Reflections and Thoughts About the Future

When I purchased the APA book before the class started, I was sure this class was going to be one where I was going to have to write a paper about something I researched.  I wasn’t afraid of this idea, but I didn’t like the formality of it.  Much to my surprise, this course was something entirely different. This approach to research is a much more realistic way to gather practical information.   The things I learned where the things that I could take away with me to use in my own practice of teaching.  A little light when off when I read in our text that action research can be used with teachers and their PLCs. In my PLC, we often struggle because there is just so much to cover and we never know where to focus.  At the end of last school year, I attended the School Improvement Plan Committee meeting where we discussed what our objective would be for the next year, which is writing. Being an English teacher, this gave me the perfect opportunity to take this to my PLC and present my idea of action research to them.  They all agreed, and were excited about the different approach we would take this year. Of course, we still have to cover all the material that we would have covered last year—but because our question for our research is deals with practices within the classroom and how they effect writing, we can incorporate everything we do already, just making sure that we always go back and incorporate some form of writing. I am very interested also on what kinds of things you can do to motivate your staff when you are an instructional leader. I think that instructional leaders can use action research to their benefit here, when working with staff members. Instead of trying to raise scores with “blanket” professional development that nobody cares about and nobody does, an instructional leader could do the following: present staff with the information (like, “this is where we have a deficiency”), then he could form groups—maybe the deficiency is in Math. Then, he could ask each group, “what kinds of things can your group do to help us with this deficiency?” It would be up the group to research, experiment, reflect and decide what they wanted to do to help. This way, it gives the teachers the autonomy the deserve, and because they are the ones coming up with their own solution, they take ownership over it and are more likely to follow through with enthusiasm. On top of that, it leaves the instructional leader more of a change to explore different ideas with different groups. There will never be ONE thing that works with ALL the diverse groups within a school.  I know this is different from what we have been taught in this class. During a web conference I was told that my question for research was too broad.  But, on the other hand, my site supervisor told me that a more specific question, like “How does the Heart of Texas Writing Project Technique of teaching improve writing?” was way too specific and that I was assuming it was going to be the solution, and that wasn’t research.    I think both ways of thinking have merit and I can see why being specific works to our benefit—we only have so much time.  But I can also see why having an open-ended question like “how can we improve writing scores?” can also be a benefit when approaching a more diverse group—which, as an instructional leader, we are faced with more often than not.  Like I said, as an English teacher, I always think that literacy based skills are going to be the ones that are the solution to anything.  But what that looks like in Biology could be entirely different than what it looks like it Geometry or US History.  I am very much open to this idea and I am even trying to think if there is a way I can use it with my students.  I think the most important aspect of this entire process is the reflection process, and this can be used with my students.  I used it while I taught summer school. I had a class of writers who failed the writing EOC. The first thing I asked them to write about was why they were in summer school and what they wanted to improve upon.  After a week of class, I asked them to look back at the first journal and assess whether or not they had done anything in class (or on their own) that helped them move towards their goal.  We did this throughout the entire 3 weeks and I think it helped for many reasons. It helped keep them on track and goal orientated. They also were more focused on their area of weakness.  The real question now is whether or not it helped them on the test. I am curious to find out whether or not this self-reflection helped them slow down and focus on their areas of weakness on the test (and hopefully improve in that area). I was having a hard time trying to use what I had researched and learned in my Heart of Texas Writing class with my action research project and the planning of it.  It was suggested on my blog that students also could blog, and that could be used as an electronic journal.  Though I like this idea, I don’t know that it’s practical, nor do I think that my students should be writing everything about themselves on a public blog via the internet, where anyone in the world could read it. I would have for that to have some negative effect later. What I could use the blog for though, could be a reflective blog where students can track their growth and achievements when it comes to writing.