Action Research Revisions

As I continue my action research a couple things were brought up to me.  One was how I could get the students involved in my research and the second was how to get parents involved.  They brought new insight into what I was actually thinking about doing.  I think that I can get a plethora of information from the students about how to continually implement the technology available to us because they are, after all, the ones who will be benefiting from it.  The second is that the parents of the students I teach are a great wealth of knowledge and if I can tap into that base of knowledge I might be able to gain even more insight to how they believe we can better their children's educations.

Real Life Action Research

This weeks reading was on Real Life Action Research.  It gave me insight on some ideas on what to research and also showed how to improve some situations should they arise if I am presented with them. I think most of all though it showed that I must never be stationary in my pursuit of improving my campus.  Being proactive creates a positive atmosphere.

Educational Blogs 1/19/13

I have personal knowledge on this subject.  My students are actually having to use a blog that is on my school website weekly to answer a geographical culture question.  Blogs are a useful tool that can be used to communicate not only with other teachers, but also with the community.  You can post information about meetings, assignments, future and current goals of the district/campus, or even put a poll or question up that can be answered.  Overall they are a great way to not just keep everyone in the loop, but also to research and find out what the community or your colleagues think about a certain subject.

Action Research 1/19/13

What is Action Research? Action research is a research that is intended to change something on your campus or district as a whole.  It brings about change.  I happen to think that it is a more whole versus self approach.  Rather than just change something about yourself to better the district/campus you work on, it is an approach that changes your campus/district for the better.

I will use this research as a tool, a tool to create solutions and to modify solutions to solve problems on my campus.  You can use this in a variety of ways.  It could be as simple as a classroom problem that applies to inclusion, or it can be as complex as a problem of iPad's being purchased for the districts students and if they are being utilized effectively.  I am going to use action research to do two things on my campus.  I am going to look at the technology on our campus and research whether or not it is being effectively used.  As this research continues I am hoping to see if there are better ways to utilize our technology.  The other way that I will use action research is to change some things about the way communication is utilized on our district.  I think it will not only help the district, but also myself.  It will help me to become more time efficient on my communication.