Action Research Plan

Purpose:

1. How might group collaboration, technology-based learning (with resources such as the use of the internet), and cross curricular integration help to ensure higher levels of thinking and meet curriculum standards in the school?
2. How can collaboration and follow up sessions improve teacher willingness to use technology in the classroom?

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Goals and Objectives/Outcomes of the Research Investigation

1. Teachers

a. will use different types of technology to improve teaching and share findings with students.
b. will employ a interdisciplinary approach towards lessons that will integrate technology.
c. will increase their level of technology proficiency.


2. Administration:
a. will observe students participating in use of technology in a more effective way
b. will see students participating and collaborating increasingly


3. Students

a. will use technology resources in the classroom, both independently and collaboratively
b. will connect their learnings to other subjects
c. will encounter new technologies will solve problems regarding the technology
d. will be able to access learning at any time on any day.


4. Parents

a. will have the opportunity to communicate with teachers at any time on any day.
b. will observe their students learning the appropriate tools toward becoming 21st century learners

5. Community
a. Will see participation in technology through wikis and blogs-and
b. will see students take a positive role in their “cyber-citizenship” that is needed in their 21st century future.


Activities Designed to Achieve the Objectives
Throughout the eight month journey, I see much tweaking occurring. After meeting with my team, site supervisor and mentor, they may have ideas that will work more effectively than my own. At this moment, I have not been able to reach my supervisor or my mentor. On my campus, and on my grade level, there is a need for cross-curricular teaching. The focal point in third grade in social studies revolves around communities all year long. Knowing this, I thought I would use the continents to base my interdisciplinary teaching on. I feel that by students selecting a continent, we can cover many TEKS in each subject. Students will get to choose their continent which will give the students ownership of their learning.

Here are some ideas that I thought would work for my class. For example, while working on place value students could research 5 to 10 different cities in a certain country. After selecting the cities, the students find out what the population is of each city. Students then could put these cities in order from smallest to largest, they could write out the numbers in expanded form, in written form. After figuring out the populations the students could cross over to social studies and decide which city was rural, urban, or suburban, and could make a video on PhotoStory using pictures of the places and describing why or how each one fits into the category. In science the students can learn with a group about the different ecosystems that are on their continent. They can do this by selecting one area (of the continent), and can create a PowerPoint with others in their group. The outcome of the group project will be for the students to share their findings with the rest of the class. Some things the PowerPoint may include are: an example of a food chain, a food web, animals that are carnivores, predators, prey, omnivores and other important vocabulary that pertains to an ecosystem. A sample writing activity would be to create an advertisement persuading people to come to a country/city on their continent. This can be done by using Animoto.

We will first review the continents with my students and explain that after exploring each continent, they will select the continent of their choice and will use that continent and explore it in depth throughout all their other subjects over the course of the year. I will start off slow, and especially in the first six weeks, spend much time reviewing basic rules of using technology, and delve into cyber ethics as they will be learning how to publish on the internet in a proper way.





Resources and Research Tools Needed for Data Gathering

The course discussion board has been a great place to begin researching what inquiry to do and to ask others in the class what their thoughts/ideas were. Some have done past work in cross curricular activities and have graciously shared their findings with me.
Find articles online that correlate with my action research question
Spend time reflecting and discussing with other team members, students, parents, administrator, and technology leader.



Draft Timeline for Completion or Implementation of Activities

The first six weeks will be spent reviewing the seven continents by using UnitedStreaming.com, Promethean Planet, Internet resources, and books from the library. This will ensure that all students will have knowledge of each continent so that they can make a choice about which one they want to learn the most about. Additionally, the first six weeks we will spend time reviewing how to use the computer, how to handle the laptops, how to shut down, how to save, etc. I will also introduce and thoroughly discuss cyber-ethics and other things like verifying websites, although at first the students will be using websites that are only approved by me.
The main goal I have for the first six weeks is to instill the idea that we are all a community of learners. One way for this to happen is for students to share their ideas with others in a constructive, safe environment. During the first week I would like for my students to spend time writing on Moodle (around seven minutes, if it is up and running) explaining what they like to learn about, what is their favorite subject, what are they nervous about, what they want to learn this year), then have them reply to at least one other person’s writing by writing something that inspired them about the other’s writing, then what questions they have for that person (based on their reflection).

The second through the fifth/sixth six weeks will be focusing on creating one project each six weeks. Students that are more driven and want to work on projects at home may, and they may have time to complete more projects.
The second through the fifth six weeks will be taking whatever subject we are studying. I expect one project per six weeks, will allow students to incorporate their continent in as many subjects as time will permit and without overload.

