Action Research and Collaboration

I am finding the information excellent in this subject and the readings are really inspiring to 'get motivated' in my schools. The problem I am finding is that being part time (and it feels like I harp on this all the time) I can't get into it effectively. One day a week in a school does not effectively allow relationships to form and true collaboration to occur - it takes a lot of hard work just to clarify to teachers what you can do for them but if you don't fall on a day that they have non-contact or if it is only in 1/2 hour blocks it is very difficult to find times to do it and do it right. I know there is the idea of principal support and I feel that technically the principals do support me but that there is so much else happening in the school and when others can work that sometimes it is not feasible to be changing the scheduling. Perhaps if I worked more frequently there it would be better. I do have that some teachers really don't see my potential in collaborating with them but see it as more work.

Harada (2004) really clarifed the Action Research side of things and I can see the benefit of it and hope to include it in my future lessons (at the schools where I have managed to talk to one teacher [starting small as Page (1999) indicated] and found some movement towards collaboration). But again it was with a kindergarten class where flexibility is able to occur quite easily but working to a curriculum where a number of Essential Learnings have to be achieved or where certain types of assessment need to be completed I still have doubts sometimes that it can work effectively across a school. Maybe it is the pessimist in me.

I will say that last week I did my first lesson with the Year 7s on a topic they were studying in class - basic collaboration at the planning level but a start. It seem to go well - it was mainly focused around refreshing students knowledge about our library database but I also introduced them to our Regional library online to look at different results. I will see how our lesson goes this week with some new pointers.

Covey reading

One thing that caught my attention is the ability to say No. It is such a little word but can be so difficult to use, especially in being a TL with a multifaceted job description. I think that the ability to say a 'pleasant no' is vital in a service domain like ours especially without being apologetic.

Also the view that we don't have the priorities in our heart is a vital aspect that leads to a lack of discipline in staying true to our priorities. I find that I do the check list or 'to do' list and do have a priority coloumn next to it to organise them, I do have the view of 'bigger' things that need to be done but not in the larger scheme of our service. This is something I will have to internalise for myself. In fact sometimes I use the idea of planning as an excuse not to fulfil the tasks I need to do. If I need to do a number of tasks, the first thing is to plan when they can be done, what priority do they have, what deadlines? So therefore, I plan thinking I am being organised but what if it is my lack of discipline revolving around my priorities for overall job that is behind my need to plan? Something I will need to reflect on.