Action Research - School Culture

(1) School Culture – Since the beginning of my Leadership course, my heart has been drawn to school culture. My belief is that anything a principal tries to accomplish within a school will depend on the culture and climate of the school. A strong, healthy, positive, vibrant school culture will enable a principal to lead a school community to any place as long as it is positive and beneficial to all stakeholders. After studying Leading with Passion and Knowledge this week concerning the nine areas of passion, it has only confirmed my own passion concerning school culture. This week’s study has also, fine-tuned my passion into an action “plan” for my action research. I’d like to implement a weekly school-wide meeting with my supervisor’s permission and oversight. I am wondering if a weekly school-wide meeting with the implementation of a character-building program, and recognition of academic performance and superior behavior will prove to be a great motivation method for our students’ learning performance as well as enriching our school/community culture.

My site supervisor is really excited about the possibility of this action research. We will determine if this or the 2^nd choice of action research (vertical alignment) will be considered our final decision. My 3rd choice of action research is using technology in ARD meetings. 

Educational Leaders and Blogs

Blogs are the most beneficial and productive way to share with others helpful insights, teaching strategies, and motivational tools with colleagues.

Blogs are the perfect place to journal thoughts and ideas… ponder… and come back after growth and reflection and add to those ideas (or take away!).

Blogs are probably one of a practitioner’s best friends! It should be a safe place to collaborate systematic thinking with other practitioners on a variety of topics and issues that only practitioners are facing in education.

Blogs are a place to relax, to put your best foot forward, and gather your thoughts and pen them down… never knowing that one day when you come back to reflect on that forgotten thought, it just might be what your school needs to achieve the highest ratings of success!

BLOGS = JOURNAL + REFLECTION…

JOURNAL + REFLECTION = BLOGS…

BLOGS…

Action Research

I love the idea of Action Research! I remember about 3-4 years ago when our Superintendent met with us to inform us that we as 4^th grade were going to start team teaching instead of being individualized, because based on research it was most successful to be departmentalized. We had been having the highest 4^th grade TAKS scores (Math, Reading, and Writing) of any other school within our district, with some schools calling asking us to share our teaching strategies and resources with them. I remember like it was yesterday, respectfully asking him, “Why can’t other schools use us as research data, and follow us, instead of us using them as research data, because we are the one school with the highest TAKS scores?” To this day, I have never understood why we made such a decision based on “success according to research” when if anyone would have considered our 4^th grade in the collecting of data, we would have been the class act to follow “according to research”! This whole scene flooded my mind as I read this week, learning the difference in traditional educational research and “action research”.

Action research involves, not looking outside for data, but using your own data within, to answer questions of “what” and “how” can make us a better campus, smarter students, and greater educators. Action research takes time to search deep, consider long, and ponder, “what is making us great in all areas, and what few areas could we even become greater”? Action research takes collaboration of planning with invested stakeholders to cultivate a school and community to be most proud of! When stakeholders are involved and take “action” in the process – it is then that a community sees and experiences lasting, positive change!

I am hoping to use action research concerning implementing technology during ARD meetings, and starting a CFGs (Critical Friends Group) meeting monthly, vertically aligning "teaching strategies" in math, reading, and science.