Week 5 reflections

We started the class out understanding the differences between inquiry and research, to then understanding what drives your research. Where do your questions come from? As Dana states in the book, "According to Hubbard and Power (1993), wanderings and questions come from real world observations and dilemmas" (page 30). Once you have studied and evaluated your findings, you work on collecting the data. You have to put a plan into action to collect data that is relevant to your inquiry. Once you collect your data, how are you going to analyze it. Once you have compiled all your data and analyzed it its time to share your findings with others. In the Dana text, "the process of preparing your findings to share with others helps you clarify your own thinking about your work". (page 136) Now it’s important for you to establish with whom you need to share you work and what the best method in which to share it is. (Remember this depends on the audience for which your inquiry is intended, page 141). The end of the book reminds us that inquiry doesn't stop at solving every problem, Dana states that "its about finding new and better problems to study and in so doing, leading a continuous cycle of self and school improvement" (page 172). The assignments were very comprehensive and lead into very detailed results.  Had interviews and questioning to do with people I did not completely want to work with. However, it did open some communications that otherwise would not have existed. The discussion board postings were relevant most of the time. I had a interesting time with my blog.  If it was more to my liking I would create one for my class to use. It is a good way to share with parents, staff, other people and the students.

Week 4 Reflection

I sat down with my site supervisor.  Mainly I was informed it going to be a lengthy research project that will require a lot of time and lot of unknown futuristic type elements.  For instance, I am relying on using people next year that I know will be back, well contracts have not been assigned and you just do not know what the big bosses are planning to do.  They shift people at the last minute especially admin to make sure the schools will function how they see fit.  If any of the personnel is changed, I may have a hard time getting the data I need to make a full school wide change. Overall, my action plan did not really need any work and we could not see any areas I might need to change or add to. Over this weekend, I do plan on reviewing and interviewing some people at another campus where they are doing what I am suggesting. 

Action Research Template 2

Action Planning Template
Goal: To reverse the role that CTE plays as a backup to Core
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.    Meet with principals and counselor to seek approval and answer any questions about the sample size for the one year trial run.	Marcus Mason	April-June ‘12	Time Principal Asst. Principal Counselors Dept. Heads	If I get the approval, good evaluation, if I do not have to take in account the reasons why, see if any possibility for a run the following year or another campus, ask questions and proceed from there.
2.    Seek out teachers that will fit the dynamic of what I am proposing.	Marcus Mason	May-June ‘12	Conference room Checklist of criteria a teacher has to meet	Fit closely to an criteria list
3.    Master schedule	Dean of Instruction	June  ‘12	Counselors Approved class schedules Required classes	Does the new schedule meet the needs of the students and places all essential teachers in correlation with each other.
4.    Randomly pick students from CTE classes that will have to have all the core teachers or at least 3 out of 4.	Counselors Dean of Instruction Marcus Mason	June ‘12	Registration Schedules	Do all of the involved teachers have students from just the specified CTE programs? Will all needs including special needs and accommodations be listed to be met?
5.    Meet with teacher and begin an overhaul, review, and anything deemed necessary to the curriculum to align CTE and Core standards.	All involved teachers Dean of Instruction Dept Heads Testing Coordinator	August ‘12	Curriculum binders, Data or INOVA binders, TEKS, Exam standards, Min. score needed to determine possible success.	Do mostly all stakeholders agree with curriculum, procedures, testing, accommodations, and
6.    Meet with teachers as a whole. Re-explain the roles and what I would like to accomplish and answer any further questions	Marcus Mason	August ‘12	Approved meeting place Projected proposal from teachers of what they may need.	Before school begins check with teachers to make sure all they need is accounted for and that they have what they need to make collaborations.
7.    Begin the school year and have bimonthly meetings and disaggregate data.	Marcus Mason	August ‘12-Taks testing in April ‘13.	Meeting room.	Evaluation of teachers and students. What’s working and what’s not working.  Struggles, road blocks, etc.
8.    Every 3 weeks after the initial 6 weeks, students begin benchmark, 3 week, 6 week, and 9 week testing.  Test as normal or more frequent if permitted.	Testing Coordinator Dean of Instruction District benchmark personnel	Starts in October ’12 and tested at least as normal to more frequently.	Benchmark Assestments Curriculum	Benchmark results Assessments Are the students scoring better, borderline, or worse than their previous data entailed?
9.    Survey students and teachers at the end of each nine weeks regarding teacher growth and increases interactive use Core classroom CTE supplementation.	Marcus Mason	End of every 9 weeks	Google Survey	Survey students and teachers if the class is working, suggestions for improvements, and struggles? Use spreadsheets to group results.
10. Survey teachers about their comfort levels in the role reversal.	Marcus Mason	End of each semester. January of ’13 and June of ’13.	Google Survey	Was it worth the trouble to change the way CTE and Core have been taught? Several different questions concerning the change and spreadsheets would be used to make final report to present to stakeholders.
11. Survey students about their comfort levels and the role they played in the role reversal.	Marcus Mason	End of year after testing May ‘13	Google Survey	Did the instruction being taught seem to be aimed more at your career pathway and relevant to what you planned on doing? Ask varying questions of the overall process, implementation, resources, and recommendations. Use spreadsheet to share data with stakeholders.
12. Examine student data form the current year’s benchmark and determine with stakeholders what impact did the role reversal have.	Marcus Mason Dean of Instruction Dept Heads	May’13	Data from results	Did it work? Spreadsheets, binders, grouping, and everything we normally do with data interpretation.

