EDLD 5301 Week 1 Part 4: Why is reflection important for a leader?

“Reflective thinking is characterized by a view that knowledge is not a given, but instead must be actively constructed within a specific context.” (Martin, 2005, p. 106) Being able to reflect on your experiences, will improve your action research. This allows the principal to see what is working and what is not. Setting aside a time for reflection also allows for some stress relief as the day is winding down. Understanding that no two experiences are ever the same, and making decisions which occur in the three distinct stages of declarative, which is learning the facts, the associative stage, which is growth in declarative knowledge and the organization of the expert, and the autonomous stage, which is elaboration and refinement stage, will allow for the leader to move from being a novice to being an expert on making decisions. Expert leaders “Recognize the perspectives of others, accommodate how others learn, understand how hierarchy filters information, anticipate problems, prioritize relevant detail, and are comfortable with ambiguity.” (Martin, 2005, pp. 104-105) The goal of all interns is to become an expert in reflection and action. “Having the ability to think more deeply about a problem, and the ability to take action or make adjustments accordingly,” (Martin, 2005, p. 105) is the difference between a leader and a learner.

References

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Martin, G. E. (2005). School leader internship (second ed.). Larchmont, New York: Eye on Education.

EDLD 5301 Week 1 Part 3; An analysis: How educational leaders might use blogs.

Blogs are a way for all campus leaders to share their experiences and how they reacted to those experiences. Principals can share their action research on their blog sites, with others they collaborate with. Blogging has opened the door for schools around the world, to share their knowledge which can only improve our schools and student achievements. Blogging your thoughts and how you react is also a way to reflect on your own, so that you may improve. We reflect in our minds as we think about our days, so writing our day's events down, will allow for us to improve on those events by being able to see those refelctions as we blog. Journal writing is a wonderful way to relieve stress, and if principals will put aside a time everyday to blog their thoughts to share with others, it is a good way to alleviate some of the stress that they face so often.
This year, my third graders are blogging. They are set up through my district server and can only blog on my web page through an alias. We go to the computer lab every week and they are to reflect on the reading skills they have learned. They love to blog.

EDLD 5301 Week 1 Part 3: What is action research and how will I use it?

Action research is necessary for the overall well-being of a campus and a campus principal. Action research allows the leader of a school to take control of the issues his/her campus faces at a particular time. It allows for principals to be proactive about independent campus problems and allows him/her to collect and analyze data, and evaluate and share what he/she has learned. Action research allows for several staff members to work collaboratively with their administration to find solutions for academic and non-academic related campus needs. It also allows for principals to do their own research, and not be told what they should be doing for their campus, from an outside source.  Using the systematic approach from setting the foundation, analyzing the data, developing a deeper understanding, self-reflecting, and exploring patterns, determining direction, taking action for improvement, and sustaining improvement, can create a positive learning environment for students, faculty, and administration. As a campus leader, I would use action research with PLC’s and team leadership meetings, so that I could hear exactly what the teachers see as issues on our campus. Allowing teachers and other professionals to assist in research and help with resolutions is a positive way for everyone in the community to come together to help with the challenges that school districts face.

References

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools. Larchmont, New York: Eye on Education.

Action Research in Educational Settings

One example of action research in an educational setting is leadership teams. According to Nancy Fichtman Dana, leadership teams allow for “building a culture of collaboration coupled with the educational reform, accountability, and improved standards that require visionary and strategic planning, not only from the principal but also from the whole school community.” (p. 21) Teams are normally made up of teachers and administrators working together to address problems, and help the administrators come up with decisions that benefit the entire campus. My district does have different teams made up among their respective campuses. The teams look at problems, such as student test scores, learning disabilities, attendance rates, and parent communication, and they collect and analyze data and then evaluate their findings and share with the rest of the district in staff development meetings.  Another example of action research is PLC’s or professional learning communities. These are made up of six to twelve professionals who meet on a regular basis. (Dana, 2009, pg. 21) Our district actually has 3 PLC’s that meet on a quarterly basis. These PLC’s are made up of administrators, teachers, and community members. I am fortunate to be a member of one of these PLC’s. This allows for other professionals, other than the principal, to collect and analyze data and then bring the findings back to the group for review for improvements or solutions. These problems are usually more campus oriented such as scheduling, programs and classes being offered, playground and campus equipment, volunteers who work for our teachers and even the issues of teachers’ children who roam the campus before and after school hours. My action research project will include my colleagues. Our campus has become quite filled with over 700 students in grades PK-4th. We have a problem with getting all parents much needed information at meet the teacher and parent orientation. Most families have multiple children and the times we ask parents to come is in the middle of the day when most people are working. With our economy the way it has been the last few years, and our district being of low socioeconomic status, this has been quite a challenge. My plan is to collaborate with my principal, superintendent, and fellow team leaders, to create a video orientation from each of the above. These videos will be uploaded to our district website allowing for all teachers to show them at the same time in their classrooms during their orientation time. Every classroom on our campus is equipped with a SmartBoard and overhead projector. This also allows for families that are new to the district to view these videos for their own orientation and for those parents who are not able to attend the scheduled orientation. This will also alleviate some stress for our teachers as this is such a busy and hectic time for them. This has always been an issue for our campus, and my plan is to have it in place by the 2012-2012 school year. According to Marjorie Ringler, benefits of action research is that, “It allows for an instructional leader’s role to strengthen teachers’ self-confidence and self-efficacy.” (p. 27) Allowing yourself to reflect on what you have done, allows you to grow as an educator and leader. Just being able to look back on data that has been collected, including what a teacher has taught, allows that teacher to go back and see what they can do to improve on the material they have covered or how they have taught the material to their students. I believe most educators reflect on how they have handled certain issues, by thinking about how they could’ve done something different or improved on it, but they don’t share their experiences by jotting what they’ve learned. By blogging, this allows for one to go back and look how they can make that change and it allows others to learn from them. References Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin. Ringler, M. C. (2007). Action Research: an effective instructional leadership skill for future public school leaders. AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, 4(1), 27-37.

