Web Conferences

EDLD 5363 Reflections and Web Conferences EDLD 5363 was a fun technology course. I had fun meeting two wonderful ladies through our group project. This course made me explore new tools on the web. I learned how to do a web conference with Google Hangouts as well as how to Skype. I learned so much about Google Docs, Drop Box, and screen sharing through collaboration with my group members. Through the course web conferences I was able to clear up any and all confusion that I had. Through the use of web conferences we were able to collaborate with Dr. Abernathy and other classmates. I foresee myself using Google Hangouts for future collaboration with classmates and I would love to find another Kindergarten classroom to collaborate and share projects with.

Sexting in Suburbia

I watched the best movie last night on Lifetime. Sexting in Suburbia is on my list of things that I want to incorporate in my Action Research Plan. I strongly urge parents of pre-teens to make their children watch it.

Making Connections

Making Connections by Stephanie Speaks, Brenda Riebkes, and Amanda Price

EDLD 5363 Reflections and Web Conferences

EDLD 5363 was a fun technology course. I had fun meeting two wonderful ladies through our group project. This course made me explore new tools on the web. I learned how to do a web conference with Google Hangouts as well as how to Skype. I learned so much about Google Docs, Drop Box, and screen sharing through collaboration with my group members. Through the course web conferences I was able to clear up any and all confusion that I had. Through the use of web conferences we were able to collaborate with Dr. Abernathy and other classmates. I foresee myself using Google Hangouts for future collaboration with classmates and I would love to find another Kindergarten classroom to collaborate and share projects with.

Mircosoft Movie Maker Tutorials

Microsoft Movie Maker Podcast Tutorials

Digital Story

I posted to YouTube my finished digital Story.... Please go check it out!

 http://youtu.be/0hpbIZZdLOQ

The Price Bunch

The price Bunch

Customize your own digital slideshow

Goodbye EDLD 5301: I will miss you Dr. Abshire

EDLD 5301 was a very interesting and useful course for me to take. The course taught me everything I needed to know in order to plan and implement an Action Research Inquiry. Through the online conferences each week, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of any issues that I had.  The conferences were my favorite thing of all because after each conference, I felt more confident.  I created a Facebook page during our first course and that was also a great tool to have. Several times this semester, I confused myself and turned to Facebook for help.  I posted my concerns and within fifteen minutes, I always had an answer.  It is wonderful because prior to bugging a busy professor, we could ask our peers for help.  The lectures for this course were great.  I learned a great deal out of listening to the lectures.  I absolutely loved watching the interviews from the different administrators during week two.  The reading that we had to do this course was very beneficial.     Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher, by Nancy Fitchman Dana - chapter 2 - pp. 29-68, pp. 93-94, was my favorite. I enjoyed reading the entire book but learning about the passions that drive your journey was something I will never forget.  “Charting new territory can be exciting but also quite frightening when beginning a journey in which you are unfamiliar with both the terrain and your final destination (Dana, pg. 29).  I hold onto this statement because it described me perfectly.  The activities that we had to do for this course may have been time consuming but worth every second. Each assignment that we had to complete only gave a deeper understanding of what an action research inquiry is and how to properly conduct it. Through the activities and having to find a site mentor, I found the best role model that I could have ever possibly dreamed of having. Through field studies, I am gaining an understanding of what a life as an administrator looks like. I definitely respect our administrators more now than ever before.  Researching is a great tool to use for anything. If I completed my reading assignment, and I still didn’t fully understand the concept being taught I would research it for a different perspective. The discussion board helped me when I was lost on what to do for an action research project. After viewing and responding to my peers, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of what to consider for my action research plan. When I first heard the word blog, I had no idea what Dr. Abshire was expecting from me but after our five week course, I love blogging.  Blogging is a fun tool to use and if I taught middle school, I would so use it to enhance my students writing skills.  I want to start a blog for parent communication and for weekly updates.  Blogging is something I plan to keep and do from now on as an educator.

I think I can... I think I can

Week four is here!  I have been very stressed over the past several weeks and thanks to everyone's support and encouraging comments I am going to be successful in this course! I think I can... I think I can... thanks eveyone... now I know I can be a successful student!  Peer suggestion and revisions are just amazing!  I am so thankful that we are able to have our peers give feedback. 

Thanks everyone for being such great classmates or shall I say online mates :)

Action Plan

Wow. What a stressful week.. I am so tired and I can not cut and paste my Action Plan into my blog so I will work on it tomorrow! This week has been by far the most stressful for me!  Thank God I finally finished.

