Week 4

I went to the library!  It was a little overwhelming, but checked out some eamples of thesis's. Spent tomight going through ERIC, very helpful.  It lets you save your searches right on the site.  Listened to Dr. newberry's discussion and the 6 steps needed to make this easy. (Not sure how possible "easy" is. Keep plugging away........

Week 3 Pre-Thesis

Chapter 1: Background

A. Introduction:  

Schools today face an ever increasing pressure on test scores.  Without the complete dedication of the students, teachers, administration, and the parents, our schools will continue to fail.  We all know how hard we, as teachers, work for our students.  We all know the frustrations we go through when students show up late, leave school for a week trip to Mexico, return no homework, reach disconnected home phone numbers,  and have trouble getting parents to come to parent conferences.  Is it because the parents don't care?  Not at all.  Many of our parents are uneducated about the American school system and are intimidated about coming to the school.   Most show he desire to help, but don't know how. As a school, making the parents feel comfortable and informed about their child's education is a must if we are going to continue to meet the demands and expectations of society.  Finding effective ways to communicate with parents is an increasing challenge for my schools staff.  With the high mobility rate and high Hispanic population, and high unconventional family structures, my school faces the challenge of meeting all the family's needs.  I hope to create a DVD for parents.  Our expectations are expressed every year at the beginning of school in written form and in presentations.  The problem, only 10% of our parents attend open house, and many do not even read the parent compact sent home.  I'm going to present the important information about our school in a way that will be a little more relaxed, understandable, and enjoyable for our parents to view.

B. Statement of the Problem:  Our school's parents lack the information, knowledge, and urgency to help their children become successful learners.

C. Purpose of the Project:  To encourage parent participation through a video introducing their child's school, explaining school programs, parent training's, and ways to improve their children's  overall education experience.

Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

A.  Davies, Leah (2002, May 5).   Increasing Parent Involvement in Schools. Kellybear.com

1.  Article summarizes the reasons for lack of parent involvement.  These include too little time/ single parenthood, lack of resources, cultural isolation/ language barrier, low educational level, and feeling unwelcome. 

2.  Discusses ways to increase parent involvement.  These include staff training, volunteers, and the one I focused on: information.

3.  The article suggests providing parents a clear and practical form of information stating the rules, procedures, and specific ways parents can be involved in school.  

B.   Kaplan, Nochum (2004).   School-Parent Communications. Educational Pathways, Issue 5.

1.  Talks about the schools obligations and parents obligations.  

2.  Schools must explain its philosophies and policies and not talk down to parents.

3.  Schools will clearly communicate its policies and curriculum to parents.

      i.  This is where I feel the need for an improvement in how we communicate the schools policies and rules.  I don't think parents have a clear idea of what is expected of their children.   It needs to be explained in a way where everyone understands, whether they are literate or not.

C.  Etheridge, George W. (1979).  Home School relations: Together We Stand or Divided We Fail.

1.  Gives findings on the attitudes of 104 inner city parents toward their child's school and how the parents saw themselves as being involved.

2.  Parents expressed their desire to stay informed of school business and to work in a supportive, facilitative role rather than a decision making role.

D.  Kervin, Lisa (2005, June 1).  Students talking about home-school communication: can technology support this process?.  Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

1.  Talks about the traditional ways of communication, such as parent-teacher conferences, do not adequately work.

2.  Talks about communication being fundamental to establishing successful home-school partnerships.

E.  Walker, Thomas (1993).  Increasing the Participation of Parents of Elementary School Students in Parent Education Activities through Development and Implementation of an Alternative Delivery System

1.  Describes a program intended to increase parent participation by improved information delivery.

2.  Mentions high turnover rate amongst students, low attendance at school orientation, and parent workshops.

3.  A school orientation video was created.

Chapter 3: Project Design

A.  Analysis

1.  Needs Assessment

a. Parents- 

i.  Survey- I would like to pass out an initial survey with a written copy of the parent compact at the beginning of the year.  I would like to know if they read the entire compact, understood it,  what information was helpful, and what questions do they still have.

ii.   Focus Group- I would like to sit down with the parents who serve on our School Site Council and find out what information they would like to have included in the presentation.

b. Teachers/ Administration- 

i. Survey - General survey asking teachers and administrators important points they would like the parents to be able to learn about the school, staff, and programs offered.

ii. Focus Group - Once the survey results have been studies, I would like to sit down with the school's MODEL team, administrators, and teachers in three separate focus group meetings.

2.  Specific Problems to Riley Elementary School-

a.  Parent Involvement

b.  Parent's understanding of expectations

c.  Low performance on CST tests.

3.  Characteristics of Population-

a.  83% Hispanic, 12% African American, 3% Samoan, 2% other

b.  99% free and reduced lunch

c.  Large percentage of multi family homes, single parents, and unconventional family structures

4.  Assessment of Presentation

a.  attendance at Back to School Night, parent conferences, and school functions

b.  survey

c.  parent feedback

d. teacher feedback

e.  test scores

B.  Design

1.  Finding the solution

a.  view other company and school informational videos

b. Find subject matter experts

c.  storyboard complete video, asking specific committees and staff for direct input in respective sections.

d.  Movie in English, Spanish, and Samoan

e.  imovie - using imovie to make DVD as platform for presentation, easier for parents to view than printed copy or internet video.

