How educational leaders might use blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs to reflect on their thought processes and the ability to publish these thoughts instantly.  They can publish photos, text, and links all at the same time.  It also allows them to network with practitioner researchers interested in the same issues or conducting similar research that they would never interact with otherwise. 

I have learned much on the topic of action research this week.  I believe that many of us engage in aspects of this practice in our current positions but failed to realize this is what we are doing.   Most data based decision making should be occurring on data that could be made into an action research project if we looked at the data as a whole and possible solutions that we face as broad, campus or district-based problems.  For example, the entire RtI process could become part of an action research project if we relied on the data to look at specific areas of weakness in curriculum areas. We could also analyze district resources for interventions for their effectiveness.

The most surprising change in view after completing the readings and assignments this week is changing my view of research as an isolated event to answer a specific question that is thought of by the researcher to an on-going activity practiced by staff to create effective change for students and the school community.  I will utilize action research in my current position by analyzing discipline data and figuring out how I can use the data to reduce referrals and suspensions for students.  I have started pulling those students with more than five office referrals in one semester and then viewing their class failures to see if there are any patterns.  I am meeting with campus RtI coordinators to decide how we can analyze the data to hypothesize interventions.