EDLD 5326- School and Community Relations

On Sunday, September 9^th, at 6pm, I was a member of Dr. Kay Abernathy and Dr. Steve Jenkin’s Web Conference.  I have worked with both of them in the past during my previous classes.  The web conferences, even though sometimes difficult to attend, are always very beneficial.  There are always questions that are answered for your peers and it gives time to ask questions for the current class and internship as whole.  There are going to be over 100pts in this class with only 15pts being from the midterm.  There will be an ILD training that is given through Lamar online.  This certification is required by many districts to apply for an Athletic Director or Assistant Principal position.  I was also worried about the carryover from my last position to now and how that affects the internship process.  Many people are in similar positions and our concerns were all addressed.  Lamar also offers an online doctoral program that has the same sequence as the masters program.  Each class is 5 weeks and there are no requirements for number of years in administration.  I actually met another RISD employee last week that was going completing the Lamar doctoral program.  There were also many small concerns in regards to midterm and the final exam that were address.  I left the meeting feeling much better about the class on my progress on my internship. 

JJ Pearce HS, Action Research Project

JJ Pearce H.S. English 1- EOC Tutorials
School Vision: Engage, inspire, and empower lifelong learners to lead with integrity and innovation.
Goal: Create a tutorial and pull out program for students that were unsuccessful on the 9th grade English Language Arts STAAR EOC.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Create ELA- EOC Task Force	Principal intern, Administrator, ELA Department Chair, Teaches	08/12/12- 09/07/12	Principal intern, Administrator, ELA Department Chair, Teachers	Does ELA EOC Task Force understand tutorial vision for academic year?
Meet with Tutorial Task Force, administration and teachers on tutorial curriculum	ELA- EOC Task Force, teaching staff, administration	08/27/12-09/27/12	STAAR EOC data, teacher input	How do we use curriculum to unsure success on STAAR EOC retest?
Design Tutorials Schedule based on teacher input, TAKS data, and student failures	ELA- EOC Task Force, teaching staff	08/27/12-09/27/12	STAAR EOC data, teacher input	Can tutorial schedule accommodate assigned students and staff?
Survey administrators, staff, students, and shareholders on tutorials effectiveness	ELA- EOC Task Force must create a survey for all students and staff involved in ELA EOC tutorials.  Then must analyze positive and negative feelings and hoped outcomes on future and past tutorial programs.	08/27/12-09/21/12	Time during SOS/ SOC or other during PLC to ensure active participation in study.	What new information have we learned from survey?
Conduct Staff development	ELA- EOC Task Force will conduct a staff development for ELA staff on tutorials curriculum, design, and implantation	08/27/12- 09/21/12	Staff development time, ELA teachers and administration	Does staff understanding curriculum and implementation of tutorials program?
Conduct walk-through	ELA- EOC Task Force must conduct walk through and record best teaching practices, random moment in times studies during pull-out and tutorial times.	09/13/12- 12/02/2012	Ability to leave designated assignment to review teaching strategies	What new teaching and coaching concepts can be shared with staff for increased student engagement and effective writing practices across all curriculums?
Conduct random moment in time studies	ELA- EOC Task Force will effectively communicate directions and focus of moment in time study to other teachers	09/13/12- 12/02/2012	agreement from administrators to ensure completion of random moment in time study by teaching staff	What new teaching and coaching concepts can be shared with staff for increased student engagement and effective writing practices across all curriculums?
Survey administrators, staff, students, and shareholders on tutorials effectiveness	ELA- EOC Task Force must create a survey for all students and staff.  Then analyze the effectiveness of the focused tutorials program.	12/01/2012- 12/21/2012	Time during SOS/ SOC or other during PLC to ensure active participation in study.	What new information have we learned from survey?
ELA- EOC Task Force semester analysis	Principal intern, Administrator, ELA Department Chair, Teachers	12/01/2012- 12/21/2012	Principal intern, Administrator, ELA Department Chair, Teachers	How has ELA- EOC tutorial curriculum increased student achievement at JJ Pearce?  What changes need to be made in the future?

