Week 5 Reflection

As I began this course I thought this would be another typical research class that would involve me visiting libraries and online resources to accomplish yet another written task.  I quickly realized that action research was not the ordinary type of research that I envisioned.  It quickly excited me that I was going to be responsible for accomplishing a task that I was already planning on for this school year.  However, now it would be even better, as I would have to support it with more formal research as a solid background, data would be tracked more thoroughly, and formal graphs and information would be presented to the team.  In short, having to create this for school makes me more "on my toes."

This course did a good job of consistently building from the previous week's assignment.  I feel that the initial foundation for my plan has been built and thoroughly established.  We are lucky as a class that this course fell during the summer months and we can now implement our plans.

I love technology but was leery when I realized all the collaboration and feedback that was going to be necessary in this class. I am very open to feedback but I am not use to freely expressing my ideas to people I do not know, especially over the WORLD wide web.  However, I quickly learned the value of group collaboration.  The feedback that was given to me as well as seeing the formatting and ideas of others enabled me to be more thorough in my own action plan.

I have enjoyed this course and I am anxious to begin my plan!

Action Research Plan-Effects of Parental Involvement and Parental Instruction on Students’ Academic Performance

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIMELINE	BENCHMARKS/ ASSESSMENT	REVISIONS TO SIP/PIP MONITORING AND ASSESSMENTS
Increased Parental Involvement	During school and after school program that invites parents to the school.  Parents will learn how to instruct and work with their children on academic work in the math intervention classroom.	*Research the data    of increased    performance    with parental    involvement *Research    activities/    program that    other schools    have used to    increase parental    involvement *Choose struggling    students that will    benefit from this    program.  Focus    on lower 25%    and choose 15    students/parents    that will be able    to be involved. *Talk to their    parents to    ensure that they    will be able to be    involved and    come to school *Create schedule	*Research    ideas *Choose    students *Discuss and    collaborate    with    principal *Talk to    parents *Create    schedule *Collaborate    with    principal    again *All Respon-sibilities will be between the principal and myself.	September 2013- May 2014	*Unit Tests *Six Week Tests *Teacher informal    Assessments *Standardized State    Assessment **Create table and graph to display information each 6 week assessment period.	None at this point
Increased Student Achievement	*Same a    above	*Same as above * Utilize informal    assessments ,    software    programs, and    surveys	Same as above	Same as above	Same as above	None at this point

SCHOOL VISION:  To achieve academic success for all students.

GOAL:  To improve parental involvement with student academics which will also create overall higher student academic achievement.