Standard 3 Reflection: Improve teaching and learning through the use of educational research at the classroom and school levels

Background

Over the years of teaching in my current school district we have been given articles to read that report their findings on topics such as best teaching instructional practices and engaging students in longer classes.  I have also been in meetings where we have analyzed our state testing data by making observations and asking questions/making wonderings. Additionally, I have done limited research for my focus for Teacher Principal Evaluation Program (TPEP) as well as analyzing data for my growth goal.

Learning and Applied Practice

Previous to starting my Master’s in Educational Leadership, I relied on educational coaches and administers to provide articles that supported me making changes in my teaching practices.  Although I was willing to be an early adopter of technology as well as PBIS and
using GLAD strategies, I didn’t have a formal process of evaluating and reporting whether they made a difference or not.  As a result of my Action Research in School Settings class I now have a process to go through to make this possible. As a result of taking a class on action research I will be able to use the process as I look at other areas of improving my teaching practices as well as sharing this process with others as a way to approach their TPEP growth goals.  I will also provide time for my students (in this case now teachers) to reflect and get feedback from others. Additionally, when I am asked to write/co-write rubrics they will be clearer than in the past. Lastly, I will also promote providing opportunities for students to reflect and improve upon their writing.

In addition,  as a result of taking the Applying Research in Educational Settings class I feel that I have more tools to evaluate articles versus just assuming since they were published that they have studies that back their reporting which will help me be more credible as a teacher leader or coach. As a result of the Applying Research in Educational Settings class I will be able to evaluate articles that are written in professional journals better.  I will also be looking at the primary sources/studies that were done.

Issues Encountered/Problems of Practice Addressed

Action Research in School Settings

In our Accomplished Teacher class we got a head start on our project for Action Research in School Settings by picking our topic of interest which appreciated since it gave us more time to gather data.   I choose to investigate strategies that would help my students to look at feedback provided for them from me or their peers to improve upon their learning in my classroom since that was what I was focusing on for TPEP that particular year.  

For this class, we started the action research project by finding a focus, providing our rationale for our selection, and doing a literature review for our final project.  As we went through this process I found some strategies that I would like to try such as:

-- using technology so they have an electronic portfolio and can see where they have been and where they are going.  
-- giving sentence starters
-- designing reflective prompts
--teaching SMART goals and having student make SMART goals that can be re-addressed over time so they can see how far they have come.
--sharing reflections with their peers
-- modeling reflective thinking

When we started our Action Research in School Settings class we began by writing a theory of action draft. While working on this draft I realized that not only did I need to get my students look at the feedback, I needed to explicitly teach them how to read a
rubric and give feedback to each other as well as provide opportunities for students to reflect upon their work.  I also grew in my thinking and writing of rubrics in that I now look at what I want my students to accomplish and put that in my “meet standard” category and work from there in creating the expectations of the other levels.

Then we presented our process and our findings to our classmates through a presentation and by writing our analysis and reflection of our action research.  Although by looking at my rubric (yellow - baseline, blue - conclusion), you can see my students did make some progress during this two-month period of time.  But, by continuing with these practices throughout the year I saw many more of my students meet or exceeding standard in these categories and this transferred to their increased scores for using reasoning in their writing which was our grade level/department growth goal .

Applying Research to School Settings

Additionally, through the Applying Research in School Settings class, I have learned how to evaluation professional articles more thoroughly. This is an important skill to have a as leadership leader/educational coach since those who we lead expect us to do our due diligence when reading and using articles in our professional trainings.   As teacher leaders/coaches we will be gathering information for teachers so we want to make sure the research articles we are gathering have good data to backup their claims. Therefore, it is important for us to know what primary sources/studies they used, identify bias, determine if the sampling is reasonable, and determine their reliability.  

