My Action Research Project: Final Reflection

Teachers during a professional development workshop

Where I started
As a teacher I am constantly reflecting on my work. I do a lesson or a project and then I think about what I could have done to improve it. Refining and redesigning my work is a continuous cycle, and it always seems that I never finish. My work is never completed because I am hardly ever completely happy with the end result. This is how I view my Action Research Project. I wanted to get a sense that I was finishing my research, but I had to constantly remind myself that this work never ends and that it lends itself to continuous improvements and refinements.

My Action Research Project focuses on technology professional development for teachers. When I first began to teach at the middle school level, I worked with a computer lab teacher who inspired me to incorporate technology into my classroom curriculum. I became very intrigued by the idea of using technology to plan, research, and deliver my content to my students. However, it was the results I got from my students that yielded the most inspiration to use technology in my classroom, and as a result I have become a major proponent of technology use in the classroom. This is part of the reason why I decided to pursue a master’s degree in educational technology. I envisioned myself as an agent of change for teachers and technology use. I want to inspire teachers to follow in my footsteps and use me as an example of success with technology in my classroom.

Humble Beginnings
Initially, my objective was to encourage teachers to improve their teaching by using technology. I was unclear as to why teachers really needed to use technology in their classrooms and curriculum. I knew I wanted teachers to become “computer-using educators”, but I wasn’t making the connection between technology use and student success. Maybe in my heart I knew all along that was my main focus, but I could not verbalize or explain it yet. I knew where I wanted to go, but I wasn’t sure how to get there and why.

My Journey
Beginning in the program at Pepperdine I sensed that I would develop a better understanding of how to accomplish my goal of inspiring teachers to become “computer-using educators” like myself. Many of the classes and readings in the OMET program allowed me to have a clearer understanding of where I was headed. I really wanted to focus on professional development for teachers in the area of technology. I was also beginning a new position as the technology lead teacher at a charter school. Initially I had obtained some background information about the school and its teachers. I wanted to make El Sol Academy the testing ground for my goal of making every teacher computer literate and a technology hound. Most of the teachers at El Sol Academy were fairly new to the field of education so they proved to be clean slates in my experiment. I firmly believed that if I provided teachers with enough professional development opportunities at the end of the school year they would be excellent examples of “computer-using educators”. As with most plans everything turned out much differently than I had anticipated.

The Process of Change
Thinking back to the reasons why my plan turned out differently I thought about what factors changed my focus. The classes, the readings and the overall experience at Pepperdine changed much of my direction. In my professional development for teachers I realized that teachers learn much the same way that my young students do. They all have different learning needs and skills. They learn in different ways, and they bring their own set of prejudices. They are not much different than my third grade students learning about multiplication facts in the sense that both math and technology conjure feelings of fear and frustration. However, both my students and teachers differ when it comes to using technology. My third grade students were very excited about using a computer and were not afraid of making mistakes. On the other hand some of my teachers were afraid of the technology available to them. In some instances the feedback I got from them was fear of breaking the computer and later being charged for the device. Of course a student may not really see or understand the financial worth of a computer, and a teacher may be more prone to keep that in mind as they use the computer. This is a major difference between both my young students and the teachers I worked with this year. Other teachers just did not see the “big deal” of using a computer to deliver their curriculum. They would have rather just used it to type documents and search the internet for movie tickets.

One big surprise I had was that although the school provided teachers with their own laptop they refused to use it simply because of the platform. In other words they were prejudiced towards a Mac, which seemed completely ridiculous to me since the computer was being offered to them for free. I simply could not understand this logic, but soon after I realized that one of the major reasons was that some of these teachers just felt more comfortable with their own computers. One of the conclusions I drew from this was that they were a bit afraid of the unknown and were just unwilling to try something new. For other teachers time was a big factor in getting comfortable with the technology being offered to them. They were concerned with managing their classroom, so time was of the essence and the computer posed an obstacle in that.

Re-Thinking Leadership
Comfort was a big factor in encouraging teachers to use technology. I learned to be patient with the teachers. Not all of the teachers were coming to the professional development workshops I offered with the same set of skills. I assumed that all of the teachers would be able to catch on as quickly as I could, and this was a major wake up call for me. As a result I had to change my focus and direction of my professional development workshops.

Initially I spent most of the workshop time delivering information to the teachers and offered little time to hands on activities for the teachers. Soon after I began to offer One-on-One sessions to the teachers in order to help individual teachers become more comfortable with technology. Many of the One-on-One sessions were geared to help answer any questions that they might have and were less structured. After my first two sessions I experienced my first major “ah-ha” moment. I realized that I was treating teachers differently than I would have treated my third grade students, and I should have approached my professional development for teachers with the same patience as I do in my own classroom. Soon thereafter I began to consistently offer One-on-One sessions for teachers and the results were amazing. Some of the teachers made huge leaps in comfort level using technology and others moved along at their own pace. Nevertheless, they grew and that was a positive result for me. From this I learned more about the type of patience needed with adult learners.

Re-Creating My Values, Vision and Mission
I wanted to capitalize on the success of offering more individualized instruction using the One-on-One’s with the teachers, and I began to mentor one teacher at the same time. This was something that I had been inspired to do from Paul Spark’s mentoring class. Interestingly enough, I had already begun an informal mentoring process with my third grade partner teacher, but being in Spark’s class made the process more meaningful. With my partner/mentee I wanted to plant a seed of inspiration, and the result was positive.

