Zaman University

Zaman University:

Zaman University aspires to be a bold and dynamic community, with an unparalleled sense of commitment, which strives for positive influence and impact on Cambodia. (University Cambodia)

Zaman University will be home to an academic community who will in turn promote outstanding individuals to succeed in our fast-changing world (Cambodia University).

Zaman University mission is: To discover, preserve, and disseminate knowledge, produce creative work, and promote a culture of broad inquiry throughout and beyond the Zaman community (Phnom Penh University).

Zaman University vision is: Zaman University will be a prominent university in Cambodia, the region and the world known for its academic excellence and producing quality human resources (University Phnom Penh).

Reflection upon my GAME plan experience and digital storytelling.

Throughout this EDUC 6713 course, I learned new education technology tools, self-directed learning techniques and GAME plan based teaching strategies. GAME plan was the most important and fruitful one. As I mentioned in my previous posts, GAME plan includes setting goals, taking necessary actions to achieve these goals, monitoring the progress, evaluating the outcome and extend the GAME plan if necessary (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Developing and following GAME plan to improve myself was so exciting. I set goals, took necessary actions, monitored my progress and evaluated the outcome. Now I have a few friends who are willing to read an article together with me every Friday night. Together, I am sure that we will follow the new trends in education technology and physics area. Additionally, we will discuss our teaching strategies under the light of articles that we read. In the future, we may create a forum or wiki. Everybody can post the articles that they found to the wiki page, and we can deepen our discussions after choosing one article. Meanwhile, anybody can read or comment to the posts that we share in our wiki or forum page. One day we might have a community with thousands of members who are willing to develop themselves. Thanks to this course and my another GAME plan, I and my students learned a lot about digital storytelling. I shared my ideas with my students, and I am happy to see that they are interested. First digital stories about my content area will be ready soon.

Additionally, I acknowledged that I can use GAME plan strategy while teaching my subject. Creating daily lesson plan with using GAME strategy was amazing. I learned a lot from using the GAME plan, and I will always consider using GAME plan strategy while preparing my daily lesson plans. Especially setting goals and self-assessing the progress with using GAME plan strategy will help my students to achieve their goals and assess their own performance. So far, I decided to use self assessment in my classes. Accordingly, I will ask students to monitor their progress while doing their project. This is something that I did not do before.

Other than GAME plan, I learned new technology tools and teaching strategies that I can use in my classes For instance, I will use digital storytelling as an alternative performance assignment. Auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners can benefit from digital storytelling. Educational networking or so called social networking is another tool that I will use (Laureate Education, 2010). Students can communicate and get help from real people who are working in related areas to solve real world problems. To teach with technology specifically, is a lifelong journey, and I am learning a new education technology tool in every course (Cennamo, et al., 2009).

Technology, education tools, students and the world change so fast. In this changing world, I have to renew myself and learn new things so that I can help my students and guide them in their life journey. I will always ask “what do students need to learn”, “how can I improve my teaching strategies” and “how can I make sure that I did not left any of my students behind”. I will update my answers with doing research, making observation and creating and completing GAME plans.


References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010a). Program number 10: Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration: Part I [DVD]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Monitoring My Game Plan Progress

Since last week, I took action to achieve my goals and have made some progress. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) mention that “you’ll need to monitor whether you are making sufficient progress toward your goals and reflect on whether the strategies you have chosen are working” (p.4). Accordingly, in this post, I will reflect on my actions and monitor my progress.

Goal of my first GAME plan was to follow and read articles from 5 different websites. After reading comments, I decided to change my goal; to form a community and discuss one of five articles in my PLC. Thanks to google, I managed to find and evaluate websites that I need. Additionally, I reviewed the school policies and physics curriculum. So far, I evaluated the websites that I mentioned last week. I found http://www.eschoolnews.com/ and http://www.sciencedaily.com/ websites very useful and bookmarked them. Additionally, I asked my school administration to subscribe to physics teacher journal, and they said that they will consider it. Moreover, I talked with my colleagues and they are interested in discussing one article per week. When I reflect on my progress, I am happy to see that I nearly achieved my goal. Still, I will need to locate two more website about educational technology and research.  Additionally, I will wait for the final answers of school administration and my colleagues and act accordingly.

