ACTION PLAN!!!!!!

ACTION PLAN
Goal:  To increase parental involvement on the junior high campus and increase communication between parents and teachers.
Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline:  Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.)  Look for existing research on increasing parental involvement.	Jeffrey Denton	June 2012-June 2013	EBSCO databases Internet search engines Related books and/or journals	Communication with principal and other stakeholders to evaluate to see if anything should be done differently.
2.)  Interview stakeholders to inquire why previous years’ report card nights had little attendance.	Jeffrey Denton	August 15, 2012-September 15, 2012	Parents, students, teachers, and administrators	Review responses to determine why it was unsuccessful and what changes can be made to increase parental involvement here and in other areas.
3.)  Survey teachers about what they believe could be done to increase parental involvement.	Jeffrey Denton	August 2012-November 2012	7th grade teachers	Review responses to survey to see if there are suggestions that could be researched to benefit this action plan.
4.)  Send home questionnaire with 7th grade students to ask parent opinions of what could be done to increase involvement.	Jeffrey Denton	August 2012-November 2012	Parents of 7th grade students	Review responses to survey to see if there are opinions that would indicate why parent involvement has not been high and what can be done to increase it.
5.)  Interview leaders of other district campuses to see if their use of classroom websites has increased communication with parents.	Jeffrey Denton	August 2012-December 2012	Campus administrators	If it is shown that communication is higher, investigate utilizing websites for junior high classrooms.
As research is conducted in the above areas, other items will be added to this plan to facilitate the increase of parental involvement at the junior high as well as communication between teachers and parents.

Week 2---Don't be scared!!!!

After going through week two's activities, I feel a little less overwhelmed.  Just the word "research" is intimidating to me so I was a bit uneasy about this course.  The interviews really helped ease my intimidation because it helped me to feel that we're not alone when doing this research.  We don't have to come up with every bit of it ourselves.  There are others out there that have dealt with similar situations on similar campuses and we can read about those or even contact those involved when doing our research.  Also, we don't have to be alone on our campuses either.  We can use our colleagues for help.  We can ask other teachers for their input and assistance!  Also from this week, I have found out the wide variety of areas that action research can benefit.  It really doesn't matter what part of the school.  If there's an issue, a problem, or a simple curiosity we can use action research to come up with help.

ACTION RESEARCH

Action research is looking into a problem or something you are curious about with the ultimate goal of making positive changes and sharing what you have found with others in your field.  You have to look at and analyze data, ask questions, read literature related to the issue, and review other information to help make those positive changes possible.  Action research has many benefits including self-reflection of one’s own practices, improvement of practices, improvements in teaching and learning, strengthening the self-confidence and self-efficacy of teachers, providing intrinsic motivation, and refining skills.  Action research can be a positive professional development tool for yourself and others.  Action research can be found in university coursework, meetings with the superintendent or school district, leadership teams, and professional learning communities as well.  Of particular interest to me is that of the professional learning communities because it allows you to work with a team that also includes teachers.  It is good to have extra input but it is even better to me when you can get input from those that are still in the classroom.  Although you can and should observe what is taking place in the classrooms, no one knows better about the inner workings of those classrooms than the teachers themselves.  I would love to, and hope to, use action research to investigate better use of integrating technology and learning in the classrooms.

BLOGS

One idea I thought of for educational leaders using blogs would be sort of like a newsletter to keep faculty, staff, parents, and others informed of what’s going on with the campus.