Action Research Report (1^st Draft)

Using Technology Affectively in the Classroom                                         Shanna Hollis

 

Abstract

I will re-write when I am finished collecting all data, but my draft one is below:

Meeting students in their learning space and making them successful in the classroom should go without saying. Teachers should be able to use technology affectively in the classroom in order to achieve higher scores as well as to maintain a classroom with high expectations and little to no behavior issues.

 

Introduction / Background

I am a teacher at Birnham Woods Elementary. This is my fourth year at this school and sixth year of teaching. I have a passion to share the importance of technology and bringing up a generation of savvy tech students in order to be better prepared for the future. While I do believe that paper/pencil does have its place in schools, it should not be the norm these days. Having three young girls, one already in first grade, I think it is more important than ever to make sure they are meet by teachers that are ready to take on the challenge of teaching these students in the digital age. Technology is no longer “new”. It is time to understand that students we see in our classrooms, don’t even remember a world without it. So shy are some of the teachers still teaching our students of today, like they did yesterday?

The purpose of this research is to show staff, parents, and community members how important technology used affectively in the classroom truly is. If it is not happening-you should demand it from your schools. If teachers are reluctant, find ways to help them. The data will speak for itself.

The students in elementary school cannot be forgotten. We have to submerge them in technology, teach them about safe practices, and educate them of how to explore all the things they have at their fingertips. If we can do this affectively, their behavior is better as well as their scores.

This is not something that can happen over night-or even in a few weeks. This is something that every principal, teacher, and staff member needsto buy into so that we can start offereing the trainings teachers need in order to make it affective.

Literature Review

Work in progress

 

Action Research Design

I focused on two different grade levels, first and second. I wanted to make sure to include two similar grade levels that did not have the state assessment in that grade level. In each grade level I chose a class that used technology daily and one that did not. I chose to use class averages instead of breaking them into subgroups.

Procedures

Since I was conducting the research over four different classrooms in two different grade levels, I had to coordinate my time so that when I was observing them they had their homerooms, they were not at drastically different parts of the day and I had to make sure the teachers were aware that what I was trying to do was to simply learn. I did not want to sway the way they normally teach, so I did not let them know I was doing the research to look at the technology used affectively in the classroom. I made it seem I was watching student behavior when the teacher was teaching a lesson and also if it affected their scores. (My mentor/AP was on-board with what I was doing and wanted me to make sure I always referred to them as class A-D. At the conclusion of my research I will let them know).

The way I went about collecting all of the data I am using involved several different types of collection. I started with simply observing the classrooms for about 30 minutes each time. I was making notes of student behavior and just general time on task. Next I gave the students a survey about how they like the classroom and what they were learning. I moved to looking at behavior charts and finally to benchmark scores.

 

 

Findings

I will have my chart inserted here as well as a link to my presentation.

 

Conclusions and Recommendations

With all the data collected it is clear that using technology affectively in the classroom improves student performance as well as behavior. It also opened up a more distinct communication line for parents and teachers. The parents of the classes with more technology used everyday felt like they always knew what was going on in the classroom and were never surprised by their childrens scores on both tests and behavior marks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Work in progress