Calgary1Students

View more presentations from Helen Barrett

My second Game plan’s goal was learning digital portfolios. I found the information and resources that I needed. So far, I do not need to modify my action plan and goal. I learned that: “A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work demonstrating the student's achievement or growth as characterized by a strong vision of content (Brown, 2002)" Additionally, I acknowledged that electronic portfolios are enduring, enables collaborative work,  easy to access, easy to edit and provides student voice-feelings and emotions (SMS Services Team, 2011). I read the digital portfolios- guidelines for beginners article (http://myportfolio.school.nz/artefact/file/download.php?file=187483&view=24719) and understood the basic requirements to prepare an electronic portfolio. I located several free online creative portfolio community sites such as behance network(http://www.behance.net/), Carbonmade (http://www.carbonmade.com/ ) and SHOWND (http://shownd.com). I think that Carbonmade is suitable for my students. Most probably, I will advise them to sign up to Carbonmade website, and prepare their first electronic portfolio.

I hope to successfully complete my GAME plans within a few weeks. However, my success depends on the engagement and participation of my colleagues and students. According to their response, I may modify my action plan.

References:

Brown, M. D. (2002). Using Technology | Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom. Retrieved 9 26, 2011, from Education Worl: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach: Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.

SMS Services Team. (2011). DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS G u i d e l i n e s f o r b e g i n n e r s. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Carrying out my GAME Plan: Action

In my previous post, I designed two GAME plans to achieve two different goals that will help me to improve my professional skills and introduce new education tools and assessment methods to my students. In this post, I would like to share my ideas and progress in terms of carrying out my Game Plan.

Goal of my first GAME plan was following and reading articles from 5 different websites that publish articles about current physics related researches, educational technology and new teaching strategies. Additionally, one of my colleagues advised me to establish a PLC to discuss articles together. To achieve this goal, I will use the following resources;

1-      Internet access.

2-      School policies.

3-      Physics curriculums.

4-      Google search engine to locate related websites.

5-      Colleagues who use technology in their classrooms and are following technology and research websites.

6-      Colleagues who are willing to form a PLC and discuss articles related to physics.

7-      Digital tools, technology and physics related periodicals and online journals.

I will need to review school policies about subscription and membership fees for various journals and websites and physics curriculum to learn additional information. I will also need to revise REAL strategy to evaluate websites and guidelines of starting an effective PLC. So far, I used google to search and located websites: http://physicsworld.com/, http://www.eschoolnews.com/, http://www.educationworld.com/, http://www.sciencedaily.com/, http://tpt.aapt.org/, http://www.phy.ilstu.edu/jpteo/ and http://www.iopblog.org/ . I will find out more websites and evaluate them with using REAL strategy (November, 2008). Additionally, I shared my PLC ideas briefly with colleagues, and I am waiting response from them.

My second GAME plan’s goal was learning digital portfolios as an assessment tool and teaching students how to use digital portfolios efficiently. I am going to use following resources to achieve my goal:

1-      Internet access.

2-      Websites with information about how to create and use digital portfolios.

3-      Websites that offer free digital portfolio space.

4-      Samples of existing digital portfolios that can be used as a model or guide.

5-      Colleagues with experience who used digital portfolios before.

I am going to need additional information about efficiency of digital portfolios. I will also need materials that I can use to create my first digital portfolio other than Walden’s e-portfolio. Finally, I will need to review physics curriculum to prepare a portfolio template that students can use while creating their portfolios. So far, I talked with my colleagues, and found out that they never used digital portfolios. I bookmarked some websites such as http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml, http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic82.htm and http://echucaelearning.wikispaces.com/Digital+Portfolios. I am going to read and follow the links. Additionally, I located http://electronicportfolios.com/myportfolio/versions.html website which compare and review portfolio service providers. I am going to choose a free portfolio site to store students’ portfolios.

