Action Research Thoughts

I am excited about conducting this action research plan and the outcomes that it will bring. Throughout this course I learned many things that have made my action research plan possible. Two things that I stuck in my head in regards to action research are the following:

1. First off, there are many topics that could be researched for an action research plan so make sure the topic you choose to research is relevant to you and the school in which you work.

2. Self reflection is a big part of the action research process, therefore, making time for this reflection is imperative in the success of the action research project. Reflection is a never ending part of this process that should be done thoroughly to ensure success.

I will keep everyone updated with the progress and changes (if necessary) that take place during my action search project.

Revised Action Research Plan

After visiting with my site supervisor and reading some of your comments (please continue to leave them), I decided to revise my action research plan.

Jeffrey Luna’s Action Research Plan
Goal: My goal, in conducting this Action Research Plan, is to develop a plan in which the effective classroom teachers can influence and interact with all other teachers to mold them in a positive manner. Ultimately, I would like all teachers at Floresville High School to be effective in their respective classroom.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Analyze individual teacher data in regards to student pass/fail rate for the 1st Nine Week grading cycle, the 1st checkpoint assessment, and TAKS scores from last year’s reports.	I will be doing the analysis with help from another graduate student Jason Pfluger	The analysis of teacher data will begin next Monday December 6, 2010 and will culminate on Friday December 17, 2010	PEIMS clerk will provide individual teacher grade reports from the 1st Nine Week grading cycle. Testing Coordinator will provide the individual teacher reports for the 1st checkpoint assessment.	The results of this analysis will be looked at to determine what teacher(s) are having the most success in each department to help get a preliminary look at teacher effectiveness in the classroom.
Conduct a survey with a random population of Juniors and Seniors consisting of 50 girls and 50 boys from each of the classes.	The teachers in the boomerang classes of the randomly selected students will hand out and collect the survey.	The survey will be done on Thursday January 13, 2011.	The resource needed will be the survey that I develop for the random students.	I will look at the surveys taken randomly by the students and will get a student’s perspective of what an effective teacher is and Floresville High School.
Interview the Instructional Facilitators of each department to get input as to who they believe are effective teachers in their respective departments.	I will be conducting the interviews of the Instructional Facilitators by myself.	The interviews will begin on Tuesday January 18, 2011 and end on Tuesday January 25, 2011	I will be using the Instructional Facilitators as the resource and will conduct the interviews in the front office meeting room.	I will evaluate the notes I take in the interview to see who the IF’s believe are effective teachers in their department and compare with the individual teacher data to see if there are correlations.
Observations will be done on the effective teachers that are recommended by the Instructional Facilitators.	I will be doing the observations along with Jason Pfluger another graduate student.	The classroom observations will begin on Monday January 31, 2011 and will end on February 11, 2011.	I will be conducting the observations in the teacher classrooms and will take notes on procedures, policies, strategies, teaching styles, and classroom discipline management.	I will reflect on the notes I took in the class to try to get a grasp as to what the effective teachers have in common.
Interviews will be conducted with the effective teachers.	I will be doing the interviews along with Jason Pfluger another graduate student.	The interviews will begin on Monday February 14, 2011 and end on Wednesday February 23, 2011.	The resources needed will be a note pad to take notes along with the notes I took when interviewing the Instructional Facilitator to review.	I will evaluate the interviews to determine what the effective teachers believe they do to be successful.
I will video record the effective teachers in the classroom setting.	Jason Pfluger and I will be doing the video recording of the teachers.	This process of video recordings will begin on Monday February 28, 2011 and will conclude on the week of March 7, 2011.	The resources needed to complete this action will be a video recorder (borrowed from the athletic dept.)	I will study the videos captured to monitor and view effective classroom skills.
Effective teachers will talk about their styles, techniques, and classroom discipline management to all teachers during a professional development day. Their classroom videos will be shown at this time as well.	I will show the videos and introduce the teachers who will share their teaching strategies. The effective teachers chosen will present their classroom strategies.	This will take place during a scheduled teacher workday during the month of August before the start of the 2011-2012 school year.	I will need a computer and a promethean board to show the videos and so that the teachers may use the promethean board to demonstrate classroom techniques.	I will begin looking at teachers during the beginning of the year to determine if they are using the strategies and if it is helping them become a more effective classroom instructor.

