Wednesday, June 20, 2012
My Action Research Plan
SCHOOL VISION: Robinson ISD will develop leaders and productive citizens by cultivating a passion for learning and desire for excellence.
GOAL: Improve teacher use of applications and wireless devices in the classroom to promote deeper learning and problem-solving in the biology and English classroom in order to improve student learning.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Originally posted: June 17, 2012
This week, I have chosen my topic for my action research to be conducted over the next year. Our school installed wifi into all campuses and will be incorporating a Bring Your Own Device program for the kids. Each high school student and district teacher will be able to connect one device to the wifi and use their devices in the school. As I begin my action research project, some information from another school district that has implemented Bring Your Own Device sparks interest and the drive for the success of BYOD. In school district X, out of 68% of the students that had devices, only 41% got a school account because "Teachers do not allow or expect us to use the technology...Teachers just want us to have pens and paper and read the chapter and answer questions or problems in the book". My goal in the implementation of BYOD at our school is to give teachers resources to change the instructional model in order to have effective use of the technology.
This week, I have chosen my topic for my action research to be conducted over the next year. Our school installed wifi into all campuses and will be incorporating a Bring Your Own Device program for the kids. Each high school student and district teacher will be able to connect one device to the wifi and use their devices in the school. As I begin my action research project, some information from another school district that has implemented Bring Your Own Device sparks interest and the drive for the success of BYOD. In school district X, out of 68% of the students that had devices, only 41% got a school account because "Teachers do not allow or expect us to use the technology...Teachers just want us to have pens and paper and read the chapter and answer questions or problems in the book". My goal in the implementation of BYOD at our school is to give teachers resources to change the instructional model in order to have effective use of the technology.
Originally Posted: June 08, 2012
Action research is the 21st century research tool. In action research, the researcher poses a question or "wonderings" that he/she has. In education, these questions could have to do with their leadership role, programs in the school, staff development, or a problem with students or student performance. As an action researcher, the researcher becomes the head learner as she engages in learning more about her problem and collecting and analyzing data. She then makes changes and adjustments and shares her findings with others, all in order to improve education (Dana, 2009). Action research allows the researcher to improve education on her own campus as well as problem solve and collaborate with colleagues.
Throughout history, effective teachers have always reviewed how they taught, what they taught, and made changes in order to make learning in their classrooms more dynamic so that it could evolve as needed. Action research adds data collection, interpretation, and reflection to make instructional review even more effective. As an action researcher, I know that the research that I conduct is about me and my teaching strategies in my classroom. It directly impacts instruction in my school and ultimately makes my school better.
As a classroom teacher and technology integration specialist, I am constantly implementing new technologies and experimenting with how they impact learning. Learning about how to do action research effectively will help me make those technologies even more effective. As our school integrates school-wide wi-fi and Bring-Your-Own-Device, I plan to research how teachers are using devices to put technology integration in the hands of the students. I plan to follow the attitudes about learning, test scores in the classroom and standardized test scores as we try to improve our freshmen end-of-course tests scores.
Blogging about action research aids in research in two ways. First it gives an outlet for self reflection. Self-reflection is important because it allow the researcher to write down the feelings and thoughts about what they are doing at that moment. Researchers can then read and reflect back on feelings and ideas to hopefully make research even better. It also gets your research out and allows others to agree with, add to, or constructively criticize your work.
Action research is the 21st century research tool. In action research, the researcher poses a question or "wonderings" that he/she has. In education, these questions could have to do with their leadership role, programs in the school, staff development, or a problem with students or student performance. As an action researcher, the researcher becomes the head learner as she engages in learning more about her problem and collecting and analyzing data. She then makes changes and adjustments and shares her findings with others, all in order to improve education (Dana, 2009). Action research allows the researcher to improve education on her own campus as well as problem solve and collaborate with colleagues.
Throughout history, effective teachers have always reviewed how they taught, what they taught, and made changes in order to make learning in their classrooms more dynamic so that it could evolve as needed. Action research adds data collection, interpretation, and reflection to make instructional review even more effective. As an action researcher, I know that the research that I conduct is about me and my teaching strategies in my classroom. It directly impacts instruction in my school and ultimately makes my school better.
As a classroom teacher and technology integration specialist, I am constantly implementing new technologies and experimenting with how they impact learning. Learning about how to do action research effectively will help me make those technologies even more effective. As our school integrates school-wide wi-fi and Bring-Your-Own-Device, I plan to research how teachers are using devices to put technology integration in the hands of the students. I plan to follow the attitudes about learning, test scores in the classroom and standardized test scores as we try to improve our freshmen end-of-course tests scores.
Blogging about action research aids in research in two ways. First it gives an outlet for self reflection. Self-reflection is important because it allow the researcher to write down the feelings and thoughts about what they are doing at that moment. Researchers can then read and reflect back on feelings and ideas to hopefully make research even better. It also gets your research out and allows others to agree with, add to, or constructively criticize your work.
Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The
principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press.
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