References

November, A. (2008). Web Literacy for Educators. CA: The Corwin Press.

Stay Current in a Rapidly Changing World

In the past, teaching resources were limited with books, board and marker. Today, we can use projectors, smart-boards, internet, audio-visual equipments and electronic resources to teach. Nobody knows what type of teaching resources will be available in the future. Given the continuous changes to the technology and teaching resources, it is a professional necessity for everybody to follow and learn new technology to stay up to date. For teachers, digital age not only changes the education technology but also the standards and characteristics of high performing effective teachers. For instance, teachers must provide a learning environment that takes students beyond the walls of their classrooms and into a world of endless opportunities (ISTE,2011a). Therefore, everybody must develop self-directed learning skills and be ready to learn and improve themselves in terms of knowledge and skills continuously. In other words, everybody must know how to plan, evaluate and monitor their actions to become self-directed learner. (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

GAME plan is an effective self-directed learning strategy that people can use to learn new things themselves. In this plan, learner must design and set GOAL with considering what they know and what they want to learn. Later, learner must take ACTION and use various strategies, methods and resources to achieve the goal. Additionally, learner must MONITOR his/her progress while achieving the goal. Finally, learner must EVALUATE and reflect upon the process to determine if the goal was met and EXTEND the goal (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

After reading National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T)  (ISTE, 2011b), I acknowledged that I need to improve myself in terms of using technology effectively in class. I am good at facilitating experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in face-to-face environments. However, I do not use virtual environments. Additionally, I figured out that I am poor in promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. Finally, I found out that I am not engaged in global learning communities and I am not evaluating and reflect on current research and professional practice in physics teaching area.

To become a high performing teacher, I am going to furnish myself with two of the NETS-T standards. Of course, I will use GAME strategy to achieve my goals and acquire mentioned skills.

My first GAME plan will help me to meet the NETS-T Standard 4c: evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning;

Goal: I am going to follow and read articles frequently from 5 different websites that publish articles about current research about physics, using educational technology or new teaching strategies.

Action: I will search the internet and locate mentioned websites. Additionally, I will evaluate the reliability and freshness of publications. Finally, I will sign up for membership or to websites’ rss feeds if possible.

Monitor: I will monitor my progress with evaluating the quality of websites that I located and the frequency of my visits. Moreover, I will note down and check the number of articles that I read about each area.

Evaluate/Extend: I will evaluate the efficiency of following websites. Did I waste time with reading articles or did I learn new strategies and technology tools that I can use in my teaching. According to the result of my evaluation, I will either continue to follow websites or locate another one.

I am going to follow another GAME plan to meet the NETS – T  Standard- 2d: provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.

Goal: I will learn and teach my students how to use digital portfolios. Additionally, I will learn how to use digital portfolios to assess my students.

Action: I am going to find and read tutorials and guidelines about digital portfolios. I will also locate websites that students can create and manage digital portfolios free of charge. Additionally,  I will check the technology resources that I, school and students have to evaluate the possibility of using digital portfolios to assess students. Finally, I will develop a tutorial that students can use to understand and manage their portfolios

Monitor: I will monitor my progress and understanding about digital portfolios. I will also monitor the progress of students. I will spend around 15 minutes  two or three times per week to compare my goal and progress.

Evaluate and Extend: I will evaluate my knowledge about digital portfolios. I will compare my findings with my goal. If it is possible to use digital portfolios as an assessment tool, I will start using them. If I find out that there are obstacles such as technical difficulties, I will try to identify them and solve them.

