Reflecting on the course...

           

When the course started I read how Dana describes research as exercising, since it helps attain professional health. She mentioned that a true researcher is born when she reflects, goes through inquiry in a daily basis, and when takes her time to analyze previous experiences to shape any future actions. This way of describing a good researcher made me realize the importance of making it part of your life. In doing so, you not only grow professionally and personally, but you also help make changes in your school community. As an educator, as a leader, and as a human being I aim to impact my students, my school, and my co-workers. I want to motivate them all want to improve.

A good way to motivate others is by sharing your own inquiries.  There are many ways of involving others in your own wonderings, but to get them to participate and support your vision they must make it their own vision too. It is important to provide opportunities for understanding the need for inquiry. A trusting environment must be created, time to explain and reason should be allotted, and this way a strong foundation will be established.  I believe Harris really helps see the importance of setting a foundation to start a collaborative action research.

Blogging is an interactive way of sharing and it provided opportunities for feedback, and that triggers insight into our own practices. Nancy Fichtman Dana in her book Leading with Passion and Knowledge stated that a great way to collect data is by having interactive journals/blogs for the above reason. It is an amazing tool that also lets go revisit old thought and comments made to develop new thoughts. As I learned about this, it made me realize the important and the positive impact of other people’s perspectives outside my school campus may have. By blogging and visiting the discussion board I have grown to understand the vital importance this tool has on my professional development, but most of all on the accurate implementation of my own inquiry.

Harris, on the other hand, encourages deeper understanding of data. This has helped be more aware of data as a resource that provides the stepping stone for everything else in action research. Personally, it made me analyze data more accurately to support my school’s 4^th grade students learning. I was now able to use data to develop an appropriate approach to possibly improve outcomes in the Writing and Reading state assessments (STAAR). It will also prove to be a great assessment tool when it’s time to analyze data on surveys, interview, attendance logs, and office referrals in my action research. The way Harris explains this step makes it very simple to follow and to apply to my own inquiries.

Bibliography

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps to improve our schools. Eye on Education Press.

Revised action plan

Action Planning
Goal: To improve parental involvement to reduce discipline problems in a Title I elementary school.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
-Interview Assistant Principal to find out reasons for referrals and other disciplinary issues in school. -Ask to look at number of referrals up to date. -Discuss action taken and if incidents are repetitive. -Ask if this students’ have parental support and/or school involvement.	intern	4/2/2012 – 4/6/2012	Assistant Principal, Conroe ISD’s program to document referrals	Analysis of current data: referrals to help see outcomes next school year with new discipline program and parental activities.
-Create a survey through survey monkey to see all campus’ perspective on discipline and parental involvement. -Ask staff for suggestions on solving these two issues in our school. -Attend “Capturing Kids Hearts” program to implement school year 2012-2013 for discipline improvement.	intern and  site supervisor/principal site supervisor, intern	5/1/2012- 5/11/2012 8/3/2012-8/5/2012	Monkey  Survey “Capturing Kids Heart” trainers and any resource they provide	data analysis, develop deeper understanding, exploring programmatic patterns, determining direction developing deeper understanding, exploring programmatic patterns, taking action for school improvement
-Propose activities to school principal for “Parent Parties Game Night” (teaching skills to parents) and Parental Involvement Newsletter monthly. - Parties are to take place after school once every nine weeks.	Site supervisor, Title I literacy coach, first grade bilingual teacher, Intern	6/5/2012	Parent Parties games and newsletter  in English and Spanish, tables set up, teacher volunteers	Setting the foundation and taking action for school improvement
-analyze data (referrals) in the fall  2012 and spring 2013 to see if any improvement has been made, discuss information with supervisor and assistant principal. -create a new survey to evaluate how staff and parents perceive changes	Intern, assistant principal, and site- supervisor/principal	11/2012, 03/2013	Data ( # of referrals) from previous year and current ones	Monkey survey, parents’ survey, data analysis, taking action for school improvement, sustain improvement.

Sharing the Process

Sharing the Progress and Process of My Action Research:

When we share our action research projects we can affect how people outside of education view educators. We can also influence other teachers to go through inquiry themselves. We can share orally in meetings or gatherings, or in a more formal gathering with a simple and easy to follow PowerPoint presentation. Another excellent way to share our inquiry is by writing articles that include clarification of topic, an empowerment position, what other inquiries were generated once project was implemented and what was accomplished by the action research. The Dana text in its chapter named The Travelogue embraces blogging as a rich way of disseminating information in action research.

Blogging is probably the fastest, most current way of sharing inquiry today. Many educators create blogs and by doing so make it more accessible for all interested. I will share my own process orally with stakeholders at my school, through simple presentations, and through my own blog. I will start by providing information that brought me to my wonderings, how it has been a serious problem in my school for a long time. I will also share how I will go about my inquiry; the data collected and analyzed what I plan to learn from such data, as well as any other findings along the way. Once, the action research project ends I will also provide my followers with the answers or results attained through this process by means of concluding thoughts. Hopefully, my action research process will not only prove beneficial to my campus, but to others as the follow my progress.