While taking this class we had two opportunities to do this.  The first article critique was for an article called  “Investigating Technology-Enhanced Teacher Professional Development in Rural, High-Poverty Middle Schools” by Blanchard, LePrevost, Tolin and Gutierrez. To help us to critique this article our professor gave us a set of questions to help guide our thinking.  As we worked through those questions I learned how to identify the research questions and hypotheses of the researchers even if they weren’t very clear in the article. It also gave me a better understanding of theoretical and conceptual studies -- a theoretical study is one that is based on a theory and a conceptual study is based on a particular concept.  In this case the study was looking to see if schools have several technological trained teachers and technology will students, particularly African American students, do better on state testing.   We then identified the representation and bias of the research samplings as well as how the sampling was selected and how the sampling may have affected the study and/or conclusions. Additionally, we  determined the reliability of the tools used and validity of the results. Then we went back and looked at the study method, limitations and conclusions of the researchers and critiqued them. As a result doing this I realized not to just accept what researchers say in their article, but to question it more since their conclusions didn’t match up with the implied research questions and hypotheses as well as having other factors that might have influenced their results.

Then we had the opportunity to do a second article critique of a primary article about (Positive Behavior Intervention Systems) PBIS and had to decide if it could be used to back up a secondary article about PBIS as our final.  Once again, it reinforced the idea that just because it has been published it doesn’t mean that it is a great study as while going through the primary article as a class we saw many flaws.  Having this additional practice of critiquing of articles improved my comfort level of doing so and I can see the practical applications when being a teacher leader/educational coach.

For our data analysis assignment, in this class,  we used scatter plots that showed end of year Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test results for the years of 2015 and 2016 which compared North Shore School District with other school districts in the state of Washington in order to identify observations and wonderings.   This was relatively easy for me since in readings, class lectures and online discussions we had learned about scatter plots and identifying the hypothesis based on the x- and y-axis as well as my experience in district data analysis meetings I had the opportunity to look at scatter plots and make observations and wonderings.

How Action Research is Supported by Research

At the beginning of starting this master’s program, I had never heard of "action research, but as I have gone through classes, I have noticed it in more and more of the articles I have read in professional magazines such the article entitled “Taking Beautiful RISKS in Education: To Support Students’ Creativity,   Educators Must Question Assumptions and Instill a Sense
of Possibility” which I summarized for my Applying Research in School Settings class. Also, the article “Choose your own Adventure: Action Research for PD” showed how action research valued teacher’s curiosity to improve their practices, made them think about what they wanted to learn so they could refine their questions, established trust and motivation between peers and most importantly let the results affect their teaching practices.    

Overall Impact

As I said earlier, I think that these experiences have made the practice of using action research to improve my teaching practices something to embrace and use.  And by learning how to critique articles I can do a better job on my literature review part of the process. By experiencing the process of doing an action research project and critiquing articles that are based on this process I think that I know more questions to ask and have a better understanding of how it works and as result can share it with others.

References

Beghetto, R. A.. (2018). Taking beautiful RISKS in education: To support students’ creativity,
     educators must question assumptions and instill a sense of possibility. Educational
     Leadership, 76(4), 18–24.

Blanchard, M. R., LePrevost, C. E., Tolin, A. D., & Gutierrez, K. S. (2016, April). Investigating technology-enhanced teacher professional development in rural, high-poverty middle schools. Educational Researcher, 45(03), 207-220.

Dodman, S., Zuidema, E..., & Kleiman, A. (2018). Choose your own adventure: Action research for PD. Educational Leadership, 76(3), 72–76.

Ravid, R. (2015). Practical statistics for educators (5th Edition). Landham, MD: Rowman
& Littlefield Publishers, Inc

Scott TM, & Barrett SB. (2004). Using staff and student time engaged in disciplinary procedures to evaluate the impact of school-wide PBS. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 6(1), 21–27.

Skiba, R., & Sprague, J. (2008). Safety without suspensions. Educational Leadership, 66(1), 38–43.

