Educational Leadership and Blogging

A blog is like a journal.  It allows school administrators to write down daily reflections and thoughts.  The blog puts the entries into a chronological order and lets the administrator or other accepted individuals search the entries by date or keyword. This powerful tool allows users to revisit previous thoughts and improve communication.

Action Research

Action research is a fairly new research methodology that allows an individual or team do further inquiry on essential questions or "wonderings" (Dana, 2010) about their everyday jobs and duties.  The plan lets the practitioner do research on a topic that is relevant to their specific job and their specific needs.  It follows a basic question, implement change, collect and analyze data, reflect on the data and then repeat set-up. So it is more of a cycle of inquiry and implementation with data collection and reflection mixed in rather than a cookbook set of plans.  The advantage of action research over traditional research it is makes the inquirer an integral part of the research process instead of an outside expert simply telling practitioners what to do without an in depth knowledge of the true problem the practitioner truly faces.

While the term action research is new to my vocabulary, its methodology is not.  “… [A]ction research is an extension of ‘good teaching’. In effect, this process validates teachers’ effective practices in the classroom.” (Ringler, 2007) Many teachers perform action research on a small scale everyday as they assess their students and work to create lesson plans that fit the needs of the students sitting in the class now and not present a previously prepared generic PowerPoint given out with a book adoption. From what I now understand about action research, it is merely working to improve an individual’s skill set through a process of inquiry, implementation and reflection and repeating as necessary. The old lather, rinse and repeat routine put to a more formal setting.

Dana, N. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as an Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Ringler, M. (2007). Action Research an Effective Instructional Leadership Skill for Future Public School Leaders AASA Journal of Scholarship and Action, 4(1), 27-37.

Mastering Teachnology through Action Research

Welcome to the Action Research section of my blog.  Here you will find information on the action research plan I am undertaking as part of my M.ED in Technology Education program.

Week 5 - Web Conference Reflection

I logged into the web conference on Tuesday to hopefully get some clarification on the Internship Plan and Principals Competencies Chart that were due this week. I was a little lost on what we were supposed to be choosing for activities.

After listening to the conference, I did learn that you could use activities from the internship plan again on the competencies chart.  This was nice to know.  I also saw a few examples of activities that we could put down.  This was very helpful. 

The assignment this week was a very stressful one for me.  Choosing 18 months’ worth of activities for jobs I wasn’t sure about was a hard thing to do.  I am still not sure I know exactly what I should be putting down, but I will do my best and hopefully I will get some feedback if I didn’t choose the right kinds of activities.

EDLD 5306 – Concepts of Educational Technology Reflection

For the past year I have been thinking about going back to school to get my Master’s Degree but I was stuck with not knowing which one to do and stuck in the ‘change is hard’ mindset. An email from Lamar University showed up on a day that I was particularly ready for a change and I decided to follow through to see what they had to offer.  I saw a degree plan that was connected to technology and since that is what I really love I jumped on board.  The time from idea to reality and the class beginning was very short so I never really looked closely at what the degree offered beyond the technology component. I was surprised to find out that the leadership part of the degree title actually meant I would also be getting training that would allow me to take the Principal Certification exam at the end of the program. This was unexpected.

As I started the first class, Concepts of Educational Technology, I really hadn’t thought much about what the class would be about.  I figured we would be learning about technology and why we should teach it in school and I was hoping to learn more about how to use it in the classroom. I was just getting back from a weeklong trip and two days after the class officially started and was leaving in five days for the Thanksgiving Holiday break.  I was so busy just trying to get books ordered and learning how to login to the courseware and figure out what was due that I never had the chance to reflect on what the course would provide for me as a teacher.  My main goal was to survive.  Six kids, a full time teaching job, two major holidays, family, out of town trips, camping, the end of the semester at school, and now 8 or more readings, videos, reflections, self-assessments, web conferences, writing assignments, internships (that I didn’t realize started NOW), principal competencies, mentors, blogs, wikis, books to read, and deadlines to meet all kept me focused on the right now and what had to be done.

It has all been a whirlwind.  I am not sure I have had time yet to even realize everything I have achieved over the past couple of months. I have gone from just thinking about getting a Master’s to having finished my first course. I have done and dealt with all those things listed above and more.  I have done it, and I have done (at least in my opinion) a good job at it.  I completed every assignment.  I completed them by the date they were due and I received high grades on all of them.

The course did so much more than I ever envisioned.  I was expecting to learn about technology. What I did learn about was the use of technology in the classroom but not so much here’s how you do it but more here is the theory about why you should do it in the classroom. Which when you think about it is a great place to start.  The why is a good thing to know because it helps you improve the implementation of technology when it comes down to making the choices of what technology to use in the class setting.

I believe these concepts are and will be relevant to the work I am doing now and the work I would like to do in the future. Like I mentioned earlier, I love technology. I use it every day in my life and while teaching.  But it is just me using it.  I want to use technology in the classroom.  I want to use it as a tool to connect with students and have them use it as a tool to learn and connect with the content and with me. 

So while I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I started the class, I was surprised at the amount of work I was able to accomplish.  I learned a lot about what I am able to get done in a week.  I also learned some new things about technology.  I had never done a wiki before so it was nice to learn what a wiki is and how it compares to a blog.  I can see myself using a wiki in my job and with my classes.  This is what I was expecting to learn, more about technology and how to use it in the classroom.  The leadership portion of the class was more of a surprise to me.  This part of the class is going to stretch my comfort level and make me change some of my attitudes.  This is probably a good thing.

So I look forward to the next 11 classes and 18 months of course work.  It was a rough start in many ways but I learned a little about leadership, technology and even more about myself so hopefully the rest of the program will flow along smoothly and before you know it I will be accepting my Master’s degree.

Web Conference Reflection - Week 2 (Required)

Today I attended the required web conference for my EDLD 5306 Concepts of Educational Technology course. It is the second time I have attended a web conference for the Master’s Degree I am working towards.

This time I thought the conference was much more valuable in the content that was presented. I understand the first conference I logged into was everyone’s first try at attending a web conference so it was more about learning how to get logged in and less about course content.

There were several items mentioned in today’s conference that I did not know before.  One was the fact about being exempt from the GRE testing if you had a 3.0 or better in your undergrad courses.  I think I did so I am excited about that.  I was also glad to hear about the certifications possible after this program and the accreditations that were attached.

I am a little nervous about the leadership end and the internship.  I am good at what I do, but part of that is doing a lot on my own.  Collaborating and working in groups and leading teams are not my strong points and therefore will be an area that I will have to work on.

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