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

First Week of School

I met with Liz Svadlenak, ELA department chair, on 8/24.  We discussed that there are 8 students re-taking the English 1 EOC on December 3^rd and 4^th.  There are 36 students who did not pass the Reading and Writing exams, 22 who only missed the Writing, and another 23 who only missed the Reading exam.  The district has purchased a specific curriculum by Pearson, but we have not received the materials yet.  We are going to use our SOC time on Wednesdays and Thursday s along with before and after school tutorials. 

New Plan Taking Shape

I met with my campus internship coordinator, Mary Cagle yesterday.   I will be working with Liz Svadlenak an English teacher at JJ Pearce.  We will be designing a focused tutorials program for our 9th and 10th grade students who did not pass the 9th grade EOC for ELA.  The largest portion being those that did not pass the writing section of the test.   They will retake their exam on December 3^rd and 4^th.  I will be meeting with Liz later this week after she meets with the department heads to begin formulating the implementation plan.

New Campus Meeting

I met with my new campus supervisor this week to discuss changes to my internship and action research plans.  My campus supervisor, Mary Cagle, is the assistant principal who oversees the special education department at J.J. Pearce High School.  They are currently making changes to their tutorials and freshman orientation program, Starting Off Strong (SOS).  Mrs. Cagle is going to discuss my possible role with the SOS committee and administration team.  We will meet again before school starts to finalize my plan.  I think a lot of the brainstorming and initial discussions I had at Long will help me to bring new ideas to Pearce.

Change

I have accepted the Head Wrestling Coach/ Social Studies Special Education position at J.J. Pearce High School.  I will miss the great administrators, staff, and especially students at Dan F. Long Middle School and R.L. Turner High School.  I will be taking a break from my action research as the tutorials and pull out program at Pearce are significantly different then at Long.  I have discussed my action research with my new campus principal and I will find out who my new site supervisor is when school starts. I may continue to work on tutorial development or possibly a new action research project.  I will keep you informed.

Week 5- "What have I learned?"

     Action research is significantly different than the research I competed as an undergraduate finance and marketing major.  Traditional research is reading what experts in the field think and then trying to understand how you can use their concepts and ideas to further your understanding.  Action research is the process of inquiry and self-reflection in order to better understand the situation or world around you.  Action research is especially important in the career as an educational administrator.  It can be used to make any part of your school more efficient and effective in order to increase student achievement. 

     I learned that blogs are very effective way to communicate with students, staff, and stakeholders.  Blogs can also be used as an online discussion.  They can be used as an information board, but are extremely effective to show the process of inquiry of a change to our campus.  Administrators can also make blogs open to gain insight from stakeholders to collaborate ideas with others action researchers.  There are many ways that blogs can help gain insight and increase collaboration during the action research process and increase communication in my campus.  I plan to create a blog for my wrestling team and classroom along with my action research project. 

    The administrator interviews were very helpful to understand how others have used action research to increase student achievement on their campuses.  Dr. Timothy Chargios said to never stop learning.  He also spoke about how there are always things that can be done better when we are examining a topic for action research.  As long as the end result will increase student learning, it is a great topic for action research.  This idea was very interesting to me.  All campuses have specific ways of doing things, but if examined further, many times there are ways of doing it that can make a greater impact on our students. 

     The discussion board and peer comments on our blog were extremely helpful in our process of action research.  I was able to see others’ action research process and gain insight to develop my own research plan.  Mrs. Guy and Mrs. Klemen both commented about how I would evaluate my results.   I realized that there might not be a quantitative answer to my action research project.  This took a lot of reflection to answer.  I can, however, by surveying, doing walk-throughs, and group discussions, understand how having focused tutorials can have a positive affect on the staff, campus culture, and our students academic achievement.  I also did not think of including parents’ input.  Based on Mrs. Stephens’ comment, I plan on offering the survey to parents during report card pick up and putting a link on our home page to also receive feedback from our stakeholders.  This process of peer evaluation has helped me to not only analyze my research but also add activities and other opportunities for action research in my internship plan and administration career.  

     My action research plan has been a continued discussion with my site supervisor, who is also my campus principal.  I feel that this has helped me gain respect and helped me to collaborate with our administrative team.  I have been able to gain his insight and include ideas of my own on how we are going to evaluate the successfulness of our focused tutorials program.  This has also giving me insight into how change is implemented and discussed as an administrator.