Vannice, B.  (2019, January 11).  Educational Coach Interview [Personal interview]

End of Course Reflection for EDU 6600 Communication and Collaboration

End of Course Reflection

Course EDU 6600

Communication and Collaboration:  Colleagues, Administration, and Community

Before taking this course, I thought I had pretty good understanding of professional development.  I come from an innovative school district that believes professional development of its staff is important in order for our students to be successful.  We have early release Fridays set aside for professional development opportunities. Half of our early release Fridays are set aside for whole group or department time while the other half are set aside for self-directed time. We also have a few hours of district paid time to work on our TPEP (Teacher/Principal Evaluation Program) as part of our contracts.  Additionally, we give teachers the opportunity to join a book study or participate in the Powerful Learning Conference to take sessions of their choice for clock hours through the Center for Collaborative Support.  Yet, even though I have been exposed to a lot of professional development, I learned a variety of ways to present professional development opportunities to staff which made me think about professional development a bit differently.

We started off the course by learning how professional development has change in the world of education over the years.  The article “Exploring New Approaches to Teachers Leadership” discussed how the focus on leadership has changed from being on the principal or superintendent in the 1980’s to the teachers in the 2000’s.  The first model was where the leadership was done by more than one person on a key task or function. Model two was where leadership is an organization-wide resource of power and influence. The last model is hybrid of the other two models. The article concluded by saying that for any of these distributive leadership models to be effective they need to have support of the principal or superintendent and strong internal leadership.

Our next step before diving into models of professional development was to look at how adults learn differently than students.  This was interesting to me since I had not thought of this before.  In my school we have been learning good instructional practices in our professional trainings and as a result we have applied those learnings to our professional development sessions.  This not only helps staff experience how to use different strategies and techniques to help students learn, but also to learn more deeply just like their students will.  But, while reading the chapters in “Pillars of Andragogy” we did learn that there were differences between how adults and children learn. These included that adults have more emotional baggage, they are more motivated if they get to research or study with others with the same focus, women learn better by working with, stories of success can motivate them to try something outside of their comfort zone, and that mentoring is important.  So as we a leading and planning professional development opportunities we can address these in order to make these opportunities more meaningful and therefore valued.

Then we explored a variety of professional training methods that meet the needs of adults.  These included PLC’s (Professional Learning Communities), Book Studies, Critical Friends Groups, Lesson Study, and Learning Circles.  As we looked through these methods two challenges that really stood out for me were the getting buy-in from staff and the amount time it takes to complete the process once you have found a focus.  I think one of the best ways to get buy in from staff is to have people talk about their experiences with these methods.  By doing this you help other staff members understand “why” it is important to be engaged in the method and not get caught up with the “how”.   Additionally, as stated earlier you need to have your administration support and a specific focus to be able to do this since we all have limited amount of time that we can ask our staff to put in training.

Using all of this information that we have learned throughout this course we then wrote a created a plan for a professional training opportunity using one of the professional training methods we had studied.  Once I had decided upon my focus of Backward Design, I decided that lesson study would work best for my staff to study it.   As with any of the methods we had studied, I saw time, trust among staff, and buy-in as the most challenges.  But, I also saw that it would help teachers have a greater understanding of the curriculum they are teaching, provide stronger relationships between staff, and provide better available lesson plans.

As can be seen, even though I came into this course with quite a bit of experience as a participant and leader of professional learning opportunities, I believe that I have learned many things that will help me to be a more effective leader of professional trainings.  As I move forward with my position of a teacher leader, I also will use the advice I received from  my interview with my principal of “make meaningful, but small changes, something you know you will have success with in order to build up trust in order to help others grow” and “to step back and listening to what the staff believes” (McGrath). I also believe that through this course I have meet teaching leadership
standard 4 by engaging in analysis of teaching and collaborative practices and Standard 2,
Strand 3 of the MEd in Ed Leadership as I will be able to advocate, nueture and help
sustain coherent, intentional professional development at my school and district.

McGrath, A. (2018, October 21).  Principal Interview [Personal interview)

Pillars of andragogy. (2001). New directions for adult and continuing education, 89.

