EDLD 5301 week 1

Action Research
When I started this course I was very nervous about what this course was going to be about. I was very happy when I finished my readings to discover what action research is and that we as teachers already engage in it.
Action research is a useful tool for teachers and administrators because they are conducting the research on topics that are relevant to their campus or classroom. They are able to conduct research on topics of interest and report their findings to fellow teachers or administrators of other campuses. Teachers who use action research and reflect on their practices can evaluate their current practices and analyze them in hopes of raising student success. Through our pretests and post tests we are always analyzing the students performance and breaking it down question by question and discussing what success we had and where we need improvement. The math teachers are always engaging in reflection.
I plan on using action research in my math class to study the effects of having students work on basic muliplication facts daily and have homework that spirals material rather than homework that covers just what they learned today. The point of my research is to determine if students who are exposed to the constant repitition will improve their scores and cut down on the amount of time they spend on problems focusing on just basic computation because it is not "on the tip of their tongues". This is a major concern moving from the TAKS test to the STAAR test and getting them ready for the general working world.

Use of Blogs
Blogs can be a very useful tool for teachers. They can be used to communicate with administration and other teachers. Assignments can be shared and teachers can comment on what worked or didn't work. They can also share ideas for ways to teach topics or activities. Administrators can use them to blog about what works at their campus and post questions to other administrators. Blogs would be a great way for all Professionals to share and communicate ideas.