Action Research Update and Web Conferences Reflection

Action Research Project Update:

As this school year is progressing along very quickly, I find myself sitting in a great position. The timeline I had set for my project was a complete school year so I could have a chance to collect enough data. At this time I do have 2/3 of my data collected and entered into an Excel spreadsheet.  One more round of fact quizzes given to my students (district mandated) in May.  Until I have this last piece of information, I cannot begin to collect my thoughts and get a true picture of how my targeted students performed this year.  Once I have collected this data, I will spend time this summer analyzing it and researching how to improve my students’ performance. 

My team has been very supported as I have asked them to go above and beyond what is expected of them from our district.  I truly hope that the results I find are a true reflection of how our economically disadvantaged students have improved in this key math area as the year has progressed.  I also am looking forward to working with my team to find new strategies to continue improving all of our students’ scores. I feel that although the data I have collected focuses only on our economically disadvantaged students, all of our second grade students will benefit from the new strategies discovered and utilized as a result of my action research project.  I will also be sharing my findings not only with the entire math team on my campus, but with our district math curriculum team.  

Web Conference Reflection:  

The effectiveness of our weekly web conferences varies from course to course.  I think that they are a great tool and allow us to have access to our professors and make our online experience more personal by making the human connection.  What I like about the most about the conferences is that they allow us, as students, to ask important questions pertaining to our course work.  Even if we are not able to “attend” all of the live conferences, we are able to watch a recorded link in order to gather insight, although we lack the capability of asking questions or making comments.  Many times, the question I had was asked by another student in the course and I was able to get the answer needed. 

The web conferences do have a negative.  I am finding, more so in my most recent class, EDLD 5326 School Community Relations, that the questions asked are highly repetitive and as if those asking have not read the overviews provided and/or reviewed previous chat logs.  When this occurs, I feel it takes away from the overall effect of the live conference and gives off the feeling of being back in middle-school – not in a Masters program. 

Overall, I feel they are a great tool and we are very lucky to have this piece to make certain we are successful in our pursuit of our Masters degree.

 

The Time Has Come... A Final Reflection of EDLD 5301

While inquiry, problem-based learning, and reflection are always techniques that I have used for years in the classroom, I had never thought of them in terms of research.  At the beginning of this course, I have to admit I was very nervous.  Prior to this class, when I heard the word research in an educational context, I immediately went back to high school, sitting in our library and spending hours utilizing the card catalog and bound encyclopedias.  Yes, I am dating myself.  However, as this course progressed, I came to realize the value of meaningful research as an educator and future administrator, and that anyone, once taught the process, can do an action research project to problem-solve at their district, campus or classroom.

While at the beginning of this course, I was very overwhelmed after reading the course syllabus.  But, as each week progressed, I watched the videos with Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Arterbury explaining the process and the assignments and was put at ease.  The videos reminded me constantly that this project was a work in progress and changes were not only okay but expected. They reinforced that the topic I chose to work with should be very specific and meaningful to me. In addition to these videos, the web conferences with Dr. Abshire provided answers to many questions and put faces to my online experience.  Although I only participated in a couple of live web conferences, I did watch the previous ones by using the link provided by Dr. Abshire.  Dr. Abshire shared with us her enthusiasm and expertise. These online web conferences were a valuable tool to me as a student.

The readings assigned for this research course was insightful and our assignments corresponded directly from the readings.  I found that it was helpful to immediately apply and reflect upon what I had just read.  The eight steps described in the Harris text was very easy to follow, and I appreciated the detailed examples outlined in the book.  These examples helped me form my action research plan’s steps by showing me step-by-step the thinking into formulating an effective plan.

As I reviewed each weekly assignment, I began to relax and become increasingly excited about my action research plan.  The assignments were directly related to the readings and to the final product required in this course.  They helped me organize my thoughts and fine tune my project.  In addition, Dr. Abshire’s weekly overviews provided additional explanations and tips to help me be successful on the weekly assignment. Her weekly overviews also demonstrated to me, as her student, that she cared that I learned all that I needed in order to successfully complete her course. 

Both the discussion board and my blog provided great dialogue between my fellow classmates and me.  The discussion board topics caused me to reflect and share my thoughts.  It also fostered the beginnings of relationships between complete strangers who had common interests.  It was a great support resource, and the comments posted were insightful.  Not only did I read the comments on my posts but I read all posts in my section.  Even though the other students’ topics were different, I still learned valuable information on the process of action research.  Blogs were completely new to me, and I am still not sure I am completely comfortable with them.  They are very time-consuming. However, as my project progresses throughout the next several months, it will allow for my followers to continue to support me and to offer suggestions and comments to make my project successful.  In addition, I am able to continue to follow others’ projects and view their results and findings and support them.  Many of the other research topics were interesting to me, and I could still learn a great deal from reading the blogs. 

