5301 Class Summary

EDLD 5301 in Review
When starting EDLD 5301 I was concerned that I would not enjoy the class. It turned out to be just the opposite. I found this class very informative. I believe it is a course that I will be able to take the knowledge I gained and apply it to my career when I start teaching. In this class I learned about action research and I also learned about the quality indications for research.
When I started this class I was unaware that there was a type of research called action research. Action research is generally used in a school setting (Ferrance, 2000). I found that action research is different from traditional educational research. Educational research portrays linear activity that depicts teachers as technicians and that the practitioners’ role is to implement the research findings from outside of the school (Dana, 2009). In action research the finding are not from outside the school. It focuses on information from within the school. This type of research has many benefits.
There are three benefits that are discussed in the textbook for EDLD 5301. The first is that the theories and knowledge are generated from research that is grounded in the realities of educational practice. The second benefit I read about was that the practitioners become collaborators in the educational research. They do this by investigating their own problems. The third benefit is that practitioners play a part in the research process. This makes them more likely to facilitate changed based on the knowledge gained (Dana, 2009). According to Briscoe and Wells action research can help teachers and principals with their problem solving skills (2002: 429). I think that is very important. All teachers need to have good problem solving skills. Since I was learning about action research, it led into learning about the quality indicators for research.
After learning about action research I learned about the quality indicators of research. I learned about five quality indicators. The first was the context of study. This states that research needs to provide the complete information about the context in which the research takes place. The second indicator is wondering and purpose. This indicator states that I should explain the root of my question in detail. The third indicator is principal research design or data collection and data analysis. This indicator says that data should be collected from multiple sources. The fourth indicator I read about was the principal-researcher learning. This one states that the researcher needs to articulate clear thoughtful statements about what was learned and the process used to learn it. The fifth and final indicator I read about was implications for practice. This states that researchers need to detail examples of changes they have made or will consider making based on their research (Dana, 2009).
When thinking back on what I have learned in this class I am very excited. I feel like learning about action research and the quality indicators will be very beneficial to me in my future. I feel like since I have not had a teaching job yet I will be looking for a job and starting a job armed with knowledge that will benefit my students, fellow teachers, and the students.

References
Dana, N. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Briscoe, C. and Wells, E. (2002). Reforming Primary Science Assessment Practices: A Case Study of One Teacher's Professional Development through Action Research. Science Education, 86, 417-435.
Ferrance, E. (2000). Action Research. Providence, RI: Brown University. Retrieved from: http://www.lab.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf

Laptops in the classroom

Week 3 Reflection

Over this week I have worked on my action research plan. I am having a little bit of a hard time doing this task mainly because of the way I am having to do the internship. I currently am doing my student teaching assignment so am unable to do my internship. I have gotten approval to do my internship with the GCCISD technology dept but I will not be actually starting the internship until the end of April. It is kind of hard to figure out what I will be doing so far in advance. We work on figuring out a plan, but we have agreed that things may change. You never can tell what may be going on that far in advance.
This week I also read about different ways of presenting your findings. I read that you can give an oral presentation or a written presentation. I think both of these are good ways of presenting information. I read about the different things you need to add to your presentation. I personally think the most important is being able to back up what you are saying with data. I think people will find your finding more credibleif you can back them up with data.

Week 2 EDLD 5301

I have spent awhile this week doing my reading. I have learned through this reading that there are nine practices that drive our journey. These are staff development, curriculum development, individual teacher, individual students, school culture, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice. We need to make sure that we try to participate in action research on all of these subjects. They are all very important.
I have also spent this week trying to determine what my action research project would be. I have emailed my mentor and we have decided on using laptops in the classroom. Our schools started giving fifth graders laptops for use in the classroom a couple of years ago. This is very interesting to me. I look forward to looking at how well this is working. I think that it is important for student to use technology so I am very interested in how this initative is working.

Action Research

Action Research is very important in the education field. Some may wonder what action research is. Action research is when someone systematically and intentionally studies their own activities (Dana, 2009). This means that a teacher or principal will evaluate her own actions in hopes of finding any aspects that may need changing. There are many ways in which schools can participate in action research. One way is by teachers going back to school. Many teachers go back to college to get a master’s degree. Sometimes for these degrees the teachers have to do a paper or dissertation. Dana also says that school districts sometimes have principals engage in interactive activities that require they find an area of study about their own practices (2009). Teachers are also able to do this their self. They can evaluate how their teaching is working. They can determine if the methods they are using are helping the students. If they are not then they will need to change their method of teaching. Teachers then can share the knowledge they have attained from their research with other teachers. This allows them to give other teachers valuable information which may help them with their teaching methods. PLC groups are also used in an educational setting. These groups are usually small. They meet regularly to discuss more effective learning and technology strategies (Dana, 2009). Action research can be very valuable in an educational setting. It allows teachers to have a personal growth that I do not believe they would have just from doing what an outside person has told them to do. Action research has benefits such as allowing a teacher to build their problem solving skills. It also allows them to become analytical and critical of their teaching (Briscoe and Wells, 2002: 429). It also improves teaching when it focuses on student achievement (Ringler, 2007).