I am sure that setting goals for myself will encourage me to improve my self. It is very exciting to become self-directed learner and learn new things myself.  There will be times when I might get discouraged or frustrated, but having this GAME plan will motivate and keep me focused on the big pictures which is to become a high performing teacher and offer the best learning environment and strategies to my students

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

ISTE. (2011a). Standards for global learning in the digital age (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards.aspx

ISTE. (2011b). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program Three:  Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 1. [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

New Teaching Philosophy For New Century EDUC 6712 Reflection

First of all, this course changed my thoughts about literacy. Before, ability to read and understand a printed document was enough to be literate. Today, the whole idea of literacy has changed greatly and must be proficient in more areas to become literate (Laureate Education, Inc, 2010a). There are lots of information resources, and students can learn new information not only in class but anywhere. Therefore, teachers should teach students how to learn themselves (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 4).  In this EDUC 6712 course, I acknowledged that students must know how to ask good questions, how to read visual resources, how to use search engines effectively to find valid and relevant information, must be able to evaluate websites and synthesize information from multiple resources. In other words, students must learn how to gather information from other sources such as movies, animations, pictures, podcast and Internet. In the unpredictable future, students will need new skills (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). Accordingly, it is our duty to revise our teaching strategies and start using student-centered strategies. Thanks to this course, I started to change teaching philosophy. I will value new literacy skills and encourage students to learn themselves. Additionally, I will prepare more inquiry based lesson plans and guide students while they locate, evaluate, synthesize information and present their final products. As a result, students will learn how to learn reliable and valid information themselves.

Preparing an inquiry-based unit plan was the most striking part of EDUC 6712 course. I am happy to see that it is not difficult to develop and use an inquiry based lesson plan. Additionally, I understood that inquiry based projects can engage and motivate students and make the lesson enjoyable. Students can work in groups and learn not only the curriculum content but also the 21st century skills and new literacy skills. QUEST model is a supportive and encouraging framework that can be used to gather information and transform information to form new ideas (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 277). With using QUEST model, students can break down their project into manageable pieces. Students may complete each step one by one, and combine their findings at the end. Meanwhile, I can observe, guide and assess the progress of students with monitoring each step. Finally, students will  successfully complete their project and present in front of the class.

In the future, I am planning to prepare Internet inquiry based lesson plans with using QUEST model. . I am aware that it is not my duty to teach QUEST model to my students. Therefore, I will talk with administration and IT teachers, and ask them to include QUEST and teach model into their IT curriculum. I will explain why it is so important to teach new literacy skills. I hope they will understand and act accordingly. I will also spend some time in my physics lesson to show how to ask a good question, create search keywords, use search engines effectively, locate and evaluate the websites, separate bias and valid information, synthesize information from multiple resources and create a final product with owning gathered information (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I am sure that my students will successfully complete their assessments with using QUEST model.

I know that technology changes every day and I have to develop my skills to catch new technology. I am planning to read more about different search engines. Furthermore, I will read more about QUEST model and search lesson plans prepared with using QUEST model. My goal is to engage students to the physics lesson, and teach them skills that they will benefit in the future. To achieve this goal, I will use technology and inquiry based unit plans. I will prepare an Inquiry based lesson plan for each unit. Students will complete one project at the end of each course. As a result, students will both learn physics, 21st century skills and new literacy skills.

References

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. 2010a (Producer). New literacies. (DVD). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. 2010b (Producer). Skills for the Future. (DVD). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Review of May’s Teacher Inquiry Part II Chapter 5 - 8

CHAPTER FIVE

Analyzing Field Note Data

Prompt #5 Questions: There were four observations that Sienna conducted over a two-week period to document May’s redirection behaviors. First, you will examine the series of observation reports. Second, identify any trends and themes you find in the data. Be sure to consider the observational notes that Sienna included. Look to find and share any triangulation processes in May’s data collection and analysis work. Third, evaluate the data and provide reasonable explanations for what you think might be happening over time that would explain the story the data are revealing.

Response:

Sienna’s records suggest that she did a great job and became an active partner of action research. According to Sienna’s records, number of redirections decreased from 37 to 13. This is a great improvement, and proves that May’s strategy worked. After reading Sienna’s notes and data report sheets, I noticed that redirections are concentrated on certain time intervals, namely at the beginning and end of the lesson. Most probably, students talk with each other if there is no teaching activity. Sienna’s comment in data report number 2: “enjoyable activities decreased the number of   redirections in the first ten minutes of lesson” shows that my theory is correct. Additionally, Sienna’s comments suggest that changing the location of students affect the number of redirections, and moving noisy students to front seats might be a good strategy to decrease the number of redirections. While analyzing the data reports, I noticed that there is no positive redirection. Either Sienna did not record positive redirections or May did not use positive redirections. I would suggest May to use positive redirections also.

