The Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To improve student learning with use of updated online resources related to current objectives.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Creating online website with general information and general classroom resources. (i.e. Gizmos, syllabus, extra worksheets, and contacts.)	Abby Van	Decemeber 2012 – January 2013	-Teacher Webpage -Electronic copies of syllabus and worksheets -Electronic instructions to use Gizmos and online Textbook -Prepared videos to guide students through extra worksheets	Gather feedback from site mentor, department head, content area team, and the website supervisor
Offer students and parents the webpage as a learning resource or aide.	Abby Van	January 2013 – February 2013	-Take home letter to parents informing them about the new online webpage for student and parent access.	Daily/weekly reminders to and feedback from students
Update and changes to webpage daily/weekly as needed based on changing classroom objectives and student feedback.	Abby Van	January 2013 – May 2013	-Testing data and grades	Student feedback and monitoring improvement through grades and testing data.
Survey students on use of the webpage and the helpfulness of the webpage	Abby Van	March 2013 and May 2013	-Surveys -Testing data -Grades	Reviewing the results of the surveys and comparing the grade improvements between student who used the webpage and students who did not
Final Evaluation	Abby Van, Larri Hicks, Shelly Mitchell	May 2013 – June 2013	-Data spread sheets on grade improvements and survey data	Review qualitative and quantitative data with site mentor and data specialist to determine the value of offering online resources to the students of our campus

Action Research in the Making

My Reflection
After this last weeks assignment, I realized how much a principal was in charge of; I knew it was a lot, but when you look at it as what everything one would try to improve, it is so much. I think my favorite part of the assignment was watching the videos, especially Dr. Kirk Lewis' (may be it's because he is my superintendent).  He mentioned making research practical and applicable to your specific campus or district, how it would be easier and more interested to you as the researcher. When I was trying to come up with the research plan, I was not thinking about if the plan that would most interest me, I was thinking about how could I make the best change or improvement, which should be inconsideration too of course, but making sure the research interests me would probably affect the quality of the my research. However, I do still want to continue with the action research idea I have.

My Action Research IDEA
 My action research idea so far, if you could please leave advice or comment for it, is to introduce an "active" online resource page for my student, who are mainly economically disadvantage student. The reason why I want to do this project, even when it is obviously a great idea since I am sure many teachers do this today, is because a lot of teachers are reluctant to use their websites as a tool for their instruction for our students since not many of them do not have internet access. My "active" online resource page would include weekly or daily updates of worksheets and demo videos for students and parents to be able to access at home. I am hoping students who do not have computers or access to the internet would use the computer labs which are open certain days after school, or at least give them more incentive to.

My Control Groups
Although I did not think I needed a control group and a experimental group, my mentor recommended that I do. It was hard deciding what should be my control, since I have 3 Algebra I classes and 3 Algebra I - Inclusion classes. So after talking our campus Statistics teacher, I decided I will pick two of each type of classes to be my experimental group and the other one of each will be my control. I will be able to compare data several difference ways, according to my friendly stats teacher.

Blogging about Education

One of the things new teachers and old teachers are told are is to steal and share ideas for the classroom. We are told to take an idea that we like or love from another teacher (because it worked for her) and modify if wanted to fit our classroom. If this is true for us teachers, than it should be true for our leaders. Every school is different from each other, but so are our classrooms. Our education leaders need to share their ideas with each other to help improve our schools.

By blogging ideas and concerns as administrators or education leaders, we are sharing to benefits our students. If their is a great idea or strategy that works on one campus, why wouldn't it work on another campus; so blog about it and share it with the world. If there is a concern or a problem that one cannot fix, blog about it and see if someone else can.

One of the biggest difference between the generation than the last is the ability to communicate, and blogging is just another way to do it.

What is Actiona Research to Me?

Although it does not sound interesting or mind-blowing, the idea of action research, or administrative inquiry, is a concept worth knowing to educators, especially administrators. Traditional research at universities are always being conducted to improve our students learning outcomes, but by who? These researchers usually do not know what is being dealt with or how it is being dealt with; they are usually “outsiders”, as mentioned in the Dana text (2009, p. 5). Every day is a different day in our schools, and our teachers and our administrators are the ones who know it best and know it first-hand. Although traditional research tries to differentiate between the theories and what is being practiced, action research will tests theories made by traditional researchers by putting them into play. Action research is research done in one’s own campus by the educators our students work with day to day. It is used by principals in a systematic way to improve their/our schools. It is conducted based off of experience and action is implemented based on the results of that particular school for the best results. To me, it is the difference between having a suit tailored to you and you having to fit a suit.