Some projects will be done independently, and some will be done with a group. By using different mediums throughout the year, students will become experts on different types of technology and will work together and assist each other.
Some of the products I expect will occur:
Photostory
PowerPoint
Animoto
Wordle
Jing
Storybird


Persons Responsible for Implementation of the Action Research Plan

I am the main person responsible for the implementation of the action research plan. I plan to use my own third grade class to conduct the action research. Hopefully some other teachers on my team will join after we meet in a few weeks to discuss the upcoming school year. A few of my team members will be eager to join in on this inquiry, and possibly the others will join after seeing our progress.

Process for Monitoring the Achievement of Goals and Objectives

Take time on a consistent basis to research on the topics of technology integration and interdisciplinary teaching
Have frequent dialogues with teachers, students, principal and technology leader to assess the direction of the research inquiry

Assessment Instruments to Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Action Research Study

1. Take field notes during discussions to record initial data and continue on throughout the year.
2. Observation of students using technology and collaborating with others.
3. Cyber ethics/community of learners
4. Collect documents such as student work, student reflections, student interviews, digital pictures, and quantitative data to measure growth.
5. Students will journal on blog and in their personal journal about their experiences throughout the year.
6. Review notes and websites from BLC conference I recently attended and continue to research new ways to integrate technology.
7. Create a survey for students to complete and for teachers, if others decide to join.

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Reflection of Videos

I enjoyed watching the three videos of the school leaders discussing action research. Although all three had different suggestions throughout their discussions, there were two ideas that were mentioned across the board. The first one was how data was a necessity. Dr. Chargois said that there was a new science as how to take the data that is provided; and how it can be used daily to positively impact instruction for tomorrow. The other idea that the three leaders suggested that was important was that the action research question that you select needs to be of relevance to you. Dr. Lewis warns that if you cannot apply your action research to you own situation, it is not doing you any good. He also goes on to say that the more interested you are in the question, the more focused you will be on the outcome and in return your students will benefit from the research.

Reflection: Web Conference Friday, July 23, 2010

The web conference that was scheduled for Friday, July 23, 2010 at 4:00 has just ended. The conference as was helpful, as it always is. Many questions that I had regarding TK20 and other basic questions regarding the internship class were cleared. Many of the questions I would not have thought to ask, but I was glad to know the answers now! I felt better knowing that I was alone in the curiousness of the new program and glad that I was not the only one who had so many questions and concerns. The only negative aspect was the confusion between all of the different cohorts. It was a little confusing having other cohorts there, because it sounds like we all have different requirements and rules. Overall, it was a good experience and was it beneficial to see Dr. Abernathy and get information/answers directly from her.

Description of Action Research

At first glance of this course, I was overwhelmed with the notion of “action research”. It sounded unapproachable and meaningless to the realities of the classroom. After reading a few pages, in my Dana text, I realized that my premonitions were wrong. As the text states, it is for professionals to “seek out change and reflect on their practice by posing questions or “wonderings,” collecting data to gain insights into their wonderings, analyzing the data along with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry and sharing findings with others” (Dana, 2009, p. 2). Active research is not the same as traditional educational research, but action research does use traditional research to assist with collecting data.
The administrator (or teacher) decides what to focus on depending on the needs that exist on their campus. Whereas in the traditional research, an outsider is the one doing the research and it is more about focusing on a process, in action research the administrator is focused on their own school and what ways one can make change and effort to create a better learning environment for teachers and students. Using action research “is one vehicle for making reflection purposeful and visible” (Dana, 2009, p. 7). There are many benefits of action research including modeling the behavior of lifelong learning. Many times the question that is being used in the action research plan changes as the researcher delves into data collecting on campus.
On my particular campus, using technology to ensure our students are 21st century learners is a goal that is strongly encouraged. As I read the first chapter of Leading With Passion and Knowledge, I began to brainstorm about how to incorporate technology with an action research plan. By using technology as a piece of an action research plan, maybe others on staff that are reserved about using technology would see technology in a different light. Hopefully they would be more apt for change, as they would hopefully realize that we all are learners by collaborating and sharing ideas instead of feeling isolated and alone in this quest for the advancement of technology in the classroom.


Reference:
Dana, N. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Analysis of How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs

Educational leaders can use a blog to journal their reflections, the happenings in the school, and their feelings about the issue at hand. By posting it on the blog, all educational stakeholders can read it at anytime. A blog can also accomodate many different types of data, such as a video clip of students, it can link different websites that possibly relate to the inquiry at hand, and it can also be an object that allows others to give feedback.