Action Research Week 2 Reflection

Week two of EDLD 5301 Research has focused on developing the criteria for selecting the action research topic. The reading this week, in the Dana text, was incredibly helpful in keeping me focused on what my area of "passion" is and how to pinpoint a wondering I have in that area of passion.I discovered that my true passion centers around staff development, more specifically the mentoring program for which I am the coordinator. Last school year was my first year as coordinator and I noticed immediately that the mentors seemed to be "going through the motions" of helping new teachers. My suspicions were confirmed when the new teachers completed a survey in April.
I complete Passion 1 Excercise 1 in the text to help me focus on what I wanted to learn about staff development. I replaced the words "staff development" with "new teacher mentoring" and I discovered that I had a wonderful mentoring experience my first year in the classroom. My mentor made a commitment to help me and he honored that commitment by meeting with me every Monday to go over the plan for the week, he offered me teaching strategies, teaching materials, and made sure I knew procedures like arranging my desks, fire drills, and hall duty. He wanted to help me. At this point, it occurred to me that I need to know why teachers on my campus do not want to mentor new teachers. My initial question was "Why do teachers at AHS not want to mentor new teachers?" After considering that my initial question was judgemental, I changed the question to, "What is preventing mentors from committing to the program?" I also want to know what I can do to increase the commitment from mentors.
I met with my site mentor to discuss the topic and research. She seems genuinely pleased that I am taking on this research project, which makes me more eager to jump in and begin inquiring. This project has given me the opportunity to work with an administrator on a project that will benefit new teachers, mentors, and students of new teachers and mentors. I am excited about the improving the mentor program and instruction at my campus. I finally feel like I am truly contributing to the improvement of my campus.