What ACTION RESEARCH means to me...

At first the term "action research" seemed like a simple one.  I thought, "Oh, it's just going to be looking a bunch of stuff up and reading about it and then writing a really big paper on it." I also assumed that it would be something that I would use for this class or possibly for my whole grad program, but would never actually use it in my classroom. Boy was I wrong!  What I really realized is that most effective teachers are already using action research in their classroom, with the help of their administrators.  Most schools participate in PLCs and have teachers serving on Leadership Teams.  Both of those are effective ways to implement action research into schools easily.  While other teachers are doing effective action research on their own.  So, you may ask, "What is action research?".  Basically it starts with a guiding question.  Something that you think of as a problem that you want to solve or an area that you are wondering if it is working effectively or is successful in your classroom are school.  The question gets you started, then you have to start gathering data.  The data can come from various places such as standardized test scores, teacher-made assessments, discussions with students, behavior referrals, or the school attendance system, all depending on what type of data it is that you need.  Once the data is collected, it will need to be analyzed.  Then comes the most important part of all....REFLECTION!  The reflection is the part that takes the most time but it is also the most critical part.  This is the stage where you figure out what worked or didn't work and what you can do next to make it more successful the next time.  Overall action research is a process that makes perfect sense and one that all educators should be using.  When using it effectively, your classroom/school will run more efficiently and have amazing success!