Action Research in Educational Settings

One example of action research in an educational setting is leadership teams. According to Nancy Fichtman Dana, leadership teams allow for “building a culture of collaboration coupled with the educational reform, accountability, and improved standards that require visionary and strategic planning, not only from the principal but also from the whole school community.” (p. 21) Teams are normally made up of teachers and administrators working together to address problems, and help the administrators come up with decisions that benefit the entire campus. My district does have different teams made up among their respective campuses. The teams look at problems, such as student test scores, learning disabilities, attendance rates, and parent communication, and they collect and analyze data and then evaluate their findings and share with the rest of the district in staff development meetings.  Another example of action research is PLC’s or professional learning communities. These are made up of six to twelve professionals who meet on a regular basis. (Dana, 2009, pg. 21) Our district actually has 3 PLC’s that meet on a quarterly basis. These PLC’s are made up of administrators, teachers, and community members. I am fortunate to be a member of one of these PLC’s. This allows for other professionals, other than the principal, to collect and analyze data and then bring the findings back to the group for review for improvements or solutions. These problems are usually more campus oriented such as scheduling, programs and classes being offered, playground and campus equipment, volunteers who work for our teachers and even the issues of teachers’ children who roam the campus before and after school hours. My action research project will include my colleagues. Our campus has become quite filled with over 700 students in grades PK-4th. We have a problem with getting all parents much needed information at meet the teacher and parent orientation. Most families have multiple children and the times we ask parents to come is in the middle of the day when most people are working. With our economy the way it has been the last few years, and our district being of low socioeconomic status, this has been quite a challenge. My plan is to collaborate with my principal, superintendent, and fellow team leaders, to create a video orientation from each of the above. These videos will be uploaded to our district website allowing for all teachers to show parents at the same time in their classrooms during their orientation time. Every classroom on our campus is equipped with a SmartBoard and overhead projector. This also allows for families that are new to the district to view these videos for their own orientation and for those parents who are not able to attend the scheduled orientation. This will also alleviate some stress for our teachers as this is such a busy and hectic time for them. This has always been an issue for our campus, and my plan is to have it in place by the 2012-2013 school year. According to Marjorie Ringler, benefits of action research is that, “It allows for an instructional leader’s role to strengthen teachers’ self-confidence and self-efficacy.” (p. 27) Allowing yourself to reflect on what you have done, allows you to grow as an educator and leader. Just being able to look back on data that has been collected, including what a teacher has taught, allows that teacher to go back and see what they can do to improve on the material they have covered or how they have taught the material to their students. I believe most educators reflect on how they have handled certain issues, by thinking about how they could’ve done something different or improved on it, but they don’t share their experiences by jotting what they’ve learned. By blogging, this allows for one to go back and look how they can make that change and it allows others to learn from them. References Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin. Ringler, M. C. (2007). Action Research: an effective instructional leadership skill for future public school leaders. AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, 4(1), 27-37.

Action Research Week 1 Assignment 1 Part 1

Action research, also known as administrative inquiry, is, “The process of a principal engaging in systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns a result of the inquiry.” (Dana, 2009) Action research is a way for principals to basically develop their own professional development to research, analyze, and review the needs of their own campus. The principal becomes an active, engaging member of their campus, collaborating with their staff and other principals to assess their own campus issues and resolving them.

