Week Six - What am I finding as I collect data?

10/19/2013

2 Comments

 
This week's data collection was much more successful.  I sent out a survey to my kindergarten grade-level team, 10 teachers, via SurveyMonkey.  The first week got one reply.  This week I received 7 more.  (Coffee bribes seemed to have done the trick.)  Eight out of 10 pretty good rate of return.  Honestly, I was hoping for 100% participation.  I have read through the responses that are very nicely organized with SurveyMonkey.  I have also had further conversations with my colleagues regarding my subject of research.  Many are interested in my study and have suggested a continued look into its success as we go through the school year.  Some also mentioned the inability to answer my questions fully as it is so new and we are only 8 weeks in.  I asked for their responses to reflect upon the program to this point in the year.

I participated in both Tweet sessions this week hoping to glean some insight as to this next step in the project.  I feel like I have been limping along at this point with a project that I have absolutely no experience.  The next step is even more daunting.  Research is something I do everyday as a teacher.  It has always been informal through observation and trial and error.  I am finding the process, thus far, to be interesting and I am excited to have piqued the interest of my fellow teachers with my project.  I am most interested in the efficacy of programs new to our district. I hope to be able to complete this project with some success.

My goal this week is to continue to analyze and organize my data and review resources made available through our class site. 
2 Comments
Scott Roleff link
10/19/2013 02:50:19 pm

You are not alone in your inexperience. Figuring out how to write, format, and research all of this information is something I have absolutely no experience doing. It has been an adventure. We'll get through it and will benefit from this new experience.

I had an interesting thought as I read through your weeks summary. Since some of your survey respondents felt like they could not give adequate responses, you may want to try again at the end of the school year or at the beginning of next year. (On an informal basis) It may be interesting to see if opinions/attitudes change. It may be an excellent evaluation tool for your district as they look at the effectiveness of the new program.

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Courtney link
10/21/2013 01:35:26 pm

I am not familiar with writers workshop. I have heard of it that is about it. Are there forms of assessments pretty standard or will there be a lot of deviation between teachers assessments? I ask because that may effect your data. Are the assessments based on individual student progress or compared to a norm? I completely understand what you are talking about when you say that many of the students in Kinder. Are in school for the first time and you have the responsibility of getting them caught up. We are in the same boat and for the last 3 years I have had at least one student that is still working on letter formation as well as content. It is really tough on those students because they feel like they are being double criticized. Will you be following through on your own until test results are in? I am curious to hear if there is any improvement.

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