It is very difficult to find traces of triangulation with looking at the recorded data. There are three data sources; students’ wish lists responses, data reports and Sienna’s comments. However, it is very difficult to correlate those data.  Sienna should write down the names of receivers of redirections, and note down the differences between current day and the previous day in terms of location of students and activities done. As a result, it would be easier to understand the reason behind the decrease in number of redirections. I might speculate with saying students whose responses fell into wishes for more fun and less pressure from school category received most of the redirections, and changing their locations decreased the number of redirections. There  are no data to support my speculation.

CHAPTER SIX

Analyzing Data Related to the 5-Minute Challenge

Prompt #6 Questions: Describe May’s class graph. What happened over time, and what are some possible reasons for the trends and patterns you notice? What new goals do you think May should set for the class as a whole based on her students’ response to the timed agenda challenge?

Response:

May’s class graph clearly shows that her strategy worked and number of students who copied the agenda within five minutes increased from 11 to 20. There  are no data, but I think 9 of 11 students who completed writing agenda within 5 minute were belonged to category 3. Later, other students started to finish on time and number of students increased each day and reached maximum 20 students. Data indicates that there is one student who did not be able to complete on time, and I wonder if this student was same or not? Class graph clearly shows that May’s strategy worked and students get used to complete writing agenda on time. Such a quick change also suggests that students are willing to learn and follow the orders. Rapid change in the second day and decrease in the following day shows that students are open for new things and love to do different things. After comparing Sienna’s records and five minute challenge data graph, I found out that number of redirections decreased when students focus on their tasks. This suggests that when students are busy with something, they do not need redirection.

Finally, both class graph and Sienna’s records suggests that May’s students are capable of changing their habits and willing to accomplish tasks. Moreover, students do not need redirections when they are working on a task. As a result, I would suggest May to focus on transition time. She might find a challenging activity to fill transition time. Additionally, most of the redirections occurred at the end of the lesson, and May might find another timed activity to challenge and engage students at the end of lesson. Alternatively, students may play a game or watch a lesson related funny video that attract attention and summarize the lesson as an ending lesson activity.

  

CHAPTER SEVEN

Graphing Data and Focus Group Interview

Prompt #7 Questions: Describe Anthony’s and Leah’s data. What happened over time? What do you think May might do in the future to capitalize on Anthony and Leah’s success and keep them on track during the entire class period?

Response:

First of all, it is very difficult to understand how Anthony managed to decrease preparation time from 8 minutes to 30 seconds. I wonder if May changed length of agenda or students were wasting time before.

Anthony’s and Leah’s graph record sheets clearly shows that they are engaged to the challenge and they are trying their best to complete on time. Additionally, their preparation time decreased dramatically which suggests that May’s goal is achievable. Notes written on record sheets shows the reflections and emotions of Anthony and Leah, and it seems that they are happy. I always say that students make noise to be recognized and attract attention. In this action research, Anthony and Leah are recognized, and Darby and May pays attention to them. As a result Anthony and Leah are engaged to the lesson and try to do their best to keep this relationship.

May might continue to pay attention and give personalized goals to those students. Additionally, May might give flexibility to chose their own goals and encourage them. I am sure that Anthony and Leah will not need redirection once they feel that they are recognized by the teacher when they try to reach their goal. In conclusion, I would suggest May to create a peaceful and comfortable class environment, in which all students feel that they are accepted, recognized, respected, cared and have fun.

CHAPTER EIGHT

 Bringing Closure to May’s First Cycle of Inquiry—May’s Journaling

Prompt #8 Questions: Pretend you are May, and it is now the start of the next school year. Your assistant principal, Mr. Brown, asks you to talk about your inquiry journey at the first faculty meeting of the year. Discuss a plan for your presentation. What will you share and how will you share it? Refer to Chapters 6 and 8 of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research for support in responding to this prompt.

