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=Reflections EDLD 5301 Research=

As I was reading the book Leading with passion and knowledge (Nancy Fitchman Dana, pg 3-4), the following comment made me think about the responsibilities of a school administrator "Effective staff development for administrator is long-term, planned, and job-embedded; focuses on student achievement, supports reflective practice; and provides opportunities to work, discuss, and solve problems with peers". I have seen my own campus principal following most of the principles mentioned above, and I think she is doing a great job, and although I thought it was hard work, now that I'm reading them I can tell that is more than hard work. Is a mission that every administrator should accomplish in order to provide the best education not only for our kids, but also for the teachers, staff members, and the principal itself. I can tell now, that in order to be a successful principal, an action research study should be developed/written to address the campus issues and the possible solutions. Working and solving problems as they show up is not a good option, it is necessary that the principal sees ahead of time thing that may arise into trouble and always have an "ace" under the sleeve to work it out, and become the "head learner" rather than the head leader of the school.
 * Week 1 Discussion**
 * Please share a problem or curiosity of particular interest to you as an administrator: one that you believe would benefit from an action research investigation. As part of your response, please share:**
 * • why it is a problem of critical importance.• how you believe an action research study would be beneficial in solving this particular problem, or addressing this curiosity.**

The purpose of my action research plan study is to create a tool that will provide an extension of pre-reading skills to bilingual pre-k students. I want to show how the integration of technology in the classroom will extend the pre-reading lessons planned in the classroom and how this tool can be also used as a tutoring tool within the classroom and outside it, by creating a section where parents can work at home with similar activities used in the classroom. Not only bilingual pre-students will benefit, but also those pre-k students with disabilities that are working in an inclusion environment. Parents, staff members, and the community at large will also benefit by accessing this tool at any time, anywhere, for educational purposes.
 * Week 2 Discussion**
 * Please respond to the following on the Discussion Board:• the purpose of your proposed action research study (in other words, answer: what you will research – you may identify more than one topic of interest)• the significance of your proposed action research study (please explain who will benefit in some way(s) from the information that your action research project will provide, and how they will benefit)Please be as specific as possible in your identification of your study purpose and significance.**

My study is about the creation of a tool that will extend the pre-reading skills of bilingual pre-kindergarten students. My population involves bilingual teachers, bilingual inclusion teachers, leadership team, tutorial team, and some bilingual parents that will be selected to work with the tool at home. My sample population will be 22 students, 2 teachers and 2 teacher's assistants, 1 mentor teacher, 1 curriculum leader, the principal of the school, and 4-6 parents who have internet access and computer at home. In total, my sample population will be 35 people. I came up with this number because I will be working with regular and special education students, at risk students, and parents at home, and I think that all the documentation gathered thru this process still easy to handle and to organize. I will be sending questionnaires, surveys, applications/games to test, and asking for ideas/suggestions in order to get feedback from the end users. The tool that I would like to create is one that will allow me to work in the classroom as an extension of my lesson plans, as a tutorial tool that will continue with the development of pre-reading skills, and as a parent tool to use at home.
 * Week 3 Discussion**
 * Please share the following components of your action research plan with your classmates, along with brief supporting rationale for each part; this might include:****•** **a description of the context or setting of your study.****•** **an operational definition of your target population.****•** **how you will select your sample.****•** **brief rationale for your sample size.****•** **a brief description of how you will conduct your research.****Please be as specific as possible in your identification of your study purpose and significance.**

The main challenge that I see in implementing my action research study is the lack of cooperation and interest in the parts involved in the analysis and development of the software for bilingual/inclusion students. If for some reason this ever happens, I'm planning to address those challenges by modifying and re-planning the action research plan and if necessary re-question my action plan in order to adapt it to the actual needs of the school. According to Gary Marx, identified trends such as changes of majority/minority groups, technology, personalization (needs), different points of view, have a profound impact on the future of the society. Therefore, if an action plan takes in consideration most of the changes these variables may bring to the action plan, it will be easier to address such changes/issues when they arise (Examining what we do to improve our schools, Harris-Edmonson-Combs, pg. 93).
 * Week 4 Discussion**
 * Please share the following with your classmates for this week’s discussion:**
 * •** **What specific challenges do you foresee in implementing your action research study?**
 * •** **How you plan to address those challenges?**

