Action Research #1

The process of preparing my proposal for approval has been demanding yet very reflective for me. Given that my caseload at school is so large and so diverse, finding a topic that is meaningful for a variety of my students and meaningful for me has been a bit challenging. I think I've finally got something that will work! One of the challenges that I've become more aware of (as a teacher) is that I really don't know where my students will be at academically in 3 months. Most teachers know what part of the curriculum they'll be at (roughly) at a given time. In special ed, you have to roll with your students' progress and constantly adapt so that you're teaching to mastery - following a traditional curriculum is not what I do. Therefore, I feel like I'm taking a huge leap of faith when I outline my lessons for 3 months down the road.

On a different note, I'm learning quite a bit from the research articles I'm reading. While not all are exact fits to my teaching situations, I try to take at least one or two points from each article and make connections to my own teaching. Through this process of reading and reflection, I'm beginning to deeply analyze my own teaching. I've also been having conversations about these issues with teachers and administrators at school. Although time consuming, it's been a valuable experience thus far.