Bibliography

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To improve parental involvement to reduce discipline problems in a Title I elementary school.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
-Interview Assistant Principal to find out reasons for referrals and other disciplinary issues in school. -Ask to look at number of referrals up to date. -Discuss action taken and if incidents are repetitive. -Ask if this students’ have parental support and/or school involvement.	Elisa Carranza	4/2/2012 – 4/6/2012	Assistant Principal, Conroe ISD’s program to document referrals	Analysis of current data: referrals to help see outcomes next school year with new discipline program and parental activities.
-Create a survey through survey monkey to see all campus’ perspective on discipline and parental involvement. -Ask staff for suggestions on solving these two issues in our school and share findings with discipline committee -Attend “Capturing Kids Hearts” program to implement school year 2012-2013 for discipline improvement.	Elisa Carranza, site supervisor/principal, and discipline comittee   supervisor/ principal	5/1/2012- 5/11/2012 8/3/2012-8/5/2012	Survey Monkey “Capturing Kids Heart” trainers and any resource they provide	data analysis, Survey Monkey develop deeper understanding by reading similar studies developing deeper understanding by reading beforehand, take action for school improvement by attending  a 3- day staff development
-Propose activities to school principal and site-base comittee for “Parent Parties Game Night” (teaching skills to parents) and Parental Involvement Newsletter monthly. - Parties are to take place after school once every nine weeks. - Suggest adult computer literacy for parents in school (weekly or bimonthly)	Elisa Carranza,  site supervisor/principal, and site-base decision making comittee	6/5/2012	Parent Parties games and newsletter  in English and Spanish, tables set up, teacher volunteers, computer lab, computer instructor	Set the foundation by training all staff on new program and sharing plans for parental involvement. Take action for school improvement by implementing program school-wide and participating on parental involvement activities.
-Analyze data (referrals) in the fall  2012 and spring 2013 to see if any improvement has been made, discuss information with supervisor and assistant principal. -Create a new survey to evaluate how staff perceives changes and suggestions	Elisa Carranza, assistant principal, site- supervisor/principal, and discipline comittee	11/2012, 03/2013	Data ( # of referrals) from previous year and current ones, Survey Monkey for outcomes	Survey Monkey, data analysis, ensure a sustained improvement by continuing to have parent parties and monitor # of referrals.

Lessons learned in week two...

Learning about the 9 common areas of action research has been valuable. Principal-researchers truly commit to being constant action researchers to improve on all areas in their campus. They involve the school community in this quest, and motivate teachers to pursue their own wonderings too.
Listening to three successsful leaders and how they approach their wonderings, has also been a positive learning experience this week. It provided three very personal perspectives on action research, but at the same time they all agreed that it has to be interesting for the researcher, and practical to the environment where it is taking place.
Overall, the week provided many opportunities to reflect on my own action research. It has lead me to change my direction. Now, I have a more clear wondering in my mind, and am able to start looking for the appropiate literature and data to help me develop a stronger action research plan.

Blogs for Educational Leaders

Blogs are simply online journals or diaries that provide a great opportunity to reflect on our own thinking process. They are excellent not only for sharing such process, but they also let you post current research. Principal- researchers may use blogging as a way to recollect and share their own reflections with others, to gain a deeper insight into their own process, and to receive feedback from other educational leaders. It is also a great way to correlate past thoughts with more current one, and see progress made in their own inquiries.

What have I learned about action research?

Action research is a study leaders must undergo daily to reflect on their own administrative practices. Reflection, data collection, analysis of findings, reading pertinent literature, and sharing findings with the school community should help principal-researchers be more aware of their own needs, and how to improve personally and professionally. This will in return have a more positive impact on their school. Inquiry is vital to achieve professional health, but sometimes it is hard for principals to find the time to do this. That is why a set time must be created by them to involve themselves in reflective practice.
To become an expert reasearcher, reflective thinking must be practiced and nurtured. It requires analytical thinking, understanding how valuable prior experiences are, and taking action. Expert principal-researchers involve themselves in this by making it part of their daily activities. Some involve their staff by creating leadership teams, professional learning communities (PLCs), and book studies. There are others that motivate their teachers to analyze their own way of teaching, and guide them to make curriculum improvement to accomodate their students' needs.
As a result of all this findings it's easy to appreciate, as an education administration graduate student, my personal need for action research. It is imperative that I constantly reflect on my own practices, collect data, read literature related to my own inquiries, and share results with others that may benefit. This will help find possible reasons and solution to problems in school, find better ways to teach our current curriculum, discover literature that may help understand current conflict, help us all grow to become better educators, and perhaps motivate others to start this process themselves too.