Site Mentor Meeting

This is our 4th week in the Research course. I have started back to work and we have been busy! So much change is going to happen this year and we are getting positive support. It is exciting. I was able to meet with my site mentor and discuss the action plan. She had questions that I was able to answer easily. First one being who was going to partcipate. I really think she thought I was going to do the entire district! I could never tackle that magnitude on my first action project. Not even an entire campus. She was relieved when I told her that I would select the teachers and students from our technology committee. She shared a survey and self-assessment that we could use for the first task. After we got that cleared up we were in agreement with the entire plan and she spoke about the importance of this type of data. I am now excited and will soon be able to launch it! Of course, I am still open to any ideas and will make any changes if needed.

My Action Plan

I tried posting my plan, two separate ways, but it took too long for it to download. I will provide a link to it on Google Docs after a brief explanation and steps to accomplish my Action Research project.

Goal: Discover how the integration of 21st century skills impact student achievement and how to motivate teachers to create this environment in their teaching and learning.

Sample Group: 8-10 teachers and students from our technology committee (various grade levels and content areas)

• Survey/Self-assessment (on Atomic Learning) "What are 21st century skills? How confident are you with integrating them?"
• Identify the 21st Century concepts and skills (that is another post)
• Assess BOY Technology proficiencies for teachers and students
• Best practices for professional development (face-to-face trainings, PLC's, video-conferencing)
• Training workshops for Atomic Learning and Easy Tech
• Ongoing technology support in classroom
• Walkthroughs, interviews
• Create class blogs to track progress of project
• Digital pictures; video of each teacher modeling a 21st century technology lesson
• TAKs scores, benchmark scores (compare last year to this year)
• BOY and EOY Technology exams for students and teachers

My Action Plan on Google Docs

Trying, Yet Exciting Times

Week 3 has seen some trying, yet exciting times in Research 5301 for my Lamar course. The trying time was narrowing down my topic and deciding on one. I had several that I wanted to do, but spent some Skype conversations with emails here and there with my site mentor, before deciding on this inquiry: "How does the integration of 21st century skills impact student achievement and how can we motivate teachers to create this environment in their teaching and learning? My exciting time was starting back to work and seeing our textbook "Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools" by Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson, & Julie Combs on my director's desk! I had to do a double take and wondered how my book ended up there. My director shared that they all received a copy during their Administration Retreat and said that Sandra Harris spoke at the event. Who would have guessed that? I am happy that I will be able to collaborate with her on some of the points that were made in the text. I love the quotes that she shared on the page one. "We must exchange the philosophy of excuse for the philosophy of responsibility." by U.S. Congresswoman, Barbara Jordan. The other one is used by Lou Holtz, the NCAA Football and NFL head coach and can be applied to any activity. "We aren't where we want to be, we aren't where we ought to be, but thank goodness, we aren't where we used to be." This quote makes me think of my battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma this past year. Like I said, it can relate to any place in your life. Until next time . . .

Nine Passions

During week two of Research 5301, we were asked to narrow down our topic(s) that we want to pursue for an action research. I had first thought about doing research on accountabitlity in technology use, but from my reading, discovered that it was not such a great idea. The book cautioned me not to focus my wondering on controlling or changing other people's practice. I need to realize the only person I can control is myself. I need to focus on my influence and commit to develop my own behavior rather than others. With that being said, I was able to connect with my site mentor through Skype. We collaborated back and forth about topics before deciding on these two possible topics: In what ways does the integration of 21st Century skills affect student success? What can we (technology) do to encourage the integration of 21st Century skills? Our text by Nancy Fichtman Dana titled, "Leading with Passion and Knowledge" has been an interesting book and I find it easy to read. This week I read Chapter 2 about the nine passions that drive the action research journey. They are as follows:

1. Staff development
2. Curriculum development
3. Individual teacher(s)
4. Individual student(s)
5. Community/culture building
6. Leadership skills
7. Management
8. School performance
9. Social justice

One statement that stuck with me this week was that the hardest part of action research is "GETTING STARTED"! I am feeling it at this point. We will see what changes Week 3 brings about.

Action Research

Whether you are in a classroom leading students, or an administrator striving for school improvement and student learning, we are faced with many challenges and issues throughout the educational system. While taking Lamar’s online course, Research 5301, I was introduced to the process action research which is a powerful tool used for school reform and improvement. Our text states the word research carries negative baggage, since many people recall long hours in the library, endless bibliography cards, and lengthy papers when they think about research. Therefore, the term inquiry was used synonymously with action research. So what makes action research different? It is a continuous spiraling process where the intentions of research are to bring about some type of transformation. The leader goes through a process of wonderings or posing questions that spark the beginning of the inquiry process. Through reflections and research, new insights are gained; data is collected, and analyzed. The leader reads relevant literature and shares the discoveries with others. Based on the new findings, a plan is put into action to bring about a needed change for improvement. Throughout the process of action research, reflections are continued and more actions are incorporated according to needs and circumstances. This continuous cycle places the leader in charge of their own professional development and they become a lifelong learner in today’s society.
As our district’s instructional technology specialist, the action research process will be helpful in discovering new ideas and gain insights to difficult problems that exist in technology today. Our professional development plan is in the early developing stages. I plan to use this process to help with our goal of improving technology integration in our district, which will in turn, improve student learning and teacher proficiencies.