My Action Research Afterthougths

I am now winding down my school year.  As I mentioned in my last post about my AR, I had an awesome idea and experience, but my implementation had some challenges.  I loved this process so much that I would like to continue to make this work.  Since I am at the end of my school year, I am going to start developing this for next year.  I may even stretch this into my next AR project.

The changes that I need to make are to be more deliberate in my planning to include the right steps in my learning targets.  When I formed the targets this time, I just went off of the standards.  Sometimes that was enough, but I found for other math subjects, like long division, there are more steps that I needed to monitor along the way to a high level of understanding.  So I am going to write additional targets that students will need to get to the standard.

I also want to find a way to involve parents in my process.  The idea is that I will know where every student is at with math comprehension, every single day.  Often parents want to know where they can help, so if I create a second checklist, students could take this home and parents would also have a way to know if their student needs support.  I am not sure how I will do this.  My only idea right now is to have them self assess on two checklists.  I feel like I need one in my possession so I have it to refer to and pull students as needed.

The last change I would like to make is to have a plan on what to do when I see that students have rated themselves as not understanding a topic.  I did okay with it this time around, but I would like a more formal procedure.  I am thinking about setting a time aside at the end of the day that will be a math support time.  I currently have a snack break that I intend to change.  I would like to have a menu of options for each topic I teach.  I have been making a lot of games to use for this purpose.

Overall I am still very excited about this research plan.  I am feeling great about starting it, making some mistakes, and then having the chance to make changes and make this a very valuable tool in my classroom.

Vision Statement

This is a vision/mission statement that I wrote after my first year of my master's program.  I am proud of what I have learned and looking forward to making these changes in my years to come as a teacher.

Belief Statement:

I believe that students learn best in an environment that is safe.  I believe that they need to understand how to navigate through their environment and how to get along with others.  I believe that as a teacher I can facilitate this warm, compassionate, and understanding environment which will in turn create a place for hard work and self motivation.  I also believe that students need to be immersed in the same technology that they use in the real world.  Educators are preparing them for work and life and we need to incorporate the tech tools that they have access to.  These technology skills go along with the 21^st Century learning that need to be taught in all schools.  Society is different, jobs are different, and we need to equip our students with tools that they’ll need to get jobs.  I also believe that we need to teach children that they are all great at something.  They are not carbon copies of each other and we need create opportunities for all learners to learn and excel.