Action Research, Week 2

This week in EDLD 5301 we reviewed nine passions that lead principals to articulate inquiry wondering and the example questions that have emerged for principals within each of the nine categories. Reading the nine passions was very interesting and the examples were fascinating.

After sitting down with my principal I have decided my action research plan will be over

the rise of bullying over the last decade.Bullying is on the rise thanks to the social media. It has a significant impact on learning, students, and learning culture of school. I am going to go deeper than just bullying and look into how state legislature is affecting school policy on it. I will look into the potential for training faculty on recognizing bullying and the steps to take to support students that are being bullied and even a staff development on the protocol for reporting bullying and the legal ramifications for the teacher.

How Leaders can use blogs

Blog? Who has time to blog? Blogging will not help me as an educator. These are just a few things that went through my head a week ago. My attitude is completely different after completing the reading and assignment for week one in EDLD 5301. Blogging is endless. There are so many amazing things you can do with blogging.  Blogging is a perfect way to communicate among educators and administrators. Educators of high grades could use blogging as their students journals, use it for writing with their peers responding. Educators could use blogging as a newsletter to keep parents informed with upcoming events and holidays. Blogging is something I will definitely take advantage of. It could be a very valuable tool if used appropriately. All educators should take advantage of this fun piece of technology.

Benefits from Action Research

There are many benefits from conducting action research. Research tells us that

engagement in inquiry is an important ingredient for the overall professional health of an educator (Copland, 2003). Conducting action research gives you l a greater sense of control over all of the other “line items on the principal’s ever-growing “To Do” list.”  Administrator inquiry or action research is the improvement of practice, the improvement of understand of practice and the improvement of the situation in which the practice takes place. 

 

Reference

1. Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge:The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, a Joint Publicationwith the American Association of School Administrators.

Reflection in Action

It allows one to learn from experiences while acquiring administrative skills from a combination of theory and practice.” In School Leader Internship, Martin, et al (p. 105)
Reflection is a process that a leader should take time and be committed for it leads to informed decisions. Dana states that one should schedule time to reflect and do inquiry. (Leading with passion, p.18-19). Reflection is important because it leads to school improvement, curriculum development,  and professional development for bothe educators and administrators.  Action research is more of a personal growth system which allows the leader to inquiry, collect date, examine and analyze, take action and then reflect of the outcomes and adjust if necessary. Reflection is part of the process.
It is through time that reflection leads to expertise. Reflection is a cognitive process that goes through three stages,. The first stage is declarative (concepts and facts), the second stage is associative (growth in organization and interconnectedness of knowledge), and the last one is the autonomous stage, (making decisions become more automatic or second nature). This process leads to expertise and is acquired overtime. (105-106).

References

 

1. Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge:The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, a Joint Publicationwith the American Association of School Administrators.

2.  Harris, S., Edmondson, S., & Combs, J.P. (2010). Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps from Analysis to Action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

What I have learned about Action Research

Action research in education is grounded in the working lives of teachers, as they experience them unlike traditional educational research.  Action research is about me in the “here and now” understanding and what I can do to ensure my values and intentions are realised in my teaching situation. If my deliberations produce an understanding which helps me, then I can offer it to others to try. In this sense, action research can produce generalisations about practice, but such generalisations are only part of a wider search for understanding. 

An idea for my Action Research Project/Inquiry

After my son 's back eye incident at school on Friday, I have decided the best action research project for me to do is on rise of bullying over the last decade.  Bullying is on the rise thanks to the social media. It has a significant impact on learning, students, and learning culture of school. I am going to go deeper than just bullying and look into how state legislature is affecting school policy on it.   I will look into the potential for training faculty on recognizing bullying and the steps to take to support students that are being bullied and even a staff development on the protocol for reporting bullying and the legal ramifications for the teacher. 

What is Action Research

Action Research can be used by administrators and teachers for many different purposes.It is is the improvement of practice, the improvement of understanding practice and the improvement of the situation in which the practice takes place.  Action research can be completed solo, however, it is more productive through the use of collaboration among others. Action research isn't used by only administrators but by teachers as well.  An action research will only be successful if the administrator or teacher reflects and makes changes to his or her practices to improve their job performance and that of the school or district. 

As I was reading my classmates blogs, I came across the best description written by David Carrera.
David wrote, " action research kind of reminds me of when I go to the optometrist to get my vision checked. He puts a lens in front of me, asks how the letters look, then turns the lens and asks “better here or better there?”, “sharper here or sharper there?” and the process continues until he gets the optimum performance from my eyes. Granted it will take longer than 15 minutes but the process is similar. You analyze your data, adjust your practices to see if the data gets better and implement what works and revise what is not working."