is a valid practice and just as our students learn well from other students we can be the students to other teachers and administrators. 

Reflecting on each of these scholars I identified a common them, that it is important to look outside your organization to begin finding solutions to the challenges your environment is facing.  I think this is a message that is valid whether you are speaking of individual teachers, departments, schools or districts.  It is valuable to search out ideas for a solution before you try and come up with one on your own.  I find that when I discuss challenges with other teachers we almost always collectively find a solution to the problem. 

Action Research

Action research is a systemic cyclical system for comptemplating opportunities for school improvement.     Reflective practice is the cornerstone of action research, the practitioner, the administrator, wonders about an issue in their particular school.  The cycle continues with the administrator developing a question based on the wondering and then develops a plan to research the question.  At every stage of the process the practitioner reflects on the information they have collected and decides what additional action to take.  Action research can be an independent activity the administrator completes on their own, or it can involve many stakeholders in the school.  I can think of many ways to use action research can be used to improve my current school.  My focus is on how technology can be used to improve teaching and more importantly learning.  I wonder how the use of technology can improve the learning of math and science students.  Establishing a link between computer access and improvement on standardized test in my school could have a positive impact on the amount of funds we could acquire for implementing the latest technology in our school.  Most of the research I have done so far has been informal; I am looking forward to establishing a more formal qualitative research protocol.

Administrator use of Blogs

Administrators might use weblogs to share their thinking and reflections.  Blogs serve as an online diary and can allow administrators to share their thinking on anything that is happening in or affecting the school.  Administrators can use the blogs as an interactive tool to communicate with stakeholders, while allowing the stakeholders to give them feedback.   The blogs can be part of the reflective practice of the administrator, and part of the cyclical nature of action research.

Reflection Question Five - Self Reflection

The first thing that I realized is that although I consider myself basically technologically savvy, I had missed great many innovations on the web.  I have added a few new tools into my tool box, which is great, and I hope to share these with other teachers.  Although, I do not have a great deal of leadership experience in the school system, my career before this was in the restaurant business as a regional trainer and manager, so my interpersonal skills and leadership skills are basically strong.  I had purposely chosen not to go into administration, but taking this class has made me re-think my views on that, it is hard to change things from the outside, so if I want to have a far reaching impact administration would give me that opportunity. 

Reflection Question Four - Course Assignments

I believe I was relatively successful in carrying out the course assignments, however, I don’t think anything I did was as good as I would like it to be.   When thinking about this question I think what discouraged me the most was my own need for getting it exactly right.  Before I became a teacher I was not a student who sought to create the perfect assignment.  I don’t ever remember be overly concerned about what the instructor wanted other than the concern for my grade.  Now that I am a teacher I am much more concerned about meeting the expectations of the instructor.  I remind myself of the pre-AP students I teach, who know that I have an exact perfect product in my head and they want me to tell them what it is so they can match it.  I always tell them, truthfully, that I have a general idea of what I am looking for and as long as their product meets the rubric they will receive that grade.  Now I know why they don’t seem to believe me, I am pretty sure there is a perfect product. 

Reflection Question Three - Outcomes not obtained

I did not learn as much as I had hoped, the class went by so quickly and even though I tried to read all of the articles and add some additional research in, I found myself running out of time every week.  My hope over the week off is that I will be to catch up on the information I do not feel that I have a grasp on.  I am not comfortable with some of the new technology applications I have learned and I am looking forward to utilize these new tools in the future to be fluent in using them.  Time was the largest factor that kept me from fully realizing my goals in the class, I am concerned with the future courses and if I will be able to meet all my goals in those courses.

Reflection Question Two - Outcomes in relation to current assignment

My district bills itself as a “Technology Rich” district, and to some extent it is, all the classrooms are hardwired for overhead projectors, and we have a many different types of technology.  The challenge I face is not the availability of the materials, but the support to help me apply the technology.  What I learned through this course is that there are many technology resources through the web that I was not utilizing to the fullest extent.  My hope over the next 18 months is that I can use the knowledge that I gain to help other teachers to implement the best technology possible in their classrooms to help prepare these 21^st Century learners for the world they are going to enter.  I am sure that if I learn as much in the course that are ahead as I did in this class, I should be prepared to lead the technological revolution at my school and hopefully have a far reaching impact on the district.

