EDLD 5352 Course Reflection Assignment 5.2

Technology skills learned in this course: I have gained a lot of new knowledge regarding my use of technology as a student and an educator.  I really enjoyed learning about the variety of Web 2.0 tools and am very excited about using them in my classroom and as an administrator in the future.  I learned that technology is becoming the primary and best way to reach the very technologically savvy students that are in our schools today.  I also enjoyed learning about the use of Google Sites and Docs and love how easy it will be to integrate into the classroom.  Overall, this course opened my eyes to the endless opportunities that technology provides for everyone involved in education today, including parents.  I cannot wait to see how my students will react to the “fun” new way of learning that will occur in my classes.  This was a great class and I am glad that I took the course.

Campus-Supervised Internship Activities – At this point, I am not as far along as I wish I was.  I had planned on doing a lot of the interviewing during the summer but found that the employees were great but preferred to do the interviews during the school year.  I will have to fit these interviews in after school or during my conference period.  This will not be a problem because I look forward to the knowledge that I will gain through these interviews.  I have currently completed only 23 of my activities so I am a little more than half way to completion.  It is time I started to kick into gear and get them done this semester.

Action Research Report – I have completed my Action Research Project.  I have submitted my report to my supervisor and he is reviewing it at this time.  When school starts, I will sit down with my supervisor and discuss my project.  From the conversations I have had with him so far, some of my recommendations regarding the discipline procedures used at my school may be implemented.  I will find out more once school gets started.  I plan on introducing some of my discipline findings to my department during our beginning of school meetings next week.  Some of the data I collected could be used as the teachers begin to plan classroom management procedures.    At this point, all I have to do is to actually compile the information into the formal report that will be due in the 5398. 

EDLD 5352 Web Conference Reflection

As part of the requirements for this technology course, I was required to attend or watch at least one web conference and reflect on it.  In the past, I have not enjoyed or learned much from attending these web conferences mainly because of technology issues and all of the side conversations going on.   But in the case of this class, I really enjoyed it. I went in with the idea that I would just watch the one conference, watch a lot of people chatting about other things, and then write my reflection.  However, I had a much better experience this time.  The assignments and the expectations for us did not seem to be very clear when I started this particular class. The web conferences allowed me, as a student, to use technology to improve my understanding of classroom expectations. This is exactly what I and my classmates need to be doing as teachers with our students; use technology to improve understanding. The web conferences allowed us to ask any questions we might have about our assignments and our graduation requirements. The professor was so enthusiastic about the material that it was infectious. I became excited about using new technology in my classroom and found that it was not really as hard as I thought it was going to be. Dr. Jenkins was always patient and took the time to answer all questions that anyone might have. Web conferences are a great tool and could be used by any classroom teacher for various things.

Web 2.0 Tools

EDLD 5352

Web 2.0 Tools Collaboration

Noteapp.com

Noteapp.com is a website that is dedicated to collaboration by allowing teachers and students to create board templates for live communication from anywhere.   You can use it to conduct meetings with others directly from your workspace.   It is a great tool to use when you need to share quick information but can’t get everyone together.  This website even works with your smartphone because all you need is the url address.  Educators could utilize this tool to share ideas, etc.  It also is good for groups that have a hard time meeting in person since it is all online.  As a teacher, this would be something that I would use in my classroom to increase participation by giving students a platform for communication to share ideas, brainstorm, and answer my questions.   They may even remain anonymous if you allow it.  This is a good tool to use to help reluctant and/or struggling students get more involved in your classes.  It works similar to our Google doc except that the background is a cork board and everyone types on a virtual post-it note.    You can color-code your post-it note to identify yourself if desired.

Key attributes of Noteapp.com:

• Put all your information in one place
• Visually access your notes for quick editing and recall
• Share thoughts and brainstorm with others, directly from your workspace
• Create a shared space for educational information such as current issues, lesson plan ideas, and teacher/student/parent feedback
• Hold meetings from across the world and encourage all members' thoughts and ideas
• Collaborate from anywhere
• Create board templates to use for recurring and ongoing courses
• Elicit compelling feedback both during and after the course has finished

Increase class participation by giving students a platform for shared communication

Socrative.com

Socrative.com is a Web 2.0 tool that educators can use to create assessments online and then share them with other educators and/or students.  An important use of Socrative.com is that the other educators you share your documents with can collaborate with you to create and/or edit what you or they have shared.  For students, educators can create multiple-choice, true/false, or short answer assessments.   They can construct the assessment to be a formal test, quiz, pulse-check, or a game.  Newly created assessments are located under a “class room number” in the program.  That room number is what students use to check in to the teacher’s assessment.  Students will login under Socrates.com/student and teachers create their assessments under Socrates.com/lecturer.  Virtually any educator can implement this into their normal class routine which will integrate technology in a way more relevant to today’s technologically oriented learners.  It is also an easy way to assess students quickly because the results are calculated automatically.  Additionally, test results may be posted publicly for students, parents or any relevant stakeholder without identifying individual students.

