EDLD 5326 Reflections

My Action Research turning the traditional classroom into a PBL classroom.  This process is in full swing.  The Sociology teacher and I have worked hard to make this a success.  She perhaps is even more excited than me about doing these classes even though this was initiated by me.  Both of us are working hard to develop project lessons, as well as developing the appropriate amount of difficulty and rigor.  We want the kids to be challenged, but we also want the kids to have success. 

I personally have had a few problems.  My first problem entails just knowing exactly what to do.  Focused research would help accomplish this, but lack of time available for research has been an issue.  As a STUCO representative, I have had to dedicate lots of time getting through the Homecoming activities of the school.  Luckily, we had all that this weekend.  I hope to do more research, as well as attend a conference about PBL. 

My second biggest problem is to have the appropriate level of difficulty for my kids.  Some of the kids have no problem accomplishing the goals I have set for them, and are finished too quickly.  Other kids struggle with the basic concepts of the projects.  I think that I will need to have differing assignment for the different kids.  This can sometimes be problematic because it can’t just be more work for the smarter and more accomplished kids.  These lessons just have to be more challenging.  Finding that balance is at a premium. 

Action Research as of August 9th

Action Research – Project Based Learning (PBL)

Goal 1 – Creating lifelong learners - I plan on having my on-level economics students produce several products originating from PBL questions I have provided for them.  The students will be allowed some options as to what they want to answer.  Options are very important to student buy in.  This gives the student power, and that in turn gives the student an interest in the very schoolwork I want them to accomplish.  Truthfully, even if the material isn’t exactly what I want them to learn, my true objective is simply to get the student to learn new material they have never seen before.  This creates an active, learning student who has started down the path of a lifelong learner.  It is much easier to educate a student who has started down this path than one who has not. 

Goal 2 – Promoting success through education – We need students to be successful in whatever they do.  A lack of success generally leads to a reluctance to accept responsibility and reluctance to attempt schoolwork.  PBL should lead to success for students because it is simply doing. 

Goal 3 – Accomplishing success in the high stakes testing world of today – This is going to be the difficult thing to accomplish with PBL.  I have personally seen a PBL school at work, and the one thing that gave me pause were the products produced by the students.  They simply were not that impressive.  It is my hope that a classroom student who is engaged in some type of school work, will lead to success in other areas.  Simply participating in meaningful classroom work when no work was previously done is the key. 

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmarks/ ASSESSMENT
Creating Lifelong learners	- Conduct research through student grades to determine success.  - Preparing PBL lessons and having students participate in them.  - Create a large amount of PBL lessons to create a variety of things students can participate in.	- Previous classroom data  - Passing rates of previous years.  - Graduation rates of previous years.  - Workforce data	Jason R. Pratt Gwen Elder Chrissy Hester Steve Day Randy Hootan	Fall 2012 - Spring 2013	- Student interviews.  - High passing rates on exams. - High passing rates on projects
Promoting success through education	- Create PBL lessons that are easy enough for the lowest level student in the classroom, but also difficult enough to challenge the high level learner.  - Create PBL lessons that are fun, so that students will want to participate in them.  - Create an atmosphere of success and a culture of success within the PBL model.	- Time to produce these lessons.  - Continuing look at the Manor Tech model.  - Funds to get more COWS put into classrooms so that technology can be an integral part of the PBL process.	Jason R. Pratt Eddie Coulson	Fall 2012 – Spring 2013	Graduation rates. Low discipline referrals from these classrooms.
Accomplishing success in the world of high stakes testing / Moving PBL to EOC classrooms	- Produce some PBL lessons for the AP classroom.   - Have AP students prepare some PBL lessons they think are appropriate  - Move the PBL model to EOC exam classrooms.	- Time is a key resource needed to produce the high amount of lessons to move this concept to other levels.	Jason R. Pratt Debbie Lange Samantha Krinhop April Wilson April Falco	Spring 2013 – Spring 2014	- AP Microeconomics exam. - Benchmark exam
Gather as much data as possible as to what is most important for the school.	-  Interview my principal as well as the other AP’s in the school. -  Interview the district superintendent and discuss what the district has plans for in the future. - Interview district personal and have discussions as to the relevance of PBL	Appropriate times for each of the members to have discussions with.	Gwen Elder Jeff Mann Matt Caffey Courtney Smith Leigha Gautreaux Billy Hicks Chrissy Hester Eddie Coulson Jason R. Pratt	Fall 2012-Spring 2013	Having a more complete understanding of the needs of the district.
Obtain or create at least 25 PBL for on-level economics classes.	Make due diligence in creating 25 PBL that have high quality as well as a variety of learning styles.	Money provided by either the district or grant to purchase PBL. Time so that I personally can create PBL	Teresa Benden Jason R. Pratt	Fall 2012-Spring 2013	Completing the goal.
Observe an increase in graduation rates for PBL classrooms over traditional classrooms	- Create an atmosphere of learning and accomplishment in the PBL classroom.  - Provide alternative opportunities for students who traditionally been ignored, or who traditionally haven’t been reached.	Patience by the district as well as my school administrators.	Jason R. Pratt	Fall 2012-Spring 2013	Completing the goal.
Provide an alternative to the traditional path in economics for students.	Write a proposal to have PBL be an alternative class choice for students provided in the course handbook.	Help by the councilor’s office as well as patience by the councilors office.	Jason R. Pratt Chritie Cheshire	August 31st is the due date.  The class can be provided next year.	Completing the goal.
Provide an alternative to the traditional path in Social Studies for students.	Discuss and convince other members of the Social Studies Department as to the benefit of providing PBL classrooms.	Time and effort by other members of my department.	Consolidated Social Studies Department	Fall 2012 - ?	Any increase in provided PBL outside of economics will be considered a success
Provide an alternative to the traditional path in multiple classes at Consolidated for students.	Convince other department individuals as to the benefit of having PBL classrooms and the necessity of having alternative learning environments for students.	School wide effort.	School wide effort	Fall 2012 - ?	Any increase in provided PBL outside of the Social Studies Department will be considered a success
Provide an alternative campus for students to be totally immersed in the PBL experience	- Collect data from the success/failures of other PBL classrooms within the district as well as outside the district. -  Procure the funds and space for such an alternative campus.  -  Establish the support of the district	- Building or space within one of the existing buildings. - Appropriate, supporting administrator to head up such a project.	Jason R. Pratt School Board Eddie Coulson Central Office Admin team	Fall 2012 - ?	Any alternative campus of any type will be considered a success.