Smylie, M. A., Conley, S., & Marks, H. M. (n.d.). Exploring new approaches to teacher
    leadership for school improvement. In New Approaches to Teacher Leadership. (pp.
   162-  188).

Zepeda, S. (2008). Professional development: what works. New York: Eye on Education.

Refllection #3 - EDU6600 Communication and Collaboration

Please summarize one or two of the models of collaboration you have learned about so far.

What you do see in your school currently in terms of "models of collaboration" if any.

Teachers of our school have the opportunity to collaborate in online book studies to improve their teaching practices through our participation of the Center of Collaborative Support and at my school we have started grade level Problem Solving Teams using the learning circle model.  The Center of Collaborative Support provides optional book studies on a range of topics and teachers can earn clock hours through their participation.   It is offered during fall, winter and spring quarters.  They are set up so that you read the first week and share through a blog what you learned from the reading and what application you plan to try in your classroom.  Then the second week through the blog you share out how that application played out in your classroom and reflect on how you can tweak it.  Teachers are also expected to respond to others’ postings. We also have started a “learning circle” model for our newly created grade level Problem Solving Teams which look at solutions for students who are struggling either academically or behaviorally in our classes.  To keep our meetings more efficient, teachers complete an online spreadsheet of students they have concerns about. Then as a group we talk about what has worked and what we can try during the next months with each child and add it to the spreadsheet.  We all have tasks that we are responsible for such as taking notes, time keeping, looking at resources for ideas, SWIS data analysis, as well as back ups for each of these tasks.  By having everyone responsible for a task engagement by participants is increased. Then the following month we
will look how those strategies worked and discuss what to try next or decide to  continue with current interventions. with the students we have identified.

How could you see the lesson study model being  implemented in your school?

As we start working on our study of “backward design” I can see this happening using the “lesson study” model of collaborative.   For example, at our first meeting surrounding this topic we will be looking at our curricular area standards since we will be looking at what we want our students to be able to do at the end of a lesson or unit.  From that we will plan how our students will meet those goals.  Next, we could develop a research question to address how our students will meet a particular standard.  Then we would teach this lesson with colleagues in the room to collect data about “teacher practices and how students respond to these practices” (pg. 250).  Lastly, we would spend time to reflect on the data we have collected to determine which strategies
worked well or what needs to be tweaked.  

What are some challenges to creating a “lesson design” model in your school? What might be a good “next Steps?”

The challenges I see for this are finding time to complete this process and trust between teachers in order to be vulnerable. Luckily, our principal is willing to give up some of his district-directed time to let us focus on “backward design” this year.  Through using district-directed time on our early release Fridays we will be able to plan and reflect.  To be able to find time to observe and take data will be a bit more tricky with our guest
teacher shortage.  Perhaps we can trade time by giving teachers a self-directed Friday for giving up their planning to observe and collect data or covering  classes to others can observe and take data. Another solution would be to find days that the district would give us to have guest teachers and we could have guest teachers rotate the coverage of classes.   To help with the challenge of vulnerability of having others see your teaching practices I would suggest that the teacher leaders or coaches be the ones that volunteer to be teach
and be observed the first round.  Then in future rounds to ask for volunteers and have teacher leaders or coaches help them plan the lessons being observed.

Over the last few years we have lacked in the area of collaborative learning mostly because of time constraints, lack of guest teachers, and focus on teaching practices. In the past we have had our early release Friday time was divided into three areas -- self- directed, collaborative and district-directed.  We now area split between self-directed and district-directed.  Our principal has to give up some of his district-directed days in
order for to have collaborative time under our contract.  In the past we also had some curricular areas meet in department time, but the district has not been willing to say that this goes under our “responsibility contract” so it is hard for administrators to ask for us to meet regularly as in our departments.  Also, we have a lack of guest teachers to cover classes in order for teachers to observe other teachers or to meet during the school day.
Often, the district is paying for us to cover other classes during our planning time because of this.  Lastly, this past year we gone through many transitions this past year--- new buildings, blending of staffs and changes in the master schedule.

