Friday, August 6, 2010

Insights of EDLD 5301

The following are some highlghts from the EDLD 5301 Research course.

I’ll admit, I’m not the one who would recommend the use of technology for receiving feedback from others, but after taking this course, I would like to rethink my position. Being without a site supervisor for this course and not actually sure of my own reflections, the feedback that I received from my peers via the discussion board and blog was of extreme value to me. After reading posted comments from my peers, it allowed me to rethink some of my research practices. As a result of the blogs and discussion board, I was able to make changes to my research study, which I believe I would have never considered without the feedback from my peers. This benefit is supported in the text, which states, “ Yet, capturing your own thinking over time can lead to critical insights that may only occur when you revisit a thought or when you string together that have come to you intermittently over a longer period of time.” (p.88).

As I travel through my action research, I now possess an increased level of confidence, which I previously didn’t have. This can be attributed to many factors. First, Week 2 lectures which included the interviews of the three school leaders provided me with several useful suggestions when conducting research. As I conduct my research, I plan on being more conscientious of when I actually conduct my research. The timing of implementing a project is just as important as the project itself. This point was supported by Dr. Chargois, when he stated that project should not be implemented during critical times, such as during standardized testing (Dr. Chargois, personal communication).

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Agreed Upon Action Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: Improve parental involvement

Action Step(s): Administer parent response surveys written, electronically, and in person at Meet the teacher night

Person(s) Responsible: Intern, Administrator, committee members

Timeline: August 2010-Octobr 2010

Needed Resources: Time and team members to construct surveys, administer and collect them

Evaluation: Log of surveys completed and returned
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Action Step(s): Survey teacher’s current perception(s) of parent involvement

Person(s)Responsible: Intern, Administrator, committee members

Timeline: August 2010-September 2010

Needed Resources: Time and team members to construct surveys, administer and collect them

Evaluation: Log of surveys completed and returned

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Action Step(s): Conduct interviews of parents from the PTA

Person(s) Responsible: Intern, Counselor

Timeline: September 2010-May 2011

Needed Resources: Time, parent volunteers from the PTA, and support of campus staff to encourage participation in interviews

Evaluation: Log of scheduled interviews, written notes/reflections from interviews
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Action Step(s):Improving an select area of the communication system (i.e. newsletter, emails)used to inform parents
**Area will be determined by survey results**

Person(s) Responsible: Administrator, committee team, technology specialist

Timeline: November 2010-June 2010

Needed Resources: Time, parent trainer coordinator/IT-specialist-train staff in revised communication system

Evaluation: Parent/teacher communication logs, attendance records from trainings

Monday, August 2, 2010

Agreed upon blog

Classmates,
Currently,I do not have an agreed upon Action Research Plan, because of some site-supervisor technicalities. However, I do encourage you to post comments on m plan that was submitted in my previous blog. I really feel like I'm in a ship without a sail.

Thanks