I find myself a little disappointed this course is ending so quickly.  I feel that I have learned so much in a very short time.  I am confident that throughout my future career as an administrator, I will use what I learned in the course and be successful in conducting many more action research projects to improve my district,  my campus and my students’ learning.

Visited with my district's elementary curriculum director Friday morning before school.  I went to her asking for a fresh set of eyes to look at my plan and give me any suggestions to make it better.  She was pleased with my topic and even more pleased that I was focusing on our economically disadvantaged. She felt that the results of my study would be valuable information for our district.

Her only suggestion was instead of using my current second graders' end-of-year data from first grade, I should do a baseline beginning-of-the-year fact quiz now.  That way I can measure their growth in one school year without adding in the natural regression of summertime.  I spoke with my second grade math team about the possibility of giving the additional quiz. We agreed on a two-week window to complete the quiz and send me the results.  They all readily agreed with helping.  I do work with an awesome group of ladies! 

Time to get started on the project!

Action Research Plan
Math Fact Fluency

Goal: Determine if our district’s fact fluency program is effectively teaching our economically disadvantaged students addition and subtraction math facts.

Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Formal Approval	Tamara Wyble, Sarah Otto, Robin Waller	September 2012	*Formal written request	Face-to-face meeting to discuss and determine the steps to begin the project.
Analysis of previous year’s data for both first and second grade’s economically disadvantaged students	Tamara Wyble	October – November 2012	*Fact fluency data reports from 2011-2012	Hard copies of first and second grade results
Analysis and comparison of current year’s data at semester break to last year’s data at the same point	Tamara Wyble	January 2013	*Reports from Eduphoria and/or reporting spreadsheets from each 2nd grade math teacher	Hard copies of second grade students’ results
Conduct a meeting with math team (both first and second grade) to share results/trends of first semester’s results	Tamara Wyble, First Grade Math, Second Grade Math, Sarah Otto, and Robin Waller	January 2013	*Spreadsheet reporting current data in relation to previous year’s data *Sign-in sheet for attendance	Reflection analysis of math team and administrators
Survey teacher opinions of the fact fluency program and share suggestions to  supplement the district’s fact fluency program	Tamara Wyble and primary school math team	January – February 2013	*Google document survey	Survey results
Survey math teachers to determine if implementation of supplemental ideas have altered their results for their economically disadvantaged students	Tamara Wyble and primary school math team	March 2013	*Google document survey	Survey results
Analysis and comparison of current year’s data at the end of the year along with last year’s data at the same point	Tamara Wyble	May 2013	*Reports from Eduphoria and/or reporting spreadsheets from each 2nd grade math teacher	Hard copies of second grade students’ results
End-of-year meeting with administrators to share results	Tamara Wyble, Sarah Otto, Robin Waller, Sandra Duree, and Mary Cummings	May 2013	*Analysis reports showing comparative results from last year to this year.	Face-to-face meeting to discuss and share findings
End-of-year meeting with primary campus math teachers to share results	Tamara Wyble, Sarah Otto, Robin Waller, and the primary campus math team	May 2013	*Analysis reports showing comparative results from last year to this year. *Sign-in sheet for attendance	Face-to-face meeting to discuss and share findings

 

I have decided on my Action Research project with the help of my principal and assistant principal.  I will examine the effectiveness of my district's new math fact fluency program, which was implemented last year.  My study will include the current second graders and track them through the end of third grade.

How Educators Could Utilize Blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs in many ways.  Blogs are similar to journals but allow for comments from others and the use of pictures and links.  It takes the journal and makes it interactive.  When conducting an action research project, it is important to have a place to record reflections and thoughts.  Finally, blogs allow other educators to share by providing feedback and suggestions.

 

Action Research and Its Benefits

Action research is a tool used to develop and improve all aspects of the educational process. It can be used by administrators and prospective administrators as well by team leaders and teachers within their professional learning communities.  The data collected from an action research can lead to changes within the school to improve and enhance student achievement and teacher effectiveness. By having the stakeholders participate in the action research, it provides ownership and buy-in of those directly involved.  In addition, it allows for the data to be relevant and allows for changes to be made successfully.

I believe I will be able to use this approach in several ways as a teacher, team leader, and a future administrator. When it comes time in a district to select a program for use, an action research would be beneficial for our curriculum team to use to make the most informed, data-based decision. Once the program has been chosen and implemented, an action research can be used to determine its effectiveness. Another time when action research would be beneficial is when we look at data from curriculum based assessments. Upon identifying an area of weakness that needs to be improved, utilizing action research to best equip our staff to meet those needs of our students could dramatically improve scores. Not only could action research be helpful in finding solutions to these situations, it can also be an effective way to provide professional growth for our teachers while also building our professional learning communities on our campus.