Web Conference Week 3 EDLD 5397

During this weeks conference I felt more confused on part 3 with the APA activity. Many of my classmates including my self had a lot of questions and many were clarified but a few left more confused.  For example, number four of part three was explained and and it left me more confused of what I already was. The conference also consisted a lot on what is expected for week 4 assignement. Many of my questions and doubts were clarified with this conference. 

Action Research Update!

I have been working on my action research project with my supervisor since December. I began by holding a meeting with all third grade teachers. I met with them and explained that I was going to conduct a research and that I was going to need of their help and collaboration. All five third grade teachers agreed to work with me hand in hand. After receiving the third grade teacher’s approval, I scheduled a Parent Night for third grade parents. I sent out flyers a week in advance to make parents aware of this upcoming meeting. I also sent a reminder 3 days before the meeting and the day prior to the meeting. Out of 106 students only 33 parents showed up. I explained in English and in Spanish to the parents. Parents agreed to help their child with fluency at home. They also agreed to sit down, listen, and time their child. With the other parents who did not show up to the meeting, I sent home a detailed and friendly user memo asking for their help at home. I asked for students to bring the memo back signed with the parents consent to help their child at home. I also placed a space below if they wanted to meet with their teacher to discuss the fluency homework to please schedule a conference at their best convenient time or if they wanted me to call them to explain to please write down their phone number. I did attend several conferences with the parents and teachers and made several phone calls. In total it was 56 parents who were aware of the research by attending the meeting, phone call, or conference. The rest of the children brought their papers back signed. I had to bribe the students with a popsicle in order for them to bring the papers signed. For those students who did not bring it back, I made a phone call home to make parents aware of this new homework being sent out and to please return the paper signed with their acknowledgement. I prepared the third grade teachers with the fluency package that was going to be used throughout the research. I gave the teachers the weekly fluency to be sent home with each child and sign in sheets for the parents. The teachers did not have to worry about making copies, I supplied everything for them. I also provided them with a chart to document the words per minute read by each child on Fridays. I picked up the fluency chart and the sign in sheets from the teachers on Friday. I would document in the chart how many of the parents read with their child throughout the week. Some parents read all four days, some read three, some read two and some did not read. I noted how many days of the week the parents signed that they sat down with their child to read. This Friday is the last Friday I pick up this information for my research project. I collected in total 10 weeks. Teachers got used to passing out the fluency passages for homework and timing their students every Friday. They mentioned they will keep up with this routine for the end of the year and begin right away next year. I now have to see the change parent involvement has impacted on the students’ fluency. 

Action Research Plan- Parental Involvment

Action Planning Template
Goal: The Goal is to increase student performance in Reading benchmarks and fluency.  Monitoring will be done through parents’ signatures when they sit down and work with their child at home. It will also be determined if they assist to teacher-parent conferences and to school meetings.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Meet with third grade teachers to discuss implementation.	Third grade teachers, principal, and myself	December	Copy of action research rough draft, fluency and homework worksheets, parent conference documentation sheet, and fluency and benchmark charts	Notes and suggestions from the meeting, agreement of the group to implement the plan
Hold a parent meeting afterschool with all third grade parents.	Principal, third grade teachers, and myself	December	Agenda, student current scores as a grade level, homework sheet and fluency sheet where they will sign.	Total number of parents present at the meeting.
Parents will time students for fluency and sign for completion and document words per minute read.	Parents, teachers, and myself	January- March	Fluency worksheet with parent signature and weekly fluency charts	Evaluate data from fluency charts
Homework assignment sheet is where a signature is required after parent checks completion of homework.	Parents, teachers, and myself	January- March	Homework sheet	Charts teachers indicating who signed.
Teacher- Parent conferences with low performing students	Third grade teacher	January - March	Teacher- Parent conference documentation sheet	Evaluate conference with parent/ Did the parent show up or not?
Benchmark results for Reading	Third grade teachers	January- March	Benchmark result chart	Evaluate data from the charts

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

Lessons Learned - Week 2

This week I thought over and over about good questions that will relate to parental involvement at my school. After going over the few questions I wrote with my campus supervisor, we concluded in working with the following question: What effect does parental involvement have on student scores at El Jardin Elementary? What I learned this week is that action research is a lot of work. I will need to start developing a plan to come up with surveys and data charts to answer the question. From the interview videos I watched this week, I learned that action research needs to be ongoing, never stop because as a teacher or administrator one has to keep learning to keep improving our school. Sharing information and keeping an open communication with your teachers is very important.

Action Research

I have learned that action research is a way to investigate and improve or solve any issues that you may encounter as a principal in a school. As a problem arises or there is an issue to improve, you begin by investigating, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, reading/researching, and evaluating the data. After evaluating the data, you need to take action to change whatever is needed to be changed. The process is continuous and is for the perfection of the school where all members benefit from it. All stakeholders need to be involved in the action research plan and work as a team. I will be able to use action research to improve my school. As a principal, I will use action research to change or improve any situation that arises in school. For example, a particular problem I currently see in my campus is parental involvement. Action research in parental involvement would benefit all teachers and administrators in helping to get parents to be more involved in the education of their own children. When parents become more involved in their child's education, the students become more attentive and engage more in school work. Their behavior and grades also improve because the students know their parents are aware of their progress. Parental involvement is an issue that needs to be addressed and investigated.

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