Favorite Adagios

Here is going to be a bucket of favorite adagios or old sayings from diverse authors, including me.

"Learning takes effort but it takes you to places" Luis Alba

Write a reflection describing highlights of Action Research EDLD5301 course and include any insights.

Action Research course was delivered in the best manner. It started with a conversation between the professors in a setting of a “talk show TV format . Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins made their points by putting up examples of different real cases from local principals guiding their own Action researches such as the one from Johnny Briseno from Ranch Isabella Elementary School. Many of the resources specifically those from the Resource Section PDF document in the resource page brought me a wide array of resources that I utilized for my current research project such as this website which provides assessment tools for technology use and integration, including the TEA Technology Applications Inventory: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/technology/techapp/assess/tools.htm.

Basically, the assignments directed us to different chapters on the text book of Dana where I learned what the rpcess for a Research action was. And I will summarize below:

A practitioner inquiry (Also known as “classroom research”, Action research”) differs from the traditional research in that the concerns focuses on the concerns of practitioners (not outside researcher) and engages practitioners in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around their question (Dana, 2009). Professionals of education engage in systematic and intentional study to improve something because of the data obtained. In addition, Sparks (2002) concludes that action research serves as source of professional development for administrators and educators since “it supports reflective practice; and provides opportunities to work, discus, and solve problem with peers”. In addition, engagement in inquiry forces in devoting sustained attention to one issue, tension, problem, or dilemma principal face as an educator. We reviewed the benefits of conducting action research for the school. One of the ones that I was more interested on was the fact that it slows down the hectic schedule of an administrator becoming more proactive to problems rather than reactive. (Dana, 2009). As a leader reflection represents a professional growth plan. By reflecting on a systematic way a leader can be more productive and efficient. Research tells us that engagement in inquiry is an important ingredient for the overall professional health of an educator (Copland, 2003)

When choosing the topic I noticed on our blogs that many of us had a different wondering but several had the same passions regarding to Social Justice or School performance such as the one of analyzing data from web statistics to improve communication with parents or another to measure the videoconferencing and podcast effect on student learning. Similarly, my research was on a broad set of technology use to measure the performance and level of engagement of students to produce data that would entice other teachers to do it. When choosing the data collection sources I found that literature is a great way to acquire knowledge although comes with disadvantages as well as the other techniques mentioned in Harris, et. Al (2009) book.

Something else that captivated my attention was the different methods to evaluate future problems or projects and how to get a consensus from the team. Such is the case of Field force analysis, Delphi Method and the Nominal Group techniques.

One area that would be critical to learn more is the data collection and analysis part of the process. Since the initial process have begun with the Action research planning now when it is approved by the site supervisor there will be opportunities to learn more about the analysis and interpretation of data.

In Summary, the experience on research learning grew from a theory part to the practical part where learning really occurred. The main things that made the learning happen was the clear examples of the videos; including professor participation, resources and book exercises while reading the blogs and discussion boards which made connections altogether to internalize key concepts.

Copland, M.A. (2003) Leadership of inquiry: Building and sustaining capacity for school improvement. Educational Evaluation and Policy analisis, 25 (4), 375-395.

Dana, Nancy. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge. Corwin Press.

Sparks, D. (2002). Designing powerful professional development for teachers and principals. National Staff Development Council.

Harris, Sandra, Edmonson, Stacey, & Combs, Julie. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools. 2009. p(58)

Action Research Wondering

http://luisalba.wikispaces.com/Action+Research+Plan Please Make comments on the comment line.

I had to shift my focus on my particular questions for my research project. At first, I had chosen how the blogging experience would enhance the professional development of teachers. Then, I though of a better idea: How does modeling technology use during professional development sessions would entice teachers to try with a group and individual follow up sessions and how the integration increases student achievement?

This question could be broken down into several subwonderings:

• How to make sure that interested teachers do apply technology into their classroom?


• Do this integration really affect possitively into the student achievement?


• Do school has the resources for the teacher to use technology in the classroom?

Research description:At regular Faculty staff sessions it is a valuable time to showcase the use of several technology such as whiteboard, blogs, CPS, internet search and google docs, then a follow up ont the interested teaches who would like to integrate such technologies would be trained as a group or individually. After that, with a sample selection of students we would measure progress compared with a sample student group from a class that do not use technology.

The population: Teachers and students from McReynolds Middle School

Sample Size: 1 teacher and 5 students from two classes

How will I conduct the research: First We will determine a teacher class where technology is being used. Secondly, with initial data from grades and Campus assessments of a sample students we will determine their progress. Then we will compare with a sample group from a class where little or no technology is used.
We will measure and compare engagement, deepness of learning such as products samples, and academic achievement (Grades) from similar performing students.