Do You know what action research is? Oh how I wonder!

Ok by now I should have a pretty good ideaof what action research is. I wonder how many times I have actually answered this question? It 's all for the good. By creating an example for 9 topics of major wonderings by school leaders, I was given the opportunity to reflect and understand more about the process of action research. The topic that I came up with is different from my original idea. If I was presented with the idea of Social Justice I would not have come up with the idea of bullying. Now my mind is constantly wondering about something!

Action Research Project

The purpose of this study is to increase awareness of bullying on our campus and to create a plan for prevention.

Bullying seems to be an issue which is coming to the forefront on our campus. A teacher and I were talking and she said that she had 2 male students who were bullying other students in her classes. She knew what was going on and reported the paricular incidents to administrators. My main concern is for the students who are targeted because many of them are special education students. However, we also need to be concerned for the students who are doing the bullying. The targeted students for the most part do not know how to stand up for themselves or they are afraid to say anything for fear of retaliation. Teachers need to be able to identify the signs of bullying and know what action to take. Parents need to have an understanding of bullying so that they can identify signs of bullying, whether it involves their child being the victim or that their child is the bully. Identifying ways to prevent bullying will be beneficial to parents and to everyone on campus.

What I've Learned About Action Research

As you probably have noticed, my title is Inquiry, aka Action Research. Dana refers to Action Research simply as Inquiry (Dana, N.F. 2009, p. 6). Practitioners including myself, have difficulty relating to the word research because of the images we remember from past experiences with traditional research. Action Research brings a new light to research, especially in the field of education. In thr educational setting inquiry comes from within the school, and is based on questions and concerns of school practitioners. Action Research allows us to work together in order to “create a compelling vision that takes people to a new place, and to translate that vision into action(Harris, S., Edmundson, S., & Combs, J., 2010, p.3). Being successful in the process of Action Research requires the skill of reflection which leads to deeper thinking and the ability to adjust acordingly(Martin, G., E., Wright, W. F., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A.,& Brown F., 2005, p. 104). The process of reflection and taking action can be time consuming. As practitioners we need to consider the importance of our inquiry and be able to create a balance in our busy schedules in order to complete the research.

Learning about Action Research has opened my eyes to all of the possibilities for inquiry on my campus. I will be able to utilize it during my internship as I collaborate with a team of interns to restructure our Saturday School Program. There will be multiple opportunities for me to investigate other issues as they arise and also to reflect on myself as an administrator.

Resources

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action

researcher, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin and London, UK: SAGE Ltd.

Harris, S., Edmundson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our

schools: 8 steps from analysis to action, Larchmont,NY: Eye on Education.

Martin, G. E., Wright, W. F., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Brown, F. (2005).

School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your

leadership experience, Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Before taking this class I did not have the opportunity to learn about blogging. I was familiar with the term however, I was not aware of how beneficial blogging can be for educational administrators as well for all educators. Blogging can be used as a tool for communication and inquiry. The administrator can post important information such as calendars with meeting dates and other important news for staff to view. Teachers can ask questions of the administrator and also post examples of student’s work, lesson plans and activities used in their classrooms. Administrators can also have access to articles and information regarding other administrators and their practices from around the world. I was amazed at all of the outstanding educational blogs representing so many different subject areas from so many different countries. There are also many links to get connected to other sites. I will definitely encourage my colleagues to get involved in blogging. To answer my question To Blog or Not to Blog, the answer is overwhelming to BLOG!