Reflections on Technology & Progress of Leadership Activities

Technology Skills and Knowledge Gained

While this course was fairly simple, I gained more skills in this one than I did in some of the lengthier, more challenging courses.  Prior to EDLD 5352, I was not familiar with how to use GoogleDocs (Drive) and how to collaborate using them. LiveBinders were new to me, along with many of the Web 2.0 tools that now appear on my team’s showcase google doc.  This course got me excited about incorporating more technology into my classroom and helped me see the benefits to doing so.  There is more technology out there than one person can utilize, but my becoming experts at a few tools at a time, we can make our students’ learning much more personalized and engaging. 

I have already created my own LiveBinder to be used in the 2013-2014 school year.  As the Lead Mentor for New Teachers, I am making available to them a LiveBinder filled with resources, documents, and information that they may find useful throughout their first year of teaching. I have shared this tool with district personnel, and they have asked that I present a professional development session on LiveBinders!

By collaborating with teammates via googlechat, I learned more in depth ways to use web 2.0 tools that I am already familiar with, such as googlevoice, googleearth, and quizlet.  I have found this course to be very beneficial!

Progress with Campus-Supervised Internship Activities

I have completed 118 of the required 150 campus-supervised internship activities. With that being said, however, I have only accomplished half of the tasks on the plan. This upcoming semester will require diligence and pre-planning to ensure that I have time to complete all of the required activities, targeting all 38 leadership skills. Many of the activities that I have yet to complete involve interviews and research.  I plan to shadow my principal and director of instruction in our first week of school to learn about planning, the master schedule, allocation of funds, etc. 

Progress with my Action Research Project

I hit some roadblocks last school year, but during EDLD5397, I was able to redesign and make a few changes to my action research project.  I will need to quickly act on these changes once I return for the school year.  The action research project that I had originally created was intended to help students keep up with missed assignments due to being placed in in-school suspension, or discipline management class (DMC). These students fall behind when constantly in DMC, and it is a burden for teachers to find time to reteach the lessons that these students miss. My original project involved setting up skype on the DMC computers so that students could view lessons in real-time.  I ran into a security issue when putting my plan into place - our district blocked DMC computers from having access to skype.  This caused me to change part of my plan. 

Rather than set up skype, I will provide teachers the option to have their lesson recorded on a flip camera. The DMC student helpers can be in charge of these recordings and can upload them to a sharesite for not only the DMC students but also any student needing extra review.  I believe this may be a better option anyways. We already have the flip cameras; I will just need to get approval from our DMC teacher to allow her assistants to record these lessons when requested.

I have a meeting set up with my principal on August 12^th, during which I will discuss these changes to my action research plan so that I can present the idea at our first faculty meeting in September. I should be able complete this project (or at least fully implement it) by the end of the fall semester.

Community-Parent-School Partnership

I just completed my 5th course (EDLD 5326).  I really enjoyed this course because I had the opportunity to develop a community-family-school partnership plan.  The plan that I designed has the goal of improving the transition period for our transfer students and getting their parents more involved in their students' learning.  I created a presentation (seen below) about this plan.

http://prezi.com/bdk9kycrkrha/spartan-t-camp-club/?kw=view-bdk9kycrkrha&rc=ref-35292933

Action Research Plan

Goal: How can we improve the academic performance and limit the amount of missed instruction time of students who attend in-school suspension (DMC)? 

Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Benchmarks/ Revisions
Setting the Foundation:
1. Conduct a focus group meeting with the principal and director of instruction to gain deeper understanding of school vision for implementing change for improvement.	Principal – Michael Manness   Director of Instruction – Jamie Brotemarkle	Oct. 23 – Oct. 31, 2012	Reflection Questions	Identify the shared vision for the school in relation to inquiry.    Are we in agreement with the time allotted for the project?   Do I have support from the administration?
Analyzing Data:
2. Define what a “repeat DMC student” is based upon data gathered: ·      # of students who attend DMC/year ·      Of those students, look for a break in data that separates repeat attendance with sparse attendance (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.)	DMC Teacher – Sean Stiewart   Asst. Principal – Jim Thompson   Counselors – Mary Olejnik Ashley Isaacs Misti Vaughn	Oct. 29 – Nov. 8, 2012	DMC attendance data/records from the current and previous school year.	Provide a chart that displays DMC attendances
3.  Compare academic (classroom) performance of a repeat DMC student with peers who do not regularly attend DMC.	Counselors – Mary Olejnik Ashley Isaacs Misti Vaughn   Director of Instruction – Jamie Brotemarkle	Nov. 8, 2012 – Dec. 21, 2012	Six weeks and semester averages of select students.   STAAR & TAKS scores	When comparing these two groups of students, select peers that are academically comparable based upon STAAR and TAKS results.
4. Calculate the amount of missed instruction time for a repeat DMC student.	Counselors – Mary Olejnik Ashley Isaacs Misti Vaughn   Attendance Office	Nov. 8, 2012 – Dec. 21, 2012	Calendar	How much instruction time does a repeat DMC student miss each six weeks / semester?
Developing Deeper Understanding:
5.  Conduct interviews with faculty to gauge concern for DMC students missing instruction and falling behind academically.   Conduct interviews with DMC repeat offenders to understand their perspective on the struggles they face.	DMC Teacher – Sean Stiewart   Asst. Principal – Jim Thompson   The faculty   Repeat DMC students	Oct. 22 – Nov. 8, 2012	Questionnaire / survey sent out via surveymonkey   Individual & focus group interviews.	How does the academic performance of students who repeatedly attend DMC compare to students who do not attend?   What burdens do teachers face when students miss their class due to attending DMC?   Do the students who attend DMC regularly act out due to academic struggles?
Engage in Self-Reflection:
6. Reflect on my knowledge of webcam usage, skype, and legal matters related to video recording within the school.	Technology Support – Doreen Ranley	Nov. 22 – Dec. 8, 2012	Skype website   Webcam instructions	Develop documents that detail skype usage. These can be used by the DMC students.    Create a troubleshooting guide for my reference and for those who may be delegated  a role in this process.
Exploring Programmatic Patterns
7. Hold a focus group meeting with key stakeholders to determine potential pitfalls, pros, and cons of the solution.	Support – Doreen Ranley   DMC Teacher – Sean Stiewart   Asst. Principal – Jim Thompson   Director of Instruction – Jamie Brotemarkle	Dec. 1 – Jan. 9, 2012	Focus Group Interview with key stakeholders	List pros & cons discussed at focus group   Record solutions to potential pitfalls   Create a step-by-step guide for requesting usage of webcam.
Determining Direction:
8.  Identify what resources will be needed in order to implement the planned solution: (technology, personnel for managing the technology, availability of time to monitor student progress, etc.)	Technology Liasion – Kelly Gully   Technology Support – Doreen Ranley   DMC Teacher – Sean Stiewart   The Faculty	Nov. 22 – Dec. 22, 2012	Self-Reflection Questions	Are the tasks associated with this project delegated? Assign roles & gain buy in. Create a presentation to explain how the solution will benefit the students and staff.  Present at faculty meeting.
Taking Action for School Improvement:
9. Provide access to instruction for students in DMC via a webcam and skype.	Technology Liasion – Kelly Gully   Technology Support – Doreen Ranley   DMC Teacher – Sean Stiewart   DMC Student Assistants	Jan. 8, 2012 – June 5, 2012	Webcam Funding for webcam Resource person to set up webcam for lessons System that allows teachers to sign-up for webcam	How often is the webcam used by teachers?  (# of instructional hours)   Show log of DMC students who use skype to watch the lessons.
10.  Compare academic performance and behavior records of repeat DMC students who used skype to access their lessons with their academic performance prior to access to the lessons.	Counselors   Assistant Principals   Faculty	June 1, 2012 – Aug. 1, 2012	Report Cards   Discipline Records   Questionnaire	Did access to instruction via skype improve the academic performance of repeat DMC students?   Did access to instruction via skype decrease the amount of discipline referrals of DMC repeat students?
Sustain Improvement:
11. Reflect on positive aspects of the project   Share results with faculty, administration, and other schools if successful.	Faculty   DMC repeat students	April 22 – Aug 31, 2012	Questionnaire   Presentation of results	Do teachers see the webcam as helpful? Does it present more benefits than burdens?   What recommendations do the teachers have for improving this process?   Do the DMC repeat students feel they were able to remain caught up by having skype access to lessons?

Week 2 Reflections on Action Research

In my grad school course this week, I studied in depth the passions that could drive an action research plan, and I met with my site supervisor regarding the various ideas that I have for my plan.  This week really helped me select my action research project because I realized the importance of having supportive data within an action research project.  In an interview regarding action research, Johnny Briseno, a principal at Rancho Isabelle Elementary, said that when a teacher comes to him with a concern or idea of change, the first thing he asks about is the supportive data.  Qualitative data is taken into account; however, having quantitative, measurable data is an important factor in conducting an action research project.  One project I had been considering was related to need for more teacher leadership opportunities; however, I chose not to pursue this inquiry for my project because I was having a hard time finding quantitative data to support a need for change.  Instead, I chose a project that can be supported by data, and also, it could have positive impacts on both the teachers and the students.  The passions that we read about in our course helped me realize the unlimited possibilities for action research; however, we must be sure we have access to the proper resources and have enough time to complete the project that we do choose.

How Educators Can Use Blogs

"Journaling" is the term that we have used our entire lifetime to describe the idea of writing as a means of reflecting and voicing our thoughts upon life or a current situation.  In today's world of technology, we now refer to the word as "blogging."  Blogging allows administrators not only to capture their thinking related to school issues, but also allows them to share their thoughts with the world.  By opening the blog to others, a principal can receive feedback related to the issues discussed.  Also, a blog is a digital collection of thoughts produced over time; the administrator can gain new insights after revisiting thoughts (Dana, 2009). 

Action Research in Education

Administrator inquiry, or action research, is a term used to describe a systematic approach used by principals to reflect on their practices and make improved changes based upon their findings. It is different from traditional research, in which an individual researches an issue and writes a paper describing the theories of others.  Action research still requires one to do in-depth research on a current issue, however, the research comes not only from outsiders but also from analyzing one's own practice.  He or she can then formulate and implement changes based upon the research and ultimately gain new insight and theory related to the topic at hand. As an action research, the principal is a constant learner and is setting an example for his teachers to follow by reflecting upon and making improvements to his practice and leadership.

This school year, I will use action research to address an area of concern that I have at my school.  I plan to research how professional development goals and leadership roles effects individuals within those roles and the campus culture.  In researching this topic, I will develop strategies for creating more leadership opportunities, more awareness of those opportunities, and providing teachers the opportunity to voice their leadership or professional goals.   After implementing these strategies, I will evaluate their effectiveness and make necessary changes.   My hope is that by creating more awareness of the leadership opportunities available and by allowing teachers to voice their desires to lead in particular areas, teachers will feel more valued and in return remain committed to the school.