ELED 5301 Week 3 Reflection

This week I put my action research plan on paper.  This has been an awesome experience getting this project put together.  I cannot wait until I can implement the plan and begin gathering data from it.  The project has had a few changes that have helped me to pinpoint the exact project that I wanted to learn more about.  Using technology in the classroom has always been a passion of mine.  I am excited to see the result from my low socioeconomic students.  I know blogging can be used for so much, I want to see how it can be use as a tool for learning.

Action Research Plan for EDLD 5301

Action Research Plan
Goal: To use blogging to increase communication skills of students of low socioeconomic status across different ethnic backgrounds, thus increase their scores on standardized writing tests.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Identify 6 to 10 student with low socioeconomic backgrounds to assist in research project.	Donna McManus Angelee Morales Brett Murrey	August 2012	School documentation for free or reduced lunches.	Use the information from the school to determine students who have a low SES from different cultural backgrounds.
2. Obtain students' authentic writing samples for baseline evaluation.	Brett Murrey Students	September 2012	Spreadsheet for tracking the student's communication effectiveness.	Ensure that enough data has been collected to judge the effectiveness of student communications.
3. Setup blogging account for students and begin having them blog twice a week. The students will blog once for what we have learned in class. The second post will be a student's choice.	Brett Murrey Students	September – December 2012	Edublogs.com Create log for tracking when students are accessing the blog site.	Monitoring postings from the students every week and provide written response to their responses.
4. Obtain students' authentic writing samples for mid-year evaluation.	Brett Murrey Students	January 2013	Spreadsheet for tracking the student's communication effectiveness.	Compare baseline data to mid-year data.

 

 

Action Research Plan
Goal: To use blogging to increase communication skills of students of low socioeconomic status across different ethnic backgrounds, thus increase their scores on standardized writing tests.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
5. Continue with students' blogging a minimum of twice a week. Encourage students to post comments to peers.	Brett Murrey Students	January - April 2013	Use log for tracking when students are accessing the blog site.	Students should become more comfortable with discussing topics through blogging.
6. Obtain students' authentic writing samples for end of the year evaluation.	Brett Murrey Students	April – May 2013	Spreadsheet for tracking the student's communication effectiveness.	Compare mid-year data to end of the year data.
7. Obtain data from action plan data and standardized writing test data to evaluate the effectiveness of students communication with the use of blogging.	Brett Murrey Students	April – May 2013	Spreadsheet for tracking the student's communication effectiveness and standardized writing test scores from the previous year and present year.	Compare data from similar students from the previous year's standardized writing test scores with current standardized writing test scores.
8. Compile all data into the action research plan and create an informal oral presentation of the results.	Brett Murrey Donna McManus Angelee Morales Cynthia Pense	May 2013	Baseline data Mid-year data End of year data STAAR Writing Scores	Using all data collected and analyze to determine if the use blogging to increase low SES student communication skills was successful.

ELED 5301/ Week 2 Reflection

This week, I have learned how important action research is to administrators.  Administrators need to take time to research different areas on their campuses to insure student achievement.  The videos help me see the importance of action research in my own environment.  With the ever changing environment of education, we must continually find different ways to engage our learners.  By using action research, I can help support the needs of my students in the classroom more effectively.

EDLD 5311 Course Reflections

As I started the first class towards my Master's degree, Concepts of Educational Technology, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had been putting off going back to school for a while, so I was really just hoping I would be able to make it through the first course.  While working as a full time teacher, I was nervous about the time the course work would require.  As each week passed, my fears eased a little bit and I adjusted to the assignments, deadlines, and requirements of this course work.  The occasional thought that this was just too much to handle still enters my mind from time to time.  With the technology aspect of the course, I expected to learn more about technology and digital tools, and how to use them in an educational setting.  I gained experience by using many different tools, such as blogs, wikis, wordle, and animoto to communicate information with others.

The experiences that I have obtained from this course are relevant to the work that I do as a fourth grade teacher.  Being a classroom teacher, I have incorporated many of the tools that I used in this course into my classroom and into my lesson planning. I have also shared many ideas and suggestions with colleagues on my campus.  Learning about our campus technology ratings and the Star chart has given me insight into the technological areas that need to be addressed on our campus. The weekly readings provided information and knowledge about ethics, safety and copyright laws, which I have used when teaching my classroom students about Internet safety and also when creating assignments.  I have made strides to find a balance between teaching, family, and school over the past five weeks.  The course work has forced me to organize my time wisely, and make adjustments to meet all of the requirements of my time. 

I do not believe that there were any specific outcomes that I did not achieve upon completion of this course.  I accomplished what I set out to achieve when I began the course, to gain more knowledge about technology, technology assessments, and digital tools, and their use in an educational setting.  I know that I will probably need to go back periodically and review the weekly assignments, just to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the material covered in this course.  I also need to refresh my knowledge so that I can be confident when discussing and sharing the information I learned with other individuals and groups.  This course challenged me to continually improve my use of technology.  With using webcams, group video chats, and other forms of communication, I have increased my sense of comfort with using these different tools.  This was one of my personal goals during this course. 

I was successful in completing the assignments and meeting the required deadlines. To be honest, when I looked at the first week’s assignment, I was worried that I would have trouble finishing in the required time frame. There were a lot of requirements contained in the written assignments, but I discovered that for me it was all about organization and scheduling my time wisely. Once I realized that I was capable of doing the work, I was able to focus on creating a schedule that would blend my work load and classwork. Taking a class online is quite a bit different that taking a course on a college campus, and requires a lot of self motivation. As far as actual assignments, I found I enjoyed creating both the blog and the wiki, and creating the animoto video about myself.  I have use the animoto site to create other videos to show to people.

I have learned quite a bit from this course, both about myself and about my abilities.  I have learned that I have more confidence in myself then I thought I did to take on something new.  I have also discovered leadership qualities that I did not know that I had.   I have stepped outside of my comfort zone in a few situations.   I took the first steps to discovering the possibility of becoming a principal or some other form of administrator.  There have been several colleagues that have asked me when I would pursue this leadership role.  I now have an answer for them now.  I have reassured my technological abilities and found areas for growth.  I really need to take ownership of what I know and enjoy sharing my knowledge with others.  I also need to ask specific questions about technological matters that I do not know about, so that I am always increasing my knowledge.