Sunday, August 4, 2013

EDLD 9397 Week 3 Web Conference Reflection


Dr. Borel began the web conference reviewing the critical dates calendar. I found this helpful as I was able to update my calendar and know when my future classes started and stopped. She also reiterated what updates to TK20 that are due by week 5. This was also helpful to be reminded of those tasks since week 5 is just around the corner and there is still a lot of work to be done. However the most helpful part of the web conference was Dr. Borel’s turorial in our APA assignment. I learned through question number 3 that it is important to make sure that the text is double spaced and that the first line is left justified and the other lines following must be formatted as hanging margins which is a five space indentation.  When citing a quotation the year must follow the author and placed in parenthesis. When Dr. Borel examined question 4, she taught us that when paraphrasing authors, the page number does not have to be included and the names of the authors do not need to be mentioned twice. She also talked about when to use the ampersand symbol and when it is not appropriate, yet I found this to be a touch confusing. During the review of number 8, the most interesting thing I learned was that the title of the book was formatted in italics and only the first word was capitalized. It was insightful to learn how to format a quote from a website during the review of question number 1 since that introductory question seemed to be one of the most difficult.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Action Update

I have completed the first 5 steps of my action research plan. I administered the surveys to the students regrading their confidence in writing and was not suprised to find that many of the students did not know how to begin to write a personal narrative. I also surveyed the teachers concerns with these students writing, and many indicated that not only is the ability to write a cohesive narrative or persuasive essay important, many of these students lack the application of grammar conventions. Therefore I have continued to follow the use of the writing workshop model and I have seen a great improvement in students' confidence and their grammar applications. I need to start sifting through some of the cuurent formative assessment data in Galileo, that the school implemented recently, in order to create a data tracking chart. My research plan will not be complete however until the state test scores come back this summer and then I will be able to compare these students previous 2012 scores.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Week 3 Action Research Plan


Action Plan
Goal: To evaluate the use of “Writing Workshop” portfolios in the Writing Intervention program at Cactus Middle School, and monitor student progress.
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation
1.Seek approval for possible action research topic
 
Gretchen Lutz
Deanna Smith-Stout
December 2012
Action Research Plan
Agreement from Site Supervisor
 
 
2. Modify the specific action research topic if needed
 
 
Gretchen Lutz
Deanna Smith-Stout
December 2012
*Questions
*Proposed issues on campus
Approval from site supervisor
 
3. Collect writing  benchmark assessment data
 
 
Gretchen Lutz
Amy Powell
Deanna Smith-Stout
 
January 2013
*Galileo testing data 
Target low performing
objectives.
Record and chart student scores
4. Collect 2011/ 2012 AIMS writing test scores for each student
 
Gretchen Lutz
Amy Powell
December 2012
AIMS data
Target low performing
objectives.
Record and chart student scores
5. Survey students regarding their confidence in writing
 
Gretchen Lutz
January 9,10, 2012
 
Create surveys
Record initial data
4. Interview target students Language Arts teachers
 
Gretchen Lutz
 
6th, 7th and 8th grade LA teachers
January 2012
Student schedules
Record data
4. Survey students about their knowledge the components of writing workshop: prewriting, rough drafting, edit, final copy
Gretchen Lutz
 
Writing Intervention focus students
January 2012
Create surveys
Record data
5. Ongoing collection of formative and summative writing assessments and data
Gretchen Lutz
 
January-May 2013
Collect Galileo assessment and benchmark data
Target 6-trait writing objectives improvement. Track and Record progress
6. Survey students confidence in writing
Gretchen Lutz
May 2013
Use same survey to collect valid data
Determine if confidence was built in certain areas
7. Gather 2013 AIMS writing data
Gretchen Lutz
Deanna Smith Stout
TBA (AIMS) might not be released until summer
Collect AIMS data
Analyze and record areas of student progress
8. Present findings of research project  to district  principals and district office.
 
 
 
 
Gretchen Lutz
 
TBA (after receiving AIMS data, compose presentation. I will need AIMS scores to make this research meaningful)
Written
Presentation
 
Disseminate the
results of the action plan with the school district and possibly publish

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Blogs for Educational Leaders

Blogs can be a great way for principals to communicate with staff, parents, stakeholders, and other principals. We live in very hurried society these days. Administrators and staff rarely have day to day face contact let alone daily converstaion. Often the only time parents converse with the pricipal is when their child breaks a school rule and is pending the consequences. Blogging can keep the lines of communication open between prinicpals and parents as well as administrators and staff. For example the principal may blog about his or her reaction to an interesting article they about student motivation. The blog can be a tool in which the staff can comment and ideas can be generated regarding how to implement the motivational tools in their classrooms. Blogs can also be used by administrators to develop a repoire with busy parents. The principal can blog about up-coming events, post pictures, and generate campus improvements with parents. I also like the idea that according to Dana (2009) "principals can share their journal writing or blogging time with students to model a love of writing" (p. 89).



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

Action Research Overview

Action research is an essential tool for administrators to use for self reflective professional leadership development, as well as implementing research and hypothesis for greater change on their campus. It can begin with a "wondering" about how to improve an on-campus area of concern or how to continue areas to flourish (Dana 2009). The true benefit of action research, with administrator as acting inquirer, is that the campus research is done by the on-campus administrative leader or leaders. Although off-campus university based researchers formulate data and conculsions about how to address certain eduational needs, the data may not reflect the real time needs of the school in question, and address all of it's nuances.  The school's administrators, leaders, and staff are the network who observes the needs of their school and understands the needs of their students. Therefore the action research should take place on-campus. The research can be guided by the principal yet further shared and implemented with the staff. From this collaboration ideas can be generated and conclusions made regrading how to make the best changes for all involved.

One way I am going to use action research is to model for my staff and students the role as life long learner. By sharing this inquiry into my own self development to be a better leader and showing the methods I used for looking into campus improvements, I will inadvertently model this research process for my teaching staff. As Roland Barth states, "Perhaps the most powerful reason for principals to be learners as well as leaders, to overcome the many impediments to their learning, is the extraordinary influence of modeling behavior" (Dana 2009). As I formulate and share my inquiries with my staff and leadership groups, I can further this process by generating my staff to inquire and self reflect on their own teaching methods.
Another way that I can use action research is to personally invest in my own development as a leader. I will need to reflect on my personal actions and the processes I may need to take in order to have a better rapport with my staff, parents of students, and stakeholders. I may need to question myself regarding my leadership style and subsequently find solutions to build a better degree of trust in my leadership ablilities.

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