The Three Principals!

The Three Administrators!

The week began with viewing videos from 3 different principals, Mr. Briseno, Mr. Chargois, and Mr. Lewis. They had interesting information to share. I did have issues with a statement from Mr. Briseno, “They [teachers] better know which of those kids are being successful on TAKS.” As a teacher I would not want to be put on the spot and have to remember everyone’s scores. Mr. Briseno’s statement made me feel that his teachers had to know all the data by heart and could spit out when needed. I really took offense.

Thursday was my first webinar with Dr. Jenkins and I truly enjoyed his session. He had such a positive and jovial manner. He was impressed with our ideas and supportive to students who needed the help. When I logged off, I went away with a smile and good feeling about this class. Thanks Dr. Jenkins!

I am having trouble deciding what to focus my research on. During the webinar, I found that I was not alone. Apparently several students are having problems also deciding from their 3 topics. It was also interesting reading about the range of topics being written. Next time I will make it a point to show up on time!

How Educational Leaders May Use Blogs

As Educational Leaders, it is important to create a vision for the future and persuade others to follow. The 21^st century leader must work even harder to incorporate technology. A leader can play an important role in technology integration by modeling technology. Blogging is an excellent tool that can serve many purposes. Blogging permits leaders to share their thoughts and experiences. It is a great communication tool and the comment feature allows for feedback. Blogging facilitates collaboration with other leaders in the district or around the world.

What I have learned about Action Research

I first thought it was a new approach, but in my readings I read that Action Research as been around for quite awhile. “Action research did suffer a decline in favor during the 1960s because of its association with radical political activism (Stringer 2007:9). It’s only the last 25 years that Action Research has made a come back. It is a form of inquiry to investigate and evaluate a person’s work for improvement. Well, it seems time consuming and in reading it is time consuming when first implementing. Yet, I spend hours online researching strategies to improve student achievement. And when one strategy does not work I try another. So why would action research be any different? Is it not worth the time, if the problem can be resolved?

Teachers are known to either complain that students not academically ready, or they complain that they don’t have a voice. I see action research is an opportunity for teachers to take matters into their own hands. For example, our school has gone through many changes in the last five years, mainly a different administrator each year. In addition to the revolving administrators, we also had an influx of new teachers. Changes at all levels has resulted in inconsistent application of policy, low moral, and collaboration is not visible among teachers,staff and administrators. Each teacher and grade-level seem to be working independently, thus creating a lack of harmony. Action Research would be a great tool to resolve some these issues we are wrestling with on my campus.