Week 3 Reflection

I hope my assignment posted correctly.  I can say somewhat struggled with this weeks assignment.  In my mind I had it all planned out, but putting it on paper was whole other story. I would have preferred to have seen an example of this assignment that scored all the points only to make sure I followed the direction correctly.  I kept looking for ways for the project not to fail instead focusing on the good that will come from it.  This was a detailed and thorough look of what could be.  After talking to several individuals I was surprised for a moment at some folks that would like to see this project fail because they mainly do not want to change what they are doing.  However, talking to some people who like and almost love the idea can't wait to take part in it, as long as they don't have to do any extra work. Funny how some people can be especially when they are professionals.

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To reverse the role that CTE plays as a backup to Core
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.    Meet with principals and counselor to seek approval and answer any questions about the sample size for the one year trial run.	Marcus Mason	April-June ‘12	Time Principal Asst. Principal Counselors Dept. Heads	If I get the approval, good evaluation, if I do not have to take in account the reasons why, see if any possibility for a run the following year or another campus, ask questions and proceed from there.
2.    Seek out teachers that will fit the dynamic of what I am proposing.	Marcus Mason	May-June ‘12	Conference room Checklist of criteria a teacher has to meet	Fit closely to an criteria list
3.    Master schedule	Dean of Instruction	June  ‘12	Counselors Approved class schedules Required classes	Does the new schedule meet the needs of the students and places all essential teachers in correlation with each other.
4.    Randomly pick students from CTE classes that will have to have all the core teachers or at least 3 out of 4.	Counselors Dean of Instruction Marcus Mason	June ‘12	Registration Schedules	Do all of the involved teachers have students from just the specified CTE programs? Will all needs including special needs and accommodations be listed to be met?
5.    Meet with teacher and begin an overhaul, review, and anything deemed necessary to the curriculum to align CTE and Core standards.	All involved teachers Dean of Instruction Dept Heads Testing Coordinator	August ‘12	Curriculum binders, Data or INOVA binders, TEKS, Exam standards, Min. score needed to determine possible success.	Do mostly all stakeholders agree with curriculum, procedures, testing, accommodations, and
6.    Meet with teachers as a whole. Re-explain the roles and what I would like to accomplish and answer any further questions	Marcus Mason	August ‘12	Approved meeting place Projected proposal from teachers of what they may need.	Before school begins check with teachers to make sure all they need is accounted for and that they have what they need to make collaborations.
7.    Begin the school year and have bimonthly meetings and disaggregate data.	Marcus Mason	August ‘12-Taks testing in April ‘13.	Meeting room.	Evaluation of teachers and students. What’s working and what’s not working.  Struggles, road blocks, etc.
8.    Every 3 weeks after the initial 6 weeks, students begin benchmark, 3 week, 6 week, and 9 week testing.  Test as normal or more frequent if permitted.	Testing Coordinator Dean of Instruction District benchmark personnel	Starts in October ’12 and tested at least as normal to more frequently.	Benchmark Assestments Curriculum	Benchmark results Assessments Are the students scoring better, borderline, or worse than their previous data entailed?
9.    Survey students and teachers at the end of each nine weeks regarding teacher growth and increases interactive use Core classroom CTE supplementation.	Marcus Mason	End of every 9 weeks	Google Survey	Survey students and teachers if the class is working, suggestions for improvements, and struggles? Use spreadsheets to group results.
10. Survey teachers about their comfort levels in the role reversal.	Marcus Mason	End of each semester. January of ’13 and June of ’13.	Google Survey	Was it worth the trouble to change the way CTE and Core have been taught? Several different questions concerning the change and spreadsheets would be used to make final report to present to stakeholders.
11. Survey students about their comfort levels and the role they played in the role reversal.	Marcus Mason	End of year after testing May ‘13	Google Survey	Did the instruction being taught seem to be aimed more at your career pathway and relevant to what you planned on doing? Ask varying questions of the overall process, implementation, resources, and recommendations. Use spreadsheet to share data with stakeholders.
12. Examine student data form the current year’s benchmark and determine with stakeholders what impact did the role reversal have.	Marcus Mason Dean of Instruction Dept Heads	May’13	Data from results	Did it work? Spreadsheets, binders, grouping, and everything we normally do with data interpretation.