Human Resource/ First Week Reflection

This week, I learned that a principal has various roles in the learning community that she leads and various skills that needs to posses. I believe one of the most important skills that a principal needs to develop and apply on a daily basis is conflict resolution techniques and consensus building strategies. Administrators will encounter conflicts and issues affecting morale and trust among staff, teachers and administrators. One of the strategies learned in the course is one of the three F’s, fix a conflict or dispute. When a conflict is not fixed and one of the other two F’s are chosen as the method to deal with the problem, negative consequences result such as a constant battle between conflicting parties or an engagement on a passive-aggressive behavior that would adversely affect the overall learning community. I also learned that when communication and consensus building strategies are implemented as a normal way to conduct business in a learning community, a positive collegial environment is promoted among teachers, parents and administrators, positively affecting school morale.

Action Reaserach/ Week 5

As the course comes to an end, I reflect on the different topics that we studied during this five weeks and the one that caught my attention was the collection of data. With the accountability culture prevailing at our schools today, the most visible data type is test results. I never imagined that in action research, other sources of information would be taken into account such as interviews or surveys that might seem more informal for some. Interviews, when well planned, can reveal important information that can be useful in the improvement of a school (Dana, 2009).

I would suggest the use of this important tool as a way to discover how stakeholders at a school think or feel about an issue affecting the school performance, but in combination with other sources of data collection. I found this chapter very useful to implement strategies to resolve an issue or implement a solution to a problem based on different perspectives.

When the word research is heard, what comes to mind is graphs, quantitative data and

laboratories, but with technology; other strategies are also available such as pictures and videos which are a good strategy to document action research. I have also learned to use data collection strategies and more important, I realized that this strategy is also useful for any other discipline or project outside education. As I discussed in paragraph one, interviews are a good source of data and technology can complement their effectiveness when used to record information. With the ideas presented by Dana’s book on how to use technology, pictures and videos used in action research become a powerful tool to record information that I would use in every action research project. Technology becomes important to streamline the gathering and the processing of data, as I shared in a posting in week 4, when a survey is designed to give numerical value to an answer; the survey then can be shared in Google forms. This way, data can be organized on a spreadsheet, providing an effective way to filter and share the results with other educators.

Another part of the course that I also enjoyed was the three videos from three action research

practitioners. I think that their participation in this course was meaningful for me and presented the

opportunity to know of first hand how action research is made. Their advice was very wise. In the first video, Dr Briseno, talks about how data is imperative in the decision making process and how nothing is changed if data is not present or more research about the issue is made. Dr. Chargois tells us that through action research an educator can keep learning and how action research can be used by

classroom teachers to find solutions to pressing issues in a particular classroom. In other words, Dr. Chargoise suggests that teachers learn pedagogy and content, but also they have to be knowledgeable in action research to become better teachers and have a more profound impact in students’ learning.

I am really excited for the opportunity that this course gave me to know more educators and their valuable experiences.

Week 4/ Action Research

This week, I tried to contact my site supervisor through email, but there was no success. I had foreseen this difficulty and before the school year was over, I was able to meet with him to discuss my action reserach question. At this meeting, a new action reserach topic was also discussed that looked more critical for our school. A revision was made to my action reserach question at that time. I am looking forward to meet with him personally to share all the progress gained in this class!

Week 3 Reflection

This has been a very long week, full of information and work. I have completed my action research plan with a lot of effort, but I think I am in the right track. One of the most productive parts of this week assignment has been the templates that everybody is using to frame and organize our thoughts and actions. I like the way how this new knowledge can be used in any profession to take informed decisions. I also like the fact that interviews are part of action research as this gives a human touch to any action research, contrary to the only data approach taken by some administrators. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed with all the assignments...I just submitted this week assignment and there is already the next one waiting for me, but at the same time I feel sucessful to have survived three week of this course.

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
School Vision: Provide educational tools that offer students the opportunity to refine their math skills applied to the state mandated test. Goal: Deciding on maintaining the emphasis on ST Math adjusting the monitoring method or discontinue its use.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Collect TAKS data in the area of math from 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school year.	myself	August 2011	TAKS reports	Complete when improvement of 20 students struggling in math over a two year per is analyzed for trends and improvement.
TAKS data in the area of math from 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school year	Myself	May 2012	TAKS reports	Completed when improvement of 20 students struggling in math over a two year period is finished.
Conduct a survey among 7 teachers to know their opinions on the effectiveness of the software. A group of at level students will be briefly interviewed as well.	Myself	August 2012	A set of questions to be designed	Completed w hen teachers’ responses are analyzed
Read online information and research about ST Math software if available or request research made to software developers.	Myself	September 2011	Articles, online resources, research from software developers if available.	Completed when the resources obtained are read and analyzed to determine if the software offers any educational benefit that would reflect on overall TAKS results.
A school using the same software will be contacted to ask for feedback about the use of the software and its results in previous years.	myself	October 2011	Identification of a school using the software	Feedback received will be compared to feedback received from teachers on campus.
Reflection	Myself	June 2011	Blog	A final reflection about the researched topic will be posted to my educational blog.
Findings	Myself	June 2011	All data and information collected	Upon approval, a final report about the topic will be written to be shared with computer lab teacher and administrators of school

