Interactive Notebooks ARP Update

Since the last time I posted about my ARP I have had a few setbacks but also some advances in my research. First of all we were supposed to receive the composition notebooks from the school at the beginning of the year but as it turned out we didn't receive them until just a couple days ago. I have had a chance now to see the students and how they react to taking note on their own accord. The scores were rather low unfortunately but now I have the chance to change that and see the difference it will make with the new notebooks.

I had a while now to prepare some good foldables and ideas to incorporate into the notebook. I now have the support of my team and we will be recording the new data to compare. The end of the 6 weeks is coming up so I will have a base for what to expect from the students from now on. As the year continues I will continue to take data at the end of the 6 weeks and wait to summarize the results at the end of the year. The process was made to be very easy to track and so far it’s working out great. Just got to keep on moving forward with this and make it a routine with the students because for a lot of them this is the first time they are taking quality notes. Since the index is the first thing done the students will now be able to easily find any subject or specific day in their notebooks. This will hopefully help students be able to find the material they need to study easier. This is just one of many things that will be focused on since receiving the notebooks. 

Week 5 Reflection

Well I am finally glad to be done with the course. We are officially 1/6 done! Still now I have roughly a week and a half to get ready for the school year to start. With everything going on so fast I hope I can keep up. I just got switched to Algebra II and am now the team leader so I have a lot more responsibilities to undertake. I am looking forward to the challenge and I know this will help me do the internship plan that much faster. Now my ARP just has to switch from Geometry K to Algebra II K which isn't that big of a deal. Overall I think this class was not that hard. I feel like we just have to jump through hoops some week to get an assignment done where others we really have to dig deep and get the work done. I did learn a lot about ARPs though. I feel its just what we do with information and questions on a daily basis but its a specific format and guidelines. Still it's important to take along with me as I progress in my teaching career. Until next course, OVER AND OUT.

Week 4 Updates and Revisions

Well school is coming closer and my ARP is almost ready to get underway. I met with my site supervisor and we felt the only change needed was to specify "student work grades" with "student 6 week averages". He just thought it might be a little vague and to clear up any confusion was just to change it. I was completely okay with the change and made me feel a little more confident in what I already had was good.

The process has been very smooth since I have a lot of free time this summer. So creating the ARP was the hardest thing for me. I knew I wanted to do something with interactive notebooks but deciding on what to look at was the hardest part because of variables in the classroom. But with my site supervisor we defined some things a little different which would help me with my data.

So far the progress is going well. Everything is up in the air it seems like at our school so it's hard to really get a firm idea of whats going to happen. Team leader positions are still open and we don't have all the teachers hired yet so it seems like I will be implementing this ARP from a sprint when school starts. But I think it's easy enough for someone else to record the data so whoever I con into helping me shouldn't have any issues.

Anyways 1 more week and it looks very easy. I'm tempted to get it done right now while I still have some motivation before school starts.

