The tentative
way that I will share the progress and process of my action research project
with my campus will be to keep them informed during weekly departmental
meetings held during the elective teacher planning period. This period will give the Spanish teacher and
the CATE department a chance to debrief with the campus principal and the AYP
coordinator about their individual progress for each student they are
assisting. The outcome will be monitored
and progress will be tracked and shared with the tutors and the core teachers
during the weekly campus meetings held on Tuesday. The background of my research will be shared
this week to inform all teachers of the students that I will be assisting and
how I would like a copy of their lesson plans so that I can implement the same
objectives in my lessons as well. Any
exit level student that did not successfully pass TAKS and are assigned to a
Spanish I, II, III or Business Information Management or Touch Systems Data
Entry Course will hopefully be working simultaneously with all of their
teachers to pass the test. Teachers
will receive a list of all exit level students that is applicable for
assistance from Eduphoria. Each teacher
will be reminded that they too have access to this data and should work
diligently to get our test scores up. Any recommendations will be discussed with the
AYP Coordinator, the Campus Principal, the SBDM (Site Based Decision Making) Committee,
the OHI (Organizational Health Inventory) Committee, the PBMAS/LEA (Performance
Based Monitoring Analysis) Committee, or the NCLB (No Child Left Behind/SIRC
Restructuring Committee for further review.
In addition, the tentative way that I will share the progress with my
EDLD classmates is via blog posting and through future discussion question
postings during class.
What I have learned this week is that action research is not supposed to be easy. The research will reveal that we need to continue more research (evolve). Most research conducted during this study will take majority of our school year to resolve because there are no quick-fixes in education. Action research requires time, patience, and dedication toward the end result. In this case, my end result is why I teach; to get my students across that stage!
LaKesha, I admire your dedication to your students. Looks like you are well on your way with your project. With the number of people you have to work with in various departments, are you encountering any resistance? During this project we have to keep up with a lot of data, how are you tracking the data and keeping up with what each student is doing? You are right, action research is not easy and very time consuming, but I'm just praying the end result will be informative.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to following your blog and would also like to invite you to follow my blog and share your comments. Good luck and continue to pushing hard to get your students across that stage!!
My campus is tough and I have been there so long that the responsibilities have taken over the mission. I use to be the one that would get "volunsurrendered" for EVERYTHING because I knew how to do a lot, this year, I pulled back. Its too much. TAKS has been my baby since I was the TAKS Coordinator and kindly resigned from that a couple of years ago. I have always felt that the students just slipped through our fingers (since that is the way that they came to us and now that we have an AYP Coordinator that didn't quit within the first year, I can assist him as much as I can. The data is HUGE and the responsibility is greater. I am challenged to see what can be done on my part to get the few students that I have known there 5 years ago, across the stage before I can move forward. Keep your fingers crossed and know that I"m extra stressed but refuse to give up. (smile)
DeleteThere are a lot of people involved your research plan. Is there anyway you can reward the teachers for their assistance or have administration demand their assistance by use of their authority?
ReplyDeleteActually, the people that I have involved in my action research plan are those that sit on a school committee so we are working toward the same goal which is Campus Improvement. Because of so much red tape, our principal has a way to reward us for patience and committment often. (just no money, lol) The campus is small but the issues are huge. Our turnover rate is so extremely huge because of all the problems we encounter from student issues. Its challenging but I knew what I was getting myself into by taking on TAKS as an action research. Its a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. (LOL)
DeleteThanks for the feedback :)