Changes for the best

This year I wanted to make sure that I step out of my comfort zone and embrace any new changes by doing all I can to help with my students. For I decided that I was going to be the team leader for the 5^th grade and join a group on campus that helps with supporting the school, which was the Safety Crisis team. This allows me to take leadership roles and become more active on campus because I am forced to do more than my daily duties. I take ownership on how the 5^th grade team functions and what role we take in adopting any new changes. In addition, we have spent time to analyzed last year’s data to focus on how to fill in the gaps and make sure that the students are on their right levels for learning. This year I want to make sure that each child receives all the support they need especially since I have a few bilingual students need additional support throughout class. Throughout this course, I have had the choice to see how important outside community support is along with parental support.

Action Research Course

During this course, I learned that your action research should be practical. In that sense that the data or results should be something useful to everyone participating in the action research. I want to focus on implementing new changes that may occur from the results of the action research because change is something difficult to implement in certain settings. By looking at how my principal apply changes on campus and becoming more hands on with more campus task will increase my knowledge  in certain areas. It will also allow me to become more familiar with particular tasks.

Improving student performance using current district materials

SCHOOL VISION: School Improvement Project to increase student performance for STAAR

GOAL:  To increase academic performance by using district educational plans to improve results

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmarks/ ASSESSMENT	Revisions to SIP/PIP based on monitoring and assessments
Create a general breakdown of policy and educational plan	Review board policy and assess degree of compliance with board policy and educational plan.	Board Policy and Education Plan	Teachers, Assistant Principal and Principal	1st week prior to school starting	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Break curriculum in 9 weeks and analyze material needing to be covered in each 9 weeks.	Discuss curriculum and assessment of student achievement with administrators and faculty.	Austin ISD Curriculum and District assessment	Teachers, Assistant Principal and Principal	1st week of school starting	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Analyze data and chart problem areas	Evaluate last year short cycle results and data.	Last year scores and data	Teachers, Assistant Principal and Principal	2nd week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Lesson plans should be created aligned with the curriculum	Team planning among grade level teachers (3rd – 5th)	Austin Curriculum	Teachers	3rd week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Student performance should be monitored	Lesson plans to be implemented into the classroom	Teacher created materials and lesson plans	Teachers and students	4th week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Student performance should be monitored	Teachers work on creating engaging activities for students	Teacher created materials and lesson plans	Teachers and students	5th week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Potential issues should be noted and analyzed to be fixed	Teachers discuss how students are grasping the information and discuss how to fix or reteach material	Student’s data and performance	Teachers	6th week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Teacher is able to address student needs based off of monitoring	Teacher to analyze students data and continue to monitor student performance	Student’s data and performance	Teachers and students	7th week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment
Teacher preps students for taking a timed test and ensure students are ready for assessment	Prepare students to practice taking short cycle assessment to prep them for STAAR.	Test prep materials, Review materials	Teachers and students	8th week of school	AISD Short Cycle 9th week assessment

Action Research Reflection

Throughout this week, I have noticed the importance of action research in terms of district roles. For example, principal, superintendent, and director of research use action research in many different ways. Action research should be used within the classroom by teachers and the data should be practical.

Blog Importance

Educational leaders can use blogs to post ideas/concerns that they may face in their school/classroom and by using a blog they are able to get other individuals’ opinions.

Action Research in the Classroom

Action research is the tool used by many principals in order to help support and implement change. This technique was first used by educators to help teachers document and assist with the principal’s choice in making a critical decision that may needed additional evidence or results before being agreed upon.  It’s the research that is performed by teachers or other facilitators in order to prove their theory.  For example, the documentation or notes that the teacher states, principals use these notes to prove their claim and it’s aligned with the principal’s recommendations.  Action research promotes engagement and professional development.  They can be very beneficial for the simple reason they are used by many teachers in order to evaluate change or create methods in which need to be changed. Many programs use action plans to help with professional development of school principals. Many teachers use action research or classroom research to make notes of what currently happening and how they can improve that current situation. This allows them to collaborate with other teachers or faculty to solve some of their issues/concerns.  Last but not least, action research is the collecting of data, working with others, and working on improvements to help gain insight on how to fix or improve a certain situation or problem.