How has your thinking changed regarding your school’s current practice for collaboration and it’s alignment to “best practices”?

After focusing on blending staffs, moving to new buildings, and new schedules over the
past year, we are now starting to now focus on “best practices” again this year using collaborative groups.  This has started with the expectation that we will all be involved in a Problem Solving Team which are set up as a learning circle around working with our students that are struggling in the classroom either academically or behaviorally.    We are also starting to have district-directed time dedicated to work in curricular areas
since our administrators and staff see collaboration as important in order to improve our
teaching practices in order for students to be successful. We can not do it on our own.   Although we returning to using collaboration among our staff to focus on “best practices”, I think that we have a ways to go to get back to being part of our school culture.  

Reflection #2 on professional development.

The article “Teachers. Learners, Leaders” made me rethink what I see as professional development.  As I look at what happens in my building for professional development,I would say most of it is really training and staff
development instead of professional development since in this article professional development is defined as “self-chosen activities that teachers can do individually or as a group, such as action research” (pg. 2).  As I look at through this lens, I do see opportunities our district provides for professional development, but I question how many teachers take advantage of them.    For example, we get paid self-directed time for half of our early release Fridays, a few hours paid to work on our TPEP (Teacher/Principal Evaluation System) growth goals, reflection, etc, as well as a few hours of department time where
we can collaborate with others in addition to opportunities provided through our involvement with the Center for Collaborative Support.

I think that TPEP has pushed us toward providing professional development in that it requires individual teachers to show growth in our students and our teaching practices. or example, with growth goals we are asked identify an area our students need to grow that is in alignment with teaching standards.   We are also asked to identify the assessments that will help determine that growth so that our information is data driven.   Additionally, we are asked to identify what tools and resources we need to support growth in our students.  As we are helping our students to grow we are working both as individuals
and with others to show growth in our classes as well as the entire grade level.   Thenat the end of the TPEP cycle we are asked to write a narrative with our reflection.   In additional to creating a growth goal for our students we also are asked to identify an area that we need to improve on whether on focus or comprehensive.  We begin this process this by reflecting on our own teaching practices.  Once we have identified our area of focus we need create a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results Focused and Time period for it to be achieved) as well as to  identify what resources and supports we need. Then at the end we need to provide a narrative about our process and results. As with all things, some teachers will do this out of compliance and the need to do it to have a job the next year, while others will embrace it and truly grow in their profession.  Overall, I think TPEP drives our professional development to meet many of the needs of adult learning - extrinsic motivation, content driven, differentiated, narrative - but, I thinkif we taught the action research model and let people know what others were working on, we could
have more collaborative and meaningful growth.

In our district, we also have the opportunity for professional growth through
attending or presenting at our Powerful Learning Conference which our school district along with neighboring districts which make up the Center for Collaborative Support put on every August.  For this conference teachers within those school districts are asked to not only submit ideas of what they would like to learn, but
they also given the opportunity to submit proposals for presentations.  This conference is free to those in the represented districts while others pay a small
fee to attend.  I have been both a participant and a presenter at this conference over the last few years, and I would say that the presenters are ‘energetic risk takers whose integrity, high-efficacy, and content knowledge give them credibility” (Teacher Leadership Skills Framework - pg. 1) with the attendees.   Since you get to pick the classes you go you can choose to attend those that meet your needs as well as you can go to as many or as few as you wish.  I only wish that we had
more time to reflect and plan how we would apply the new knowledge.

The last way that our school district through the Center for Collaborative Support helps teachers with their professional growth is by running book studies once each quarter.  Again this is optional. At the beginning of each quarter we are given an electronic flyer that lets us know what book studies are available for the quarter.  All work is done online. They are set up so we read one week and apply the following week and answer questions based on that learning.   Educational coaches from the various districts are in charge of the book studies.  Not only do you get to talk about what works and what doesn’t work you get see a wider variety of perspectives than you would if it was just ran through our school district.  Again, this is optional and not all teachers will participate, but it is a great support for those who choose to use it.

