Reflections

This action research course has had many insightful aspects to it. The readings, lectures, electronic searches, activities and assignments, discussion boards, and blogs have all been extremely beneficial towards achieving my educational goals. Action research is a means of bringing about positive change in your own environment. It is a process guided by questions intended to focus on future improvements.

FINAL TOPIC

Throughout the course I have met several times with my site supervisor regarding this assignment as well as my action research plan. Unfortunately, she has been out of town for about a week and I have been unable to meet with her face to face. Her assistant has been talking to me on the phone, and also meeting with me. She also has been e-mailing my supervisor to keep her informed of my progress.

SHARING IDEAS

While continuing my action research project on minimizing the effects of the transition of elementary students to the junior high school for students and their parents/families, I have continuously been sharing my thoughts and ideas on both my blog as well as the discussion board. These efforts have helped me tremendously to proceed with my plan since I have received many opinions from different people both on line as well as from my own community.

Questions with transition to junior high???

As I pondered on the question of narrowing down the topic of my action research project, somehow junior high kept coming back to my mind. It seems that the middle school years are ones that many parents and families become less involved in as compared to elementary years. This can be attributed to many factors such as working parents, schedules, other children, etc. however, some parents may feel that they have unanswered questions about junior high, and therefore feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. Students may feel that leaving elementary school where they have always been surrounded by adults and parents to all of sudden being expected to attend a school with "big kids" is also uncomfortable for them. It could be that students, and parents or families have many questions for this major step that is about to be taken, and they are not quite well informed yet. Therefore questions need to be addressed before the student begins junior high to insure maximum success by the student as well as the student's family.

What Lessons Have I Learned This Week?

I don't even know where to begin about explaining what I have learned this week. The whole world has opened up to me because of this educational research class. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that blogs would even be in my vocabulary, but here I am blogging. There is so much that I learned. 

LET'S ALL GET INVOLVED!

Today I'm thinking about doing my action research project on parental involvement in the junior high years. By parental, I mean any family member, person, or community member that is concerned in the student's success.

My analysis on Educational Leaders and blogs

Educational Leaders are just that, leaders.Whether they lead in the traditional classroom or in the virtual classroom, they still are the ones that are guiding the learners. In today's society, technology along with all of the latest gadgets is the way to the newest, most popular means of communication.

My opinion on Action Research

Without even thinking about it, we all use action research in our every day lives. We don't want outsiders solving problems that we can deal with ourselves. For example, we live in a subdivision that has a home owners association. Sometimes it seems that there are many rules to follow, but it is much better than having the city leaders tell us how to deal with our little community.