Action Research Revised - 10-28-12

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FkwOqZ0-4PQpqF2uSSCmnrl4bERoiPTw5b_GtkKgFSg/edit

EDLD 5397 Web Conference - Week 3

This week's web conference was primarily focused on this week's assignment. Ms. Borel went over part 3 and part 4 of the assignment; however, I have to admit that I was still confused about the whole thing. I also participated in a web conference with my Lamar internship supervisor this week, so my web conference experiences may be blending together. Overall, I am really anxious regarding the lack of my progress regarding my action research; however, I am relieved at how much I have done on my internship plan. Although, I have not documented all of my reflections on my internship plan, I know that I will complete more than enough hours before the end of this program. The reality of the end of all this is slowly sinking in! :(

Web Conference Review

I attended the September 9th web conference, and I was very pleased with how much information I was able to gather from connecting with my peers and professors! It is difficult to set time aside during our busy schedules to sit in on these conferences. I compare it to getting motivated to go to the gym - It's difficult to convince yourself to do it at first, but once you are there you're glad you went. During the web conference, I was able to catch up on some important information regarding the Instructional Leadership Development course we must take before graduation. I did not sign up for the December course; however, our professor stated that we would be able to sign up for another course in the Spring. We went over some information about the mid-term, and I was reminded that we should be updating TK20 as often as possible. Another valuable piece of information I learned about was the Educational Leadership google site. I explored that site during and after the conference and found some very good information related to our program. Overall, the web conference was a great experience. I need to make an effort to attend more in the future. Until next time...

Progress bleak but Focus restored!

My action research project is centered around researching the impacts of mentoring programs on the educational achievement of a minority, at risk and underserved population. I have to admit that I have not updated my plans in TK20 regarding my action research plan. There are some adjustments that need to be made as far as dates are concerned. I am still content with the activities that I have planned, but I’m sure those will need some tweaking once I get knee deep into the research. We have just begun the new school year, and I have identified the groups that will be participating in these programs, so I have completed the initial action steps required to conduct my research. The next action steps consist of interviewing the personnel who coordinate each of these programs. I hope to schedule those interviews as soon as possible so that I can jump into working with the students.  I’m glad that I have a really good relationship with the people in charge of these mentoring programs, so it will be easier to set up interviews with them for my project. My site supervisor is also aware of my research plan, and she is very supportive of me taking time out to complete my planned activities. My goals for the next two months are to set up and complete the interviews with the mentoring program coordinators and to distribute the surveys to the students in each of those programs. Also, I plan to chaperone one of the mentoring programs, Texas A&M Camp, functions in the next month or so as one of my planned activities. 

Final Research Course Reflection

     This course was very valuable and extremely rigorous! I am amazed at all of the work I have put into formulating and reformulating my action research plan. My site supervisor and Dr. Abshire have been extremely helpful and flexible throughout the process. We were assigned meaningful text, valuable resources, and various ways to communicate with our peers to assist us in our journey, and I am very pleased with the quality and content of this course. Here are a couple of things that I enjoyed about this course. 

     Action research is a topic that I was not familiar with before beginning this course. As educators we often discuss problems present in education and toss around ideas about what ways to improve learning in the classroom but never did I imagine that I would actually conduct research to validate these issues. Now that I’ve learned the importance of action research as an educator, I will never look at issues in education the same! My role in action research from this point on will be ongoing just as we have read in our assigned text. 

     One of the major components of this course was sharing our research plan with others. I have to say that this was probably one of the best parts of this course. In developing my action research plan, I found the discussion boards to be especially helpful. When I was confused about what direction my plan was taking I remember looking through the plans formulated by my peers, and I was able to get some ideas about my own plan and how to improve it. When my plan was finally composed, I was able to share it with others so that I could gain constructive criticism about areas that needed to be adjusted to better my plan. 

     Blogging is another tool that was helpful in formulating my research plan. Although I did not gain as much feedback from this source as I did from the discussion boards, I have become familiar with how to construct a blog and it has been interesting to learn a new way to share information with others over the web. I am still adjusting to the idea of blogging, but I feel that as I continue to follow more blogs and have others follow me then interacting with my peers will motivate me to check in on the blog regularly.

     One of the aspects of this course that I regret not participating more in were the web conferences. My responsibilities at work have grown exponentially over the past year due to last year’s budget cuts in education. I am part counselor, part administrator, part secretary, and part everything else that you could possibly think of. I wish I had more time to actively participate in these web conferences because I gained a lot from the first one that I was able to join. I hope to do a better job of managing my time in future courses so that I can take full advantage of web conferences that are offered in my future courses. 

     Overall, I will use the tools that I learned in this course to build on my action research plan as future administrator. I have always considered myself as a lifelong learner, and I am thrilled at the idea of researching issues in a profession that I am extremely passionate about. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see my research published one day!     

An End to the Beginning...

As our research course comes to an end, I realize that my journey in action research has only just begun. I am excited and nervous about throwing myself into this major project. I feel like I have a solid foundation for my action research plan, and I am thankful that my site supervisor is so supportive and full of ideas. I really feel like she will be instrumental throughout this process. I hope to gain a better understanding regarding the importance of building relationships with students in schools because I feel that it is something that is lacking at my campus. Perhaps by sharing my findings with my coworkers at the end of this process will help them think about their relationships with our students. I'm excited about the results this research will produce, and as always, I am open to any suggestions from my colleagues and fellow students. Good luck everyone!

Phew! We are making progress!

I have posted my revised action research plan!!! After reading our assigned text, viewing the videos on Epic, reading blogs and discussion boards, and conferencing with my site supervisor, I have made several changes to the action research plan. Specifically, the plan is no longer so broad. I had to be realistic with the time I have to offer to this research plan and my available resources. Please take a look and let me know what you think! I need some more action on this blog! :)