Action Research Plan – Professional Development

1. Setting the foundation:
   

At the high school level, more and more classes are being offered to students, yet there is very little that is available to teachers to help them stay up to date on their teaching areas. As technology improves, so must professional development. Professional development should no longer focus in on a one size fits all approach as this can waste time of staff and create a negative attitude in work. Also, with technology, more can be gained collaborating with other teachers in the same teaching area across the state. Also, I know from a personal standpoint, I never like missing a day of instruction unless I really must as preparing for a sub takes more time than the actual lesson itself. Once again, technology for professional development is still a new idea that could be cost effective and beneficial time wise as well.

1. Analyzing the data:
   

Over the last few years, teachers have always signed up for professional development. Most of the time it could be a fellow teacher presenting to a K-12 audience where the presenter's expertise is elementary based without any secondary experience, or vice versa. Not that this is a bad thing but the traditional ways of delivering instruction is now a days no longer the most efficient way. If we are trying to integrate technology into our instruction as teachers to students, shouldn't teachers practice this as well?

1. Developing deeper understanding:
   

I have gone over my proposed plan with my campus principal and our professional development coordinator. I created a survey through Survey Monkey that I emailed out to the district focusing on the needs teachers think they may need to help with their course that they teach. I also asked in the survey how open teachers would be with online collaboration and about meeting with teachers online throughout the state. I am also developing ideas that could get these ideas started through a few online trainings.

1. Self-reflection:
   

Self-reflection will and should be an ongoing process. I will analyze and share the results of my survey with professional development and technology to try and implement some online professional development that is based on interactions not self study. I do not think that by reading a book and answering questions does not help the teacher with the area of concern. Interacting and sharing ideas with peers can provide a much deeper understanding. I will be trying to find ways to improve these interactions and communicate on a consistent basis with those needed to be informed.

1. Exploring problematic patterns:
   

Possible issues could be trying to find time to come up with a strategic plan that will involve opinions of teachers who are currently at their busiest time of the year due to TAKS preparations. To develop an efficient collaboration, finding a way to contact other districts could also be a difficult issue and trying to find a way for hours to be given through a nontraditional setting.

1. Determining direction:
   

I may start out trying to find a department that would be interested in this development, possibly an elective class. I will try to help out as much as necessary but will try to stay out of the way and let the interactions be from cooperating teachers to share ideas and thoughts that they have.

1. Taking action for school improvement:
   

I will try and keep everyone updated on the progress of the action research plan and still search for other ideas to integrate technology to keep teachers in contact with those in the same subject area.

1. Sustain improvement:
   

I will be looking to constantly improve on my action research plan until I am satisfied with the results. For this plan to be effective it will need the cooperation of those involved to also offer input for improvement.

SurveyMonkey link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BVJ936G

Action Research Week 2

This week I have learned that there are many phases to action research. I feel that as a teacher, I always am coming up with action research topics but not doing a formal report on my findings. In a way too, it seems that a lot of the questions that are faced seem to be overblown to an extent since I do not see the need to sit and ponder into great time lengths to come up with a decision. I did like the point being made that if there is a concern that you have, go look up the question in Google or something to see if others have been faced with the same issue and if they were able to come up with a solution. I think that technology can aid the process of action research by coming up with solutions quickly, but technology can also be overused to do too much thinking into the matter. An example of this is that at my district, we are required to review and re-record the data of our students on mini TAKS quizzes to get a breakdown and to do an analysis on each quiz. The system that we use already does all of this for us but we are having to spend time to recreate the wheel when our time should be spent on making improvements on our findings. I do think that action research is a good tool to use but a minor tool not an important necessity for the job.

Action Research - Week 1

Blogging can be a great resource for administrators and educational technology leaders. Time is a valuable and important resource that many administrators and technology directors may not have and a blog can help make the most of that time through collaboration. In an administration meeting, ideas can be posted and the results of whatever data that has been collected can be shared without having a meeting to go over what could be trivial information. Those who need to be in the loop on the information provided can follow the blog and post comments on what research or directions the administrators have taken. With a blog, this information can be read over and responded back to in the time that it would take to drive over to where the meeting was supposed to be held saving time. Also, blogs can help keep teachers in the loop or have a place that teachers can report on what is happening in the classroom. The administrator can look for common themes and look for concerns and formulate a plan to help address the issues in the classrooms. Teachers can also report on test data to look for trends and propose solutions or ideas to the faculty without having a major meeting to discuss the issue. Those who are in the district offices can also look into the progress of each campus without having to actually go and make a formal visit.