5352 Reflection

The web conference I attended was during week three of this course.  The students had questions about the weekly assignment and wanted the professor to answer.   He asked questions about collaboration and topics dealing with the course.  He would wait and read the responses of the students and then ask another question.  He never spoke about the homework and I could tell that people were upset.  This is the time when questions about assignments would be answered.  This course was great with the technology but in my opinion the assignments were not explained in detail as they normally have been in the past.

Week 5.2 Assignment

     I have gained knowledge on three technology topics.  The Live Binders, Flipped classrooms, and Google Drive.  I had heard of clouds to store data but never was I interested enough to look into how to accomplish this task.  Google Drive to me is very similar to Microsoft Office.  I was also impressed with the capability to create surveys. 

     A Flipped classroom is awesome to me.  I had seen it at a math workshop and was very excited about implementing it that following school year.  I had not done enough research and got bogged down with other things that it fell to the way side.

    The Live Binders were totally new to me when I first started the course. I viewed the videos and took notes so that I could remember some of the ideas that I had seen.  I think a substitute would be impressed that everything would be right at their fingertips with the click of a mouse.  It would also help me with organization and I would have access to my work at home.  I’m looking forward to using the new technology I have learned.

     My campus supervised log is coming together just fine.  I plan to work more on it this week that we have off before the students come back to school.  I’ve been going through my list and highlighting and writing myself notes about what I have left and how I am going to accomplish those activities.

     The Action Research makes me nervous.  I feel that I am behind where I should be at this point.  EDLD 5397 made it a reality and then after the class I slacked off again.  I have thoughts and paragraphs written but I have not written a rough draft.  I know that in the next week I have a lot to accomplish.

Web Conference

During course EDLD 5326 I attended all but one of the conferences.  The typing on the screen moves really fast.  I am trying to read them all and listen to the professor talk at the same time.  The one that was very beneficial was the last conference.  My class members had wonderful projects that they shared with everyone.  The projects would be good ideas to implement on our campus especially the food  in the backpacks and the car give-a-way.  Incentives like that I'm sure would help improve the attendance on our campus as well as discipline. 

I think that by our campus being a one year stay that it's hard to build relationships with parents and get programs going.  Each year it's something different and by the time we get things running smoothly the school year is almost over.  Getting parents involved is not an easy task and I have learned some new information that can hopefully help in the future.  I have a clear understanding and now I will not be one of those teachers that think because parents are not coming that they do not care.

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: In what ways are out-of-school or in-school suspensions as a consequence for discipline referrals affecting student performance and how do teachers feel about the environment once they are removed?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Survey the teachers to determine if they know the steps in the discipline plan before writing a referral.	Mekisha Bazile Teachers	9/4-7/2012	Computer MS Word	Compare the surveys to see if the teachers know the correct procedures for our campus.
2. Data will be collected about the number of referrals written during each of the 6 six weeks of school.	Mekisha Bazile	9/4/2012 Until 5/24/2013	Assistant Principals help with accessing system to track the referrals.	Looking for reasons why referrals were written and who wrote the most.  Did the same student receive them from several teachers?
3. Observe the classrooms of the teachers with the most referrals and student suspensions as a result of the referrals.	Mekisha Bazile Principals	Periodically during the school year	Notes from observations	To determine why students are receiving the referrals; What their actions are in the class.
4. Examine student work and six weeks assessments in the four core subjects that received the most referrals.	Mekisha Bazile Teachers	End of each six weeks for 1st five	Samples of student work Student results on District assessments	To determine if performance is hindered because of absence due to behavior.
5. Interview the teachers who wrote the most referrals.	Mekisha Bazile Teachers	1/22-25/2013 & 5/28-31/2013	Data collected, Interview questions	Get teachers thoughts about the discipline problem and solicit solutions.
6. Report to the staff the findings of my research.	Mekisha Bazile Dr. Chambers    (Principal)	6/7/2013	PowerPoint presentation	Create a solution and help the teachers if needed.

Week #2 Reflections

This week as I was reading the passions I realized that research was more than just a thought or a person just saying hey let's do something.  Research is categorized and can be very helpful.  Watching the videos were also informational.  Two of the men suggested finding out what other people have already done concerning that same problem.  My head coach calls it being on the case(Copy and Steal Everything!)  You look at what they are doing and devise a plan to make it fit your situation.  I hope my action research turns out to be worthwhile and is a help toward school improvement.

What I have learned

I have learned that action research could be very beneficial to a principal if used effectively.  Action research is the process of a principal engaging in systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns as a result of the inquiry (Dana text p. 2). The principal is engaged in the design, data collection, and the interpretation of data around their question.  Through this research the principal can benefit because theories and knowlegde are generated, they become collaborators in research by investigating their own problems, and they play a part in the research process.  Because of this the principal will be more likely to facilitate change based on the knowledge they generate.  Action research is not a hard process but it can be a time consuming one.  You must make time to reflect in order to grow and be successful.  Through action research the principal can learn from other principals that blog about their inquiry.  My first action research will be about why we do not have a tutorial program in the first semester of school?  But, I have another idea that sticks out in my head and that is about our school and it's discipline plan.  I think that using action research might be a better route to use when inquiring about some of the problems on our school campus instead of just asking and offending any of my administrators.  It is a more professional approach.

Use of Blogs

Educational Leaders can use blogs to share their inquires outside of their school or district as well as using it to write information for a new inquiry they will be soon doing.  The principal can share about their thoughts and experiences as being principals. The principal can also use it as a reflective journal or maybe a personal diary.  And lastly it can be used to ask questions and have conversations with other principals on topics to help better their school.