Maybe almost final action research plan

Please read my action research plan posted below and give me feedback.

Goal and Objectives

The goal of my action research is to determine if Tier 2 intervention is more beneficial for student achievement if students are assigned intervention by specific TEKS. Once student shows 70% mastery of TEK they attend regularly schedule class. Therefore, students may rotate through intervention as opposed to being scheduled for intervention class for a semester or year’s length.

Activities design to achieve goal

1. Schedule students who do not show 70% mastery of TEK into Tier 2 intervention. Meet bi-monthly to review formative assessments.
2. Student receives Tier 1 intervention in class and Tier 2 from intervention teacher.
3. Progress monitoring from intervention teacher will determine effectiveness and mastery of intervention, in a more immediate timeframe.
4. When student achieves 70% mastery of TEK, they then follow original schedule.
5. Math teacher and intervention teacher will meet once a week to discuss student achievement.
6. Collaborative team will help determine plan’s effectiveness during student reviews every six weeks.

Resources and Research Tools needed for data gathering

I will use last years 4th grade TAKS results from my campus, benchmark data (every six weeks), 4th grade TAKS results from current year, from other schools in district. I can obtain last years TAKS data on our grading software. I will obtain benchmark data from my administrator that will generate campus comparative data. Lastly, I will receive TAKS data at the end of the year. I think it is important to reflect and continue to evaluated new resources that may reap better student achievement, as opposed to not making any changes to plan throughout year.

Timeline of implementation and completion
Implementation of this plan will be the third week of the first six weeks of school and will finish approximately May 15, of 2011 when the 4th grade Math TAKS test results are distributed. Every six weeks the intervention teacher and I will examine the math benchmark data.

Persons responsible for implementation of plan

I will work closely with my on-site supervisor and the math intervention teacher. But ultimately, it will be me responsible for implementing the plan. The academic coach at my school is also doing her action research plan currently with Lamar University and I believe she will also be a resource and someone responsible with the implementation of this plan.

Monitoring the achievement of the plan

I will use on-going field notes such as basic checking for understanding. Many quantitative measures such as benchmarks, grades, and standardized tests will be used. Student work will be collected. Lastly, during our student reviews, opportunity will be provided to really examine the effectiveness of the plan with a collaborative group. Data will be analyzed during data team meetings to better inform and drive instruction. From Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action, I believe that once the plan is in place, on-going reflection will help determine direction of the plan.

Assessment instruments to evaluate effectiveness

I will evaluate student work, quantitative data, field notes, data team meetings, and our collaboration from student reviews to assess the plan’s effectiveness.
Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action provides the framework to expand on my action plan if I achieve the results I desire and think I will achieve. The eight steps allow me to open up the plan to change the Tier 2 intervention system for the other content areas of our campus.

As I learn and evolve

I met with my on-site supervisor today and review a comment from one of my classmates in regards to my action research. My classmate's reflections have identified a potential opposing force to the success of my plan. I really did not think through the time and attention the scheduling would taking on and on-going basis. Constantly regrouping and scheduling kids by TEKS will required persistence and time.

Here is my action research plan

Goal and Objectives
The goal of my action research is to determine if Tier 2 intervention is more beneficial for student achievement if students are assigned intervention by TEK. Once student shows 70% mastery of TEK they attend regularly schedule class. Therefore, students may rotate through intervention as opposed to being scheduled for intervention class for a semester or year’s length.

Activities design to achieve goal

1. Schedule students who do not show 70% mastery of TEK into Tier 2 intervention.
2. Student receives Tier 1 intervention in class and Tier 2 from intervention teacher.
3. Progress monitoring from intervention teacher will determine effectiveness and mastery of intervention, in a more immediate timeframe.
4. When student achieves 70% mastery of TEK, they then follow original schedule.
5. Math teacher and intervention teacher will meet once a week to discuss student achievement.
6. Collaborative team will help determine plan’s effectiveness during student reviews every six weeks.

