Title 1 Math Teacher Comment

Speaking with the Title 1 math teachers, we were conversing how the students were doing.  She informed me that she was impressed with how my students were able to think through problems and actually solved the problems.  An example,  a student was given a multiplication word problem.  The students have not been taught about multiplication nor have the studied their facts.  The students were able to draw out the problem and were able to solve the problem.  She stated that most 3rd grade students in her other classes just gave up on the problems.

Computer Lab Changes (removal of learning.com)

Students have just completed their first benchmarks.  Students will now be working problems in Study Island on math STAAR based problems four days a week.  The other day will be devoted to working on Math-Facts-in-a-Flash on math facts.

First Benchmark Completed

We just completed our first round of math benchmarking.  The scores are coming in.  This will give me the foundation to see if improvement will be made.  I have 4 ELL's, and they all were not passing the first round of test. I have 17 non-ELL's of which 7 passed the first round.  Areas of each students weakness will be further analyzed.  The test contained many multi-step problems which is a high level test and most of the students have not been taught the concepts yet.  All students took the same test and no modifications were used.

Computer Lab Changes (learning.com)

Students have moved from web safety to learning about spreadsheets and creating tables.  They will be working on this for the next two-three weeks.

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Project
Goal: Does technology in a 3rd Grade math class with ESL inclusion increase the scores of both the ESL and non-ESL students? ·         Does technology increase scores equally basing the average of ESL students vs. average on non-ESL students? ·         With the aid of technology (blogging and PowerPoints) are students able to answer higher level thinking questions that might appear on the STAAR test? ·         Will the TELPAS scores from a classroom that uses technology increase more than those without technology? ·         With posting the blogs and PowerPoints on the internet, does it lead to more discussion between students and parents about what is being taught in the classroom? ·         Does it help students remember the topic long term?
Action Steps(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Video formatted lessons  (listening skills)	Angelia Moses	8/22/11-5/1/12 (daily)	Envision web textbook	The students have a better understanding of the lessons using the visual aspect of the video lesson.
Study Island (focused on reading and analyzing questions)	Angelia Moses	8/22/11-1/30/12 Restart 2/1/12 – 4/30/2012 (twice a week)	Study Island	After the lesson has been taught and students’ independent work is complete, students’ will take STAAR-based questions as reinforcement and after reset in February, as a review.  Passing or mastery should be seen when completing as a review.
Math Facts in a Flash	Angelia Moses	8/22/11-5/1/12 (once a week)	Math Facts in a Flash	Students should be able to recall their basic math facts.
Blogging – high level questioning collaborating in small groups (focused on writing, speaking, and listening) a.    Students must write and speak in complete sentence. b.   Students must check their writing for correctness before posting. c.    Students will use proper grammar when presenting their ideas to the class from the blog.	Angelia Moses	8/22/11-5/1/12 (minimum of once per topic)	Internet Math Blog Site	Students in small groups will discuss questions or create problems to be discussed by the class.  Using proper English in the written and spoken form will be reinforced.  Allow parents to see work from home and allow parent/students review.
PPTS – independent work to share as a review (focused on pictures, writing,  speaking as a presenter,  and listening to others)	Angelia Moses	9/1/11-5/1/12 (once per topic)	MS PowerPoint	Students will create PowerPoints in small groups each with a different lesson discussed during the topic.  Students will present their PowerPoint as a review for before the Topic test.  PowerPoints will be posted on the internet for future review (before benchmarks and/or STAAR testing)
Benchmarking/STAAR Test	Angelia Moses/ Mrs. Johnson or Mrs. Lowe	October 2011 January 2012 March 2012 April 2012	Eduphoria	After each benchmark and/or STAAR test the scores should increase in both ESL and non-ESL students.
TELPAS	Angeila Moses / Mrs. Wetton	September 2011 May 2012	Eduphoria	Looking at previous years TELPAS scores and comparing them to the scores in 2012, there should be more of an improvement than those who did not receive the learning through technology.
Analyzing Data	Angelia Moses	October 2011 January 2012 March 2012 May 2012	Eduphoria / MS Excel	After each benchmark scores will be analyzed for areas that still need to be reinforced for each student to ensure success on the STAAR test.

EDLD 5301 Week 2 Beginning Action Research Process

This week, I reviewed different types of action research items that varied from staff development, curriculum development, individual teachers, individual students, school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice.  This gave me the basic idea of what I could turn into an action research item.  With some input from my principal we have discussed that I could do my research on technology in the 3rd grade classroom on students that were ESL and economially disadvantaged vs. those who were not in the content area of math.  I know there is still some tweaking to be done on my action research item, but it is a starting place.

Math Blog

Today the students used a math blog (Math Blog).  I set the students up into small groups (4-5 in each group).  I provided them with two questions about place value.  I watched as each group discussed their answers then posted their responses to the blog. One issue that I has was that the blog required me to use my passcode because of the firewall to allow them to post.  This was time consuming.  While writing their answers, I could tell students were not use to writing out their thought process and their writing in general was very weak.  After the post were made, I pulled their answers up so the whole group could discuss everyone's thoughts.  One group in specific just stated that it was important in building.  I didn't know what they meant about place value and building.  I asked, and the students replied that if you didn't constantly read the numbers where they should go  using place value the numbers would change.  Their example was if you read a blue print and one side said 3 feet tall and the other side was read as 30 feet, the object would be slanted.  At that point I understood what they were talking about, and realized they understood the concept.

I will have to follow up with follow up to see if there is a way to work around the passcode issue.

Computer Lab Time

Students are going to the computer lab and are doing 2 days of Math-Facts-In-A-Flash studying facts, 2 days in Study Island studying math concepts as they might appear on the STAAR test, and one day of learning.com (beginning with internet safety).  Computer lab time will be daily from 10:45 - 11:15.

How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs in many ways.  One way leaders can use blogs is when working on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), people on the team can log in their thoughts as they work on the issue.  Others on the team can make comments on other team members' thoughts - clarifying, questioning, or even praising another team member on their thoughts on the item.   Another way blogs can be used is by just documenting or journaling ones own thoughts.  There are numerous ways a blog can be used. It just depends on how creative the owner of the blog wants to be.

What is Action Research?

Action research is where a teacher or an administrator takes professional development and allows them to be in charge of their own learning.  An action research can either be on the personal level or at the school improvement level.  An action research makes the person look at their own values as an educator.  They pick topics that interest them for self growth.  For example, the use of technology has become a very important issue in school today.  A person who has little knowledge of technology can choose to improve their knowledge by taking classes and collaborating with others on how technology is or can be used.  At the school improvement level, the person can work with other in collaboration to locate issues that can cause improvement in students work and learning.  The group researches the issue that needs to be resolved, come up with a plan of action, implement that plan, and then evaluate the implementation.  During the evaluation period, they analyze if any improvement has been made.  If there has been improvement, they set up a monitoring period to ensure that any additional adjustments need to be made.  If the desired results are not made, then they make adjustment accordingly.  They cycle continues until the desired results are meet.