Reflection of Course

    I am so grateful this course only dealt with just creating a solid Action Research Plan.  I did not feel overwhelmed at trying to construct the plan and so glad that time is considered and given to complete such a project.  I am very much a Type ‘A’ personality where planning is a necessity and so far, I am very happy as to how these first two courses have been laid out.  This will keep the stress level low once school begins and my job and other responsibilities come into play.
    Blogging was an awesome tool to learn!  This tool has now become a daily use at my disposal as I have created a blog to chronicle my personal life for friends and family to enjoy.  Other students’ blogs and comments were helpful in identifying issues with my Action Research Plan and will continue to be a resource in further courses in this program.  Blogging is a powerful way to communicate our findings, ideas, and experiences.  I have encouraged my site supervisor to follow my blog so that he can be checking in with my project without having to talk with me personally.  My bog will also be a place for others to challenge my research study, so that I can have the best possible outcome.  There is such a push for our students to become 21^st century learners, and blogging is an instrument for me to do the same.    
   The discussion board prompt this week had a reoccurring theme of how much time our action research project will take.  Through the assignments and discussion board postings, I have noticed that many of the teachers in this program are the teachers that go above and beyond in the classroom and their schools.  I think that we are all concerned about how the quality of our teaching, learning, and course work will be affected once school starts and the action research project begins.  Reading the other students’ suggestions on how to handle time and the assignments will be useful as well.  In the last course, I joined the Facebook page for our program and have found that a supportive tool as well.
   Many of the assignments required us to look at other action research studies.  The Dana text was great at providing examples of inquiry questions, studies, and example experiences to provide a starting point in completing my own project.  This past week’s assignment on quality indicators was helpful in how to begin the data collection process.  Indicator 3 on Principal Research Design provided great questions on what and how to consider information and data (Dana, 2009).  I am very concerned with getting started, as I know I would have a hard time designing and putting together the information for my project without the questions this section provided.
    The most insightful information I discovered during this course was from the conversations with my site supervisor.  We discussed how the biggest hurdle I will face with my action research study is our district’s grading policy.  This policy states that students are allowed to turn in work by the last day of the six weeks grading period.  Due dates have become irrelevant at my school and as such most work is turned in the last week of the grading period.  However, unbeknownst to me was the small print in this policy.  If a teacher clearly communicates the due date to parents and students, work must be turned in by that date.  This guideline will be my driving force to find the best strategies to improve grades of frequently absent students.  We also discussed how our poor school morale and weak student-teacher relationships might be a reason behind chronic absences.  This piece of information was identified in our “We Teach/We Learn” surveys this past year.  I will do my best to create a safe and fun learning environment for students in my classroom that might encourage those frequently absent to attend class more often.