So as I look through this new lens I find that our district provides many opportunities for professional learning that meet the needs of adult learners.   My questions that I still have spinning around in my head are “Why don’t people take advantage of these opportunities?” and “What can we do to make
people see the importance of professional development?”

References:

Lieberman, A. (2010, June). Teachers, learners, leaders. Educational Leadership, 67, 1-6.

Pillars of andragogy. (2001). New directions for adult and continuing education, 89.

(n.d.). Teacher leadership skills framework.  Retrieved October 10, 2018, from
http://cstp-wa.org/teacher-leadership/teacher-leadership-skills-framework/

EDU 6600 Communication Collaboration Initial Reflection

I work at one of two middle schools in my district.  Unfortunately, one of the middle schools represents the higher income, newer homes in the area while the other represents the lower income, older homes and apartments.  I work in the later. We have often been told that expectations for our students should not be as high as the other school. But, as a staff, we haven’t believed that. We believe that we are here to help our students reach those higher expectations.  Our principal has lead us in this direction by insisting that In all of our decisions we put students in the middle. As a result this past year, our scores multiple test were close if not higher than those of the other school. We have been able to do this by having the belief that our students can meet the high expectations we have set and we have put in supports to help them get there.

We have two main teams that help us do this.  The first is our Instructional Leadership Team (ILT).  In our school district we have Instructional Leadership Teams (ILT) that were put in place with the intent of having a organizational-wide source of power and influence that is seen in Model 2 of distributed leadership described by Hilty in our reading.  Our ILT members are department heads. They are responsible for recommending leadership and activity budgets, school schedule, plans for professional development days. Before these decisions are made they get input from the people

who have been assigned to them on our “communication tree”.  Often our principal will go to them if he needs help problem solving as well. We have found the this helped all staff feel like they have influence without all of being in a room. In addition, ILT members facilitate training for their

departments.based on the training they received at district trainings. For the last two years it has been centered around formative assessment and planning lessons backwards.  By discussing these in department groups members are able to get ideas from others and see things from other perspectives as well as the support to try new things.

Our other team that is school-wide is our PBIS team.  This one acts more like Model 3 of distributed leadership which is a hybrid of Model 1 and Model 2.  For the most part this team is made up of people who are not on the ILT team. On this team each person signs up for a role or backups role such as a facilitator, reporter, analyst, etc.  By having backups we can ensure that we have people who can step in as needed or if someone leaves there is someone to step in and takeover the job as well as train others. Therefore, it is “providing some insurance that the functions would be performed if there were turnover in personnel or if particular individuals failed to do their part”.  (pg. 173) Additionally, it spreads the wealth making the jobs easier and by having a larger number of

teachers represented it is easier to sell our vision. This team also problem-solves how to make our school more friendly and how to teach expected behaviors by our students. For example, we are currently working on the following identified issues for Tier 2 students:  What activities will be offered to students when the weather turns bad? How do we make check in/checkout work more effectively? How can we set up a check and connect? How can we provide mentoring? How can we re-teach BEARS (Be Here, Excellent, Accepting, Respectful and Safe) behaviors? Additionally, we have brought in experts to helps us as a staff work with those Tier 2 students.  This is especially important with the emphasis on restorative justice. During this trainings our PBIS team spreads out throughout the room to not only influence others, but also to take notes of the private thoughts of others so they can be addressed.

Resources

Hirsch, S., & Hord, S. (2010, August). Building hope, giving Affirmations: learning communities that address social justice issues bring equity to the classroom.  (4), 10-17.

Smylie, M. A., Conley, S., & Marks, H. M. (n.d.). Exploring new approaches to teacher leadership for school improvement. In New Approaches to Teacher Leadership. (pp. 162- 188).