Action Research Project Summary

I have already begun the process of professional development with the teachers and have had several conferences with teachers needing guidance in planning for differentiated instruction for this upcoming year. I have begun observations with teachers, and I have provided them with their strengths and weaknesses and helped guide them in ways to improve their areas of weakness. This vision will aid teachers because we are undergoing many changes in our state this year, including a new evaluation system which is expecting teachers to have students do more higher order thinking and for teachers to provide differentiated instruction to their students. As the semester progresses, I will stay in contact with my administration team, which will be conducting evaluations based on the new evaluation system, and discuss with them areas needing improvement in the subject of math for the school. Based on their observations and my observations, we can revise the plan, if needed, to better fit the needs of our staff and students. Teachers will be aware of the plan through communication at PLC meetings and will have access to strategies taught through my website. The community and parents will have many opportunities to be a part of the growth of math instruction through various opportunities being held at the school level. We will have a Math Night where parents can be a part of the math learning process and will be given strategies for incorporating math at their home to help improve their child’s math comprehension. Also, parents will be given the chance to communicate with their children about math through the use of newsletters and math kits which provide additional experiences with math. Lastly, community members will be brought into the school as guest speakers and will be given the chance to share with students the ways they use math in their jobs. Through the use of community members as guest speakers, we, the school, will be able to save some of the budget for more manipulatives and professional development opportunities for the teachers. Math Night resources will be budgeted through the use of donations and the Title I budget. Our school is on a limited budget, so any opportunity for free resources and/or donated resources will be a benefit for us. My goal is to provide teachers with resources and strategies that can be made by the teachers or that do not require a purchase. I will show them ways to use the technology in their classrooms and ways to incorporate the technology in small groups, so all students will have the chance to participate. To have the vision come to life, there were various resources that were needed. At the parish level, we had a consultant of the Elementary Department lead several PLCs on incorporating differentiated instruction into lesson planning. In addition, we and several guest speakers come into our school to share the way they use their learning from elementary school to make it to where they are today. In the school, I conducted several PLC meetings to show teachers various resources out there that will help them with differentiating and with incorporating technology at various levels into their classrooms. My administrators and I met to discuss what resources teachers may need to successfully improve their math instruction and to incorporate differentiated instruction into their plans. We brainstormed manipluatives that will be needed and math literature for the library to purchase for teachers use throughout the year. We are well on our way to a successful year in the area of math instruction, especially with the new curriculum and the new evaluation system being implemented. School culture has improved due to this project because teachers are more aware of the needs of the students and are willing to make a change for improvement. Teachers have begun coming together across grade levels to work collaborate and share their strategies for teaching specific skills and ideas. When I came into the school, teachers worked the way they wanted in their own classrooms without sharing. Now, they go to each other, observe each other, and work together to plan for their lessons, so they may reach more learners. When you have the help and guidance, it makes for an easier transition into the classroom and a more positive culture around the school. That positive attitude of teachers reflects on the students and provides for an overall positive experience. After December’s Scantron testing results, we will have a clearer vision of where this plan has taken us and where we need to go from there. As far as my own instruction, which I implemented differentiated instruction from the beginning of the year last year and various strategies to improve the math comprehension of my students; I was able to see a tremendous growth in math comprehension for my students. For example, there was one student which began the year at with an overall score of 30 in mathematics from 3rd grade, ended the year with an overall score in the 300s in mathematics for 4th grade. We saw this type of growth for the majority of the 4th grade class based on their 3rd grade scores to their 4th grade scores. I am curious to see the growth of the school after a full year of implementation. During this project, I collected quantitative, as well as qualitative data. I used the data from standardized test results, such as Scantron, iLeap, and LEAP, to compare the beginning of the year performance to mid-year performance and end of the year performance. Because this project began in the middle of the year last year, I was not able to have enough data to make an accurate conclusion. After the implementation of last year and this year, I will be able to have more accurate data to make a conclusion on its relevance. In addition, I surveyed the teachers to determine their teaching styles and their thoughts in regards to teaching mathematics and ensuring comprehension among their students. I found that the majority of the teachers were less comfortable teaching mathematics and lacked the wide range of strategies needed for teaching mathematics in the lower elementary classrooms. This was built into the professional development for teaching with various math strategies and using differentiated instruction as a tool to reach all students. I found my administrative staff to be motivating and agreeable in my research and have allowed me to conduct my research in the way I find fit for our teachers and students. In addition, the parish has been influential in my research because of the collaboration I have had with various schools and their mentor teachers which have a vast knowledge of math instruction and strategies. To be able to ensure the quantitative date shows growth among the majority of students in math comprehension, I will need to be sure I keep myself updated in the various strategies which can be used for teaching math instruction by participating in professional development opportunities. With that in mind, I participated in a class over the summer, Math and Science Partnership, which is a college level course designed to provide teachers with math instruction at the college level, so the teacher can instruct students in a better manner. In addition, I will attend the Louisiana Math Conference this year and may present at the conference. Throughout the year, I will share with the teachers my findings and strategies I learn for them to incorporate in their own classrooms. After I provide the teachers with the development of these strategies, I will provide links to the research and strategies on my website for access at any time. I believe the qualitative data will vary by the end of this year as well, because teachers should begin to feel more comfortable with the math instruction after the many opportunities of professional development and learning opportunities.

Draft Action Research Project Report

Draft Report (Google Doc)

Web Conference #2 (December 11) - EDLD 5363

        I found this Web Conference to be one of the most beneficial ones of this semester.  Not only did it answer questions about the assignment pending, the PSA, but it answered questions about the process for the Masters at Lamar University.
        I understood that Weeks 4 & 5 were combined to make one grade and all the work from the PSA would be the assignment for those 2 weeks.  In addition, the Final Exam Reflection was cut out due to EPIC difficulties.
        Along with understanding the assignments, Dr. Abernathy answered questions about the Lamar program.  Questions answered varied from reasons for not worrying about the GRE to ways and reasons to receive the Principal Certification.  For example, there is a student that scored high on the GRE, yet is still pursuing a Master’s degree.  Also, the Principal Certification is beneficial when pursuing a higher position, whether it is as a Principal or in an Administrator role in the offices for a district.

Collaboration

      I found our team to work well together.  We were on the same page as to keeping the PSA amusing while having some truths to it.  We had our Google Documents that we used to brainstorm and share, and we also held a couple of web conferences with each other to be able to put faces with all of our names.  I found the collaboration and deadlines we set for each other realistic in our time settings and found that everyone played important roles in the PSA. 
      When it comes to improvement for the PSA, I think it could use some imrpovement with the video segments.  Some are too dark, but all together I think the editing came together well creating an interesting and amusing PSA.

Collaboartion Efforts for PSA

PSA Collaboration

Collaboration Emails

Week 3 Collaboration

PSA Announcement

EDLD 5363 Web Conference

I found the Web Conference that I attended beneficial.  It answered questions I had about the Assignments for this course.  I learned the reason why I was looking for a group to join.  It also helped me to understand why this class is important for the degree I am seeking.  Video editing and multimedia use is crucial in today’s multimedia age in the classroom and school settings.  As a leader, it will be important for me to know about these tools and use them to teach other teachers and to inform the community about the school.