Analysis of How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs

Okay, so we're back to blogging. Which if you have been keeping up with my blog you will know that although I wasn't a fan at first, but I have grown to truly enjoy updating my blog. I plan to keep up my blog now as long as I am an educational leader, because it allows me to "reflect" on my thoughts and actions and even sometimes vent! I believe that educational leaders could benefit from using blogs in a variety of ways. First of all blogs provide an excellent outlet for discussion and sharing ideas with someone from outside the loop. What I mean is that sometimes as a leader it is helpful to "bounce" your thoughts off of someone in a similar situation as yourself. Many times as an educational leader I just simply needed to interact and share my thoughts and ideas with someone of the same caliber. Secondly, blogs would benefit educational leaders by providing a resource for even more experiences, actions, and reflections. After all, expertise stems from reflection and through a blog educational leaders would have that many more opportunities to reflect on others' experiences and actions. Finally, I think blogs would enable educational leaders to attack broad statewide issues through "power in numbers!" Blogs would create an immediate ongoing discussion board relating to every hot topic in education, just as our discussion board has done through Lamar. Instead of having to read about issues in a monthly magazine or periodical, educational leaders would have an opportunity to immediately be aware of topics and give their own personal opinion and feedback. In conclusion, I think blogs encompass 21st Century Learning and we as educational leaders should "set the pace" for our teachers and students.

What I have learned about Action Research!

Action Research! I have learned a lot about action research over the past week. To begin with action research isn't all what I thought it would be, like many educators I saw the term "research" and my heart skipped a beat! I was instantly back in my college Literature classes dreading the amount of laborious work I was about to be asked to do...and thinking I hate this! However, after reading and learning about what action research really is, I quite like it and plan on using it over and over again, throughout my journey as an administrator. Action research is defined as a process of a principal engaging in systematic intentional study of her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what she learns as a result of the inquiry. In lamen terms, this simply means that as a principal I will constantly engage in a study of my own practices and what I am doing on the job or how my campus is running and I will use my own knowledge and that of other administrators and teachers to attempt to re-vamp or "fix" any problems or instances that might occur. I really am looking forward to implementing action research. I have already begun some of the steps to action research this summer by reflecting on what I need to change and "do better" as a Reading Coach for next year. I have learned that I can use action research to make myself a better principal and administrator. I know understand that I can seek out change and reflect on my practices by posing questions and also that I can gain insights to those questions by analyzing data along with reading relevant literature and make effective changes based on a new understanding developed during my "research!" In my mind, action research is almost equivalent to some classes a friend of my families has to attend, you see he is a Vet and must attend these "continuing education" classes every so often. To me, action research is just that continuing education, only it's based on what specific implementations or problems you need to solve at your specific campus. As a principal, my learning is not ever going to be over, I am going to constantly have to "swing with the pendulum" if I want to have a successful campus and staff, action research is my tool to constantly improve teaching and learning no matter how long I have been an administrator.

Hello AGAIN!

Well....kinda forgot I had a blog! Crazy, huh? I was thinking today, and thought maybe I would give this blog thing another shot, and when I come to think about it and use it, I realized that I really like writing down my thoughts! It has become sort of enlightening....I hope! :)
Summer is finally here and I am already starting to feel the pressure of all the million things I have to get started on before school starts...seems like the rat race is just around the corner. I have started my annual summer swimming lessons, (not for me of course, but for all the little kids in my town), they seem to be going well and we have alot of kids signed up! I am also in the middle of building a new house and although that has been fun, it tends to get kinda of frustrating at times, making decisions constantly....I am constantly telling people that if money was no object, I would be a great house builder because it seems that everything that I like is always the most expensive! :) No really, it has been fun and I am super excited about getting to move in around the first of August...yep, you heard me the first of August just about the time when I will be trying to get all of my presentations ready to go for the beginning of inservice for the teachers! Good thing I have enjoyed my lazy days at the pool so far this summer because in about another month I am going to be so busy it's not going to be funny~! Seems kinda ironic huh, to sit here all summer enjoy the "dog days" and not really having to do anything except work on my tan, run, and play with Mack and then having to do nine million things in a span of two weeks! Well, that has always been my life, seems like it runs me instead of me running it! :) Have a good July, I'll keep updating this blog~!