New Ideas about Action Research

I think that action research is good for schools. It really helps the teachers and leaders of the schools take a look at what they are doing and keeping the focus where it needs to be. If the focus of education is not on students, why do we even have school? All types of research help teachers become the best teachers they can be. Teaching can sometimes be like working a very large, 1000 piece puzzle. If you keep focusing on the same things over and over again, it can be easy to lose sight of what is important. Many times as educators, we look at the same things too many times and fail to step back and see what we are doing. When working the puzzle, if you focus on one piece at a time, you cannot see what you have accomplished. But when you step back, you can see the progress you've made. I sometimes get so bogged down on what my students are not doing, I have to remind myself to step back and look at all the progress that has been made. I know that I will start to focus on "one piece" too much, but using different action research techniques can help me step back and see the progress that is being made in many different lives.

How educational leaders might use blogs

Blogs can be great for educational leaders in many ways. It is an easy way to communicate with many people without very much effort. If a superintendent of a large district wants to express an idea or share some sort of information that will not only go out to the employees through an e-mail, but the entire community, they can post a blog and many more people will have the opportunity to see what new things are going on in the district. Overall, the use of blogs by educational leaders would help communication flow freely to all of the stakeholders.

What I have learned about Action Research

Whenever I saw the name of the class I am currently taking was called "Action Research" I was pretty nervous. The thought of doing some sort of research project while I teaching and doing all of the other things that my job calls for really started to stress me out. As I began reading Nancy Fichtman Dana's book Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher, I started to see that action research is not about doing a research project, but trying to make yourself better by taking a hard look at the way you approach things in your professional life. It can really put things in perspective and help administrative personnel keep priorities straight. One recommendation that I really like is to have a set time each week to engage in some type of action research. During this time, you can look at different data that can help guide you to solve whatever problem you may be having in your professional career. I am very relieved that instead of having to do some sort of research project that I might not be interested in, I have the opportunity to better myself and help progress my career by taking an in-depth look at what really matters to me.