Principals as Bloggers???

Many blogs that we read today are created by crafty moms, gossip columnists, and even teachers.  While many of these people create the blogs we may read daily, principals as bloggers sounds like a good idea in that it allows them to communicate openly with other principals, teachers, and parents. Principals can use blogs as a means of sharing common frustrations (without breaching confidentiality). They can also use a blog to share the work of the leadership team, teachers, and even students.  Blogs for administrators can be used as a means of sharing ideas and gaining new ideas to be used on their campus.

All About Action Research

After this weeks reading of Leading with passion and knowledge:  The Principal as Action Research. I was able to develop a better understanding of exactly what action research is and how it can be used at my current campus.  I learned that action research is an ongoing process that requires the administrator to identify a practice they would like to change and take steps toward making a changed based on the gathering and analysis of data about the practice identified.  Action research consists of the researcher constantly reflecting on the data and taking action towards a change. It requires the researcher to carefully analyze current practices, how these practices are benefitting or not benefiting the school, and how to go about changing these practices if necessary.  Action research could be used on my current campus as a means of helping many problems that the administrator faces such as increasing parental involvement, identifying relevant professional development opportunities for teachers, and/or increasing student literacy in an effort to increase reading scores on state tests.  I would use action research to study how to increase student literacy on our campus among all subgroups especially the Hispanic population. This is an area of study and concern at our campus as it was identified that we did not meet the needs of our Hispanic students in the area of reading, resulting in not meeting AYP.  I am interested to see how action research could aid in identifying current practices of the administrators/leaders and how we can change this practice.