Course Thoughts

I really enjoyed this course very much. I was a little worried at first because I see the word research in the title of the course, and I immediately think lots of research papers about issues that don’t relate to me. It’s funny because in the course, they actually bring that up when talking about why they use the word inquiry instead of research because of all the bad connections with the word research. Obviously, the class turned out to be a lot different than I thought it was going to be. I’ve never heard of the word action research or inquiry before, but as I started reading about what it was, it was answering questions that I had been thinking about before while teaching.
For example, I’ve always wondered about how a teacher goes about trying to improve things for next year or find solutions for different problems. I have always wondered about how to get my students to turn in their work. As a teacher before grad school, I never knew where to begin or where to start looking except to reflect and think about my “wondering.” It was neat to see that this class revealed all that information to me, and it opened my eyes to ways that my campus encourages action research whereas before, I didn’t realize or understand why my campus was having us do all these things. One example was PLC groups. At first, I thought it was a waste of time and pointless. After taking this class and learning about the reasons for it, I’ve enjoyed my PLC meetings at my school a lot more.
I have really enjoyed the readings for this class. I usually am not a textbook reader, but these books were great. The Dana text was probably my favorite book. It does an excellent job of taking you, in detail, step by step through action research. It gives you great real-world examples to follow and learn from and possible research questions that deal with common research topics.
The thing about this class that stood out the most was one of the videos that interviewed several people about action research. The video I liked was with Dr. Lewis when he gave the advice to research something that’s practical to you. I think sometimes I can do a project that’s assigned to me by a teacher or principal and get it done with just to get it over with without thinking about the content of my project. This may because I’m too busy and don’t have enough time or I’m not interested in the project itself. During this class, I did take his advice, and I am doing my research about something I’m interested in and something that benefits students. I believe Dr. Lewis is right that when you research something that you’re interested in, you will put more time and effort into the research.
I also like how we had to create blogs for this class. I think it’s beneficial when we can learn from each other and grow professionally. With blogs we are able to write down our thoughts, progress, questions, or anything for others to view and comment on. For action research, I think it’s a great tool to receive feedback. I’ve already started my research project and lots of minor issues and concerns have come up. It’s those concerns that you don’t know will happen until you start the project. These concerns or issues that arise are the things you want to post and share with people so that they can learn from you. If you have found a solution to these concerns, you can share that, or if you have not found the best way to fix a problem, you can solicit for ideas. It’s definitely a great way to collaborate with others.
Even though at first I was dreading this course because of the word research, it definitely has turned out to be a great course. The course taught me how to grow professionally and how to make student learning better.

Action Research Plan

My action research plan is posted to the week 4 discussion board. It didn't copy and paste into this blog well and this blog won't let you attach word files. It seems to only let you attach pictures and videos. I look forward to reading the comments.

Thanks

Lessons Learned Week 3

I really enjoyed the readings for this week. It definitely helped me plan and come up with a good research topic. I was looking at all the example research topics from the Dana text and I realized that my first couple of topics were too broad. It allowed me to think back and remember some of the wonderings that I had at the beginning of the year.

It was also interesting to learn about what you do after your research project. I was trying to explain what happens after the research for people to learn and read about your project to someone and I wasn't making any sense. Now I know that people either orally present it or write it for respected educational journals.

The readings were very insightful this week.

Lessons Learned Week 2

I thought it was interesting what Dr. Lewis suggested about action inquiry in his interview video, which was to research something that's practical or relevant to you. I think that's so important because it will do exactly what he said, which was "that you will be more interested in the research, more focused, and the students will benefit more from your practical research than something theoretical."

For me, I'm thinking about either researching effective feedback or accurate assessments. (grading) Both of these topics are very important and directly impacts student learning. Feedback allows for re-teaching and accurate grading allows for re-teaching and getting extra help on certain content.

Uses for Blogs

I think educational leaders can use blogs for many things. For example, our principal uses blogs to communicate with the staff. Every week, the principal will post the upcoming events on the blog. The principal also post everyday reference material to the blog for easy access to.

Teachers can also use blogs to communicate with students and parents. Teachers could post lesson plans, study material, and test reviews. Teachers could also post student work or the blog could provide for a discussion board.

Action Research

I have learned that action research can be a very powerful tool that involves the people inside the organization to reflect, analyze, and solve problems. In contrast with other methods of research, action research focuses on the concerns of people within the organization and involves them in the research, data collection, and the explanation of data. Also, action research provides a plan to bring about certain changes or improvements to a campus.
I believe I would be able to use action research in my job as a technology teacher with providing effective feedback. One of my “wonderings” is how I can be more effective in providing relevant feedback to students. As a teacher, I have found that sometimes it’s hard to schedule those days to provide feedback and to re-address areas of concern because you feel like you have to stay on a schedule. Usually this schedule is mandated by the state, district, or principal. I believe that reflection and research on effective feedback would get my brain going with coming up with ideas of how to implement effective feedback to kids. My personal belief is that an assignment is pointless if they don’t know how they did or if a student earns a grade lower than a 100 and doesn’t know why they earned that grade. Just like the text explains, we all find ourselves with no time, but it’s all about doing what’s best for the kids, and building feedback into the schedule is best for kids.