“Inquiry is investigating in a systematic way. Inquiry is examining data, asking questions, and requesting more information.” (Harris, Edmonson, & Combs, 2010) The authors of Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools, made a wonderful analogy between the action research approach that administrators take and the systematic approach that doctors use to help diagnose their patients. Just like doctors look at many different aspects to come up with a diagnosis, principals must use inquiry to attain overall success for their campus.

Inquiry can be used as a professional development tool to allow principals to research, evaluate, and implement solutions for their own campus needs and issues.

Action research differs from traditional research in that action research allows for the principal to take action for their own specific needs. Traditional research, as that used in a professional development workshops, has someone else researching schools issues and telling principals how they should solve these issues. Action research lets the individual principal seek out his/her own campus needs and collaborate with their own staff to find the best ways to improve student and staff success.

References

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools. Larchmont, New York: Eye on Education.

Reflections of Course-based Embedded Assignments 5306 Concepts of Educational Technology Leadership

Concepts of Educational Technology allowed me to learn more about myself as a technology immigrant. According to Marc Prensky, “Our students today are all native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet.” (Prensky, Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1, 2001, p. 5) Understanding that students today do not even think the way we, the teaching generation did, is a difficult understanding. I learned that as an educator, we not only have to change our way of teaching, but also our way of thinking. “Some of us, as immigrants, learn better than others, to adapt to our environment, they always retain, to some degree, their accent, that is their foot to the past.” (Prensky, Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1, 2001, p. 3)

            When I was growing up, if you were working on your homework, you were at the table with no televisions, radio, or telephones. As a mother to children from a digital world, I had that same rule with my own children. However, I consider myself a digital native, so I definitely feel now that I served my own children an injustice. By not allowing them to have the technology they have always known, I now see this may have hindered instead of helped them. “Digital immigrants don’t believe that their students can learn successfully while watching T.V. or listening to music because they (the immigrants) can’t. ( (Prensky, Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1, 2001, p. 4)

            Prensky also says (Prensky, Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1, 2001, p. 4)

                                    “That today’s teachers have to learn to communicate in the

                                    language and style of their students. This doesn’t mean changing

the meaning of what is important, or of good thinking skills. But it does mean going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access, among other things.” (Prensky, Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1, 2001)

Changing my style of teaching is important for my students’ success. As technology is ever changing, so must we be. I learned we cannot teach to this generation, the same we were taught. Along with technology, times have changed.

Having been taught the MLA style of writing throughout my High School and undergraduate career, APA style was something I found to be very difficult. Making the switch meant many nights redoing assignments, reading through my APA text over and over and researching proper techniques and formats. This took a lot of time and patience. I continue to struggle with the APA style, but will continue to revamp my work until the APA guidelines are properly met.

I spent countless hours reading, researching, and learning topics I had never heard of, during this course. I also had to ask for technology help from my work colleagues and my own children, so they could show me to where I would understand, the proper way of working with some of the technology I used during the course. My daughters were shocked at the things I could not figure out, and they just ran right through it. I had to tell them to show me step by step and then I showed them step by step, so I knew I had it right.

Interacting with my course colleagues was not as useful as I had hoped. The course was scattered with information in many different places, making it difficult to maneuver around. I believe everyone was doing exactly what they had to and spending a lot time doing so, so when we did have to comment on each other’s assignments, it was too stressful to worry so much about someone else’s. I personally was afraid to critique someone else, to the point of them changing their assignment, because I wasn’t very sure of myself at times throughout the course. I believe the discussion board time could’ve been better utilized reflecting on each of the readings instead of commenting on everyone else’s quotes that they had found.

Understanding “that our students are no longer little versions of us, as they may have been in the past,” (Prensky, Listen to the natives, 2005, p. 9) helps me to understand that as a learner in today’s world, I have to conform to what is being taught. If I can be a better learner, then I can be a better teacher for my students.

I completely look at my principal in a very different light now. “Expertise develops as the result of reflective skills, the ability to think more deeply about a problem, and the ability to take actions or make adjustments accordingly.” (Martin, 2005, p. 105) Although I don’t know everything that goes on, on a campus, I know there is a lot more happening than just what’s going on within my grade level.

Understanding that what we do is a job, and helping to create a professional environment is an important role for any school leader. Being a novice now, I hope to one day be defined by being able to “apply tacit knowledge, a kind of practical know-how that guides how a leader manages problems on a day to day basis.” (Martin, 2005, p. 105)

References

Martin, G. E. (2005). School Leader Internship (second edition ed.). (U. Communications, Ed.) Larchmont, New York: Eye on Education.

Prensky, M. (2001, September/October). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the natives. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 9-13.