Passion to Continue

Learning was not easy for me during my elementary, middle, and high school days. I was not brought up in an academic centered home. In fact, I was from a family that struggled day to day just to make ends meet – education was not a priority. We moved almost every year in my earlier years. The longest I ever went to any one school was two years. The real joy of learning did not come about until many years after leaving high school. My desire was to go to work, take care of myself, and never have to live through the kind of hardship my mom went through. After a year of working and being on my own I realized I might need to go back to school in order to be able to have a bright future. I had no study skills, no confidence, and very little self-esteem. What I did have was courage and a strong drive to be successful. This is where I will end this personal story and switch my focus to the passion that drives me - improvement. In order to have improvement investigation into the situation is necessary; otherwise without it change will not occur.

As I read through each of the nine passions in this week’s readings I realized how each of these passions overlaps the other as the author had stated. School improvement needs excellent curriculum development and leadership, curriculum development needs staff development and leadership, individual teachers need excellent leadership and management, individual students need social justice, and, well you get the picture. I would love to do research on how schools can enlist parents to be an active part of their student’s education. I think technology can play a big part in this endeavor. However, my site mentor wants me to research the passion of school performance in the area of seventh grade Math TAKS scores. So the passion of school culture/community and individual students will come another time for me. These readings have given me a clearer picture of how to narrow down my topic. I learned that by playing with the wording of my wonderings I can fine tune and discover more detail about my topic. I also learned that the most productive inquiries are focused on student learning occurring. And, I discovered that I need to be open to change as my topic can evolve over time as I engage further into my inquiry. I am looking forward to what lies ahead in this course as I continue my quest for excellence.

I would like to end with this quote from Charles F. Kettering taken for the Dana text, “Essentially research is nothing but a state of mind, … a friendly, welcoming attitude toward change, … going out to look for change instead of waiting for it to come” (as cited in Dana, 2009, p. 30).


Reference:
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Value of Using Blogs for Educational Leaders

I am new at using blogs but as I read other blogs and post my own I am seeing this as a valuable resource for myself. Blogs are a powerful form of communication. Educational leaders have a great opportunity to reach their teachers, parents, and community on a more personal level. Principals can blog about happenings on campus, librarians can blog on the latest book reviews, technology specialist can blog on the latest technology, gadgets, and how-tos. I found a great example of a principal’s blog. I love this blog and have added a subscription to it in my Google Reader. Also, here is an awesome site that I found 50 Best Blogs for Educational Leaders. Keep on bloggin’!

Discovering the Value of Action Research

At the onset of this course I assumed we would be writing a research paper and not giving it much more thought. As a desktop publishing teacher, I spend much of time reading educational technology magazines just to keep up with the ever changing field. When something new comes out I perform more “research” to discover ways I may apply this in my classroom to enhance student performance. From this week’s reading in the Dana text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge, I have become excited about the prospect of learning how to become an effective teacher/leader using the principles of action research. I have learned even though most of us as teachers and leaders already engage in our own research to help us in our efforts to reach our students, we may not be getting the desired improvement that we seek. When practitioners sit hours on end in professional development classes and listen to other’s research-based ideas on how to improve student learning much of it has no meaning. When the practitioners perform their own research based on what is happening at their own campus – issues they may be wondering about – it becomes meaningful, and thus the chance for student improvement is much more likely to happen. The prescribed formula seems to be easy; it begins with using a “systematic, intentional study” of an established area of practice. The study includes collecting data to gain insights, analyzing the data along with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings, and sharing findings with others (Dana, 2009). After discussing with the principal at my campus on what direction she would like me to take in my action research it was decided that I could research why, year after year, the seventh grade Math TAKS scores are consistently lower than sixth and eighth grades. I feel confident that through this educational journey I will grasp the full understanding of how to implement action research in order to use it as a “powerful vehicle for learning and school improvement” at my campus. (Dana, 2009)

Reference:
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.