First Reflection

Hi all!
So, our first post needs to be a reflection on our thoughts about Action Research and our thoughts about our project...
As far as action research goes, I think it's just like anything else; there will be poor action research and good action research and the difficulty is in distinguishing between the two.  Most of the articles that I have read this week have been about some good action research, in particular I enjoyed reading about the school-based strategy  in intercultural professional development.  Action research needs to incorporate a vast amount of reflective practices in order for it to be successful, and it is probably what separates the good and the bad, the amount of reflection that the researcher has completed.

I have been thinking about my action research project for several months now.  When I started I was going to do some research on how my school is implementing AVID strategies, in particular Cornell note-taking, completing research before and after implementation to see if it has made teacher's lives easier or harder and whether the students are receptive and learning.  However, the implementation of that has been delayed so I searched around for another topic.

The topic that I hope to use for my action research project is homelessness in high school, and what teachers can do in order to ease the burden for these students.  Last semester I had a student whose father was about to kick him out and he came to me saying he would have to drop out and get a job. He and I researched the McKinney-Vento information because I knew there were provisions made for homeless students, but he was unaware of that fact and what could be done to help him.  Until a couple of years ago, when we started completing the safety videos at school, what I knew about McKinney-Vento could be written on a postcard.  I think this is one area of information that teachers have a vague understanding about but are not really sure what it entails.

My idea for my project is to survey the teachers in my school about their prior knowledge, and then using that information create a 'packet' of information that is available to teachers to use to help the students.  The information will be more in laymen's terms, as the 'McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act' document is a complete bear.  I struggled my way through it and tried to pull out information as I could, but it's not very user friendly.   The packet I develop will contain what options students have, what teachers can do to help them and other stuff.  I will provide this to teachers/staff to use and then survey them again at the end of the semester to see if it helped them any and if they felt that it was a valuable resource for them and the students.
It's a work in progress but those are the bare bones on my research.  Okay, it's Friday... time to leave school for the weekend :)