This week has been all about taking a step back and evaluating the implementation of our action research plans.  After viewing comments on this blog and following the discussion board online I was feeling pretty good about my project as a whole.  Today, all of my students were testing which apparently gave me a little extra time to think.  During this time I began to bring about some new ideas to possibly help improve scores.  I am working with my department to create and work out the details of implementing some new plans.  We are excited about making some new things happen but now I am a bit concerned about my project.

I feel that incorporating too many ideas will lead to less conclusions to be drawn on specific pieces.  If everything in our approach is different its hard to know what works or what won't.  Therefore, while these new ideas may take away from the data, the original goal may still be met.  We want to improve the teaching practices to have our students better prepared for TAKS.  Therefore, I have to put my students first and do everything I possibly can to ensure their success even if it may pollute my action research data...

Outcomes	Activities	Tools	Responsibility	Time Line	Benchmark/ Assessment	Revisions
Students Will receive steady TAKS instruction throughout the year.	Daily Objective Warm-Ups	Teacher created daily objective warm-ups	I will implement along with all other math teachers.	Beginning of year up until final benchmark testing.	Objective quizzes every 2-3 weeks that would be scanned into aware.
Incorporating Technology will increase engagement over the material	Implement Active Inspire Responders	Class sets of active inspire responders	All teachers will regularly use their set of active inspire responders	All year	Observations, TAKS results
Vocabulary leads to a better Understanding of content material	Vocabulary Focused Instruction	Word wall use, and C-scope	All math teachers	All year	Regular quizzes/tests over specific content vocabulary.
If students know of present level of performance, they can work towards making improvement	Communicate Data with Students	Eduphoria	Teachers, Testing coordinator.	TAKS conferencing January 2012 Benchmark result analysis Objective Data	No formal assessment for this section, rather constant information shared with students.
Gauging students’ reception to change in approach.	Interview students who I had the previous year to gauge their reception to the new processes	None required	Personal	Prior to TAKS testing in April	Interviews conducted in small group/one on one setting.

Week 2 Reflections

When I was originally charged with an action research project, I had in mind to do a study of transitioning to STAAR testing on our campus.  This soon created an issue as we are a 10-12 campus and won't begin implementing the STAAR tests until next year.  So while it must be an area of focus I would be unable to compile data until the end of next year.  Therefore, I turned my focus onto improving success on Math TAKS.  While this is a very important area as it is often the deciding factor on meeting AYP standards, it is also a personal topic as I am currently a secondary math teacher.

Through the readings and interviews of this second topic I was able to get a more global view of my topic.  While the data I will be analyzing and reviewing will be focused on TAKS, the results of my study will be improved instructional practices.  Therefore, while I will be studying TAKS benchmark and test results, these practices and evaluations should be closely related to skills that will assist the implementation of STAAR testing.

Blog Use For Administrators

After reading and considering some administrative inquiry actions happening in my campus stakeholder buy in was an important concept to consider.  Campus administrators could use blogs to publish reflections and data collected about the area of interest in the inquiry study.  Teachers would then be able to get a better understanding of why the actions were taking place and how their role is helping facilitate the system.  Also, parents typically feel under-informed so an active blog would reach out to these parents so they could support any new ideas and see what positive impact it is making on their students success.  Blogs are one tool to facilitate stakeholder buy-in which is a crucial piece to action research.

Action Research 101

Prior to beginning the Education Administration program at Lamar University, I thought I had a very clear understanding of Action Research or Administrative Inquiry.  Upon reading works by Nancy Fitchman Dana and by Harris, Edmondson and Combs I was able to greatly expand my understanding and appreciation of action research in the administrator role.  I saw Action Research as more of an experiment, performing some action and evaluating the results.  I was enlightened by the idea of an ever-changing system that progresses through the years to meet a goal.  Furthermore, this system does not end with reflection; reflection is simply the guide to the next stage of the never ending action research cycle.

While I did not realize it, I am actively participating in a number of administrative inquiry in my classroom.  I have been focusing on students attendance and improving scores to help our campus meet AYP.  In our department we have incorporated a number of new ideas to see if any would better meet the needs of our students.  Preliminary benchmark data is showing students to be making positive gains and as we look towards our standardized tests, we feel if we continue to modify and support these new ideas we will meet our campus goals.  Initially these new ideas appeared only as extra work but when we as a department saw positive gains the moral and dedication to this system has improved.