Loveless's Action Research Blog

Dr. Abernathy web confernce

2011-03-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

During the web confernce we discussed technology in the classroom and how it can be used. We shared ideas with other collegues about how each one uses technology. Dr. Abernathy informed us about Web 2.0, Wiki Blogs, Goolge Docs, ETC. It was very helpful information and a great idea to share our ideas with one another. I believe a lot of peoples concerns were that many schools block blog sites and others that would be helpful to the teachers and to the students. Some districts allow You Tube and some do not. The alternative that we can use is Teacher Tube. There are many resources out on the web that would be benifial to our students and staff.

Week 4

2011-03-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

Roles and Responsibilities:
• Superintendent: ensures highly qualified staff for employment. Oversees the entire district. Keeps budgets in order.
• Assistant Superintendent: ensures funding for curriculum and technology initiatives.
• Curriculum Coordinator: ensures required TEKS for instruction and technology are integrated into curriculum.
• Principal: coordinates with Instructional Technology Coordinator to provide proper equipment; provides evaluation of technology usage in the classroom as part of PDAS; ensures integration of technology into weekly lesson plans.
• Instructional Technology Coordinator: organizes and evaluates STaR Chart ; develops technology inservice training; available for day to day instructional support; completes ERATE Grant.
• Campus Technology Representative: available for day to day support; assists with STaR Chart; assists with major inservice days
• Teachers: teach state required TEKS and curriculum; integrate problem solving skills into technology; observe and evaluate student progress.

Professional Development Action Plan

Skills and needs to be addressed with professional development:

• Teachers will be trained on new equipment such as:
Interactive Whiteboards
Document cameras
Interactive Wireless Tablets
Ceiling Mounted Projectors

• Professional Developments will be done in smaller groups in more of instead of larger sessions for better implementation of instruction.

• Continuing professional development and training will be provided to ensure teachers have the training needed to implement technology in the classroom.

Gathering and Analysis of Data:

• Utilize STaR Chart to address areas and offer training to teachers to benefit teachers to engage students.

• Inform teachers on the importance of the STaR Chart and the need to provide and accurate information

• Provide a comprehensive evaluation after each professional development to provide an opportunity for teachers to make suggestions for future sessions.

• Review evaluations at the end of each professional development and determine what methods or subjects are beneficial to teachers.

Integration of Technology

• Technology will be implemented according to the campus and district improvement plans, the local and state technology plans.

• Teachers will use the training learned in professional development to instruct students according to the TEKS aligned curriculum.

• Teachers will implement technology in the classroom.

• Students will have access to and use technology in the classroom to complete assignments and projects.

Evaluation Plan

• Teachers will be required to complete professional development evaluation sheets.

• Teachers will be allowed to ask questions at the end of the session.

• Professional development will be focused on what teachers want to learn and what teachers want to focus on.

• Teachers will continue to learn through ongoing professional development.

• Students will be evaluated to insure that the technology TEKS required are being met.

Texas STaR Chart Power Point

2011-03-03T15:00:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Blog powerpoint

View more presentations from tennessee_broncos.

Blog # 2

2011-03-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

The Long Range-Plan for Technology 2006-2020 is the idea to incorporate technology into the classroom based on the notion that the world revolves around technology. The plan includes recommendations to improve classroom teaching that would push technology to the forefront. This plan involves recommendations made to SBEC, Service Centers, Teachers, Districts, ETC; that outlines how we can change the environment of the school based on technology. The plan talks about what 8th graders should know based on what they learn in the classroom setting about technology. The plan talks about requiring schools to carry certain subjects in technology to improve students’ skills. The plan outlines the importance of teachers being trained properly on how to use technology and ways to present the technology to students. The importance of technology in the class room is very vital in the world today. With more technology coming out and with more students having access to the technology, teachers need to be aware of the shifting change. TV’s, IPods, computers, and more are apart of every day life in our young students today. What once was considered to be high class such as a cell phone is just the norm for a 6th grader. The more we can use technology in the classroom the better we can prepare out students for the real world. Most jobs that you apply for you apply online. Those are the skills student needs these days. Checking email is a vital communication tool in the workforce today. Again, this plan outlines the importance of technology in the world today and the importance of bringing into the classroom for our students to use and learn.

