Reflections for class

On the first lecture, Dr. Arterbury mentioned the importance of staying on topic and I remember thinking that that was not going to be a problem for me.  However, after having begun to read about my topic, I have seen how easy it is to start moving in different directions.  I will keep referring to his advice throughout my research to ensure that I am on track. 

 Cooperative learning is also something that has stuck to me because Dr. Jenkins mentioned in the fourth lecture that we achieve results much faster, it takes us beyond individual learning and it usually results in logical conclusions.  There is no doubt that I will seek to provide great results that will lead to action and cooperative learning will help me get there.  

I am looking forward to reading your comments.  I have found it challenging to post on some of my peers' blogs and I'm not sure what the problem is.  However, I will keep posting on those that will allow me to do it so that we can learn from each other.

Identifying challenges

The biggest challenge that I foresee is definitely time.  In addition to my full-time job responsibilities, I sponsor the Spanish Club and I find it hard to tell students that it is time to go home.  I like to offer tutoring before and after school to accommodate students who work and have practice before or after school.  I also like to do what I can to please parents who want to have conferences at special times.  Like everybody else, I have to make family time, have prior commitments, and have to complete my internship plan.  I will address these challenges by keeping a timeline that I will commit to no matter what.  I’m not the type of person that likes to do everything at the last minute.  I like to have time to think/reflect about what I’m doing.  I will look at things that I can reschedule and go for quality instead of quantity when it comes to spending time with family.  I will have to end Spanish club meetings at 1700 and go back to only two days of tutoring.

Looking at challenges during one of our discussions helped to take action now so that I am not struggling at the end.  It is one thing to say, there is not enough time to do this and that and it's a different thing to look at it and take action by making the appropriate changes now.

Week 3-Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To find ways to decrease freshmen failure rate.
Action Step(s)	Person(s)	Timeline:	Needed	Evaluation
	Responsible	Start/End	Resources
1. Examining the work: Setting the foundation.  Collaborated with site supervisor and RTI coordinator for research topic of freshmen failure rate.	L. Marquez, Site Supervisor, RTI Coordinator	Mar-12	Tutoring Coordinator, Site Supervisor, RTI Coordinator	Interview with site supervisor andRTI coordinator
2. Analyzing data.  Interview both teachers responsible for tutoring sessions and develop a survey for freshmen students attending program to gain insight on its effectiveness.  Observe sessions on different days of the week, interact with students and take field notes to gain an understanding of students' needs, attitudes, and knowledge levels.  Interview administration responsible for parent contact of freshmen failing to see how different types of support are working.	L Marquez, Tutoring Coordinator and teachers, Administration	Apr-12	L Marquez, Tutoring Coordinator and teachers, Administration, Freshmen Students	Student 9 week grades Personal notes of observations Data collected through surveys and interviews.
3. Developing deeper understanding.  Research EBSCO and see what other schools are doing to target this special group of students.  Talk to retired personnel and see if there is anything from the past that can be combined with new ideas to implement different plans.  Reflect on all interviews, notes, and observations.  Talk to personnel from different schools/districts and get opinions on findings.	L Marquez	April/May 2012	EBSCO, Internet, other schools/ districts, Ms. Swindle, Ms. Garza, Mr. Cousins	Journals,interviews, surveys
4. Engaging in Self-Reflection.  Organize my thoughts and post them on my blog, read them frequently, ask other professionals for their input.  Keep thinking about the effectiveness of our newly implemented program and find ways to improve it or others to implement.  Talk to my freshmen and see if they agree or disagree with findings.	L Marquez, Blogs	Ongoing: March/Oct 2012	Blogs, interaction with site supervisor and administration	Blog and site supervisor feedback, personal notes and peer comments
5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns.  Survey all failing freshmen and see if there are differences in gender and/or race, if this is so, then which group is the one failing more subjects and what are their particular issues so we can develop a plan to target those specific issues.	L Marquez	April/May 2012	Survey designed for freshmen and administration support	Student grades, attendance of tutoring program, feedback from parents when contacted by administration
6. Determining direction.  Work collaboratively with tutoring coordinator, teachers involved with tutoring program, and administration responsible for contacting parents.  Continously monitor and assess progress.  Design and update timeline as needed.	L Marquez, Site Supervisor	March/Oct 2012	Tutoring Lab, Administration	Grades collected, students's issues identified, progress/success of tutoring program.
7. Taking action for school improvement.  Be as involved as I can be on everything that involves decreasing freshmen failure rate whether it's the tutoring program, contacting parents, looking into attendance issues or anything else that we might discover throughout this process.	L Marquez, Site Supervisor	March/May 2012	Tutoring Lab, Parent Contact, Administration input	Data collection, summarize and present findings and possible solutions to design plan for implementation
8. Sustaining improvement.  Stay engaged in action research throughout my career, share solutions with staff and anybody that can benefit from them.  Work collaboratively with others to obtain better and faster results and motivate others to embrace action research.  Always reflect and look at areas that need improvement.	L Marquez, Site Supervisor	Ongoing: March/Oct 2012	RTI reports, 9 weeks' grades, professional development	Develop a plan to implement solutions and decrease freshmen failure rate.

