Clarifying my Action Research Project
The updated 2013 professional development requirements in the state of Michigan for teacher certification renewal has brought a decrease in attendance at Monroe County Intermediate School District's professional development offerings. While speaking with colleagues around the state, it became apparent that this decrease was not just happening in Monroe County but rather statewide. Instructional technology coaches have struggled to build relationships with teachers and buildings due to the lack of participation of local teachers at ISD-level trainings. Because of this, there are less teachers to reach out due to lack of participation at the ISD for professional development, leaving coaches struggling to build relationships. As a technology coach, we need contacts within the district to help impact and drive professional learning in the county.
Monroe County has nine public school districts, one charter, one private school, and a number of parochial schools. This study focuses primarily on the nine public school districts. Specifically, this study targets local teachers participating in MCISD-hosted job-embedded professional development programs within their local districts that are new offerings by MCISD. These PD programs are referred to as "Geek in the House" and, "Personal Learning Communities", both run by an MCISD Instructional Technology Coach.
Monroe County has nine public school districts, one charter, one private school, and a number of parochial schools. This study focuses primarily on the nine public school districts. Specifically, this study targets local teachers participating in MCISD-hosted job-embedded professional development programs within their local districts that are new offerings by MCISD. These PD programs are referred to as "Geek in the House" and, "Personal Learning Communities", both run by an MCISD Instructional Technology Coach.
Goal and driving questions of this action research project
Will teacher participation in a job-embedded professional development model hosted by the ISD increase participation and relationship building for ISD teacher technology coaches?
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To ensure that this project has been implemented with fidelity and to truly analyze evaluation, the scope of the project will take place from Fall 2017 until Spring 2019. Through a pre- and post-survey of participants in both types of job-embedded professional development (administered 2 years apart), coaching observations and reflections by ISD instructional technology coaches, and through comparing actual attendance trends in professional development in our MCISD professional development system (Wisdomwhere) from 2017 to 2019, we should be able to measure if teacher participation in job-embedded professional development hosted by the ISD increases participation and relationship building for ISD teacher technology coaches.
For the last 20 years, Monroe County's nine public schools have successfully passed a technology millage in the county. These districts are fortunate to have this wealth of instructional technology within their districts, but from my interactions with Monroe County teachers, they feel unsupported professionally in the multitude of different technologies. New technology is released and changes occur so frequently in education that it's important to build relationships with teachers to disseminate this information to teachers and support them as much as possible. It's also important to bring them together outside of their districts so they can network and build communities of others, which we desire to take place at the ISD.
Our limitations to this study include the subjective nature of the researcher and the potential bias of the teacher participants. It is also limited in scope to those who choose to participate in the job-embedded professional development.
For the last 20 years, Monroe County's nine public schools have successfully passed a technology millage in the county. These districts are fortunate to have this wealth of instructional technology within their districts, but from my interactions with Monroe County teachers, they feel unsupported professionally in the multitude of different technologies. New technology is released and changes occur so frequently in education that it's important to build relationships with teachers to disseminate this information to teachers and support them as much as possible. It's also important to bring them together outside of their districts so they can network and build communities of others, which we desire to take place at the ISD.
Our limitations to this study include the subjective nature of the researcher and the potential bias of the teacher participants. It is also limited in scope to those who choose to participate in the job-embedded professional development.