Blog 3 Post

2011-03-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

The NETP presented five goals with recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders in our educational system that addresses learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan also indentifies far reaching grand challenge problems that should be funded and coordinated at a national level. I would like to review and discuss the five goals outlined by NETP and give you some thought on teach of these.

Learning: It just simply says that all learners will be entitled to and engaging and empowered learning experience both inside and outside the classroom environment that will prepare the students to be active participants in our globally network society.
In order to reach that goal we need to develop and revise standards that fit the 21st century. We need to include technology in our plans. Use advances in our science and technology. For example at my district we started a robotics class. This is a great class that challenges the students and uses technology to do so. We compete in several robotic events against other schools, we break down different electronics to build other objects, and we familiarize students with engineering as a career and a path for later in the future.

Assessment: We need to use the technology to assess students. We also need to be using more data to break down the objectives in which the students are low in. The recommendations provided suggest we need a better system to assess our students besides just testing. We use TMSDS (Texas Math and Science Diagnostic System) in which students place their benchmark answers in the computer system and it atomically gives feed back on what their percentage rate was, what objectives they were low in, and what areas that can improve on. This system is great for feedback in that it lets us know what objective each student is low in. Of course this goes back to the old way that a test determines what they know and do not know. I think there can be other ways to give feedback on what students know and this section is saying we need to come up with other ways to do so.

Teaching: This section just states that teachers will be supported individually and in groups by technology that will link them to data, content, resources, ETC. We have gone far with the technology we have. We have a website called Teacher Tube where you can upload lessons for other teachers to view. We have blogs that teachers can follow to get lesson plan ideas and communicate with other teachers. As we get more complex with technology the more there is to offer and more places to get help. I believe this is an important factor in teacher as it is always helpful to have someone to turn to. With technology tools so readily available you are bound to find something out there.

Infrastructure: All students and teachers will have access to infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. I believe this is possible through the schools as we offer a lot of time and resource for technology for the students. I believe the thing that is hard is to promise that access to students outside of the school environment. We have a lot of students that have no access to a computer or internet once they leave the school. I know we offer free internet at the public library, but still many students have no way of getting there.

Productivity: Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff. I believe any change you make at a district level must be for the students but you also have to keep in mind time, money, and staff. With anything there are pros and cons to everything. I believe this is what this section is talking about. It has to be supported by all and make sense for the district.

Blog 1 Posting

2011-03-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

I chose to write about Educator Preparation and Development for several reasons. This section talks about the importance of making sure our educators in the classroom are well prepared to teach students technology and to make sure the teachers know how to use technology. Teachers in today’s classes have been teaching for an average of 15-20 years at our district. What that tells me is that a lot of teachers do not have experience in the classroom with certain technological advance that we have today and have not been around the technology our students are use to. I am considered a young teacher (27 years old) and did not get my first cell phone until I was in college. These days, I see 4th and 5th grade students with cell phones. Students know how to use a computer to do research, power points, chat, type correctly, ETC; when many teachers can not perform simple task like check email on computers. We have to build up our teacher’s knowledge in technology. In our district we are required to keep a grade book via the internet on computer. This allows the students grade to be uploaded nightly and viewed by the parents. Many teachers still struggle with this task.
We as schools send 2-3 teachers from each campus to learn from the service center on how to use these technological advances and then expect those teachers to teach fellow teachers how to use them when they have only had a couple hours of experience. I believe if we plan on doing that, we have to provide more proper and solid training on those resources. We as a district can provide all the technology we want, but without proper training and guidance we might as well not try at all. When we have teacher in service, a lot of our people training have little or no experience in what they are presenting. I was asked last year about a day before the training to do a presentation. Now luckily I had previous experience and I knew what I was talking about, but a lot of trainings I have been to at my school the person could not answer simple questions about the tools they were using.
In my belief, every teacher needs to go through a technology program in order to teach. I believe it needs to include: Power Point, Excel, Email, Grade viewer, Navigation to School Website, ETC. All these are important skills.
On one hand it is important that you know how to use tools to help your teaching, but it is another thing on how to present it to the students and include it in your classroom to benefit your students. If you have a piece of equipment you use and you do not let the students interact with that resource you are doing them a disfavor. You need to let the students explore and use technology if they haven’t already because right now that is what most jobs require. A lot of the jobs want you to list the experience you have in computer or software you have used. It is important for these students that you are teaching to be able to navigate just as well as the teacher and be able to use and interact with the technology in the classroom setting. It might be their only time to use technology outside of the home.

