Final Thoughts - EDLD 5301

This class has opened my eyes to many things. I never realized how much thought, processing, planning, creating, and questioning went into solving one school issue. Some of the issues we are dealing with aren’t even major issues, and this is still a very involved process! Although some may think this a daunting task/responsibility, this excites me! I love problem solving, and I love “playing detective”, if you will. Some of the things that I took away from this class, and think are most valuable to me as an action researcher came from the Dana text. Mostly, I will utilize the process of doing action research that Dana describes so well. One of the most helpful parts of this class was creating the blog. My blog wasn’t helpful to ME, but everyone else’s blogs were, and I know that several people used my blog as a guide for their work, and it helped build confidence that I was doing this correctly and on the right path. In my undergraduate studies, I utilized blogs for some of my classes, but it wasn’t helpful like these were. I hope that throughout the degree program, everyone continues to update their blogs so that we can all help each other stay on the right track! There are some very smart and insightful people in this program! The web conferences were helpful, but in a different way from my other class. I really enjoyed everyone sharing about their blogs, and their ideas, and the input from their administrators. It almost made me jealous when I heard about how helpful, insightful, involved, and excited other people’s administrators were about their research. Mine is very passive, and will say anything looks great, and doesn’t take a close look at much. I am glad that the web conferences gave me the insight into what other administrators were saying so I could at least use THAT as my guide. Sometimes people asked questions, that never even crossed my mind, in the web conference, and it made me completely restructure my project. It was great to have that insight, and it was great to share support. Lastly, one of the things (not included in this class directly) that really helped me, was the Facebook Page! I know that it’s not associated with Lamar, but it was a way for all of us to connect with one another without having a scheduled web conference, and we could all keep up with the page as needed. Many questions asked on that page helped keep me from answering some of the assignments incorrectly. Students would share their responses from professors/IA’s as they got them for certain questions, and just let everyone know as an FYI. It was nice that everyone would do footwork and help each other out. It was great to feel like we were all on a team! The collaboration was excellent practice for the future as well, as we all prepare to work together with our administrative teams as well as our faculty and staff to make a campus/district/program run efficiently!