I really liked to see what my classmates are going to research. I was able to see some points that would make my research very extensive rather than focusing on what I really want to do. I would like to learn more about the strategies that we reviewed, because sometimes you are used to research but you don't follow an exact pattern or steps. I think I will read more about the delphi technique and the force field analysis. Maybe in the future I can use different approaches/strategies to solve one problem and compare the results and choose the best solution and methodology.
 * Week 5 discussion**
 * Please share the following with your classmates for this week’s discussion:**
 * As you look back on what you learned during the past five weeks in our action research course:**
 * • Please share one specific topic of your greatest insight or new learning – what really caught your interest.**
 * • Please share one specific area where you still want to learn more.**
 * • For the area/topic you identified in Part (b), please state what you will do to continue to build your applied knowledge in this area.**

I was able to learn a lot of strategies used in a research plan. I also learned a lot from other classmates as I was reading their research plans. I learned that there are 5 quality indicators that will help me with the results obtained from the research project. I understood that is not just important to gather data, analyze it, and present the results, but also that in order to provide information that is trustful I have to assess my work because that is the only way that school improvement happens (leading with passion and knowledge, Nancy Fitchman Dana, pg 173). Every research plan is a cycle, and in order to complete one and start with another one is very important that the data collected is shared with others, analyzed, compared to other schools/districts information, assessed, and tested (in terms of quality), to make sure that the desired result is obtained; Improvement of school performance will only be reached by a research that has been adapted to the school real needs, got feedback, and redefined when needed. My action research plan is about the creation of a software tool that will help pre-k students to acquire pre-reading skills while integrating technology in the classroom. It will give the opportunity to bilingual/inclusion students to obtain the tools needed to become successful in reading in the future school years. Although it sounds easy to develop, there are factors such as end users, infrastructure available and time that will make it harder to achieve and at some point I will have to modify it in order to cover the real needs of the students and the school in general. Therefore, there are a few challenges that I see in implementing my action research study. One of them is the lack of cooperation and interest in the parts involved in the analysis and development of the software for bilingual/inclusion students. If for some reason this ever happens, I'm planning to address those challenges by modifying and re-planning the action research plan and if necessary re-question my action plan in order to adapt it to the actual needs of the school. According to Gary Marx, identified trends such as changes of majority/minority groups, technology, personalization (needs), different points of view, have a profound impact on the future of the society (Examining what we do to improve our schools, Harris-Edmonson-Combs, pg. 93). I have also learned that keeping the action research plan in context is very important since this is the only way to improve the school performance while solving a real problem. In order to provide a good solution is necessary to reflect and put in to action the possible solution, obtain feedback and re-question the plan if needed (Leading with passion and knowledge, Nancy Fitchman Dana, pg. 5). Such reflections should be based on the data obtained from the research. Reflection and inquiry is a never ending process that creates, re-creates and re-directs the questions that have to be asked during the research process without forgetting that each question has to be answered one at a time (Leading with passion and knowledge, Nancy Fitchman Dana, pg. 9). Becoming the “Head learner” of a school is not an easy task, but, by using the right strategies, and qualifying the process will strengthen professional development, practice of teachers, improvement of performance, and the utilization of resources and infrastructure while developing questions, collecting data, analyzing data, and sharing the results of the research project with the community affected by these changes. It is a 100% learning experience that promotes not only the inquirer learning but also other’s learning. Is not just pretending that “I am the one that knows everything” is actually inspire others (students and teachers) to continue exploring the world around them and find solutions to issues faced everyday.
 * Final reflection EDLD 5301**


 * INTERNSHIP ENTRY LOGS**
 * Domain II, Competency 6, Log 8: Designing a draft action research plan.**
 * Domain II, Competency 6, Log 9: Revising a draft action research plan.**
 * Action Research plan -draft-**