Week 5 Reflection

At the beginning of this course I was concerned when reading the assignment overviews that this course was going to be tough.  I did not expect to have to start thinking about an action research project at this stage in the program.  I thought with all of my teaching and coaching duties that I would not be able to finish an action research project.  But quickly I learned that this course was a step by step “instruction manual.”  The first week’s assignment was meant to teach us why action research projects are needed.  I thought the book by Nancy F. Dana was good at explaining the reasons for action research. I liked that she had real life examples of action research projects done by others that share our position.  I found those particularly helpful in searching for a topic for my action research project.  The creation of a Blog was new for me, but I found those helpful in meeting people from the class and gaining input from them and also providing input as we go forward in this program.  I find that the weekly reflections that we post on our Blog and our assignments are fun to write and kind of ease the pain after a stressful filled week.  In the EDLD 5311, I was only able to take part in one of the weekly video chat sessions, but for this course I found them extremely helpful in explaining the parts of the assignments that I did not understand.  I was able to make the first three video chats this course but because of out of town games I wasn’t able to take part in the fourth chat.  The weekly discussion question really helps us understand what is going one and also gain feedback from others in the class.  I liked week two because the assignment wanted us to look at the examples from the readings and find real work situations for each common research topic.  I thought that week 3 was the toughest of the entire course because we had to develop a preliminary outline for our action research project.  I later determined it was the most important assignment because it made us develop the plan that we would use throughout our action research project.  Week 4 wrapped up the project by having us learn about how to share our project and reach a consensus once we are able to put our plan into practice.  It also offered us a chance to make revisions to our action research plan if our original plan was not what we intended it to be.  I really liked this course, and it has really taught me about the action research process.  I liked the way that each weekly assignment guided you through the process and offered you a chance to get outside feedback to help you gain information from others that might have some expertise or some experience in your chosen topic.