Reflecting Thoughts

2010-08-13T07:56:00.001-07:00

I believe this course has had a great impact on how I view research projects. Before this class, I really had no need to conduct a research or how to even present my findings and really understand why the question was the most important part of action research.
It is clear to me that action research is needed and is an important part of helping a school based on data and findings for one particular area of interest. The research needs to be beneficial, meaningful, logical, and have an impact on others.
The first week of this class allowed us to get our minds thinking about what is action research, the second week we discussed the purpose of our research, and the third week we began to brain storm what we wanted to research over. In watching the video in week three with Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins discussed the importance of the research topic we chose to be meaningful. If it was not meaningful, then more than likely we would get bored, off topic, and/or not give it our all during the research phase. I totally agree with what they both said during the lectures. When choosing my topic, I decided to go with safety at the school because of experiences I have seen at the school and continue to see at school. I also think that it will have a great impact on our school when I have concluded my research, analyze my data, and present it to whomever.
The assignment for creating an action plan was very helpful. It made me aware of what activities need to be done when. Without a time frame and knowing what areas I need to cover, I could have the chance of not finishing on time to present my information or to have a chance to put my actions into motion for the 2011-2012 school year.
I also found discussion boards and blogs very helpful during the past few weeks. I mention in my action plan that I wanted to present my findings to the school board when I have completed my work. One of my fellow students suggests I might approach the Campus Improvement Plan Committee first before I go straight to the school board. I thought this was a great idea. If I go to the CIP first, they can give me some feedback into maybe what I need to focus on, how I should present it, and other things to reach the school board to the best of my ability.
There are many reasons why to conduct an action research project. There are many variables to conduct research on throughout a school. What matters most is that you choose a topic that will impact your campus the most and what you believe in the most. This is why I chose safety at school. All students should have the right to feel safe at our schools. Many students do not even have that privilege at home and look to school as a safe outlet. With things that are going on in the world today, you can never under estimate what could happen. You have to be on guard at all times. When my daughter starts school, I want to make sure the most advanced and innovative safety measures are in place, would not you? I look forward to when my research comes to an end and I can present my findings. I hope in the long run that I can be a leader in the safety fore front for schools and hope to have certain measures in place.

Research Action Plan Staying the Same

2010-08-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

I met with my site supervisor and we went over my research action plan. We thought it was a great plan and shared the same vision. We did not make any revisions. I look forward to researching this topic and posting my findings to all my fellow students to use.

School Vision:

Goal: Improve the overall safety for students at our campus.

OUTCOMES ACTIVITIES RESEARCH
RESOURCE
TOOLS
NEEDED RESPONSIBILTY
TO ADDRESS
ACTIVITIES TIME LINE BENCH MARK/
ASSESSMENT REVISIONS TO SIP/PIP
BASED ON
MONTORING
AND
ASSESSMENT

Find out the state mandated safety protocols for school districts. Research the laws required by the state that the school must follow to meet safety guidelines. Internet.
Eric Loveless September 2010 Make checklist of protocols that are required by state. Make a booklet with the safety guidelines to pass out to all teachers after finding all safety protocols required by the state.
Find a safer system to implement in order for parents to check students in and out. Research different methods in place at other schools for checking out students.
Research software programs that can be used to keep up with visitors/guest at the school Internet.

Other district safety protocols.
Eric Loveless October 2010 Present report showing findings of various systems. After gather information and reporting the next step I would implement is to see what it would take to get the system in our school district.
Determine if the parents/students feel there are enough safety guidelines in proper use at our campus. Survey the parents asking questions about the safety protocols at our campus. Parents Eric Loveless October 2010 Analyze survey answers. Make chart to display findings based on parents’ answers. After all findings have been implemented resurvey the parents and students and ask how they feel if the safety measures have improved.
Determine if our faculty is meeting all the required guidelines set by the sate and if not what measures need to be taken to insure they do. Survey the teachers on weather or not they know the proper protocols for school safety.

