I did it....I think...

I hope that this is big enough!

Working through the issues....

Because I am still unable to copy and paste the chart...I am just wanting you to look at the previous blog to get the overview. There were small or minor changes that I made to the actual plan which involved punctuation and some rewording. I have found that this research class gives me more insight into the reasoning of why I do what I do and the steps that I take to solve problems. It is not all that new to me because I do these things naturally as do many others that have dedicated their lives to children. I encourage you to post comments to my blog or even comment on the discussion board to help critique myself and grow professionally.

Action Plan

Because you cannot import a table or even a word document into a blog without creating a link and all kinds of other things, I will briefly explain my action plan.
1.Evaluate previous years data such as TAKS scores, fluency, DRA, and grades to look at achievement in relation to parent involvement.
2. Collaborate with fellow teachers, principals, and other staff to determine ways to help raise parent involvement so that students benefit. Also search online for other information.
3. Create beginning of the year welcome letter establishing expectations and hints to help children at home.
4. During Meet the Teacher, provide parents with booklet of activities to help with fluency, comprehension, spelling, and grammar.
5. Continue with communication and build relationships with parents.
6. Continually assess student's improvement and parental involvement.
7. Look at plan and determine if there is student improvement and determine if alternate ways are needed to help with parent involvement.
8. Evaluate and reflect on plan effectiveness.

Research and dig...

When thinking about action research, I believe that I find that what Dr. Briseno said about reading and digging for answers to help with situations to be vital. As teachers, we do this without thinking about it. We are the first to look for answers to help any situation that we might encounter! I think that hearing him say this made me look more closely at it. I definitely believe that people need to follow this more to confront situations. It is definitely true that readers are leaders and problems are solved by researching and digging for solutions.

Action Research

When thinking about action research, I believe that it is extremely beneficial to administrators as well as teachers in all respects of education. Action research is something that we use every day without even realizing it in schools. Whether it be from a teacher looking closely at how to help his/her students or a school trying to figure out how to improve parent involvement, action research is seen everyday. I have learned that through action research, we are able to take more ownership over our learning because we pose the problems and take the actions to find the ways to fix them. With action research, the concerns are focused on the issues of the practitioner not just some outside source. Action research was described as continual spirals of reflection and action. By reflecting on our learning and research, we then develop a higher morale because we are the chief operator of the endeavor. Whether it be individual or group based, action research lends to help solve problems across the educational world. When collaborating with other educators, action research can stregthen the teamwork and build relationships that will help achieve many things. Overall, I believe that action research can lead to real change in which the process is made note of and matters.

Educational leaders definitely can use blogs in many ways. I believe that a blog from an educational leader would be a great learning tool for new leaders in the profession to learn from. This would be an extremely great resource for them to look for information and find answers or even just get others opinions on many topics.