The 9 Passions

Week 2, EDLD 5301, EA 1244

This week I learned about the 9 passions of action research in education.  The nine areas are staff and curriculum development, individual teachers and students, school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice or equity issues.  When we look at these different areas, we start to wonder and think about ways to improve different aspects of each area, this leads us to action research.  For my action research I will be looking at the fifth passion: individual students.  I will be looking at ways to decrease freshmen failure rate.  I think this is a critical group because it's a way of preventing a lot more issues in the future and I want to find ways to help them stay in school and succeed.  I would also like to look at their reasons for being absent since I believe that if students come to class, then they will have a better chance of learning, doing their work, and graduating.  I wonder how all this relates and what the best approach is.

Action Research and Blogs, Wk 1 Assign., Part 3

Action research is the way to go for educators.  It is a reflective approach that improves learning and performance.  It captures differences across classrooms, schools, and communities.  It is not focused on the knowledge of an outside expert; therefore, it leads to real change in schools.  As a principal, I will make it regular practice by making it part of my schedule.  I will block an hour twice a week for reflection and inquiry and simply read or collect data about a particular issue.  I will also make inquiry part of my leadership team meetings to ensure that they learn and that it becomes common practice.  Then, we will train our PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) to do the same.  We need to be able to work as a team because this way we learn and accomplish more.  Through practice, we can identify our school issues and talk to our teachers, students, and parents to make improvements looking at a few specific areas at a time.  By working together, our staff will feel a sense of ownership and we will establish a better relationship with our community.

I would like to do my action research on a specific area of RTI (Response to Intervention).  I would like to either take a look at attendance or focus on decreasing the freshmen dropout rate.  For attendance, I could develop a survey for students to take and see what type of issues are preventing them from attending school.  Then we could work on these issues to keep them in school and help them succeed.  For decreasing the failure rate for freshmen, I could look at what is currently being done and see how students are responding.  I could develop a survey too to see what they like or don't like about different programs and what they would like to have available to them that would truly help them succeed.  Then, I could show the data to my principal and help implement a plan that could improve attendance and/or decrease failure rate for freshmen.  There are so many ways in which action research can help.  Why wait for an outsider to tell us what to do?  Why try to implement a plan that was designed for a different school?  We as educators can take charge and collaborate to improve our schools.

Leaders can use blogs to reflect and get ideas from other professionals.  Blogs are very powerful as they are able to keep our thoughts for us.  They do not provide limits like books do.  This is an interactive approach where we can combine text and images and get feedback from anyone in the world!  Blogging is simply a way for expanding our ideas.