During week three’s reading, Dana (2009) discusses nine “passions” or musings that should be explored in defining the probing questions used to isolate an action research topic.  I found particular interest in the sixth passion, leadership. Throughout that week, I found myself drawing and redrawing a Coat of Arms that is presented as part of the leadership exercise.  Following the instructions presented on page 55, I created my own Coat of Arms.  The border I used is a Native American pattern of spirals which typically represents renewal.  This symbolizes my intention to lead with a fresh eye, and to approach situations with an open and nonbiased opinion.  The first symbol included is a tortoise.  I chose to use the tortoise because in many ancient cultures, particularly Native American cultures the tortoise was symbolic of wisdom, and longevity.  The wolf tracks are also taken from the Native American culture, as the wolf was thought of as a symbol of kinship, authority, and leadership.  The blue stripe represents conservatism and is often used in literature as a symbol of strength and steadfastness.  Finally I’ve included the school texts, resting upon the work trustworthy, because I hope to be a trustworthy yet knowledgeable leader.  Although it appears to have been a simple assignment, it was quite thought provoking. 

Action Research Proposal - Rough Form

Action Planning Template
GOAL:  To create a comprehensive need assessment instrument that meets the state and federal reporting requirements while simplifying the campus assessment and facilitates drafting an annual campus improvement plan.
Action Steps	Person Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Review State and Federal guidelines for required elements of a comprehensive needs assessment (CNA).	Ronnie Wright	Summer 2012	Texas Educ. Code Sections 11.252 & 11.253 and PL 107-110 (No Child Left Behind) Section 1114	Completion, Peer review, Site Supervisor approval
2. Review other district CNA instruments	Ronnie Wright	Summer 2012	TEA CNA instrument, and that of other 3-A school districts	Completion, Peer review, Site Supervisor approval
3.  Decide on specific areas of school operations that should be included in the CNA and define the parameters of each domain	Ronnie Wright with assistance of Dr. Wayne Guidry	Fall 2012	Reviewed CNA’s of other districts and interviews with building principals and central administrators	Mutual agreement of assessment domains by the central administrators, and principals
4. Establish guidelines for who will be responsible for the evaluation of each domain on each campus	Ronnie Wright with assistance of Dr. Wayne Guidry and principals	Fall 2012	Definitions and expectations of each domain	Completion, Peer review, Site Supervisor approval
4. Establish available data sources for each domain and insure accessibility of data	Ronnie Wright with assistance of Dr. Wayne	Fall 2012	Skyward accesses and comprehensive training	Completion, Peer review, Site Supervisor approval
5.  Establish guiding questions to assist campus committees in reviewing each domain	Ronnie Wright with assistance of Dr. Wayne Guidry, central administration and principals	Fall 2012	Clearly established and defined domains with data sources	Site Supervisor and central administration approval
6.  Create a functional and visually appealing instrument	Ronnie Wright	February 2013	MS Word or Acrobat Writer	Approval of central administration and Site Supervisor
7. Roll out the instrument to campus leadership committees	Ronnie Wright, Dr. Wayne Guidry and building principals	March 2013	Campus CILT trainings at after school meetings.	Participant and Principal satisfaction survey
8. Assist campus CILT teams in completing the needs assessment and campus action plans	Ronnie Wright, CILT Teams, campus principals	April-May 2013	Collected Data, Instruments, CILT Team buy-in	Site Coordinator and Principal satisfaction.  Completed assessments
9. Evaluation of the CNA process	Dr. Wayne Guidry, Central Administration, Building Principals, CILT Team, other participants	May 2013	Evaluation survey	Successful evaluations
10. Instrument adjustment	Ronnie Wright and Dr. Wayne Guidry	Summer 2013	Instrument, Evaluation survey results	Dr. Wayne Guidry and Central administration

This week we examined how action research can be used to benefit the learning environment. We explored areas where the principal should look for musings or questions to improve the school and his/her leadership abilities. Included were the areas of: Staff development, curriculum development, individual teachers, individual students, school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice. This week has helped me to take a more global view of the school and begin to look at the many facets of the principal's job.

Use of Blogs by Educational Leaders

Educational Leaders may use blogs in a variety of ways.  First, blogs may serve as a means for sharing information or soliciting feedback from faculty on issues or events at school.  Second for training, perhaps they can be used when doing a book study.  The instructional leader may pose a question or comment related to the reading, and members of the study group can then post comments and feedback.  I believe that blogs can serve as very strong educational tools if properly used.  But at the same time I caution that blogs can also become negative sounding boards if not closely monitored.

Action Research

I've learned that action research is an on-going, introspective, self-assessment of one’s leadership style and the effectiveness of that style in relation to the administrator’s overall effectiveness.  The administrator consistently steps back and reviews his/her actions along with reviewing data and literature relevant to the current situation.  In this way he/she continually reviews their current position to gain an understanding of how to become a more effective leader and develop a personalized plan for professional development.  Because this professional development plan would be based on the direct needs of the administrator, action research becomes a very useful and ever-growing powerful tool to improve the administrator’s leadership performance. This form of administrative inquiry facilitates collaboration with other leaders, and the principal is actively engaged in the research process, and not just handed another new program to implement. There is greater buy-in and the leadership development becomes much more appropriate and meaningful.

I plan to use action research to develop a collaborative leadership style as I complete my leadership internship.  Over this past academic year, I have been fortunate to see action research in practice both on the campus and district level in the use of campus PLC’s (Professional Leadership Communities) and the district instructional leadership team.  I plan to use action leadership in the development of a campus needs self-assessment instrument that will align all of the campus assessments required for federal reporting. I further plan to use it throughout my internship to improve my leadership abilities.