Resources and Research Tools needed for data gathering

I will use last years 4th grade TAKS results from my campus, benchmark data (every six weeks), 4th grade TAKS results from current year, from other schools in district. I can obtain last years TAKS data on our grading software. I will obtain benchmark data from my administrator that will generate campus comparative data. Lastly, I will receive TAKS data at the end of the year. I think it is important to reflect and continue to evaluated new resources that may reap better student achievement, as opposed to not making any changes to plan throughout year.

Timeline of implementation and completion

Implementation of this plan will be the third week of the first six weeks of school and will finish approximately May 15, of 2011 when the 4th grade Math TAKS test results are distributed. Every six weeks the intervention teacher and I will examine the math benchmark data.

Persons responsible for implementation of plan

I will work closely with my on-site supervisor and the math intervention teacher. But ultimately, it will be me responsible for implementing the plan. The academic coach at my school is also doing her action research plan currently with Lamar University and I believe she will also be a resource and someone responsible with the implementation of this plan.

Monitoring the achievement of the plan

I will use on-going field notes such as basic checking for understanding. Many quantitative measures such as benchmarks, grades, and standardized tests will be used. Student work will be collected. Lastly, during our student reviews, opportunity will be provided to really examine the effectiveness of the plan with a collaborative group. From Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action, I believe that once the plan is in place, on-going reflection will help determine direction of the plan.

Assessment instruments to evaluate effectiveness

I will evaluate student work, quantitative data, field notes, and our collaboration from student reviews to assess the plan’s effectiveness.
Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action provides the framework to expand on my action plan if I achieve the results I desire and think I will achieve. The eight steps allow me to open up the plan to change the Tier 2 intervention system for the other content areas of our campus.

Learning from the interviews in this weeks videos, I have found out that it is important to research what is important to you or something you are interested in. Lastly, it is important to focus on what actions benefit student achievement.

Administrators can utilize action research in many ways to improve school practice or their own. For instance, improving intervention practices, boosting staff moral, or even improving student motivation.

As a potential administrator I think it is important that the leader of the campus be the "head learner" on campus. It is empowering for those on campus to work with a leader that models what they preach. I think action research when done effectively could be the road to exponential growth for a school. So many times school and the individuals in them recognize the problems of their campus or their individual classrooms and do not take the necessary steps to improve. I think this is a problem because we ask students to do this very behavior, though we do not always model it for them. I think schools are an evolving being in themselves, always changing. If schools do not constantly and persistently adapt then they will not meet the needs of their changing student body. At an elementary school with 750 students and 100 staff members there is constant evolution and change.

Writing a journal or blogging seems like a great way to really focus on and narrow in on specific behaviors or procedures an administrator wants to improve. With journals and blogs, the writer is able to constantly reflect and refine what they write until they get to the specific problem behaviors they may want to change.

While I am skeptical about blogs and blogging for students, I excited about the possibilities for adult stakeholders. This could be an easy way to get feedback from stakeholder in a real immediate fashion. Blogging could also be a way for stakeholders of a school or school district to have "class with an expert" from a distance. For instance, if my school is implementing a new school wide program, it might be useful to work with a professional who has already implemented the same program. Not only could I have their support with the initiative but blogging would be much more cost effective.

In regards to blogs and blogging in education, I have a few concerns. First, I am concerned about the level of engagement students would have. If there was a system in place that students could blog and receive blogs in return from others they recognized, they might be more engaged I also worry about the consistent supervisions of the blogs by all the teachers. I know that most teachers are diligent about these types of supervision issues, but reality is, not all teachers are.

I have to admit, that I am a bit ambivalent about blogs and blogging. While I agree that kids are more "digital natives" than adults I am not sure that this is a technology that students would buy in to. I do believe that blogging could be a intriguing way to incorporate staff meetings. Especially because the staff meetings I sit through now are torture. And those who have opposing views don't have a real forum to speak up. While I am not sold, I am not ruling it out.

I really believe that I am a life long learner. I love to learn new things. I am fascinated by new technologies and how they apply into real world application. Furthermore, I have learned much about myself from both of the courses I have taken. I have learned that I have to be a campus leader in regards to technology usage if I am going to be able to expect the same kind of behaviors from my colleagues. My attitude is positive and excited about the possibilities. I would love to go back and teach my colleagues what I have learned, especially about the Texas Long-Range Plan and the STaR Chart.

