Time. There’s always a shortage of time. Time to thoroughly discuss and vet ideas and processes. Time to see if “this” really works with my students. Time to see if there truly is a match between needs and resources.
These kinds of conversations are necessary and can take place at different stages. Maybe I’ve already stuck my toe in the water. Maybe I’ve had the conversation with someone from a different building/school/state. The easier that it is for me to explain my “WHY”, the easier that it is to be brave, walk out onto that limb and try something new.
For me, it was the decision a long time ago to use action research to decide if a “popular” and “parental requested program” would work for my students. We collected baseline data. We implemented with regular checks. The students knew what we were doing and why. The parents were informed. We made some time adjustments, however, when our results were not what we expected we did not “double down” on time. We increased the intensity instead. We did have positive results but not in the area we had targeted. That willingness to try something different, to find the right methods for the right students is a very necessary action for today’s teachers.
Fortunately, there are now decision-making guides that should be part of a teacher’s repertoire. This is one.
Thank you for this decision-making guide, Dr. Towanda Harris, #G2Great Advisory Team Member. Thank you always for the conversations about student and educator learning.
When do you make the decisions? When do you need to be more collaborative in decision-making processes? How does that go?
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Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this daily forum during the month of March.
Check out the writers and readers here.
Resource - Full 
The thing with action research is that sometimes what we are focusing on doesn’t happen the way we expected but something else shines through clearly.
The unexpected results are often better than the DESIRED results. Surprises in research are okay.
And so often action research leads to new questions. The conversations cannot stop, just grow.
So true. And that’s why and how we all keep learning.
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