1. Examining the work: Setting the Foundation- Throughout last year, the chemistry department collaborated on ways to increase student achievement. After several meetings, the department concluded that some students were not successful for the following reasons:
• Too many absences
• Students did not complete homework
• Students did not attend tutorials when it was obvious that they needed additional help
• Students become frustrated with the more difficult concepts and had a tendency of giving up
One idea proposed was to place video lectures online for students to access. This would allow those students who were absent from class the opportunity to listen to the lecture as if they had not missed class thus not falling behind, and those students who needed a review of how to solve a particular problem could easily view the video for help.

2. Analyzing data- Unit and benchmark tests would be the extremely beneficial data. If overall scores improved after online videos were introduced then the program could be considered a success. The use of videos would resolve most of the reasons for examining the research to begin with such as, decreasing student frustration, students falling behind, lack of homework completion.

In addition, analysis of Survey Monkey would give feedback from parent’s and student’s perspective so that over time improvements could be made that would continue to increase student scores for years.

On my teacher website, we have student blogging. This would be an ideal place where students could give immediate feedback so that adjustments could be made throughout the semester.

3. Developing deeper understanding- Throughout the research, chemistry teachers would meet weekly to collaborate on the research. Discussion of the pro’s and con’s of the project and what the teachers observe on a daily basis would help to determine program success. Some of the questions needing answered would be: student understanding of concepts, are students viewing lectures, student frustration, and increase grade averages.

4. Engaging in Self-Reflection- It would be important to remain focused on the student and student needs. Often times us as researchers become so consumed with the process that we forget student learning needs to be at the forefront. If at any time during the research student success diminishes than reevaluation of the program needs to be determined.

5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns- Some of the problems that might be encountered along the way would be the following:

• Should every teacher make their own video for online viewing?
• How difficult will it be for teachers who are not tech-savvy to make a video?
• Will students benefit from hearing a different teacher’s lecture or will it be too confusing?
• If the videos were divided up so that teacher’s workload was reduced, would this be acceptable to all stakeholders?
• What if students cannot access videos due to computer/internet problems?

These questions need to be addressed early on in the research so as to eliminate or reduce problems.

6. Determining direction- I believe that the action research plan has been well thought out and that after several collaborative meetings, most teachers are excited to begin the online videos. Likewise, administration is supportive of the project.

7. Taking action for school improvement- The purpose or goal for online video lectures is to improve student achievement for all students. The main idea came from collaboration of teachers who felt the need for change or ways to address struggling students.

8. Sustaining improvement- During and after the research, I plan on collaboratively sharing the results with the entire high school staff so that other departments would be able to determine if the project would be beneficial to their classroom or not. Likewise, sharing information allows for constructive feedback and ideas that might not have been thought of prior.

Action Research

I believe action research is essential to the success of a leader. Not only will action research help in answering questions or solving problems but it is a continuous ongoing process. It collaboratively finds ways to solve problems and then continues to work on increasing the success of the program or project. Action research is not a onetime fix to a problem but a process that continuously works to re-evaluate data and make adjustments accordingly regardless of how many times or the length of the time. Obviously if too many changes are made in too short a time, the data would be erroneous. However, the key is to research, determine best changes, wait, collect data and re-evaluate. If more changes are necessary, collaboratively decide on the best approach.

I believe this type of research is beneficial in building a school culture that is unified and one that is constantly striving to increase student achievement. Teachers are more likely to take ownership thus project success is likely to increase as well.

Because teachers already feel overwhelmed with busy schedules, blogging is an excellent tool to involve more teachers without setting a formal meeting time to accommodate everyone. Also, some teachers are more likely to suggest ideas if they are blogging verses sitting in a large group of stakeholders. Another benefit of blogging is increase feedback or reflection without time constraints.