This summer I have been reading Pyramid Response to Intervention.  We are completing a book study on it with my campus next year.  In the reading I naturally connected to the topic for my action research.  My purpose for this action research will be to examine the implementation of a pyramid approach to RTI in my math class to determine its effectiveness in RTI student's STAAR scores.  This question interests me because I teach 5th grade math (SSI year).  My scores are usually good, but with the standards being raised by STAAR this next year, I need a better way to intervene for my RTI students.  In a typical year (I have been teaching 5th grade math for about 6 years), I will look at my RTI students and determine their pull out times for math lab (yes, I am blessed to have this resource).  The students will then spend an extra 30/day in the math lab working on weak objectives  identified by data from benchmark scores and past history.  I work very closely with the math specialist so we complement one another in our instruction.  It is a great plan.  However, about February we begin to really buckle down and tutoring above and beyond the pullout/class time begins.  We tutor hard core; before school, after school, recess time, computer/music/art/specials time and if necessary, we will pull them from Social Studies and make it up after the testing.  We saturate these kidos.  The problem lies in the effort it requires.  Students that are RTI for math usually are RTI for reading and other subjects!  These poor kids are tutored to death.  The poor teachers are tutoring to death.  By the end, we are all just ready for it to all be over.  This approach works for the most part.  We do see most of our kidos pass.  My problem is that I don't think the students are learning.  I think they are cramming for the moment because the next year they are right back in the same RTI position and working on the same concepts they worked on in 4th and 5th grade.  How have we helped the student?  Sure, we temporarily made the score, but that lack of learning will come back on the student again and again as he progresses through school.  We didn't fix the learning, we covered it for a short time.  By bringing in an intervention (lab teacher) teacher while the objective is being taught in my classroom, I believe we can help kids immediately during the learning, not after the fact.  The intervention teacher will be there to help ALL students of course, but will focus on the RTI needs first.  She/he will also be a part of team teaching the concept.  If a student needs extra help after the class, THEN they can be pulled out of one of the extra times THAT day and gain the reteaching for the concept to stick.  I will implement this in my 5th grade classes and see that the benefits are going to the kids first.  The second beneficiaries are the teachers (lab & classroom) and of course my campus improvement for AYP etc. 
The significance of my project will impact students on their continued math journey through their upper grades.  A student that cannot perform 5th grade mathematics can not be expected to continue on in Algebra and Geometry.  A perfectly college capable student may never get that opportunity because the learning did not happen in elementary.  Students that think they are "bad" in math will learn the objective and have a higher view of themselves and their capabilities.  Teachers will not be ready to quit teaching forever by the month of April.  The campus climate will flourish rather than be strained the second semester. 
This sounds really easy to accomplish on paper.  I am still working with my site supervisor to implement schedules, get the help I need from the math specialist and work out the details.  I know what I want to do.  I now need to figure out a plan to make it happen as smoothly as possible. 

Blogging: A Personal Learning Communtiy

The world no longer has walls that box us into a small area.  Through technology we have access to the ends of the earth as long as an internet connection is available.  Educational professionals can use web blogging in any number of ways to communicate with others in their field, or just journal ideas to give to later reflection time.  Educators seem to work on a deserted island.  Collaboration is time consuming and risky.  The 21st century invites us to escape from the island and come inland with our peers and model cooperative learning that we desire from our students.  Blogging is an avenue for such an activity.  Educational leaders can share ideas and strategies across the country or across the hall through a blog.  It gives opportunity for others to comment on our writing and encourages a global perspective for education.  Bloggers can share their ideas, experiences and perspectives for others to comment.  It is an intentional way of reflecting on practices whether successful or not.  Like a closet filled with outfits for the taking, a blog can provide opportunities to look into thoughts in retrospect, add to them and/or take something away.  By blogging, a personal learning community can be enjoyed.  A deep sense of satisfaction can be drawn from sharing our thoughts and ideas with others in our profession.  It is a road to play with "big ideas" and challenges a deeper inquiry of personal professional practices.  Blogging is a powerful tool that allows the educational community to expand horizons and flourish with new ideas.  

Research? Action? Two Words...Scary Words...

The part of the Master's program I have been dreading.  I am old, out of touch and tired.  Research requires time, I don't have enough.  Who decided we should put action behind the research?  So, my journey into worlds left behind 24 years ago (I said I was old) begins.  I understand research, after all I am an educator.  I research for everything I do before I teach my students.  I research to find out what my students are lacking and why; what new I can offer them?  But, action frankly threw me for a loop. Not to panic, I discovered that action research is in fact what I do regularly.  According to Dana, "..The practitioner inquiry movement focuses on the concerns of practitioners (not outside researchers) and engages practitioners in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around their question." ( Leading with Passion and Knowledge).  Coined "action research" by Carr and Kemmis (1986), this way of solving problems in the school begins with a question.  1.  What is the problem that needs to be solved or improved?  2.  What action(s) can be employed to improve the    situation?  3.  After identifying the strategies, put them into practice.  Did it facilitate the change?  What can the knowledge learned do to empower more improvement?  Of course my version is very simple.  I teach elementary so I tend to "dumb" information down to reach a wide variety of young thinkers.  However, I understand that action research is in my hands to bring about a desired change in my classroom, school, or district based on literature research.  Now my head is really spinning!  Wow, I have the power to affect change in a positive way and try those things I have often wondered about.  Where do I start?  Oh yes, the question!  What do other practitioners have to say about the problem?   Good question, now to get started....