Research Course Reflection

RESEARCH

Throughout the duration of this course, Research, I learned the importance to search for those topics that concerns administrators the most and how the results of those investigations can be use to create an environment of learning for all.
Administrator inquiry refers to the process of a principal engaging in a systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns as a result of the inquiry (Dana,2009). Using Dana's textbook to develop my draft action research plan was a great experience. Dana explains step by step what needs to be done to work on an action research project and also why is important to engage in inquiry as administrators. Also, Harris' book offers a lot of insight about working with action research projects and which strategies can be used to sustain improvement after finishing data collection and drawing conclusions.
While using the blogs and engaging myself in reading discussion boards help me a lot in developing my plan and also gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas with other prospective administrators that are eager to improve as professionals and to help their students and schools to achieve at higher levels as well.
Assignments provided me with the opportunity of express my points of view and also to develop meaningful ideas about the things that I consider can help my students to increase academic achievement. Analyzing different topics as homework, curriculum, UIL activities among other made me realize that there's a lot of benefit in doing research and collect data to find out different ways that can be use to keep our students, staff and administrators engage in what they do. Collaboration among classmates while working on the assignments were a must and reading each of the recommendations and analyzing the same topic from a different point of view was an excellent experience in assuring that our work as teachers and administrators is not only provide a lesson and an assessment, is building positive relationships to create an atmosphere where everybody have higher expectations among themselves.
While doing research on the Web, I found myself reading and searching about a lot of topics at the same time. At the beginning, it was hard to focus only in one topic because every article that I found, was teaching me something new. I had to set my mind and focus in what I specific want to research about to be able to begin with my project. Also, the lectures and the books used as reference for the class, have a lot of material and examples that while reading I wanted to know about everything and I wanted to use every single strategy and every single activity that was mentioned there.
Research class is the most interesting and meaningful class that I have taken so far while working on my Master's Degree. I know, that as a prospective administrator, I will take a lot of advantages about what I have learn so far and that the material provided my the professors, lectures, books, keep up with the blogs and having the experience to begin collecting data as soon as the school begins, will help me to apply this knowledge for the benefit of my students, staff and administrators and for the growth of our school at all.