In my classroom, I always thought being a reflective thinker just meant you were practicing good teaching. I had no idea that being a reflective thinker coupled with all the wonderings in my mind that I 'unofficially researched' had a name- action research. This week was quite validating. I realized in my Part 2 assignment that I had quite a few real-world applications that applied to the nine passions that guided my thinking when finding out about my wonderings (Dana, 2009). As Dana quotes from Todd Whitaker's (2003) work where he describes the most important factor in determining school quality: "... that effective principals never forget: It is people, not programs, that determine the quality of a school." (p.8) We all have wonderings and what if's swirling around in our minds; good leaders recognize that the staff plays an important role in moving the school forward, while great leaders cultivate great thinking and bring the wonderings to light.
References
Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Whitaker, T. (2003). What great principals do differently: Fifteen things that matter most. Larchmont,
NY: Eye on Education, Inc.
Ginger,
ReplyDeleteThis week was validating for me as well. I noticed that while I was working on part 2 of my assignment that I was keying in on the staff development aspects as well. I loved Whitaker's quote and the one by Barth (as cited in Dana, 2009, p. 32) as well. To hear the same message from Jim Knight at the Coaches training was very powerful. I look foward to following your blog!
Becky
Rebecca Barlow EA 1281
Your blog is very impressive. I really enjoyed the insight you gave about the similarities between reflective teaching and action research. It really brought home to me what action research is all about and gave me some real world connections and scenarios to guide me through this project. Thanks so much! Good luck with everything.
ReplyDelete