Ch. 1 What Works?

Ch. 1 : What do you want to do in your classroom that you're not now doing? Whats preventing you?
I would really like to be able to spend more one on one time with my students to provide feedback and discuss their work individually without feeling rushed and without taking two classes to do so. My class size of 36 prevents this. 

Ch. 2 : Make a list of research questions that interest you.
 -Our school system does not offer art in our elementary schools or at our feeder middle school. When students are just being exposed to art education for the first time in high school how much of a disadvantage are they at verses students who have been exposed to the arts from K-12?
- How dependent is student learning on student interest and/or talent?
- How dependent is student learning and the creative process on the teacher/student relationship.

Ch. 3 :Write about what you already know about your topic, and brainstorm what you might want to find out.
-existing research, colleagues
- Dr. Larry Bunch, Dr. Carol Brand, Dr. Ann Lindsay, Lana Peppers, Lauren Peters
- Aside from books and websites I would definitely contact informed people and use magazines and journals.


Ch. 4 : Think about yourself as a researcher.
-I have the same learning heritage as my students; same county, same course offerings.
-We are a brand new school and have few artifacts other than our Star logo, even though our mascot is the Generals. I think that our school building itself is the most symbolic. Its a big, nice school and is regularly referred to as the Taj. And I do think that our students are more respectful of our building and take more pride in it than students at the other schools in our county do.


Ch. 5 : List the data sources you already have that could support your question.
-Interview Dr. Larry Bunch, Jeanne Newell, Eric Hall, Lauren Peters
-Student work
-Interview teachers at schools with k-12 art programs


Ch. 6 : Think about your process for solving problems in your daily life. What methods - and combinations of methods - do you use?
-Living in the dorms again has been an experience to say the least and I have had issues with my key card. This morning I was finally able to get my student ID which should solve all of my key issues. I get back to my door with my ID and i go to the kiosk to update my ID with my pin number and the kiosk machine eats my ID. Rather than cursing and punching the machine which is what I wanted to do I went to the help desk and told them my dilemma. The attendant proceeded to call 15 different numbers but still had no answers for me. At that point I decided to ask everyone who walked by if they knew what to do and sure enough someone did.
- I have a 3yr little boy and this past Dec. it was time to start potty training him. I took him to the store and let him pick out his own potty and we had several potty books as well. My son is a huge Batman fan so for Christmas Santa brought him some Batman underwear in his stocking. He was beyond excited and couldn't wait to wear his Batman underwear and trust me he wouldn't dare pee on Batman. We also had a Spiderman (they didn't have Batman) calender in the bathroom directly across from his potty. Every time that he used the potty he would get to put a star sticker on that day. When we first began there were only one or two stars on day one but after two weeks he was potty trained and his calender was covered in stars. 
-Based on these two scenarios my short term approach at problem solving is much more impulsive and unorganized compared to the long term approach. 


Ch. 7 : Its sometimes easier to begin a project by working backward. Think about the outcome. What do you want to accomplish?
-an article? but I'm really not sure


Ch. 8 : Imagine yourself during the course of your project by thinking about what you might need to circumnavigate?.
-Strenghts:  Biggest Fans: Lauren peters, Lana Peppers. Contacts: Dr. Larry Bunch, Jeanne Newell.
-Drawbacks:  Institution Constraints: $, large classes, already overextended with extracurricular activities. Personal obligations: family. I need to develop all of my research skills. 


Ch. 9: Inventory your potential as a working researcher. 
- this could be problematic. I am not organized in my classroom. Its not that I can't organize its that I literally don't have time. My students help me some. 
-I can easily devote space in a cabinet 
-I don't know where in my day I will carve out time, probably less sleep


Ch. 10: 
- I know that writing is my weakness. It always has been. It doesn't come naturally to me and I'm really slow at it. 
- I haven't written for anyone.
-I have a lot of questions. I don't know anything about writing research.