One week left...

in my first semester.  Time has become more and more valuable as basketball season has heated up, the holidays are around the corner and our courses have become more demanding.

The advice we received early in our studies was dead on correct.  MAKE TIME FOR YOUR REFLECTIONS!  I have been lapse in creating reflection time and it's very evident on this blog.

My action research plan is underway, but I need to do a better job of knocking out the items on my intern plan.  I'm taking care of SOME business, but not as much as I should be at this point in the year.  But in all honesty, I planned on doing the vast majority of my internship activities in the spring, once basketball is over.

But it's in times like this that perspective is needed.  I've made A's in all of my courses so far, my family is happy and healthy, Christmas break is coming up and my basketball team is 12-6 so far!  Let's be sure to keep our eyes on the prize and don't let ourselves become beat down with everything we have going on.  Stay positive and we'll start everything back up fresh in a couple of weeks!

Heading into Thanksgiving...

Seems like forever since my last blog post lol!

Project status:

My juniors and seniors have started their first week of their flipped classroom.  We had a basketball tournament thursday and friday and it seemed like a great opportunity to kick start this thing.

All of the students checked their gmail accounts and logged into the blog site one last time to test it, then they were on their own.  Right now, I'm refraining from embedding videos and links to the blog page due to some students lacking internet access.  Their homework was simply to read the next chapter, work on their skill packet and have everything ready to go by Monday (today).  Nothing real fancy.

The next step is to get my promethean active expression devices set up and ready to go so we can do short, concise assessments of what they were to study the night before.  They are already having a hard time with the "not doing work at home" thing.  "Coach, I'm already done!".  It will take some time to get them to leave the work at school lol!  It took me almost 18 months to teach them how to "do homework".  Now I'm redefining it.

But, I have faith...

Course status:

Starting 5333 this week.  Doesn't look too difficult, but lots of busy work.  BAD TIMING that this hits on Thanksgiving week (and the Pittsburgh-Baltimore game last night didn't help).  Wish we had just ran straight into it and got this week off instead.  I started a new facebook support/study page for the 5333 students.  You are all welcome to participate.

Going in front of the school board tonight!

Wow!  My superintendent calls my classroom around 1pm and asks me to put together a presentation regarding my Flipped Classroom Research Project for tonight school board meeting.  Very excited.

I've put together a 9-page packet that includes several visual aids, my action research plan template and my goal statement with project explanation.  PLUS, the meeting gets to count towards my intern hours.  What what we're having for dinner tonight?  It was chili last month and it was pretty good lol!

Oh well, off to basketball practice.  Wish me luck!

Open for business!

My flipped classroom blog page has been created and students are starting to "enroll" (follow).

I've talked to the students who don't have computers or internet access and we're planning on printing off hard copies of anything that will be posted on the blog site.

We're targeting our first posted lesson plans for around the middle of November.

Behold... my action planning template!

My Action Planning Template
Goal:   How can changing teacher’s roles to “Educational Facilitators” impact student academic achievement by emphasizing content exploration at home while using class time for practice and re-teaching in terms of passing rates, state test scores, and student engagement?.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Setting the Foundation: 1.  Presented my action research idea to district superintendent, outlining final expectations and planned course of action. Plan will be outlined in staff meeting, soliciting teachers to volunteer for project. Professional development time will be allotted for staff blog page construction.	Self, Staff	October- November 2012	List of ideas Action Planning Template Computer lab	Notes and suggestions
Analyzing Data 2.  Teachers will rely on periodic benchmark testing to ensure that students are learning material.  Surveys will be provided to both teachers and students gathering opinions on ongoing project.	Staff, students, self	November 2012- April 2013	Computers, classroom resources	Benchmark assessments, opinion surveys, staff input
3.  Gather quantitative date for standardized scores in the participating areas from the 2011 and 2012 school year.	Self, Counselor, Principal	November 2012- April 2013	TEA reports AEIS reports	Compare scores from previous year to current year benchmarking. Chart progress throughout the year.
4.  Pre and Post survey of teachers and students to assess their expectations of the project prior to its beginning vs. their opinions of how the project	Self, Staff, Students	November 2012, May 2013	Surveys	Summarize finding using charts and summary.
5. Monitor teachers’ blog pages, reminding staff to keep pages updated	Self	November 2012- May 2013	Computer	Periodically record quality of teacher blog updates and student participation
6.  Send home monthly parent surveys regarding homework levels, student morale and ease of use.	Self, Parents	November 2012- April 2013	Surveys, postal resources	Summarize finding using charts and summary.
7.  Monitor progress of students without internet access at home.	Self, Staff, Students, Parents	November 2012-April 2013	Surveys, grade checks	Notes and summaries.
8. Obtain standardized test scores for the 2012-2013 school year. Compare current scores to both benchmark scores and scores from 2011-2012 school year.	Self, Counselor, Principal	May 2013	TEA reports AEIS reports Computer	Summarize comparison through charts and summary.
9.  Share project findings with district administration and staff. Post final conclusion on blog site.	Self All staff/teachers on campus	May 2013	Findings binders Computer Power Point presentation	Share results at two different locations: final staff meeting and course blog site.

