5352 5.2 Reflections

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This Week 5.2 Assignment paper covers two major projects in you leadership program:

• A reflection and status report of your Campus-supervised Internship activities. Where are you in implementing your Internship Plan? What activities are remaining?
• A reflection and status report of your Action Research Report activities. Where are you in completing that work? What activities are remaining?
• A reflection of your technology skills and knowledge gained in this course.

Submitted to Eportfolio (Google Site or Wlkispaces), TK20, and IA in the course work. You are not required to post to your Tk20 eportfilio.
Submit the Week 5 assignments at the end of Week 5 to your IA through the course ware.

Week 5.2 5352

My Campus-supervised activities have been going very smoothly and have been agreed upon by the coaches and teachers that I am using for my research. My plan is in action right now because of basketball and baseball season underway. My action research consists of correlation between athletes and non athletes and how their academic success is reflected. My superintendent has been following up with my activities along with reviewing data with me. I am still collecting data on benchmarks and state wide testing to see correlations. I also am planning out times to meet with the teachers so we can implement new ways to create stronger work ethic in non athletes and motivate students not involved in athletics while finding out the problems.

I am currently doing all my action research report activities at the school I am employed at. I still have some activities remaining that consist of DMAC solutions and recording some of my data into excel spreadsheets.

I have gained tremendous knowledge in both of my last 2 courses. I have seen a huge difference in implementing technology into my lessons, and being able to use web based tools to enhance my teaching. I have seen an increase of motivation in students, along with interest, being able to use new tools on the internet. My technology skills have increased somewhat, already being familiar with internet usage, but had no clue about the resources out there that help teachers implement technology into their lessons. I have grown into the last five weeks in technology based classrooms and have had a change of mindset on how to get the traditional teaching methods changed to technical advances.

Week 5 5352 5.1 Reflections Web Conferences

5.1 5352 Reflections on 3 Web Conferences:

                After attending 3 web conferences I was able to gain insight on expectations of the class through my colleagues. I believe the conferences were beneficial to the course on updating me on assignments, questions that I had along with other students, and getting a better understanding of directions that were to be followed during the course. I feel like I was able to help other students with questions they had as well. There were even additional groups set up on social media for support in the classroom.

January 17 2013 web conference:

                This conference mainly consisted of collaboration between students discussing how to change our Google site to our own personalization. Also, everyone started to talk about getting into groups and how to go about doing that. I think the web conference helped tremendously on getting this organized. Without the conference there would have been a lot of confusion, and it would have been difficult to get into groups. There was discussion about the principal survey and where to find it, which helped me out as well.

January 19 2013 web conference:

                Main focus of this conference was about the announcements and concerns of the weekly overview. Discussion took place on what to put into our team Google doc and exactly what we were supposed to put in there. More collaboration took place on problem solving on expectations of this week. Web conferences have allowed me, as a student, to feel more comfortable with the class. By seeing other concerns and some of the same questions, I am able to be more relaxed and focused on the assignment rather than messing up.

Feb 10 2013 web conference:

                Tonight’s web conference was based on the weekly assignments and how to post in TK20. Questions consisted of saving information in TK20 because there were two different weeks that had to be posted in TK20 on the same page. This conference really guided me on questions I had concerning TK20 submission. Once again the web conference displayed many avenues to the course assignments and helped me get through the week. With this evidence I should consider setting up web conferences for my classroom so that students can ask questions to homework, and lessons.

I am thankful for the web conferences, without this tool I believe this course would have ate me up. I definitely see the advantages to having web tools to help you a better teacher, and to help students perform at a higher rate. I can say for myself that without the web conference I would have not been as motivated.

