Autonomy

In Chapter One of Nancy Fichtman Dana’s book, Leading With Passion and Knowledge, she discusses the value of allowing educators to develop and implement an action research project. She discusses how this process engages educators by giving them the autonomy to pursue their own interests and ideas. I find this idea particularly interesting, because I am also in the process of reading Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, which was recommended to me by an instructional leader in my district when I interviewed her for my Lamar Fundamentals of Leadership course. Pink also describes that people will perform better when they have autonomy. I myself have felt the effects of this idea as I have developed and implemented my action research plan. I feel engaged, interested, and motivated when I am working on this project that I designed for myself. I am beginning to develop another wondering based on my own increased motivation – how can we use the action research process to engage our teachers and/or students?

Addition to my plan

I got these two student comments on my Action Research Plan:

“Having good technology support is a must in order for us to keep up with all the technology out there. We have to keep up so we can try different things in our classrooms. Good luck.” ~Araceli Garcia

“Technology professional development is one that is critical to the success of students, staff and teachers in this day and age. Your action plan has good intentions. The perception of professional development regarding technology specialists does seem to be at the bottom of the priority list but the need for effective, quality technology specialists is at the top. I am looking forward to following your research.” ~ Stevan Hartford

These two comments together pointed out a possible weakness in my plan. My plan involves making staff development available to teachers when, how, and where they want it. Maybe the missing piece is making them want it.

Hartford mentions that technology staff development is low on the priority list. Garcia says that technology support is needed to improve instruction. The change I want to make involves both of these elements. If I can convince teachers to make technology staff development a priority by demonstrating what it can do for their students, they will make the effort to attend.

I plan to develop a series of “advertisements” showing teachers the projects and successes that other teachers have had using technology. For each course that is taught, I will develop an ad in the form of a video or infographic to show teachers what they could do with that technology.

Action Research Plan

How can Instructional Technology Specialists deliver staff development to best serve the highest number of teachers? I would like to explore different aspects of ITS course offerings, including time, format, instructor, location, and subject, to discover ways to increase attendance by teachers.

Last year, among budget cuts in the district, half of the Instructional Technology Specialists were cut. The half of us that were left now had double the teachers to serve. We were not able to offer as much staff development to our staff. At the same time, the attendance at our course offerings has declined. Teachers report being too busy with tutoring, personal lives, grading and parent communication to attend staff development sessions.

In the past, ITSs served only our own campuses – each ITS training the teachers at her own campus. If the ITSs instead worked together and pooled our resources, we could offer more staff development to more teachers in more ways. We could offer evening webinars, on-demand online courses, and hands-on courses at different campuses to try to accommodate teacher needs. Every course offering could be offered to the entire district, which would maximize our efforts.

Passions

In Chapter Two, Dana (2009) discusses nine areas of passion where school leaders may focus when conducting action research. I have always been passionate about two of them, staff development and curriculum development. I find it interesting that after only seven weeks of graduate study, my interests are rapidly expanding. In meeting with my site supervisor and other district leaders, I am gaining a better perspective on why district leaders make certain decisions. In the action and communication of leaders, I now see purposeful strategy. I am seeing in myself leadership qualities that I had always doubted before.

As a former science teacher, action research seems to me to be a very natural process, but one I have never used. I am excited by the idea of implementing my action research plan, studying the data and research, developing a plan, implementing the plan and then reflecting on the outcomes.

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

Proposed Action Research Study

How can Instructional Technology Specialists deliver staff development to best serve the highest number of teachers? I would like to explore different aspects of ITS course offerings, including time, format, instructor, location, and subject, to discover ways to increase attendance by teachers.

This research study will benefit students, teachers, and ITSs. Instructional Technology Specialists will be able to concentrate their efforts in offering staff development that will reach the greatest number of teachers. Teachers will be able to benefit from more and varied staff development opportunities that work best for their learning styles and schedules. Students will benefit from teachers who have more training in using technology to improve instruction.

Using Blogs in a PLC

An educational leader could use a blog to lead a professional learning community with her staff. She could post her thoughts and interesting articles. She could invite her staff to discuss the posts, implement ideas from the blog in the classroom, and post the results in the comments.

Action Research

Action research gives educators a well-defined method to evaluate their own performance, investigate problems in the school, and make positive changes. I would like to try using action research to improve my effectiveness as an Instructional Technology Specialist.

The process starts with an inquiry – I might wonder how ITS’s can deliver staff development to a larger group of teachers.

The next step is to look at available data. I could look at surveys conducted by the district staff development department which allowed teachers to choose the topics, instructors, locations, times, and format of sessions that work best for them. I could also look at recent attendance statistics to determine which sessions were most attended.

Next, the educator reads existing papers and research that pertain to the topic. This helps the educator gather information and ideas relating to the problem. I could look at papers regarding staff development opportunities and motivating teachers.

After looking at data and research, the educator will develop an action plan. If possible, it is beneficial to collaborate with others in this process. I could collaborate with the ITS Staff Development committee to create a plan to increase attendance and improve staff development.

After the plan is implemented, the results are evaluated to see if the plan was successful or needs to be modified.