My action research project involves parental involvement. I currently teach at a Title 1 school and our parental involvement is low. My goal is to examine in what ways can parental involvement benefit the school as a campus.

As of now, I have completed the first two steps of my action research plan. I have a total of 5 ½  hours completed. I created parental involvement brochures. Then I passed out the flyers to parents at our meet the teacher night. This was done for 5^th & 6^th grade and 7^th & 8^th grade meet the teacher night. The outcome of getting the word out to the parents was very successful. I had a table set up where I was able to talk to many parents and inform them of our parental involvement.

I am also now a member of our PTO. I attended our last meeting on September 11. I will be attending every meeting for the rest of the school year. I will be creating flyers for our PTO as well.

I will be displaying information about our parental involvement at our next fine arts event. This will be an art gallery held at the county fair. Students from our campus will have their pictures available for parents to view. I will have information about our parental involvement available for those parents. I plan to get more parents involved with our campus’ parental involvement. After the art gallery, I will be present at our fall band concert. I will also be handing out flyers for parents to learn more about our parental involvement.

My principal has made me our campus parental involvement representative. I will be attending a two day parental involvement workshop in December. There is also another two day workshop that I will be attending in April. I am looking forward to learning more information to help my campus succeed in involving more parents with our students.

On Wednesday September 18, I was assistant principal for a day. I absolutely loved it! I am so thankful that my principal is very supportive of me wanting to learn all the ropes to becoming a principal. I was able to see education from the administrators side. Being assistant principal for a day was completely different from being in a classroom teaching. I was able to do a few walk throughs, lunch duty and sit in on a conference and an ARD. I learned a lot on my first day of assistant principal. I look forward to many more!

During this course, I have learned a lot of information regarding to action research. Prior to this course I had no idea that action research differed from traditional research. I simply thought research was research However, this action research project will reveal a great deal of information on the topic I’ve chosen to do my research over. I am very happy that I was introduced to this type of research because it will be in my best interest to follow this plan in order to gain information on my topic.

One of the highlights for me during this course was the required videos during week two. Dr. Chargois gave some very insightful information about action research. He gave examples of previous action research within his district. Also, Dr. Chargois discussed affective and ineffective teachers. Throughout the interview, it was very apparent that Dr. Chargois’s main goal was to increase student performance. As which every educator should have the same. I completely agree this. There was a bit of information that I took from Dr. Chargois that I will not forget. Dr. Chargois stated, “As a teacher, you should never stop growing. If you’re green then you’re growing. If you’re brown then you’re dying.” I want to continue to grow within my career. This is my reason for currently being in grad school. There is always room to grow and I want to take advantage of the opportunity and excel in all ways possible.

Johnny Briseno also shared some very insightful information for future principals. Mr. Briseno stated, “Anytime a teacher approaches me with a problem, I look at the facts. What is their home like? How is the environment?” This will definitely help me once I become a principal because I am new to this and hearing the information from an established administrator helps with my learning. Briseno also suggested that if a principal is faced with an issue for the first time and is unsure of how to handle the issue, they should research how other districts have handled the same issue. Research how it was handled and the outcome of the situation. This will help the principal to make a decision by seeing how others have handled the situation. This piece of information will be very beneficial to me. I will be faced with issues that I’ve never faced before and I will research to see how other principals have dealt with the same issue.

The required assignments during this course were helpful as well. Creating my action research plan and going over it with my principal helped me a lot. I was able to share my ideas with my principal, which is also my site supervisor, and he shared his ideas with me. He did not require any changes to my action research plan. He was very pleased with my work and is excited about my action research project. He also informed me of our district policies regarding to the topic I’ve chosen for my action research project.

The discussion questions and blogs that were required are a great way for communication. Since this is an online class and we can’t just turn to our neighbor and ask a question. The discussion questions allowed me to see everyone’s thoughts about the required topic and I was able to comment on my colleagues’ responses as well. The blogs were similar and were another great way to communicate with colleagues. The best part about the blogs is that I can follow others. Therefore, I’ve decided to follow those who have the same topic of interest as I do. That way we can share and discuss our action research projects.

I also enjoyed the web conferences. Dr. Abshire was very good at answering all questions and making sure that everyone felt comfortable in the class. Communication is very important in an online class and it worked very well in this class. This was my second class here at Lamar and I have enjoyed it. Also, I am going to use all of the information I’ve gained during the class to further my learning as I continue this leadership program.