Reflection Question One - Course Outcomes

Coming into this course I was not exactly sure of what to expect.  I was hoping that I would learn a great deal, which I did, so in that respect I certainly achieved that outcome.   I was expecting to understand the program more, which I believe I achieved; the weekly video conferences were very helpful with this.  I thought that the course would be more about application of technology ideas, and not as much about the challenges facing our school systems in regards to teaching and the implications of technology.   One thing this course did was create a great deal of questions for me.   The current state of our education system in regards to technology is clearly out of step with the world and jobs our students will encounter.   I always enjoy something that challenges me to problem solve, especially a topic as important as educational reform.  I am alternately exhilarated and disillusioned when I think of the tasks ahead. 

District Technology Plan

My district does not have a published technology plan so I used the plan of a neighboring district. The technology plan is focused on continual improvement, the plan will be reviewed quarterly the district level, and yearly on the campus level. There is money budgeted specifically for changing technology and addressing needs that are not foreseeable. Staff development will not be static, but directed by the reviews and consistent with the needs of staff, students and other stakeholders. Continual assessment of needs will allow for a quick response to changes. The plan was non-specific on staff development; this reflects their willingness to address the latest technologies. The plan has a detailed plan for appropriately grouped grade levels which follows the TEKS for each grade level so that the 8th graders are prepared to take the technology assessment prescribed. The district implemented a budget that will allow it to: “refresh” the infrastructure, provide for staff development; equipment, purchase new technologies, and provide for the proper implementation of current and future technologies. The plan is focused on student. The campuses are aligned vertically and the campuses are given the power to move assets based on need of the campuses with their group. I think the overall plan is specific enough to provide structure, but flexible enough to address what is an ever-changing landscape in real-time. The district has empowered its technology leaders to lead the district into the future.

Department of Educational Technology Plan

The technology plan is focused on two goals, ensuring all students graduate from high school prepared for college or careers and increase the college graduation rate. There are five key areas, learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure and productivity. In a shift from traditional educational philosophy learning is the first area addressed which equates to planning with end in mind. The learning is student centered, each student should be presented with a core set of competencies, beyond that the student is empowered to control their own learning, and the learning is focused on 21st century capabilities. The assessment piece of this plan is focused on a continuous improvement loop to continually shift the learning based on the needs of individual students. Teaching shifts from sharing information to connected team teaching where the educator as a professional is connected to the data and resources necessary to provide the appropriate learning opportunities for all students, assessment of teacher competencies and professional development opportunities will be key. In order for this plan to work an infrastructure that supports this 24/7 connected learning must be present. This plan calls for education to be “redesigned” to fit the productivity model, many long held educational beliefs will have to be re-shaped to fit 21st century realities, productivity in the educational realm is not much different from business, using your resources wisely to produce the best product. The focus on learning in this plan is impressive; unfortunately, I question whether the system can be redesigned to accommodate all the recommendations.

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Assessing Teachers

Goal setting can be divided into four main parts, identify the need, develop a plan, implement the plan, and finally evaluate the plan.  Each of the four steps is vital to the plans success.  Although assessment is often thought of as a dirty word it is essential, how do we know if our plan is successful if we do not evaluate?  Teachers in the State of Texas are expected to meet the SBEC standards regarding technology, in order to know if they have meet them an assessment is necessary.   When one looks at the Standards it becomes apparent that assessment will need to be administered in a variety of formats, both formal and informal.  The STaR chart is an assessment of both the school and the teacher’s current level of performance in reference to technology; this is a tool that could be used as part of the assessment process.  Additionally, teachers should have at least the knowledge that he students exiting 8^th grade are expected to possess, teachers could take the 8^th grade technology assessment to measure this.  I think it would take a battery of assessments to evaluate individual teacher’s current level of performance accurately.  When the data is collected then the real work would begin, how do we address any needs that are identified?   There should be campus technology leadership in place to implement a plan of ongoing technology education and integration.   Since technology changes every day, the evaluation process of teachers, students and other assets should be ongoing.