Response:

Sharing inquiry with the community is one of the most important parts of teacher inquiry. All faculty members including fellow professionals may benefit from the findings of inquiry (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 188). If I were May, I would consider four critical features of the teacher inquiry write – up while creating PowerPoint presentation which are: “providing background information, sharing the design of the inquiry, stating the learning and supporting the statements with data and providing concluding thoughts” (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 190).   There or lots of things that I do not know about May’s community, and it is very difficult to figure out a strategy with so many unknown variables. Still, if I were May, I would start with giving credits to others. First of all, I would thank to Mr. Brown for his support. Because it is very difficult to find supportive administrators in schools. Before starting my presentation, I would give credit to my team members and my students who guided me during the inquiry process, and actively participated. At the beginning of presentation, I would ask a few questions about disruptive behaviors that faculty members faced in class, and methods that they used to solve behavior issues to engage faculty members to the presentation. Later, I would present my inquiry with using a PowerPoint presentation. In this PowerPoint presentation, I would start with showing the decrease in number of redirections and preparation time to attract attention of teachers and to show that my inquiry worked. Later, I would explain my inquiry journey starting from finding a wondering question. I would describe how did I chose the data collection methods, literature that I reviewed and collaboration with team members. I would show my data analysis to faculty members with graph. Finally I would share my findings, and I would tell them changing location of students, challenging the students and giving a task to them improved their behaviors positively and decreased number of redirections.

At the end of PowerPoint presentation, I would list down the benefits that I gained from teacher inquiry. I would invite my team members to share their ideas and benefits from inquiry briefly, and I would share my future goals related to action research.

Additionally, I would explain them why it is very important to do a teacher inquiry, and I would encourage them to try to find answers for their wondering questions via action research. I would especially mention them that students are unique and they cannot use findings of a research directly. Therefore, it is necessary to do an action research to see the affects of teaching strategies in given class.

I would finish my presentation with distributing a summary of the reflective educator’s guide to classroom research book (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009) and asking for collaboration in future inquiries.

References

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry (2^nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Review of May's teacher inquiry

As a part of my Walden master study course, I reviewed May's action research from course website. I am surprised to see that my wondering question and her inquiry close to each other and share a common goal. Both May and I want to engage students to a science lesson. You may read my review below.

CHAPTER ONE

Setting the Context, Studying the Literature, and Developing the Wondering

Prompt #1 Questions: Why is it important for May to look at literature as a part of her inquiry journey? What insights did May gain about her inquiry topic through her readings? In what ways might May’s readings inform how she will collect data for her study?

Response: 

May is a dedicated teacher, and she tried every possible strategy that she knew to engage students. However, she faced behavior problems and felt frustrated. Teacher inquiry idea inspired her, and she decided to do an inquiry about behavior problem, and created a wondering question. May's wondering question is: “How can I create the classroom conditions needed so that my students can be successful in supporting my instruction?" It was clear that her knowledge is not enough to answer this question. This fact lead May to review the literature at the beginning of her teacher inquiry. While reviewing the literature, May learned how to describe behaviors in a clear way from the prereferral intervention Resource Manual (as cited in (Laureate Education, Inc. 2010, pg. 5) and she understood how to diagnose behavior problems in class. Additionally, May joined positive behavior support conference (as cited in Laureate Education, Inc. 2010, pg. 5) and acknowledged new strategies about how to strategically respond behavior problems. May also read “Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students: Promoting Change Through Relationships" article (as cited in Laureate Education, Inc. 2010, pg. 6) and learned positive psychology theory. From this article, May understood the reason behind the behaviors of students. The last article that May reviewed was about the middle and high school teachers of Philadelphia. May learned the importance of teacher-student collaboration and decided to use this strategy in her inquiry. As a result, May decided to use students actively in data collection process, and literature review lead her to rewrite her wondering question.  