After review the state guidelines, walk around and do a visual check on weather or not the campus meets those requirements. Self
Faculty Eric Loveless

Middle School Faculty October 2010 Have a spread sheet from excel with a checklist of safety issues. After making the booklet with safety protocols, meet with faculty and pass out booklets and review the safety protocols. Answer any questions or concerns about the safety guidelines.
Determine the best possible layout for our campus to insure that both parents, students, and visitors know where the office is to check in. Review the blueprint or layout of our campus. Determine the best solution to help make it easier and safer to find the main office. Layout of school campus.

Eric Loveless

Maintenance
Office November 2010 Propose idea of what might be the best setup for our campus. Make blue prints to present to the board.
Determine what doors on campus need to be locked and when they need to locked. Count the different number of entry and exit doors for the campus. Determine when they are locked and when they are open. Why are they like this and determine what is the reasoning. Principal

Janitor Eric Loveless

Principal

Janitor November 2010 Check doors daily for a certain period of time. Make a list of check times and which doors are locked and are not and the reasoning behind it. After verifying which doors are locked and open, determine who should have access to those doors and when. The reasoning for this is to determine if any unwanted visitors may be able to get in undetected from the front office. If so, think of a plan of action to cut down on the situation.
Find an alternate solution to the cafeteria having only one way in and out. Have a plan ready for a disaster. Review the cafeteria layout.
Determine with your principal a plan for action in case of an emergency. What is an alternate solution? Principal

Cafeteria Staff

Layout of cafeteria Eric Loveless January 2011 Draw up a new layout for a cafeteria. List the reason why the old layout is unsafe and why the new layout would benefit. After presenting the layout, see if it would benefit the safety of the campus and look into a way to implement new layout.

Action Research Plan

2010-07-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

The action research topic I have chosen to conduct deals with safety at our campus. How can we insure the safety of our students at Stone Middle School? I have picked this topic for several reasons. We all know that school should be a safe haven for all the students. Even when a child does not feel safe in his/her own home, they should always feel safe and welcomed at their school.
When I started working for our campus 4 years ago, I was required to work lunch room duty. It was at this time that safety concerns arose. When you walk into our cafeteria you have four doors. Two double doors on each side of the cafeteria. As you walk in, you can either go right for the school lunch or to your left for the “snack” line. When on lunch duty you walk into the cafeteria and stand along the wall to which the doors are on that students come in and out. I began to think about the safety and logic of this issue. There is essentially only one way in and one way out. I thought in my head that if a gun man decided to come in and start shooting that the students and faculty really had no way out except through that person. Which if a fire started? Again the only way out would be through the double doors or to break the windows out. I voiced my concerns to the principal and he did say the setup was built to code when it was built. Another concern I have, along with the other faculty is the layout in which our office location is to where the entry point in to the school is. You main entry to the campus in through doors that lead straight into the gym foyer. Your left which the choice of going left or right. If you’re a student or part of the faculty you would know where to go, but as a visitor or parent there might be confusion. There is a sign that shows the way to the office, but it is still confusing. If you take a left and go through a door you will get to the main office. The main office does not face the hallway though so there for it is hard to keep up with who comes in and out of the campus. We often pass visitors in the hallway who are lost or have not checked in to the main office which is an area of concern. Along with these two issues and many others, this is why I chose to research the safety protocols within our campus.
I plan on using a variety of ways to collect data. Most of this is via survey, while other ways could include walk through and interviews. I believe it is vital to include all stakeholders in this research to insure a thorough check of opinions and a balance of data. I must also view the campus layout and determine the best set up for our campus and the best solution that is valid through my findings.
Once I conclude my findings, I plan on presenting them to the school board. I think it is very important to present your data for a meaningful purpose. When presenting to the board I will make sure I have a very clear and defined outline along with many visual and meaningful presentations. I can use power points, flow charts, and excel spreadsheets to present my findings from the survey. I will make sure that have supporting statements to back up my findings.
After presenting the data I hope that there will be a plan of action to take based on my research. Again, I chose this for the benefit of our campus, our students, and our faculty.

School Vision:

Goal: Improve the overall safety for students at our campus.

