Proposals reviewed.

I appreciated the review I got from Kevin.  His reflection was clear and detailed.  He had great ideas and I could see improvements that I needed to make right away.  My methods section needed to be reworked and thanks to his ideas, I was able to do that.  Kevin has a gift for being able to give ideas for improvement along with the kudos we all need for our work.  Thanks to Kevin.

I noticed that there were several people who had trouble with Livetext.  I didn’t get any invitations to review but I was able to go on a blog and see the work and give some ideas.  I think the process could have improved if we had simply emailed our projects to each other.  I can see the advantages that Livetext offers though, so maybe we all just need a bit more tech knowledge.

Tiffany was one of my reviewees.  I was able to see her work on her blog and reviewed it there as best we could.  I notice that APA really doesn’t work well on blogs.  At least, I haven’t figured out how to make that work yet.  

I wasn't able to see other proposals.

What I had to offer to others this week?

I found a great checklist for APA formatting.  It was just what I needed and I was happy to pass it on to others.  I also discovered some secrets of Livetext and was able to pass them on to others via twitter.

What I learned:

I learned that learning to use technology takes a lot of patience!  I learned some great things about how to format my research proposal.  All in all it’s been a great week.  I’m looking forward to putting my research plan into action.

Friday  - Research proposal all turned in.  I decided to chose the following methods for Exploring The Daily Five.

1.     Independence:  I will use timed observations during literacy block to see if children are engaged in their assigned activities.

  2.     Motivation/enjoyment:  I will do a survey/interview with the children at the end of the three-week research time to assess their feelings about the system.

3.     Progress:  I will do a pre and post reading assessment to make sure that the children have continued to make progress during the use of this program.

I really appreciated the resources this week.  The list for creating the research question was particularly helpful.  I would have been lost without the terrific video on submitting proposals as well.

The reviewing process really valuable to me.  If nothing else, I need it to bolster my confidence for my project topic and the methods that I chose for research.  Some things just need more than one mind, and research is certainly one of them.  I’m enjoying the process and looking forward to hearing what my peer reviewers think of it.  

In the meantime, I’m excited to see the research of other students.  It will be good to see what other people are doing and how they interpreted the assignment.  I’m sure I will see some terrific examples of research work.