References
Briscoe, C. and Wells, E. (2002). Reforming Primary Science Assessment Practices: A Case Study of One Teacher's Professional Development through Action Research. Science Education, 86, 417-435.
Dana, N. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Ringler, M. (2007). Action Research an Effective Instructional Leadership Skill for Future Public School Leaders. AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice 4(1), 27-42.

Class One is Done

I have finished my first class at Lamar University. It wasn't all that different from Ashford with the exception of not having to write papers every week. I will miss having all of my Ashford friends in my class with me but I have definately made the right educational decision for me. I now have an entire month off without class. It gives me plenty of time to spend with the kids over their Christmas break. I start my student teaching in three weeks. I am excited to get into the classroom. Once I am done with the student teaching in April I will be able to get my teaching credentials. I hope to start looking for a job after that. I look forward to continuing my education and finishing my Masters degree.

Week 5 Reflection

Five weeks ago I started my first ever Masters level course. I was unsure what to expect until I read some of our assignments. After reading these assignments I determined that I would be learning how to use blogs and wikis. I have never used these types of websites so I was very interested in seeing how to use them. After five weeks in this course I feel like I have gotten a good idea of how to use these sites. I believe that with a little more practice I will be able to come up with different uses for these sites. I believe that I have learned more from this class than I had expected upon entering it. I believe that the course has been very informative for me and that without the class I probably would not have ever even thought about using these types of sites in teaching.

I believe that I will be able to use this information when I become a teacher. I feel like I am getting pretty good at this type of site and feel that I would probably use them in my classes to communicate with parents and students. I believe it will be a great way for my to communicate what is expected of the children to both their parents and the students themselves. I believe that using technology is relevant in today’s school systems. There are a lot of parents who work and are very busy. They may not always have time to call a teacher and ask for information. For these parents a wiki could be a great way to communicate with the teacher. They can look there to see what their children’s assignments are. They are also able to use the wiki to speak with the teacher. Email will also be convenient for these parents. Since technology is so important in today’s world we need to make sure to use it in our schools too.

This course was very informative. I feel like I learned most of what was being taught. I feel like I do need a little more work on using a wiki. My main problem was learning how to set it up so that others could comment on my post. Eventually I found out how to do it. Because of this I feel like I may need a little more work using it. I believe that with a little more practice it will be very easy for me to set up the security on my sites. Security is definitely important when dealing with parents and students so I want to make sure that I have got my security set up in the correct manner. I want to experiment with setting up sites that everyone has to sign in to see what is on it. I believe that if I learn to do that it will make the security better for dealing with students and parents. I also feel like I need a little more time trying to come up with ways to allow students to use technology in the classroom. I have some ideas, but since I have not started teaching yet it is a little harder for me to envision some of the ways it may be used. I feel like that will come with time spent in the classroom.

I was successful in doing the course assignments, but I was a little discouraged on some of them. It is difficult to answer some of the questions if you are not a teacher. It is difficult to know some of the information asked if you are not employed by a school district. I did have some knowledge of the schools from my children being in school. I asked some of the teachers there for information which did help me with the assignments. However, it was still discouraging and made me feel like I may not belong in the class. In the end I have made it and know that I do belong here. It is just harder for me than for others because I do not have the information that most of the other students have that are currently teachers.

This course has taught me that the technology I love so much can be used in the classroom. I never knew just how much technology was being used in our local districts until I started this class and also met with the Goose Creek Chief of Technology. I did not know that every fifth grader has a computer in our district. I was very excited to learn this information. I learned that I have always thought of blogs and wikis and something that had no place in our schools. After this course I have learned that I was mistaken. They definitely can be used in our schools to help our students and their parents. I think that I need to keep an open mind to what can and cannot be used in our classroom. If I had not kept an open mind when I went into this class then I would have missed out on different uses of blogs and wikis. An open mind is very important in an educator and I need to continue to look for uses for all of the different technologies out there.