CHAPTER TWO

Designing the Inquiry Through Collaboration With Colleagues

Prompt #2 Questions: May, Naomi, Margaret, Darby, and Mr. Brown formed a professional learning community that met regularly to plan May’s first inquiry and to support one another in their work as educators. What specific benefits did May receive as a result of collaborating with her colleagues? Why is collaboration an important component of the action research process?

Response:

First of all, May is so lucky to have such open minded, cooperative team members who are eager to help, ready to listen, willing to share ideas and capable to provide suggestions. According to the case study that I reviewed, May's team members helped her in every step of inquiry. For instance, her colleagues suggested May to use one class and helped her to figure out most effective student group for inquiry. A Turkish proverb says: "Two heads are better than one" Similarly, May and her colleagues reviewed literature, discussed and developed an action plan together. As a result, May and her friends formed a team and implemented strategies, monitored student progresses and assessed data altogether. This helped May to identify and group students, identify the key outcomes and conduct an accurate and effective teacher inquiry. As a general rule, teamwork is necessary to finish a job quickly and effectively, and May's collaboration within the learning community is a good example of benefits of collaboration and cooperation. Without cooperation, she would not be able to choose appropriate student group, and her results would not be accurate. More importantly, her inquiry would have a limited effect and would not create a school wide positive impact on teachers and students.

CHAPTER THREE

The Intervention and Data Collection Plan

Prompt #3 Questions: A critical component of the inquiry process is designing a plan for data collection that is doable! Explain the importance of developing a data collection plan that is meaningful but practical to the life of a classroom teacher. Address the following:

·                 What part of May’s data collection plan do you feel will be most meaningful? Why?

·                 What parts of May’s data collection plan do you believe to be the most practical? Why?

·                 What parts of May’s data collection plan do you believe to be impractical? Why?

·                 Pretend you are one of May’s colleagues. Suggest one additional form of data you think May might collect that could inform her research. Be sure you provide an explanation that describes why you think May should consider collecting this form of data.

Response:

First of all, I liked the collaboration between May and her peers. Each team member contributed to the inquiry process and figured out a data collection model altogether. She clearly identified problems that she faced in class and actions of each tier. For instance, May mentioned that students stop following the procedures, namely, writing down their agenda for the day after spring break, and she had to give constant verbal redirections. Following the suggestions of her peers, May decided to give a five-minute challenge to her tier 1 students to complete their agendas. Additionally, May wanted Tier 2 students to create a personal graph of their own successful attempts at writing the agenda.  It is obvious that these interventions make data collection and data analyze manageable and easily doable. More importantly, I am surprised to see that May used data collection as part of a solution. May’s target is to run the fourth period smoothly at the end inquiry. As an example, May asked tier 3 student, namely, Sienna to record data to engage her to lesson. It is also interesting to see that May used her inquiry to improve graphing skills of students.

I think that focus group interview with the whole class strategy is a meaningful way of data collection. Students feel happy and motivated when teachers ask and value their ideas. Therefore, group interview will engage students and will increase the success of inquiry. Moreover, this will give May a chance to correlate the relation between ideas of students shared in class, and number of completing copying agenda at the beginning of the lesson. As a result, May might regroup students and figure out the problem behind not copying agenda.

I think that using journal entry to collect data is very practical. While students are copying agenda from the board to their notebooks, she may walk around and note down the students who finished on time. Additionally, she can use collected data to draw graphs and clearly identify the improvement of students.  This will both motivate students to complete their agenda, and provide a solid data to analyze and draw graphs. Additionally, I think that data collected by Sienna and Darby might be subjective, and the data collected by the inquirer is the most accurate data.

I feel that the most impractical data collection method is to ask Tier 3 student to record redirections. At first sight, it looks so practical. Like Margaret suggested, giving responsibility might improve Sienna. However, Sienna might collect data subjectively, and this might affect the result of the inquiry. For instance, Sienna might not record redirections pointed to her, or she might forget to record sometimes. Additionally, Sienna may not be able to pay attention to the lesson and collecting data at the same time, and this might affect her achievement in lesson.

