Welcome Family Members!

November 8, 2014 Oral Proposal Presentations
April/May 2014 Teacher Video Journals

Welcome Family Members:

I enjoy inviting family members to our graduate research seminar to meet each other and to meet me.

I am the person responsible for some of the sacrifices your spouse/parent/partner will make this semester. They are an example of what research is, what it involves, the importance of it, and how you need to support them.

You can support them in the following ways this semester:

• Powerpoint of Cohort  Members
• They will be involved in a project that they are not sure about-so they will be more fragile than usual, absent-minded, preoccupied.
• Provide routines and support them on a temporary basis to relieve some of this stress.

• Your parent/partner will be preoccupied-do not interpret this as indication that they do not love you, care for you, or are neglecting you. There is a reason every book has an acknowledgement page. Those who live with writers and researchers, are understanding, cognizant that their counterparts are working on something for the greater good.
• Let us feast today for tomorrow will be challenging work to do. We will celebrate in May at the completion of their diligent and focused work.
• Sometimes they may just need to talk and for you to listen to play out their thoughts and to articulate and to make meaning of what they are thinking. Build in some scheduled time together. On Saturdays-family time. Sundays-give them the freedom to work on their project uninterruptedly.
• Practitioners also need to establish a productive working time free from distractions and interruptions and temptations. Support them in accomplishing this.
• Not all of their stress will come from me. They are the ones who will be conducting research in their classrooms. If they are unusually stressed, be proactive and offer to make dinner or suggest to order out to relieve some of the stress. Have a family meeting where responsibilities may be divvied up.
• We all know that this is temporary! By Spring Break they will be near the end of their project. Their draft will be due but there may be some minor adjustments which they may still have to take time to do. APRIL 3 is their ORAL EXAMINATION where they will travel to Cuba (half way between Albuquerque) to present their practitioner research to their committee members. They will also be presenting their classroom research at the SHARED KNOWLEDGE Conference at UNM     Alb. on April 23-24. It is not a thumbs up or thumbs down kind of inquisition. I am responsible for their grade in this capstone experience.
• We encourage students to simply tell their story-no need for fancy bells or whistles or fancy delivery. We honor the storytelling approach. Practitioner research is the storytelling art of research. So by simply telling who they are, what they did, why and what happened along the way; what new questions arose; where it led them and where they are going from here, comprise their story.
• Questions, concerns…….
• On May 8, you are invited to their Graduation reception 5-7pm & May 9 Graduatio at SJC (UNM ALB May 9). When you come to graduation/reception, you will be familiar faces to celebrate their successes together. There is no doubt that they will be successful. That is a given; I will see to it.         

(Frances Vitali, January 12, 2015)                         

Symbolic Artifacts of Creative Process                                        

Reflection about what you are finding, uncovering, questioning, simmering and sifting...............

"People have to allow fear into the process. It's part of creativity, whatever your job. It's part of believing in something and wanting it to happen" (Pierce, 2008).

Artists and speaker Erik Wahl: "We need to study our kids. We should consistently be asking them why, because they don't see things the way we do. They're unblocked and unbound" ( Mayeux, 2008, pp. A7).

Maxwell (2005) refers to Wolcott’s insightful wheelbarrow metaphor in developing a proposal: Make sure all parts are properly in place before tightening (p. 137).

Concerning qualitative work, Hammersley & Atkinson (1995, p. 24 as cited in Maxwell, 2005, p. 2), describe research design as “a reflective process operating through every stage of the project.” Maxwell continues:

The activities of collecting and analyzing data, developing and modifying theory, elaborating or refocusing the research questions, and identifying  and addressing validity threats are usually all going on more or less simultaneously, each influencing the other. This process isn’t adequately represented by a linear model, even one that allows multiple cycles, because in qualitative research there isn’t an unvarying order in which the different tasks or components must be arranged. (p. 2)

Architect Lloyd Wright subscribed that “the design of something must fit not only with its use, but also with its environment. You will need to continually assess how this design is actually working during the research, how it influences and is influenced by its environment, and to make adjustments and changes so that your [research] can accomplish what you want” (Maxwell, 2005, p. 3).

Collecting Rich Data provide “a full and revealing picture of what is going on” (Becker, 1970 as cited in Maxwell, 2005, p. 110). Interviews warrant “verbatim transcripts…not just notes on what you felt was significant. For observations, rich data are the product of detailed, descriptive note taking (or videotaping and transcribing) of the specific, concrete events that you observe (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 1995 as cited in Maxwell, 2005, p. 110).

Triangulation – collecting information from diverse range of individuals and settings, using a variety of methods (Maxwell, 2005, p. 112).

 

References

Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. [2^nd ed.]. Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 41. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Mayeux, D. (2008, October 13). Master painter, business speaker: Erik Wahl encourages professionals to transcend the traditional with creativity. The Daily Times (Farmington, NM), pp. A1, A7.

Pierce, K. (2008 October 13). To make it big in Hollywood, you start with a good story. Newsweek, 152(15), p. 71.

Spring 2014 Research Seminar

Your course of action......

Practitioner research is action-oriented inquiry that takes place in the researcher’s own classroom, work or social setting. Practitioner research is seen as a way to explore questions that arise in one’s own practice and/or school; it is seen as a new approach to professional development, transformational learning and educational change. Because researchers are also participants in their own project, this form of research differs from more traditional quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Practitioners will read, analyze and synthesize research by other practitioner researchers as well as design and implement a project of their own. 

 

This capstone experience is not a testimony of intelligence but a processual documentary of yourself as an educator committed to the act of learning about yourself and your students. This capstone process involves authentic learning involving change, transformation, creative thinking, academic writing, learning alongside your students, challenging your teaching and learning paradigms, and risk taking.

Accept this new experience with the natural fascination of inquiry rather than with fear and anxiety. You are conducting your classroom research for your professional and personal self - not your instructor or your UNM faculty members. This research journey is yours and reflects your authentic, sometimes vulnerable self, as a practitioner trying to do something. It will be messy and please do not try to make it any prettier than it happens because it will be contrived and not an accurate telling of your students' story. As the author and storyteller of your teaching and learning, and that of your students in your classroom, this takes courage, conviction, dedication, integrity and ethics. The perspective of yourself as teacher practitioners invites new ways of thinking that will transform yourself as a researcher and educator. Welcome to your next challenge in your heroine's journey.

 

Writing Prompt:

·        Where are you in your implementation of your research project?

     ·        Questions milling around………

·        Emotionally I am……

     ·        How are you organizing yourself, data collection research, reflections……..

Feb. 3 Session #2 SJC Computer Lab

Lynne Lane-APA style & formatting

 1-2 minute UNM video journal about what your practitioner research is about and why you chose UNM for your master’s program to post on http://grad.unm.edu/current-students/video-journals.html