Action Research Plan Template

Action Planning Template
Goal: How does using interactive notebooks affect student performance* compared to students who do not use interactive notebooks in Geometry K? *Defining performance as discipline issues, attendance, missing assignments, ect.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
-Determine Geometry K teachers not using interactive notebooks	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	August 19, 2013 – August 23, 2013	-Email	-Spreadsheet of teachers names and categories being addressed in Action Research Plan (ARP)
-Introduce Interactive Notebooks to my students -3 individual Geometry K classes will be involved -Classes will not be told of the data being collected	-Jeremy Tallon	August 26, 2013 – June 5, 2014	-Notebooks -Copy paper -Pencils -Scissors -Glue -Ruler -Extra materials on a needed basis	-Progress through course like normal taking data as weeks progress
-Meet with involved teachers to address any questions on data collection	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	August 26, 2013 – August 30, 2013	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Collect Week 1 Data on spreadsheet
-Meet with involved teachers to address any further questions on data collection	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	September 2, 2013 – September 6, 2013	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Collect Week 2 Data on spreadsheet
-Meet with involved teachers to address any last questions on data collection	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	September 9, 2013 – September 13, 2013	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Collect Week 3 Data on spreadsheet
-Gather 1st  Six Week Data: Referrals, Attendance, Missing Assignments, Grades, Etc.	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	October 7, 2013 – October 11, 2013	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Record Spreadsheet Data on 6 week periods rather than the first 3 weeks to see if a pattern arose.
-Gather 2nd Six Week Data: Referrals, Attendance, Missing Assignments, Grades, Etc.	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	November 11, 2013 – November 15, 2013	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Record Spreadsheet Data
-Gather 3rd Six Week Data: Referrals, Attendance, Missing Assignments, Grades, Etc.	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	January 7, 2014 – January 11, 2014	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Record Spreadsheet Data
-Gather 4th  Six Week Data: Referrals, Attendance, Missing Assignments, Grades, Etc.	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	February 24, 2014 – February 28, 2014	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Record Spreadsheet Data
-Gather 5th  Six Week Data: Referrals, Attendance, Missing Assignments, Grades, Etc.	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	April 14, 2014 – April 18, 2014	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Record Spreadsheet Data
-Gather 6th  Six Week Data: Referrals, Attendance, Missing Assignments, Grades, Etc.	-Jeremy Tallon -Nydia Ledesma -Other Geometry K Teachers -Marshall Caplan	June 5, 2014 – June 6, 2014	-Email -Referrals -Attendance -Missing Assignments -Grades -Etc.	Record Spreadsheet Data
-Analyze and Interpret Data	-Jeremy Tallon	June 6, 2014 – June 13, 2014	-Spreadsheet	-Record noticeable trends and correlations according to data
-Share results with administration and make modifications and recommendations	-Jeremy Tallon -Marshall Caplan -Heather Bergman	June 16, 2014 – June 20, 2014	-Email -Spreadsheet	-Handouts of data to administration are made

Week 2 Reflection

After this week I have gotten a better understanding on action research. I still have some questions regarding how to interpret some data since there are lots of variables to take into account and I don't think we can clearly say this was or was not the thing that made the change. I'm sure I will gain more information into this in the weeks to come. I also feel like action research is a lot like other teaching practices where we "steal" each others ideas and use that to help progress on our own action research topics. Lastly, I learned that working in a collaborative group of teachers and administrators might be the most effective to solve action research topics. With lots of data the people can work together and branch off later in individual action research topics. Having all that data is very important to help create a better teaching environment.

Educational Leaders Using Blogs

Educational leaders have many benefits of using blogs. First off they could share upcoming ideas or events for the parents or community. Another benefit of having a blog is to share ideas or issues that other leaders can comment on. Having the support and ideas of many other people in the same boat can open up many new possibilities. Although staffs have a school email, the educational leaders may choose to have a blog that also shares information regarding school or something completely different. The blog may best be used to share information relating to school but once again it could just as well be used to share a multitude of ideas.

Action Research Description

I have learned that action research is a process that helps a person reflect on one’s own practices and develop better methods that are more efficient. Traditional research does not include the person doing the research therefore the person cannot provide insight into their own practices. The benefit of this is not only does it provide principals more powerful information into the questions being asked but it gives the staff and school a great role model to follow and practice their own action research. Another benefit to action research is the fact that it can be used on a wide range of topic and from as little as one person to a campus issue. Some of these issues include school performance, professional development, or even the material being focus on in a classroom. This process is cyclical so that once a person has reviewed the research and made adjustments it is still possible to reevaluate the question and reflect on the new adjustments and make even more improvements. Action research is not always an easy process and does require the person to take time and make the commitment to review and reflect. Since they are reflecting their own processes it should also be stated that one must be honest in their review of their processes as not to make unnecessary or biased adjustments.

As an upcoming second year teacher I feel I can use action research to analyze many of the staff development training's I have attended over the summer. After having my data from last year and making the transition to interactive notebooks this coming year I can use action research to see how this differentiation is affecting overall student performance. I could also use action research to see how discipline issues are changing by using the new style of teaching with interactive notebooks. There may be little to no change in discipline but it’s always something to look at and the results may be surprising. Without action research I would have no data to support any of these claims.