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

Jeff's Action Research Plan

Jeffrey Luna’s Action Research Plan
Goal: My goal, in conducting this Action Research Plan, is to develop a plan in which the effective classroom teachers can influence and interact with the ineffective teachers to mold them in a positive manner. Ultimately, I would like all teachers at Floresville High School to be effective in their classroom.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Analyze individual teacher data in regards to student pass/fail rate for the 1st Nine Week grading cycle, the 1st checkpoint assessment, and TAKS scores from last year’s reports.	I, Jeff Luna, will be doing the analysis with help from another graduate student Jason Pfluger	The analysis of teacher data will begin next Monday December 6, 2010 and will culminate on Friday December 17, 2010	PEIMS clerk will provide individual teacher grade reports from the 1st Nine Week grading cycle. Testing Coordinator will provide the individual teacher reports for the 1st checkpoint assessment.	The results of this analysis will be looked at to determine what teacher(s) are having the most success in each department to help get a preliminary look at teacher effectiveness or ineffectiveness in the classroom.
Conduct a survey with a random population of Juniors and Seniors consisting of 50 girls and 50 boys from each of the classes.	The teachers in the boomerang classes of the randomly selected students will hand out and collect the survey.	The survey will be done on Thursday January 13, 2011.	The resource needed will be the survey that I develop for the random students.	I will look at the surveys taken randomly by the students and will get a student’s perspective of what an effective teacher is and Floresville High School.
Interview the Instructional Facilitators of each department to get input as to who they believe are effective and ineffective teachers in their respective departments.	I will be conducting the interviews of the Instructional Facilitators by myself.	The interviews will begin on Tuesday January 18, 2011 and end on Tuesday January 25, 2011	I will be using the Instructional Facilitators as the resource and will conduct the interviews in the front office meeting room.	I will evaluate the notes I take in the interview to see who the IF’s believe are effective and ineffective teachers in their department and compare with the individual teacher data to see if there are correlations.
Observations will be done on the effective teachers that are recommended by the Instructional Facilitators.	I will be doing the observations along with Jason Pfluger another graduate student.	The classroom observations will begin on Monday January 31, 2011 and will end on February 11, 2011.	I will be conducting the observations in the teacher classrooms and will take notes on procedures, policies, strategies, teaching styles, and classroom discipline management.	I will reflect on the notes I took in the class to try to get a grasp as to what the effective teachers have in common.
Interviews will be conducted with the effective teachers.	I will be doing the interviews along with Jason Pfluger another graduate student.	The interviews will begin on Monday February 14, 2011 and end on Wednesday February 23, 2011.	The resources needed will be a note pad to take notes along with the notes I took when interviewing the Instructional Facilitator to review.	I will evaluate the interviews to determine what the effective teachers believe they do to be successful.
I will video record the effective teachers in the classroom setting.	Jason Pfluger and I will be doing the video recording of the teachers.	This process of video recordings will begin on Monday February 28, 2011 and will conclude on the week of March 7, 2011.	The resources needed to complete this action will be a video recorder (borrowed from the athletic dept.)	I will study the videos captured to monitor and view effective classroom skills.

Action Research Plan

After reading some material and talking to some people about the topic of Action Research I have learned that it is important to pick a topic that is relevant to you.  There are many topics that you can choose to do Action Research on, but picking the one that is not only relevant to you but also to your district is very important.  It is important so that you can actually put the Action Research in to place and in motion.

Educational Leaders Using Blogs

I think that using blogs as a source of information for educational leaders will help to make them lifelong learners. Educational leaders can communicate with other principals across the world who may be having the same type of problems in their school. Blogging allows for administrators to communicate, problem solve, and share ideas with other educational leaders throughout the world.

Action Research

Action research is something that I believe will help me to become a more complete and successful principal.  Action research is the a type of research where the administrator (principal) looks at his/her own work and develops ideas on how to improve this work.  This type of research is vital as the principal looks at thier own work,  practices, and procedures and answers questions he/she has developed with the information gathered and then decides what changes are necessary to make improvements.  The great thing about action research is that the administrator can collaborate with other colleagues as to what changes need to be made to continue improvement. I also believe that this research is more helpful that traditional research because with action research, the principal is collaborating with the people involved directly with his/her school instead of some outside agency sending "experts" down to put on an inservice on how to relate to their students. These so called experts are not in the halls with these kids, therefore their information must be a generalization. I think I will be able to use action research when dealing with topics such as failure rate, classroom discipline management, and other issues currently affecting the school district in which I am currently employed.