5301: Week 3

• Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation

The goals and objectives of the research investigation will be to find out the impact that the involvement in extracurricular activities has on students (particularly high school students). From what I have seen it seems that students who involve themselves in extracurricular activities make it a point to come to school more often than those students who are not involved. Based on the outcome of the research I will work with the school to renew a campaign to get students involved in at lease two extracurricular activities and then gauge the attendance rate to see if there is any noticeable improvement.

• Activities designed to achieve the objectives

The project is really two-fold. The first part will be to gather information to find out the impact that the involvement in extracurricular activities has on students. The second part will be to renew a campaign to get students involved in at lease two extracurricular activities and then gauge the attendance rate to see if there is any noticeable improvement. The only way to ensure that the campaign to get students involved is working will be to work with the sponsors of clubs and organizations to see if their numbers climb from previous years.

• Resources and research tools needed for data gathering

I will be working closely with the attendance office to closely monitor the weekly attendance rates of students and then compare that number with the same week from previous years. This information will be critical in order to be able to prove that the extracurricular activity involvement is having an effect. I will also work with students in my class to find out who has never before been involved in an extracurricular activity and has joined one now and then look at their individual attendance rates compared with previous years to determine if their involvement is having an impact. I will need to work closely with a number of the larger and well known clubs/organizations to see what effect the campaign to get students involved is having on their numbers. The administration will need to help the campaign along through morning announcements and reminders during staff developments and meetings.

• Draft timeline for completion or implementation of activities

This campaign was actually began last year in an effort to boost attendance and school spirit. However, I feel that because the plan was not really implemented until mid-November the impact was minimal. Now that we know what to do and how to do it a little bit better we should be able to begin the year with announcements and reminders to get the students involved. I can begin my research for the project right now to get an idea of what the relevant literature says about the subject. Within the first week of school the campaign to get students involved can begin with morning announcements and teacher encouragement coupled with signs posted around the school. Students need to be made aware of what clubs/organizations are available and what goes on in each of them.

• Persons responsible for implementation of the action research plan

I will be responsible for the implementation of the research plan but I will be relying on a number of people at the school to provide information and resources to get students involved.

• Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives

I will be working closely with the attendance office to closely monitor the weekly attendance rates of students and then compare that number with the same week from previous years. This information will be critical in order to be able to prove that the extracurricular activity involvement is having an effect. . I will need to work closely with a number of the larger and well known clubs/organizations to see what effect the campaign to get students involved is having on their numbers.

• Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study

The overall instrument that I will use to evaluate the effectiveness of the study will be the number of students who involve themselves in extracurricular activities (using the numbers provided to be from the club/organization sponsors) as well as the attendance rate.

5301: Week 2 Reflection

I suppose that the main thing that I took away from week two was all of the ways that action research could be used in regards to common issues faced by most school districts. The reading on pages 29-68 in the Dana text regarding the 9 passions was particularly insightful on this subject. The assignment also required me to really examine some of the issues going on at my campus in order to determine what the best topic would be for me to use for the main assignment for the class. Looking back over my internship plan made me realize how quickly situations change over the course of a year at a school campus. Overall it was a really interesting week.

5301: Educators using blogs

Students today love the chance to use technology to do school work. Educators could easily use blogs as a way to get students to write about an issue and to feed off of each others thoughts. For example, a teacher could post a question about a subject before or during a unit on that subject as a way to get the students thinking about it. Each students could be required to answer the question and then post a response to another student’s answer. Students love to see their writing/work online.

5301: Action Research: What I have learned

After completing the readings for the week one assignment I feel that action research has two awesome benefits that can be put to use by administrators and schools.

The first benefit is the way in which action research is geared towards helping a person find a solution to a problem or simply a better way of doing something. Using relevant literature and shared finding with others and then putting that new information to use in order to come up with a solution or finding that is directly related to the problem or issue at hand is a great way to ensure that administrators are putting into place the most relevant and effective policies or programs.

The second benefit that can be derived from the action research process is the cohesion that is created when people are brought together to come up with a solution to a problem using action research. The Dana text likened this process to that which might take place on a college campus where students are put into groups in order to work together to come up with a common solution to a problem or project. The cohesion that is formed amongst the members of the group is something that can really benefit staff members at a school.

I feel that I would be hard-pressed to find a common problem facing most schools that could not be solved by using action research. This highly applicable process could be used by most problem solving groups on a school campus. As an individual administrator I could put this process to use to both solve problems and as a way to look at myself and the job that I am doing critically.