Carolina was one of the teachers I assumed would not be receptive to using a computer in class or in her daily life, but once again my assumptions were proven wrong. She surprised me later when I found out she had been planning and researching a lesson using her computer. She would ask me for suggestions on where to find pictures for her lesson and I offered ideas on how she could use her computer to deliver her lesson. Carolina was very receptive and excited about her lesson, and as a result she continued to use her computer for the development of her classroom curriculum. I also wanted to ensure that teachers would benefit more from the professional development workshops I was providing so I made some changes to the overall structure of them. Instead of me being the sole presenter of the workshop I decided to assign tasks to the teachers prior to the workshop. At the workshop the teachers would have most of the session to work on their project and I could come around and offer individualized help. One of the interesting things that came out of this was that Carolina surged as a technology mentor/leader to some of the teachers. She quickly began to offer help to teachers that were struggling with the hands on projects, and as a result my mentoring relationship with her improved dramatically.

Leadership
One of the main things I learned from my experience with leadership this year was that leadership comes in many shapes and sizes. In the professional development workshops I was providing I tried to fulfill the role of the traditional leader, however it backfired on me and I had to re-think my style. In the end it was a positive change because it allowed me to think of this process deeper and search for new ways to be effective. However, many of the people on campus still looked to me to fill specific leadership roles especially in technology. When the school needed a working data network I was placed at the forefront of this issue and I was expected to resolve it since I was the Technology Lead Teacher at El Sol Academy. I had to learn how to set up a wireless network since I had never set one up let alone design one. By researching information in books, on the internet and from some of my classmates I established a successful wireless network at the school. I also got a crash course on phone systems as a result of the non-functioning phones at El Sol Academy. I am not an expert in phone systems, but I do know more about them and feel pretty confident of my knowledge. All of this experience is helping me a great deal now since I am in the middle of planning a new phone system and data network at a new school for the upcoming Fall 2004. This is something that I would not have felt comfortable in doing a year ago, but now I feel knowledgeable enough to tackle this task. However, what I feel has been the most beneficial piece of knowledge I have gained has been my experience with planning a better professional development series for teachers. This will prove to be an invaluable piece of knowledge to implement at my new school site.

Where I’m heading
One of the things I wanted to do more of this year was to have identified other teachers to be technology mentors on campus. I also wanted to have some of these teachers lead some of the technology workshops and some of the One-on-One sessions, but I think that is something I will do for next school year. I don’t want to be the only one that is perceived as the “know-it-all” of technology at my new school. I have also been thinking about what I am taking from this program and experience.

The most important experience I have gained from this program has been the creation of my community of practice. Now I feel that there is a core group of people that I can trust in asking questions, for guidance, and help. Until recently I really didn’t have the benefit of colleague support in the area of technology, so I had to rely on the internet and technical support sites. Now I feel that my COP is one that not only I can seek help from, but also seek professional guidance. The relationships that I have been able to foster and develop with some people here in the program have been extremely significant. Some of these people are going to be my life long friends and colleagues. Trenton and I will be working at the same school next year, and I have become very close to Suzanne and Diane for many reasons.

Fundamental Growth
Another aspect of this years’ growth for me has been the realization that I am pretty flexible and patient. Initially I was under the impression that I was not very flexible and patient with adult learners, but after this experience I have learned that I am actually very interested in adult learning. I also realized that I tend to set very high standards for myself and others and sometimes this gets in the way of my learning and goal attainment. Take for example this years’ professional development. I had set the goal so high that at the end of the year I was feeling like I had failed because not all of the teachers had become “computer-using educators” like me. I had failed to see that their growth was a major success. Some of the teachers I worked with this year had not really used a computer for web searches and lesson plan research. By year’s end, some of these same teachers had completed online coursework for clear credential classes and had become so attached to their computers that letting them go was heartbreaking for them. That alone is a testament to the success of their growth as a result from the professional development workshops.

I also realized that I have a tendency to find a way to learn more about technology, and I enjoy the process of being self-taught. One year ago I would not have tried to set up a wireless network let alone make one work at a school, but I accomplished that this year. I had never set up a website, domain and maintained email accounts, but I learned all these functions this year too. I made some mistakes along the way, but in the end the “trial and error” of this experience has allowed me to grow more as a professional. I learned that although I am very patient, I still need to work on developing a much more patient attitude towards adult learners. Assumptions are also something that I realized is an important part of this process. I cannot continue to assume that all adult learners in this case teachers, are all at the same level or have the same vision as I do. I am learning to refine and adjust that part of my attitude. I have also realized that other colleagues respect me for who I am and for what I bring to the table. This is a very important part of my growth for this year, and I feel pretty confident that as a result I am capable of inspiring other teachers to succeed.

My Mission
Next year I look forward to implementing all that I have learned and continuing with my Action Research Project. I don’t want it to be something that I only did while in this program, but would rather build upon it and develop it further. I would love to pursue a doctoral program in educational technology, so this Action Research Project is a great starting point for future research. Taking what I have learned this year from the professional development workshops I plan on continuing to provide successful sessions for teachers. I am still working on my goal of making every teacher at my school become a “computer-using educator”. I know that they all will not arrive to the same place at the same time, but realizing that they will arrive sometime is inspiring to me. I also look forward to implementing some of the strategies I have learned in this process next year. This entire experience has allowed me to realize something very important about myself, and that is the joy I have for learning. I never realized how important the process of learning was for me, and I think at times it was partly due to my misconception that learning involved “work”. This process has made me reflect and realize that learning is fun and that I thrive on the entire process related to it. The bottom line is that I love to learn. Today, I feel more confident about the skills and knowledge I have gained as a result of this process. I know that other colleagues look to me for guidance in regards to technology and that I am a well-respected educator in my community of practice. This has been a perception I have struggled to accept, and now I feel confident and comfortable embracing it. Overall, I am excited about the possibilities that next year brings for my colleagues and me, and I look forward to more feelings of growth and development.