I was successful carrying out the course assignments, except for the web conferencing. I do not know anybody with an internet connection and a webcam. I enjoyed reading the articles and gained technology insight from each, however, I still have trouble reading articles and books online. This technology is still difficulty for me to transition to. When I read to learn, I like to highlight and be able to flip back and refer to previous points of interest. For me, reading online, hinders this.

There are a few outcomes that I would have liked to have learned more about. For instance, I would like to actually have more hands on training preparing lessons from different content areas with the technology integration. It is easy for me to see how to implement technology usage while in social studies, but I am unclear how to do this in other content areas. I think what prevented me from achieving this goal is just not doing the actual work itself. I would have to sit down with the necessary technology experts and curriculum experts to generate these lessons.

I currently am a reading intervention teacher. I am not sure if I can't implement many of the outcomes I learned in the course. However, I have filled several roles in my tenure as a teacher, which I could utilize. As a social studies teacher I thing the wikis and the blogs could connect my students with an audience all over the world. I am also the facilitator for our school wide behavior management program called Positive Behavior Intervention Support team and I could certainly use blogs to create an open discussion forum for the teachers and I to communicate. As for my goal to be an administrator, I know much more about the Texas Long Range Technology Plan and the STaR Chart.

It is difficult for me to think about where I began this course. And I am not sure what I expected get out of it. While I can do many things on the computer such as: Powerpoint, Excel, and Word, I am not savvy with internet technologies. I certainly gained awareness of the Texas Long Range Technology Plan, the STaR Chart, RSS feeds, blogs, and what it means to be a digital native. I think I achieved the outcomes I expected plus some. More than anything I gained a better appreciations of what schools can do to utilize the technology they have and how the state of Texas is addressing the changing technology landscape.

Seeing STaRs

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Mendez Elementary

View more presentations from Lamar University.

My opinion on Educator Preparation and Development

I chose to give my opinion about Educator Preparation and Development in the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. Educator preparation and development, is just that, are the educators in front of students today prepared to utilize the most recent technology available and are they receiving development to keep up with the evolution of technology. The STaR Chart showed progress in this area through the state level. Though there has been smaller progress in the school district I am employed compared to the rest of the state. I think you have to envision how the areas of "educator preparedness" and "leadership support" work together. A problem that I see, is our leadership in schools are usually compromised of teachers who have taught a while and have limited knowledge of technology themselves. Our teacher coaches are in the same situation. It would seem difficult to really support a teacher who has a desire to integrate technology into their lessons if the very people designated to coach that teacher is not proficient in technology. For instance, three years ago I had an administrator who was technologically savvy. She really pushed integration of technology into everyday school life. We as teachers even started our own blog to communicate best practice withing our school. The year she left you see a significant drop in our leadership support number according to our STaR Chart. I do not think this is coincindental. If school leadership do not lead by example and not technology savvy, the school will have a hard time meeting these goals.

Pre-K TEKS

The pre-k TEK states that the child moves and double clicks the mouse to interact with software program. Obviously there are many programs for students to use that they can practice this skill. This skill is then spiraled and scaffolded into the 3rd grade TEK save and delete files, uses menu options and commands, and work with more than one software program application.

Long-Range Plan for Technology reflection

As an instructional leader I get a better sense of urgency of integrating technology and how all stakeholders must collaborate to make sure that each of these goals are making progress. I think all teachers need to feel this urgency, this is an issue that needs to be tackled. If I was an administrator I would make sure that these technology skills are being integrated at every grade level. Clear communication with the professional development to support the initiatives would be vital.

Reviewing the two assessments I took, I would not say that I don't agree with them, as much as I am just not there yet. I have basic technology skills and can use many applications on a cpu. I do not know all of the computer jargon and intricacies of the computer and the internet.

In regards to the SETDA, I am certainly looking forward to the day that teachers and students have access to the necessary technology to gain those skills.