I currently teach at a title 1 school and our parental involvement is very low. I look forward to this project and bringing in more of our parents. My goal is to get the parents to not only volunteer at our campus, but to become more involved with their child/children's education. I have been named our campus Parental Involvement Representative. I will host different events for the parents to be involved in with their child/children. I will have events such as muffins with mom, donuts with dad, parents night in the computer lab etc. Parents night in the computer lab will allow parents to view their child's teacher's lesson plans. A lot of our students do not have internet access at home so this will be beneficial for the parents. Also, I will discuss with parents on how to help their child reach a positive attitude and homework practices. If the students do not have a positive attitude towards school/learning, then they will not want to be there. Better homework practices will  be a way that the parents and students can work together. I am really excited about this project and I see great things happening because of the action research project.

Goal- In what ways can parental involvement benefit the school as a campus?

1.Action Step(s)- Create parental involvement brochures

Person(s) Responsible- Trichina Granville

Timeline:Start/End-August 2013-August 2013

Needed Resources- Title 1 Parental Involvement Policy & Campus requirements for parental involvement

Evaluation-Sign-up sheet for the parents who are interested in volunteering Feedback from campus staff

2. Action Step(s)-Hand out brochures at both nights for meet the teacher

 Person(s) Responsible- Trichina Granville

Timeline:Start/End-August 20, 2013- August 22, 2013

Needed Resources-Table to set up, access to parents, conversations with parents

Evaluation- Sign-up sheet for the parents who are interested in volunteering and being a part of the committee

3. Action Step(s)-Hand out brochures at band concerts & art shows

Person(s) Responsible- Trichina Granville

Timeline:Start/End-August 2013-May 2014

Needed Resources- Table to set up, access to parents, conversations with parents

Evaluation-Sign-up sheet for the parents who are interested in volunteering and being a part of the committee

4. Action Step(s)-Compare volunteer list to the previous school year’s list

Person(s) Responsible- Trichina Granville

Timeline:Start/End-August 2013-December 2013

Needed Resources- Previous school year’s parent volunteer list, spreadsheet to compare the two lists

Evaluation- Results from the comparison of the two lists

5. Action Step(s)- Host several family nights/events to bring the parents inside of our campus

Person(s) Responsible-Trichina Granville

Timeline:Start/End-August 2013- June 2014

Needed Resources-Title 1 Parental Involvement Policy, Campus requirements for parental involvement, appropriate materials for each event

Evaluation- Results of the number of parents that attended each event

During week 2 I've learned that action research is very important. This research allows the educator to see deep into the issue at hand. I really enjoyed watching the videos of the three scholars. I chose to write about Briseno & Dr. Chargois. Briseno gave some very good advice for future principals. He discussed how he handles situations regarding his teachers. When Briseno is approached by one of his teachers with an issue, he looks at the facts of the situation. Numbers don't always tell the entire story and in order to reach the entire story, you must find out where the issue is coming from.

Dr. Chargois gave good information as well. He was able to provide a full insight of what research is. The data from research can now be acquired faster now than before. This allows the educator to implement the data information into their data instruction. Dr. Chargois also suggested that teachers should not stop growing. If you're green then you are growing. If you're brown then you are dying. Overall, teachers must produce results and increase student performance.

Both scholars gave some very useful information that will be helpful towards my action research.

Action research is a principal studying his/her own professional practice. The principal uses their own data, develops questions and does some research such as reading different books. The principal then makes the necessary changes according to the results from the research. The purpose is for the principal to make changes and acquire growth. This also gives the principal a chance to view their work.

I strongly agree with the example in the text. Principals within the district received emails from district meetings that were held. After receiving the emails, the principals were placed into small groups and were instructed to identify an area in their own professional practice to study. This eliminates the principals from having to sit through yet another meeting and still receiving the information  that will be put to use. I see this form of action research as being very effective. This specific example of action research could also be used with teachers as well. A principal could email his/her teachers information and place them in small groups. The groups could be based on subject, grade level or both and the teachers could identify an area of their professional practice that they need to study.

I am all for action research. I think this is a very beneficial form of research and will be very effective and productive.

Educational leaders could use blogs to discuss different issues within their campus/district. This will allow the new to get out to other leaders who could provide good, positive feedback.