C.  Development

1. Alpha Test 

a.  staff - get feedback from staff for improvements

b.  subject-matter experts

2.  Revise based on feedback from first alpha test

3.  Alpha Test 

a.  parents - Student Site Council Meeting

4.  Beta Test

a. Back to School Night

b.  feedback survey 

5.  Corrections

D.  Implementation

1.  Burn DVD's for distribution to parents at the beginning of each school year

2. DVD's available year long for every new student at Riley

E.  Evaluation

1.  Determine effectiveness

2.  Reflection

Week 2

Weekly Update

I can't say enough about how helpful it was and will be to be able to read everyone's blogs and communicate with everyone.  I enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and trying to leave comments for everyone.  

I also had a small "freak out"  when I viewed the Powerpoint presentation on out plan for the thesis.  Just overwhelmed until I broke it down and told myself Dr. Newberry wasn't expecting it this week!

I also began my literature search on my topic.  Didn't get too far, and I think a trip to the library is coming in the near future.

Pre Thesis 

Reading Heidi's thought's throughout this whole process and vice versa is going to be a very valuable tool.  We seem to be looking at the same problems at our schools.   Heidi and I both teach in San Bernardino and our schools share pretty much the same demographics.  We have the same parent packet that goes out every year.  It is so intimidating and long for me to read, I can't imagine what it's like for our parents.  

I have been talking to my principal about this plan since the fall, and recently he asked if it was going to be done by July! I said sure, of 2011! I also have talked a little to my MODEL team.  I will be sitting down with them in the near future and discussing ways they can help me with the project.  I also want to put a small questionaire with our parent packet in July.  I would originally like to find out what information are the parents really interested in.  Like Heidi wrote, I think I'll leave the sexual harassment talk to the paper.   I want to be able to introduce the staff, something that can easily be changed from year to year on the video, but keep the core set up the same.  I want to highlight all the specialized programs our school has for their students, as well as invite the parents to attend our daily parent classes and ESL classes that we offer.  It's been a challenge for our school for years on how to find ways to make our school more accessible and comforting for parents.  A lot of parents are intimidated by the school, and I'm hoping this presentation video will make it more inviting for them, and ultimately, beneficial for their children.

 Goals for the near future:

1. Meet with MODEL team to explore ideas for presentation 
2. Generate survey for parents about parent handbook.
3. Continue finding literature about parent participation.
4. Visit the library.

My Initial Thoughts about my Design and Development Project

My idea popped into my head a couple of years ago when I was serving on our school's MODEL Team.  This is our school discipline program that teaches students and parents how to behave and "models" expectations to the students on a daily basis.  The problem was getting parents to participate and buy in.  Last quarter, Dr. Newberry gave an example of a project, and it mirrored an idea that I was contemplating.  Schools constantly send notes home, but how many of our parents take the time to read them, or even have the ability to read or understand them.  

I am hoping to put an informative DVD together for all parents to be able to view during the first month of school.  It will introduce the teachers, administration, and office staff.  It will describe homework expectations, programs offered at our school, as well as who to contact for any problems ranging from homework help to attendance issues.  We have such a variety of our programs at our school.  I hope this DVD can help ease parents intimidation level when it comes to helping their child's educational potential.

I look forward to the process, but at the same time am very intimidated by the number of assignments that our coming to head this quarter.  

As Mark said in his blog,  www.hesperiatech.com/blog/ , it's weird knowing the end is near, but looking at my timeline, I'm under 2 years away.  I'm excited and nervous and wonder how I can get all the work done I expect from myself, while still juggling work and my family! Kids leave you alone at home until you sit down and start doing your work! :)

Timeline

This is my estimated timeline for graduation with my master's in Instructional Technology from Cal State San Bernardino.

Winter 2011 - Desired Graduation

April 26, 2009 - First Draft of Thesis to Dr. Newberry

May 10, 2009 - Full Lit Review to Dr. Newberry

May 24, 2009 - MA Proposal Draft to Dr. Newberry

May 31, 2009 - IRB Application to Dr. Newberry

June 14, 2009 - Project Prototype Available 

June - December 2009 - Pilot Test Project

Winter 2010 - Grad Check and Apply to Graduate

Winter 2010 - Revisions to Project based on completed pilot test

Spring 2010 - Implement Project

Spring 2010 - Analyze Test results

Spring 2010 - Final Version of Literature Review

Spring 2010 - Final Version of Introduction

Summer of 2010 - Final draft of thesis complete and sent to editor

Fall 2010 - Final draft back from editor

January 2011 - Enroll in ETEC 699

January 2011 - Thesis and Project to First Reader

February 2011 - Thesis and Project to Second Reader

February 2011 - Format Review

March 2011 - Graduate

My First Blog

After unsuccessfully trying to set up a blog using wordpress, I have found a home here at blogspot.  This blog was originally set up for my ETEC 644 class at Cal State San Bernardino.  For this quarter, I will be using this blog for weekly blogs for my class.