I would suggest May to use student works as artifacts. Documents can provide extremely powerful data (Dana& Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p.81). In May’s case, she might ask students to note down the minute they completed copying the agenda, and she might ask students to put a smiley that describe their feelings at different times. Moreover, May might ask students to put a plus once they receive a redirection. As a result, she might check if the students completely copied the agenda or not and she might draw different graphs such as completion time versus days graph for each student. Additionally, she might look for a correlation between emotion of student and redirections she received. As a result, she would be able to identify performance of each student and understand the emotional conditions that caused redirection from teacher. This collected data would be an alternative way to collect same data, and would help her to triangulate (Dana& Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p.112) data.

CHAPTER FOUR

Coding May’s First Data—The Wish List for Great Classroom Learning Conditions 

Prompt #4 Questions: Download May’s “Wish List” Student Response data.

Follow a modified version of how to conduct a data analysis as described in the course text, The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research.

·          Begin reading through the entire class’s wish list responses.

·         Next, read through the data set a second time. Ask yourself, What am I noticing about the student responses? Do the responses seem to fall into different categories? How would I name the categories? Select your categories.

·         Code each category with a different color.

·         Finally, read through the data a third time, highlighting each response in a different color to correspond with the categories you created above.

In your journal responses, share the categories you named, as well as examples of responses that were included in each category. If you were May, what do you think your analysis of this initial data is telling you to do next?

Response:

Students’ wish list responses clearly show that there are different kinds of students in class. Some of them are motivated and want to learn, some of them are respectful, some of them are not interested in the lesson, and some of them try to be funny. I think respectful students can be motivated to note down agenda easily, and help May while collecting data, and motivate others. Motivated students would speedily note down the agenda. Unmotivated students and funny students need more attention. May might change the location of students, and let respectful and motivated students sit next to an unmotivated together on the same seat. This might force unmotivated students to pay attention to the lesson and respect for others. I categorized the wish list responses as below; Respectful, responsible students:

1.      Give respect to our teacher and other classmates. Let’s be kind and not argue with one another.

2.      Listen and be quiet.

3.      My wish for the whole class is to respect our teacher.

4.      Get ready for class all together would be good. Some do and some don’t.

5.      I want to show my teacher my respect. I want to have an S (Satisfactory) for conduct.

6.      Have our agenda done when the teacher comes into the classroom. We can have out our paper and pencil, be ready to learn, and have our homework out.

7.      I wish people would stop being loud in this class. It is loud sometimes.

8.      Come in and get ready and start on time. Maybe the Deputy could come to class from lunch. That might help us.

Motivated, hardworking students:

1.      People need to come to class to learn! They need to focus. I wish they would focus.

2.      My wish is to have us all on the same page when the bell rings.

3.      I wish we could come to class, sit down and get started on our work!

4.      Class would be good if it started on time every day.

5.      I wish L and T wouldn’t bring in so much of their drama into class so we could get going on time.

Unmotivated students:

1.      I wish everyone would get an A, and that we had more field trips.

2.      I wish I could get us less homework.

3.      My wish is to get more field trips out of town and to give us less homework. Homework Mon.–Thurs. and Fri. no homework.

4.      I wish things would go in order the same way so I know what to do.

Funny (nonsense) students

1.      We need to have more fun and more parties—and all A’s!

2.      To give me an A for no reason and to just be kind to people. Having a little bit of fun and not having all this homework. To be Friday every day!

3.      I wish I was the richest person in the world.

4.      Saying there is no homework! Saying we don’t have to do nothing to pass!

According to the responses, most of the students are respectful and motivated. With a slight push, I am sure that May will be able to create a peaceful environment, and most of the students will copy the agenda. There are a few unmotivated and funny students who are not interested in the lesson. May should focus on these students and interview with them. Additionally, May might set certain goals and promise a party or extra points for achievements. This might motivate students who wanted field trips and parties.

References:

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry; (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). A case study: Living the process of inquiry with a real teacher-

researcher. Retrieved 6 12, 2011 from Walden University Web site: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/59896/CRS-WUPSYC6205-5104436/Living_the_Process_of_Inquiry_CaseStudy_112210.pdf