Getting excited!

I found myself in a very “interesting” predicament this month when I found myself propelled in time and went from the 3^rd class in the Lamar course schedule to the seventh!  This happened because I am a returning student so I had taken some classes before.  By now I was supposed to be well on my way to implementing my action research project but that certainly was not the case.

This class forced me to get my literature review done.  I got busy and found my research which took my project on a slight different direction than I had anticipated.  Since this class asked me to do a draft of my paper and has me looking at different components like how did I motivate others, get the community evolved in the project and manage my resources, it has made me think about things I had not even considered.  In some aspect I feel very lost like how I’m going to do the above mentioned?  Maybe things will get better once I actually get started which has been postponed until January.

At first I must admit, I was a little discouraged about this but it gives me more time to plan how I will coordinate the video recordings and have enough cameras to do that.  I’m hoping that having a husband who was in the film industry at one point will come in handy soon.  I knew investing in all that camera equipment would come in handy someday!  Plus, I will also have time to create the rubrics I will be using as part of my observation analysis part and will now have time to collaborate with the people involved to make changes to them before getting started. 

I also wanted to share this AMAZING link I found when I was researching.  To my colleagues that are doing their study about math (especially if it is for elementary and middle school grades) you can’t leave home without this one!  It is from the Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance.  The link is as follows: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/.

Time to press on…

Awkward position

I am currently at my midway course, 5397, where I’m supposed to report on my project thus far.  Since I just took the research course last month, there isn’t much to report.  I’m feeling stressed and starting to feel overwhelmed.  I think I just need to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep finding my research on which to base my study but when will I know if I found enough sources?

I just keep reminding myself how to eat the elephant… time to take another bite.

In waiting

I am having trouble making time to sit down and find more research on which to build my study.  I found two great sources but some of the others are not quite what I expected.  I guess that is why I have to keep going and find my "saturation point."  This is the hardest part for me.  I would love to hear from any of you on tips on how to overcome this. 

Another issue is that one of the teachers I'm supposed to be observing is not back from leave yet.  She is supposed to come back sometime this month after never starting the year with her students.  Like my principal said, she will need to get back in the swing of things.  I completely understand and feel bad because I don't want to be another monkey on her back.  I asked my principal that we could wait and start in January if needed but I guess she sensed that I really didn't want that so she agreed to my next suggestion of beginning the observations through video recordings.  That way it won't be so intrusive.  We'll see what happens!  In the mean time I will be compiling my data to create guidelines or ideas of what the research says I should see.  I also have to develop questionnaires for the teachers who will be participating.