5301 Course Highlights

Just wanted to post my own personal highlights from our EDLD 5301 Course. These are just a few of the things that stand out in my mind from the last five weeks. I have learned many new things in this course that will help me out in the future as an administrator. I appreciate all the feedback that my colleagues have given me as well throughout this course.
Have a great day and I will talk to you soon!

I have learned a lot of new information during the EDLD 5301 Course. I look forward to being able to utilize this information in the future as I pursue a career in administration.
Learning how to write blogs and how to use them to benefit myself as well as others is an important skill that I am starting to develop. The book “Leading With Passion and Knowledge” by Nancy Dana has been very beneficial to me in learning about blogs and how to use them(p.149-151). I believe that I will continue to improve in regard to being able to utilize blogs effectively.
The use of the discussion boards has also helped me in this course. I have been able to use the feedback of other students to help me analyze my research project and identify possible problems that I may encounter in the future. One of the comments that I received on the discussion board prompted me to reconsider one of my possible research topics and focus on another problem area for study.
The video interviews of educational administrators that we watched during this course also were beneficial to me. Dr. Timothy Chargois who is the Director of Research, Planning and Development for Beaumont ISD brought to my attention the importance of taking our research data and putting it into immediate use. Dr. Chargois made the point that we cannot wait for a year to make changes. We need to be able to take the data we have and make immediate changes to improve student learning. This is an important statement that I believe is very relevant to learning in our schools.
In “Leading With Passion and Knowledge” Nancy Dana provided some good information on the different ways that we can share our research and what the benefits of sharing research are for other educators(p. 135-169).
Harris, Edmondson, and Combs discussed “Strategies for Sustaining Improvement” including Force Field Analysis, the Delphi Method, Nominal Group Technique, and the CARE model(Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools, p. 91-103). These different strategies for sustaining improvement will be a part of my future data collection techniques that I will use in my research.
These are just some of the highlights of the EDLD 5301 Course that stand out in my mind. As a future administrator I realize that I will be continually learning throughout my career. I believe that this course has been a good start in helping me to understand how action research is conducted and how it can be used to help improve our schools.