EDLD 5326 Week 5 Update on Action Research Plan
Two schools in our district have academically unacceptable ratings and we have to find ways to increase student achievement. One area that we have been told to focus on is the use of technology in the classroom to engage students. Also, our STaR Chart data indicates that we need to improve in the areas of teacher preparation and development in technology. In an effort to make a difference in this area, I have developed a professional development initiative called Bloomin’ SMART. This professional development is voluntary and was designed to train teachers to use interactive whiteboard software to create lessons that are aligned to district and state standards and provide differentiated learning. The purpose of this action research is to understand the effects of the Bloomin’ SMART project and to see if there is an increase in student engagement because of the application of this technology use in the classroom.
I want to find out if teachers are offered voluntary, extended professional development that is both face-to-face and online through a district developed Project Share course with the focus on using SMART Notebook to create lessons that are differentiated based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, will those teachers be able to implement those lessons in the classroom and improve student engagement and academic achievement? To learn more about the benefits of Bloomin' SMART, I have conducted a literature review about the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) and the effects this has on student achievement.
An orientation session for the course was held from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. in the district's Multipurpose Facility on March 20, 2012 and March 21, 2012. To participate in the program, the teacher participants must have attended one of the orientation sessions.
The course was divided into 10 submitting periods. Participants could submit a maximum total of 10 lessons during the entire course. Only one lesson could be submitted per submitting period, during the first 5 submitting periods of the course. However, two lessons could be submitted per submitting period, during the last 5 submitting periods beginning with the May 25, 2012, submitting period. Participants were not required to submit a lesson for every submission period to stay in the course. The course ended July 9, 2012, with the submission of the final SMART notebook lesson(s).
Each participant received $100 per lesson that met the Target Tech qualifications listed in the Bloomin' SMART rubric. Therefore, if a participant submitted the maximum number of lessons, the participant could receive $1,000.
I plan to analyze quantitative student achievement data by comparing 2011-2012 benchmark tests, and standardized test scores to those in 2012-2013 and compare the results of all of the participant teachers’ with non-participant teachers’ student scores. 2012 data will be used as a comparison before the lessons from the training was implemented in 2013.
In addition, I will engage in additional data analysis completed from a combination of qualitative data collection strategies after the teachers implement their Bloomin’ SMART lessons in the classroom during the 2012-2013 school year. This data will include field notes, several teacher and student interviews, a collection of student work through examples, several digital photos and video of students completing Bloomin’ SMART lessons in order to fully demonstrate and capture the effects of Bloomin’ SMART on the teachers and students involved.
The professional development phase of the project has been completed and these are the results.
• 29 teachers volunteered for the project.
• 13 of the 29 volunteer teachers submitted lessons.
• 56 Bloomin’ SMART lessons were submitted from the 13 participants.
During the 2012-2013 School year, data will be collected from the 13 participant teachers and their students to determine the full effect of the action research.