Developing an Action Research Plan

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmarks/ ASSESSMENT
Creating Lifelong learners	- Conduct research through student grades to determine success.  - Preparing PBL lessons and having students participate in them.  - Create a large amount of PBL lessons to create a variety of things students can participate in.	- Previous classroom data  - Passing rates of previous years.  - Graduation rates of previous years.  - Workforce data	Jason R. Pratt Chrissy Hester Gwen Elder Steve Day Randy Hootan	Fall 2012 - Spring 2013	- Student interviews.  - High passing rates on exams. - High passing rates on projects
Promoting success through education	- Create PBL lessons that are easy enough for the lowest level student in the classroom, but also difficult enough to challenge the high level learner.  - Create PBL lessons that are fun, so that students will want to participate in them.  - Create an atmosphere of success and a culture of success within the PBL model.	- Time to produce these lessons.  - Continuing look at the Manor Tech model.  - Funds to get more COWS put into classrooms so that technology can be an integral part of the PBL process.	Jason R. Pratt Eddie Coulson	Fall 2012 – Spring 2013	Graduation rates. Low discipline referrals from these classrooms.
Accomplishing success in the world of high stakes testing / Moving PBL to EOC classrooms	- Produce some PBL lessons for the AP classroom.   - Have AP students prepare some PBL lessons they think are appropriate  - Move the PBL model to EOC exam classrooms.	- Time is a key resource needed to produce the high amount of lessons to move this concept to other levels.	Jason R. Pratt Debbie Lange Samantha Krinhop April Wilson April Falco	Spring 2013 – Spring 2014	- AP Microeconomics exam. - Benchmark exam

Lessons learned from week two

I think there are several things I have learned after working on my week two material.  I understand that research and data are important, but I like that we learned that the right data is actually what is important.  There is a ton of data out there, and there is a ton of information out there, but if you are not finding the right data that can best help your organization, it is really not worth the time. 

I think too many times we have the latest thing that we are interested in as educators, and if you are not on board, you are a bad educator.  This idea of bad data makes me happy because it basically says that this latest thing has some flaws in it.  There are always negatives to anything we do, and looking at the wrong data is exactly the flaw here.  Cheers!

Interviews with scolars

Dr. Kirk Lewis was the first interview I selected mostly because of my personal interest in the Gates Foundation and all the great things they are doing.  He mentioned that the Gates Foundation was the funding mechanism for their research based Expectation Graduation.  The idea of the program is designed to help 9^th grades students to get them ready for graduation by teaching them techniques to understand more in-depth questions and information.  With E.O.C.’s on the way, learning at a deeper level is becoming ever so more important, and going deeper into the core curriculum is what Expectation Graduation is supposed to do by using data to better understand exactly what students need to be successful at the deeper level type of questions. 

He is interested in having a highly educated staff that they themselves can make the research themselves.  A high level of Masters degrees are part of his district, so he wants them to use that data experience they have learned to better improve their particular campus.  It is important to look at what others have done, and take that technical writing and understand it.  Likewise, practicality is important when looking at research.  This will make the researcher more interested, and thus create a better product. 

Reflection for Dr. Lewis - I like Dr. Lewis.  He has taught me that it is okay to pick and choose when it comes to research.  This is not to say that you should ignore data that you don’t like.  That is downright bad, but you need to find data that can help your district and your campus.  Data must be usable.  He mentions that you can create all kinds of important sounding data and look impressive, but that is silly unless you can actually use it on your campus. 

Dr. Timothy Chargois was the second interview I selected because of his candid take on going beyond pedagogy.  Pedagogy has been the sacred cow, if you will, in education for the past few years.  We have been told that following certain pedagogy strategies will yield high results.  Dr. Chargois has approached the situation, with the aid of the Dell Foundation, to look at data as a tool to better teach our kids.  It seems that technology is the reason we can have immediate results and better results when applying them to education.  If indeed pedagogy is working, the data will give us positive results, but if it is not, the results will be negative.  Perhaps some students don’t need the whole gambit of pedagogy to be successful, and this data driven approach will let us know if that is so. 

There is a look into effective vs. ineffective teachers with this research.  Dr. Chargois makes the point that if you should never stop learning, no matter how young or seasoned an educator is.  I agree with this.  In this world of performance based results, looking at data can help us to know where and what we need to do, and what direction we need to take.  Along with this, he discusses the ethical responsibilities a teacher has when looking at data and the ethical responsibilities in helping students. 

Reflection for Dr. Chargois - I liked how he made the point about ethics.  What is our moral / ethical responsibility to kids as a whole?  Are we to be mindless robots following the data, or caring individuals who care for kids?  We are to do both equally.  I know I don’t want to be a mindless robot, but I also don’t want to be an ineffective teacher or administrator. 

Reflection for Johnny Briseno – He reminded me that reinventing the wheel is a silly thing.  There are so many great minds out there that have done so much great work.  I’ve learned to continually look outside of myself and outside of my district to learn about the best way to educate kids.