Whoo hoo! Made it to Week 5, Reflection

When starting this class, I was unsure of what action research consisted of and really thought it was a simple research class. However, I learned within the first week that there were many differences and how action research is used, one specific difference is stated in one of the text included for the class, “focused on providing insight into an administrator’s own practice in an effort to make change and improve the school” (Dana p. 7). After I understood what action research I was able to understand the lectures more, because at first I felt lost and overwhelmed. I also realized I was taking part of action research on a daily basis at my school campus and did not know it, because professional learning communities are considered one type of action research. “By their own nature, then, PLCs enhance the possibilities for conducting an inquiry and cultivating a community of inquirers” (Dana 22). On my campus, we meet in these types of meetings each week, they may be called something else, but it still has the same purpose. The readings overall have helped me the most, because in both texts there were specific examples given, which allowed me to understand more for each topic we discussed. Along with the assignments, I was able to read the information and then apply it to answering the questions on the assignment sheet. These assignments gave me time to reflect on what I read and retain the information. Although I have learned a great deal and all the information has been a lot of help, I still had some challenges including time. This class began on the first day back to work and it was a little overwhelming. I felt as though there wasn’t enough time in the day to complete all the expectations at work, including lesson plans and weekly meetings, then I had the action research project when I got home at night. Although I was asking questions to my site mentors and having in-depth conversations of how my research project would and will help the school and classrooms over time. Which motivated me to continue and take it one step at a time. Once I discovered exactly what my research would cover, and I had a grasp on how to actually implement this research in my school, it became a little more manageable because I understood what needed to take place to get this research project started at my school. Another challenge was relying on others to help provide information, because with my subject I teach I do not need to rely on others much, so that was difficult in the beginning. As time went on though it became a little easier because my technology site mentor was able to provide good information and help me decide what would work best and the challenges we faced. We were also able to look into the future of where we expected this project to be handled and expanded. While there were challenges, I think the blog helped, because everyone in the class was able to view others plans and get an idea of what others were doing and going about their research. I think sharing is important, because everyone enrolled in the class could help each other through and I know I work best with viewing specific examples and although each topic was different it was still helpful to be able to see if I had applied the correct data to specific areas. I look forward to being able to complete this action research and hopefully see the students achieve more with the software we are implementing in computer classes.