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.