OUTCOMES ACTIVITIES RESEARCH
RESOURCE
TOOLS
NEEDED RESPONSIBILTY
TO ADDRESS
ACTIVITIES TIME LINE BENCH MARK/
ASSESSMENT REVISIONS TO SIP/PIP
BASED ON
MONTORING
AND
ASSESSMENT

Find out the state mandated safety protocols for school districts. Research the laws required by the state that the school must follow to meet safety guidelines. Internet.
Eric Loveless September 2010 Make checklist of protocols that are required by state. Make a booklet with the safety guidelines to pass out to all teachers after finding all safety protocols required by the state.
Find a safer system to implement in order for parents to check students in and out. Research different methods in place at other schools for checking out students.
Research software programs that can be used to keep up with visitors/guest at the school Internet.

Other district safety protocols.
Eric Loveless October 2010 Present report showing findings of various systems. After gather information and reporting the next step I would implement is to see what it would take to get the system in our school district.
Determine if the parents/students feel there are enough safety guidelines in proper use at our campus. Survey the parents asking questions about the safety protocols at our campus. Parents Eric Loveless October 2010 Analyze survey answers. Make chart to display findings based on parents’ answers. After all findings have been implemented resurvey the parents and students and ask how they feel if the safety measures have improved.
Determine if our faculty is meeting all the required guidelines set by the sate and if not what measures need to be taken to insure they do. Survey the teachers on weather or not they know the proper protocols for school safety.

After review the state guidelines, walk around and do a visual check on weather or not the campus meets those requirements. Self
Faculty Eric Loveless

Middle School Faculty October 2010 Have a spread sheet from excel with a checklist of safety issues. After making the booklet with safety protocols, meet with faculty and pass out booklets and review the safety protocols. Answer any questions or concerns about the safety guidelines.
Determine the best possible layout for our campus to insure that both parents, students, and visitors know where the office is to check in. Review the blueprint or layout of our campus. Determine the best solution to help make it easier and safer to find the main office. Layout of school campus.

Eric Loveless

Maintenance
Office November 2010 Propose idea of what might be the best setup for our campus. Make blue prints to present to the board.
Determine what doors on campus need to be locked and when they need to locked. Count the different number of entry and exit doors for the campus. Determine when they are locked and when they are open. Why are they like this and determine what is the reasoning. Principal

Janitor Eric Loveless

Principal

Janitor November 2010 Check doors daily for a certain period of time. Make a list of check times and which doors are locked and are not and the reasoning behind it. After verifying which doors are locked and open, determine who should have access to those doors and when. The reasoning for this is to determine if any unwanted visitors may be able to get in undetected from the front office. If so, think of a plan of action to cut down on the situation.
Find an alternate solution to the cafeteria having only one way in and out. Have a plan ready for a disaster. Review the cafeteria layout.
Determine with your principal a plan for action in case of an emergency. What is an alternate solution? Principal

Cafeteria Staff

Layout of cafeteria Eric Loveless January 2011 Draw up a new layout for a cafeteria. List the reason why the old layout is unsafe and why the new layout would benefit. After presenting the layout, see if it would benefit the safety of the campus and look into a way to implement new layout.

Week 2 Action research

2010-07-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

There are many areas in which you can use action research. Action research is design to research a particular area of interest and collect data through your findings. You can use that data to get feedback about certain programs, students, groups, ETC. All though it may seem like a long process, the main focus is to make sure the area you are researching is effective. When choosing a action research project, the project must be ethical, beneficial, logical, and you must remain focused and not stray from your main topic.

Action Research

2010-07-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

Stated in Action Research an Effective Instructional Leardership Skill for Future Pubplic School Leaders: "Action reserach is grounded in scientific inquiry that tackles learning concerns in a case study approach. The steps in action research include indentifying a classroom learning problem, developing and implementing an action reserach plan, collecting and analyzing data, and evlauationg and sharing ideas." (Marjorie C. Ringler, 2007) Based on that, I believe blogs can be used to share ideas. We as teachers love to share our ideas on what works in class and what does not. I believe it would be a great idea for not only teachers to use this method but also adminstrators. I have learned that action research is to pose a question, do the research and reflect, then make improvements on that certian question. Once you find something that works, you need to share your ideas and blogs would be the perfect method.There are a lot of websites out there dedicated to sharing ideas for teachers but not many for adminstrators to share ideas.