SUMMARY OF MY ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AS OF MARCH 29, 2013

 It is taking longer than I expected to complete my Action Research Project.  The main reason for this is the data analysis portion of the project.  The discipline reports are a lot harder to interpret than I expected.  I had to learn how to read them before I could really get into my research.  Despite all of the delays, I am confident that I will complete the project and give my recommendations to the administration by the end of this school year.  At this point, I have completed several important action steps of my plan.  The first thing that I completed was to collect student discipline data from the administration’s discipline database for both the first and second six weeks of the 2012 – 2013 school year.  I obtained those reports form the Principal.  I also got the explanation of the individual discipline codes from the assistant principals so that I could understand the consequences given to each offending student.  Once I obtained the data, I began disaggregating it for individual students by discipline code and consequence assigned.  The data analysis has taken several hours to complete.  I developed a spreadsheet to enter the data that I collected.  I broke the data down into individual students and the different discipline categories and the consequences for each six week period.  I am in the process of comparing the two sets of data.  I am comparing if the consequences that each student received in the first six weeks resulted in a decrease in that behavior for each student in the second six weeks.  I anticipate that I will be finished analyzing the data and will have a report of my findings and recommendations written for the administration by the second week of April.  From what I have seen in my analysis so far, the consequences of the offending students are effective for some but not for others.  I hope to develop a more effective set of discipline consequences for our administration to use in the future.  I do not wish to radically change everything because some of the consequences are effective.  I am planning on meeting with several different administrators from different schools in the next week to give me some ideas.  If all goes as planned, I will be done in a couple of weeks.

 



Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan
Goal: Improve student discipline processes at Trinity High School by examining discipline offenses and the consequences assigned by the school administration.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Collect student discipline data from the administration’s discipline database for two consecutive six week periods	Brent Gillum and Trinity High School Assistant Principals	August 27 – November 30	Trinity High School discipline database	Student discipline data collected
Disaggregate the data for individual students by discipline code and consequence assigned	Brent Gillum	December 1 – January 1	Excel Spreadsheet and Trinity High School discipline data summary	Completed disaggregation of student discipline data
Determine the increase or decrease in individual student discipline offenses from the first six weeks to the second six weeks	Brent Gillum	January 1 – February 1	Excel Spreadsheet and Trinity High School discipline data summary	Increases and/or decreases in student discipline offenses are determined
Review action research results with THS administration and, if necessary, make recommendations to improve discipline processes used at Trinity High School	Brent Gillum and THS administration	February 1 – March 1	Summary of action research	Action research summary
Reflection	Brent Gillum		Action Research Plan   Internship Plan	Review action research plan and internship plan

Ideas for action research

My possible action research plans are as follows: 1. How does parent involvement of struggling and reluctant learners affect those student’s test scores on EOC and TAKS? 2. How can I develop more relevant professional development activities for teachers relating to the increasingly diverse student population at our school? 3. What changes (if any) need to be made in the current discipline system used by our school that will improve the academic performance of students? In my meeting with my site supervisor, Mr. Harris questioned my reasoning for each question.  As the discussion progressed, he stated that all three were good choices for action research.  He asked which of the three would be more feasible in our school setting.  Although I felt all three were sufficient, he then asked which would be more meaningful.  We both agreed that a study of the current discipline procedures would be the best thing to research.  This was mainly because of the increasing number of discipline referrals over the past few years and the increasingly diverse culture of the school.  We wondered if the increased discipline issues were due to the cultural changes at the school and if we needed to change our approach in solving discipline problems.  We decided this would be the action research plan I should develop and use for my internship.  Mr. Harris gave me some discipline data from the previous school year and I am going to use it as I begin studying this year.   If you are viewing this blog, what do you think about my ideas?  Any suggestions?  Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

Why use action research? How can educational leaders utlize blogs?

Why Use Action Research?
 

There are many benefits of action research.  First, it provides principals with a meaningful way to grow professionally.  It provides for more in-depth and active research.  Action research helps principals collaborate with other principals to find solutions to the ever-changing types of problems that they face on a daily basis.  In the past, many principals felt isolated.  With action research, these same principals now feel connected and have a different way to find solutions and grow.  Principals that use action research on their campuses  have teachers that have become more collaborative with other stakeholders.  This collaboration causes  stakeholders to buy-in more readily to the goals of the district and school. This, in turn, allows best practices to flourish.  Finally, action research becomes more proactive instead of reactive in relation to research. (Dana 2009)  It helps administrators to reflect on what is happening on their campuses more often than when they relied on outside sources for research.  They are the ones actively researching for solutions to problems.  This is important because they are involving themselves more in finding those solutions instead of relying on others.  As you can see, action research is becoming the best way to solve problems in educational settings.  Hopefully, more principals around the country will start utilizing this vitally important tool.  I plan on using it as I study to become an administrator and after I become one.  I also am going to start using active research to help me become a better teacher.  Doing that will help me to help my current students and the students that I will lead as an administrator in the future.

 Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
How Can Educational Leaders Utilize Blogs?

Educational leaders have used blogging to gain advice, to share findings, and to create networks for finding answers to many questions. The "Blog" has become a vital instrument in the educational community. Any educational leader can find the answers to questions and situations or advice from colleagues all over the world.  Blogging can help administrators capture and store thoughts and recollections safely so they can share them with colleagues and return to them at various times in the evolution of their action research projects.  They may gain new and deeper insights with each visit.