Reflections 5301 Research Action Plan

Starting Research 5301 I thought I would be going about a whole different approach. I was expecting to write long research papers over different scholar researchers, but low and behold the first week I was told I am the researcher. I actually found this motivating, and exciting that I would be conducting my own research by following veteran researcher’s methods. And in the end I will be able to reflect, grow, and develop my own research, which I found very intriguing. It is also evident after this course that most people don’t realize that they are all action researchers but they are doing it un consciously. The thing is the more effective an action researcher is the more in detail and process oriented that person must be. The blog and discussion board and the blogger site has been a great tool in sharing my concerns and thoughts along with the help of my peers. I have also found that I was able to deliver some ideas to help others out. I believe I will be able to share my ideas and help other staff members out on growing professionally along with myself. I think the Dana text really gave me a good sense of direction and guidance on how to approach action research and what it is all about. I also believe that Barth’s text on The principal as staff developer gave me insight on quality leadership skills.

Area for growth

I just hope to grow on collecting valid data, and being able to fully change the concern to motivate others. I know that I have some room to grow on reflection. Dana really emphasized that reflection is vital to leader success. If you don’t schedule daily time and reflect on your leadership and the research then the plan will never fully be reached. The last thing that I want more than anything is for my school district and athletes to benefit from me and my research. I want myself and the population of our school to change in a positive way.

Growth plan

I plan to jump right in this research, use trial and error along with reflection and know that I am doing the best I can. I know that I will have support from staff and students to get me through this research. The discussion board will be a key component to my success in this  I know that I will learn more from this course than any other. I want to grow confidence in myself and by that using action research to back up my confidence.

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action  

              Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.                                                                     

Barth, R. (1981). The principal as staff developer. Journal of Education.

Discussion Board Lamar University Peers

Action Plan Agreement

  This week I had a chance to discuss and agree upon my action plan. My site supervisor had some great insight and recommendations. It was also interesting for me to see the excitement and upbeat attitude it brought to her. I think teachers, adiministrators, and staff members get burnt out because there isnt inquiry going on in their profession. If you make your daily teaching life routine it becomes like that office job where you do the same thing every day and it becomes monotnous. 
 I could tell that this was a spark to her, and me which I am excited to start doing. She recommended that I write a description each month to teachers and staff to let them know what was going on so they could help and see how maybe they can do research themselves on topics of concern. At the end of the research she wants to share with all administrators to see what we can do to incorporate methods that we saw that could benefit the school.
  All in all I hope to change myself, staff, students, and anyone involved in the school system to understand why or why not participation and sense of belonging bring academic success.

Action Plan Template Week 3 5301

Action Planning Template
Goal: To sustain the work ethic and behavior of students and determine whether or not there is a positive correlation between students participating in school athletics and classroom work ethic and performance.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Receive permission from principal to conduct action inquiry on LaPoynor high campus. Survey teachers in regards to their general knowledge of athlete’s performance in the classroom verses non athletes performance in the classroom.	Kody Evans	September 15, 2012– September 20, 2012	Survey questions created online.	Assess the surveys and compile data to excel spreadsheet.
2. Select and obtain permission from 3 coaches and 3 core teachers to conduct action research with. Perform interviews with the 6 teachers/coaches regarding the correlation between high school athletes and positive work ethics and behavior in the classroom setting.	Kody Evans	September 20, 2012- September 26, 2012	Interview Questions, notebook, recording device.	Review interview answers on voice recording device and transfer to a document.
3. Observe state exams, benchmarks, and classroom conduct reports of all students to gain a standard performance level.	Kody Evans	September 30,2012- October 5, 2012	Student data for athletes and non athletes: EOC, Benchmark, progress reports, semester averages in all core classes, demographic data. DMAC software	Spreadsheet using DMAC and excel to compile performance levels.
4. Meet once a month for four months to mentor-ship and implement new ways of creating stronger work ethic and motivational skills to students who are not actively involved in school athletics.	Kody Evans	October 10, 2012- March 10, 2012	Use proficient expansion mentoring and brainstorming techniques in conjunction with teachers and coaches.	Review data with teachers and coaches to asses a plan of action for mentors.
5. Access results with teachers and coaches via email and phone.	Kody Evans	March 15, 2012	DMAC software	Compare data of spreadsheets and of interviews. Evaluate student’s scores and identify strategies to help improve work ethic and behavior.

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

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)