Week 2 Reflection

It is evident that when an action research project is planned, there are different sources of information that need to be taken into account. As Dr Briseno expressed “We don’t make decisions without looking at data first.” Every school leader will find on data one of the first and most important source of information. Schools posses a wide array of data sources to support action research project on any of the nine passions described on Dana’s book.

Another source of information that is readily available is books and articles that can contain information on the same research topic that is being analyzed. As Dr. Lewis suggests “Reading research that others have done and tear it apart” may be a good option to apply what is “practical” to our own particular situation. This is a very wise advice that I would apply to my own research project.

The third source of information that I would consider important as well is the observation of the scenario where the problem, issue or dilemma is taking place. This would provide a first hand experience on the situation. People that are involved with the effects of the problem that is being studied would also provide a valuable source of information for our action research project. The second week of the class provides a solid foundation for my action research project.

Action Research/ Week 1

It has been an eye-opening experience to read and learn about action research in education. Action research is a positive activity in which teachers and administrators can become engaged in order to question themselves about their own professional practice or learn about an issue, conflict, or problem that is affecting their school. There are two major currents in research. The first current is “Process-Product-Research” where research results are implemented as a recipe and educators do not take an active role in the research process. In this research model, researchers are outside experts that do not take into account particular factors or variables affecting the administrator’s professional practice or the school environment.

The second model is Action Research or also called administrator’s Inquiry. In this kind of research, administrators or educators are active participants in the research process. They start the process by questioning themselves about the possible causes of a problem or issue. This issue or problem may be low school scores, low attendance, or any other that the researchers deem import for their own schools or districts and through a process of collection of data and information; they design an action plan to be implemented. If results of this action plan are positive, they maintain the improvement. The analogy of a doctor studying the causes of an illness in a patient described in the readings is very illustrative and a good example to clarify what action research is.

As described in Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools, The 8 Steps For Action Research are as follows:

1. Setting the Foundation

2. Analyzing Data

3. Developing Deeper Understanding

4. Engaging in Self Reflection

5. Exploring Patterns

6. Determining Direction

7. Taking Action

8. Sustaining Improvement

Some of the benefits that action research brings to professional practice are:

1. Action research is an opportunity for professional development and a means to avoid isolation. Through the sharing of experiences through meeting and conversations, questions are asked and reflections are presented to other educators, by doing this, administrators can learn from others.
2. Action Research presents and opportunity to solve problems and issues particular to our own reality without the intervention of outside experts that do not know anything about our students or our community.
3. Action research will contribute to administrator’s professional growth by giving an opportunity to analyze what we are doing and how we are doing it. It also gives us a pause to stop and reflect how our actions and decisions are affecting their schools.
4. The constant self questioning and the search to identify areas of need improvement in their own practice give administrators an invaluable opportunity for continuous growth, avoidance of professional atrophy and the tendency to become reactive to the problems arising in a school year.

I really consider that action research presents an opportunity for growth, not only in education, but in any other profession. It helps organize reflections, data and information to create a plan to improve any organization. I can even see some personal benefits if we apply it to our daily life to analyze issues that need to be corrected. I am looking forward to learning about the phases to create an action research project.

Blogging and Action Research

Blogging and action research have become two powerful allies for administrators and teachers. Blogging is the web 2.0 tool that revolutionizes how information is delivered and sheared online. As I mentioned in number 1 of the benefits of action research, the shearing of information, reflections and personal experiences become instrumental for the professional growth of an administrator. Blogging will support this sharing of information with other educators outside the school or district boundaries. Blogging also serves as a diary where administrators can record new information, results of research, or new ideas in process of development. Blogging will expose your ideas to an audience that can also contribute in its development. When administrators write in a blog, the web serves as an online archive where their ideas and reflections reside for future reference, analyses and for potential changes. It also serves as a collaboration tool where administrators can participate in an action research project for the district without leaving their schools, but reaping the benefits of collaboration and exchange of ideas.