Reflections on Action Research

Thinking back over the past five weeks of this course, there are a number of things that stand out to me. One of those things is the importance of reflection as a leader. Whether I am a leader of a school, classroom, or library, reflection is what will cause me to look at what I am doing and gauge whether or not it is effective, is it getting closer to my goals. I realize now how important it is to build in time for reflection – not only as I’m learning how to be a school leader, but also in my job as the school librarian. I have always wanted to feel more intentional about what I am doing with students and teachers; taking time for reflection each week is big step towards being more intentional.

Another thing that I found intriguing in this course was learning about action research vs. traditional, scholarly research. Before taking this class, I imagined research in the traditional sense (scholarly) because I had never heard of Action Research. Because I am a librarian, and research is something I teach on a regular basis, I thought this class would be easy for me. I quickly found that that was not the case! Frankly, I’m thrilled to be learning about action research. While I see the place for scholarly research, as an educator working with students every day, action research is SO much more practical. I thought Dr. Kirk Lewis described it very well in his video interview. He states that theoretical research might look and sound really impressive, but that it won’t help you as a teacher (or leader) unless it is real-world, practical research. Our goal is always student success and students will benefit much more from practical research, as opposed to theoretical research.

One thing I have definitely learned from this class is the importance of collaboration and flexibility! While I began forming my idea for my action research project in Weeks 1 and 2, trying to finalize the project with both my site supervisor (principal) and the leadership team has been a lesson in patience! I have really had to get my ego out of the way while forming the plan for this project. Because this project affects the entire school, it is one that must have buy-in from everyone. Each time I have presented a plan to my principal, and then my leadership team, I have had to go back and make revisions. This is definitely good practice for working in a collaborative community.

One other big part of this class for me has been learning to communicate in an online professional community. While I have done Facebook and Pinterest, I have never participated in an online community for anything other than social reasons. That has been a HUGE help for me. Having other people who are dealing with similar issues and being able to share and get feedback from them has been so helpful. I really hope that the people I have started an online professional community with will continue to communicate throughout our masters program and even beyond that.

Ch ch ch ch changes...

My principal (site supervisor) was very supportive and excited about my ARP. The one issue that she had was with having some type of paper "currency". I had planned to create something that we would mass produce that every adult would be able to hand out to students when they showed positive behavior. She didn't like the idea of something tangible that both teachers and students would have to keep up with. I can see her point - students losing their currency (or saying they did) could be a real problem. That leads to students accusing other students of stealing, etc. Not good. She wanted the currency to somehow be kept in an online "bank." I was trying to come up with some type of form on our school webpage where teachers could track the positive behaviors they see. Needless to say, I was a little stumped at how to make it functional, easy to use and somewhat appealing to both teachers and students. I had given up on "easy to use" and "appealing" and was down to just creating something functional! And then, like manna from heaven, Patricia mentioned in her response to my post last week about an online software that tracks student behavior. Duh! I hadn't even thought to see if there was already something out there I could use!!! Once I started searching, I actually came across several online programs. Most of them charge some type of fee, but the one that I like the most is absolutely free! Woohoo! It's called Class Dojo and I strongly encourage you to take a look at it. I am super excited about presenting this both to my Leadership Team as well as my teachers. Thanks, Patricia - I owe you big time!!!

Action Research on School-wide Reinforement System

Managing student behavior is something that every school and every teacher deals with. Some teachers try many varied behavior management systems to reinforce positive behaviors and eliminate negative behaviors. My research question is this:

1. How can a school-wide reinforcement program improve student behavior?; and,

2. How can technology be utilized to track and proactively address problem behaviors before they occur?

Week 2 Reflections...

I enjoyed reading the second chapter in the Dana text, The Passions That Drive Your Journey. Well, maybe "enjoy" is not the right term, but I did find it interesting and was able to connect to a lot of  what I read.  I could come up with an action research project in almost all of the nine areas that were discussed in the chapter that I would be excited about working on. The one problem I am having is that some of the "wonderings" I feel most strongly about have absolutely nothing to do with technology, but being in the Ed Tech program I know that I must choose something having to do with technology. A project I plan to implement this year in my library is a "buddy" reading program. At the end of the year last year, we had a weeklong reading celebration with different activities each day. On one of those days, we paired up older classes with younger classes and they got together for 30 minutes of reading time with a partner. We had incredibly positive feedback from both teachers AND students, some of the classes even managed to squeeze in more time to read together (even though there was only a week of school left!) Walking through the building, I saw younger students reading books to their older buddies, who would help them whenever they didn't understand a word. I saw them talking about things like setting, main idea, and discussing authors and illustrators they really liked. I actually saw a 3rd grader explaining what the word "conflict" means to a Kindergartener when they got to that part in the story - how cute is that??? I don't know exactly how to measure the effectiveness of a program like this (much less add a technology component!), but it was so exciting to watch that I knew I had to implement it at the beginning of the year this year.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

...that is the question! I can understand why educational leaders might not want to blog, such as lack of time or wasted effort, but for those willing to put in the time and effort, blogging can have a positive effect on themselves as well as their peers, students, supervisors, etc. Blogging allows for the free exchange of ideas between members of the same school, but also invites collaboration and communication between members of different schools. This can be an exceptional tool for educators who teach isolated subjects. For example, I am the one and only librarian on my campus. No one really knows everything I deal with on a daily basis except other librarians. Blogging with other librarians, both within my district as well as around the country, allows me to feel connected to my profession in a way that I never did before.

Action Research: Research 2.0

Action research is very much an interactive approach to research. Just as the World Wide Web has changed over the years, so has research. For many years, both the web and research methodology were giver/receiver models. Those who were able to posted information to websites (givers) and the rest of us got to read what they posted (receivers). Similarly, scholarly professionals would conduct research on topics of interest to them and publish their findings (givers), and the rest of us read those scholarly papers (receivers) and either changed what we were doing based on the research, or ignored it altogether.

Just as the web has become a free and open exchange of ideas (Web 2.0), action research is a model in which all players have a stake, and a voice, in the questions, actions, and outcomes. Because of this, I like to think of action research as “Research 2.0.” There are many things that teachers and principals do not have control over, such as district, state and national requirements for students. However, action research allows us to look at problems that are specific to our school or classroom, and then reflect and make changes as needed to solve those problems. 

As a librarian, research is one of my passions and I have always had an inquiring, reflective nature. I truly believe that when we stop trying to improve ourselves as educators, we stop being effective; action research empowers us to take control of our own professional development to become the best educators we can be. I plan to take my reflective, inquiring nature and apply it to an action research project for a more systematic approach to my own growth as an educator.