Week 2 - Purpose and Significance of Action Research Plan

Action research is a vital component in serving not only our students but satisfying our never ending "wonderings." I really enjoyed watching the scholars' videos this week - Mr. Briseno, Dr. Chargois, and Dr. Lewis. The videos validated the point that we must engage ourselves constantly to participate in projects as well as extract, analyze, and apply data, toward finding ways to be more effective for our students so that they may be successful. We, as administrators, in turn, can be more effective as leaders. Per the literature for the week, I learned that "finding my wonderings" can come from so many different areas of exploration - staff development, curriculum development, individual teacher(s), individual student(s), school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice. I can already apply and create these inquiries as a classroom teacher which can put me in a good position toward understanding the role of and being an effective administrator!

This week I was actually able to have my first meeting with members from our bilingual department about the details of the ESL best practices program to be implemented in our upcoming robotics camp in July. I was very excited to learn about how the program has helped other schools with their ELL populations and the great strides that have occurred in supporting the students' needs and abilities as they develop their vocabulary and writing abilities. In return, schools have seen growth in the data which we learned this week, once analyzed, is a must when addressing problems that you are trying to solve/fix. Further, I have already started reading various pieces of literature, "data", that has allowed me to have a better understanding of best practices toward teaching ELLs and how I need to approach the research over the next few months in conjunction with the specifics of the plan.

I am looking forward to new "wonderings" that may occur in week 3...