NEW Action Research Project Proposal

Goal: How can changing teacher’s roles to “Educational Facilitators” impact student academic achievement by emphasizing content exploration at home while using class time for practice and reteaching in terms of passing rates, state test scores, and student engagement?

essentially, I'm looking at flipping "homework" and "teaching" in our classes.  The students will be responsible for content info at home.  this can be in the form of text reading, accessing teacher blogs to find links to video clips or teacher notes, etc. 

 the student will then arrive to class the next day to find a short assessment that measures content understanding.  the remainder of class is then used for practice and reteaching.  students who demonstrate understanding will be used as peer tutors during the class period.

this SHOULD reduce the hours of homework time and grading involved in normal school settings. it also shifts the role of "knowledge collection" to the student. daily grades SHOULD dramatically improve. think about how many times a student goes home, doesn't understand what's being taught, wastes an entire night, then is behind the next day. Now you have to take time out of TODAY's class to fix YESTERDAY'S situation.

Under my proposal, the wasted time should disappear. Students can ask questions via the blog page. Parents now have visual confirmation on what their child should be doing each evening. Students without internet access would have to have a folder where a hard copy blogpage is printed out for them to take home each evening. This would be their "homework folder".

Tentative Project Proposal

My initial action research plan is/was to study the effects of school uniforms on a RURAL, LOW INCOME school district.  My superintendent and I are in discussions on whether or not we will proceed with this project or change direction to a different project that would solve any more pertinent district needs.

My school district has black polo shirts that the students are to wear when they leave school grounds (field trips, extra-curriculars, etc).  My plan is to have the students wear the shirts to school 2 days a week (mondays and thursdays) and monitor conduct, attitude and classwork on those specific days.  These would be done primarily through weekly teach surveys.  The students will also be surveyed three times (beginning, middle, end) during the study.

With so many migrant and low-income students, our student population struggles to find it's place in the world.  With only 120 total students in our district, it's difficult for us to suceed in most extra-curricular activities.  Even the smallest districts around Texas have double or triple our population.  Also, a high percentage of our students are either transfers from nearby districts or live out in remote areas away from the school.  This leads to a poor sense of community.  My hope is that my research shows that the use of school uniforms would boost student esteem, help with classroom issues such as grades and conduct, and project a positive school image within our community.

Possible uses of Action Research by educational leaders

One of the items we studied in our first course is how campus leaders were continuously dealing with communication issues.  Blogging could offer a solution to communication issues, not only on a school-parent level, but also between administration and staff, students and teachers and between various administrators at different campuses throughout the district.  It can be set up to limited audiences, as sources of one-way information or as collaborative sites.  As a future administrator, I look forward to experimenting with the various ways blogging can be used in education.

What I have learned about Action Research and how I might use it.

Initially, I was pretty apprehensive about starting a blog.  I mean, who was going to be interested in what I had to say and how was it going to be beneficial to anyone, including myself?  But then I realized that this could be a great tool for self-reflection and thought organization.  These will be essential as I proceed though the process of earning my masters degree.

It turns out that Action Research wasn't anything for me to fear.  I've already been using this type of systematic inquiry in my coaching for the past 20 years.  Researching offensive and defensive schemes, studying film, crunching data, experimenting with line-ups, evaluating the results, then making fine-tuning adjustments based on what I've learned.  Sometimes schemes are tweaked, sometimes they are trashed, all in the name of forming a better functioning product (team).

With more and more data becoming available through assessments and standardized testing, educators are flood with pages and pages of information but have limited time and means to put it to use.  Action Research provides for ONGOING research based on continual spiraling of it's investigative nature.  One only needs to get the process going in order to reap the benefits.  Just analyze, understand, reflect, explore, determine direction, act, then sustain any improvements.  You just have to give it the proper time necessary in order to provide the planning and examination that the process needs in order to lead to a successful solution.



Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools. (pp. 5-7). Larchmont, NY: Eye On Education, Inc.