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Research: Hormones Disrupted
Category: Writing Sample
Public schools are stuck in the storm. Both mysterious and multifaceted, the lightning and thunder act together and apart. The people are divided. Administrators are divided. Policies are misconstrued and lend to more pressure and a deeper divide. And, every side is claiming to battle for student success. Who gets left out in the rain? Who are the innocent bystanders? At a pivotal moment of scarcity and survival, the elements of public policy, high-stakes assessments, diversity, and inclusion, teaching core curriculum standards, and instructional delivery are on the top of everyone’s mind and all over the media. The data feeds the news and the news feeds the people and bits and pieces of truth are lost along the way and recycled back. Once evidence-based action can be proven, a new normal for educating children from K12 and into early college can be established. As policymakers step out of the way, initiatives from the inside can take root. Perhaps the entry of free-market education will allow for more freedom of instruction and we can begin to close the achievement gap we hear so much about. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Benjamin Franklin. It is time to get out of the way of the trajectory of public education and let it be what it wants to be for a while. There will always be passionate parent groups, there will always be research into the shaping of the mind, and there will always be talk about preparing the future workforce. Some things will change and some things will remain the same. The most difficult part of change is the turmoil we hear about in this tumultuous time in education.
The purpose of the research study is to learn of the successful and unsuccessful attempts at training teachers in the implementation of project-based lesson delivery. This will show any gaps in current teacher professional development training and resources pertaining to it. Further, research related to the increased demand placed on teachers due to barriers (increasing paperwork, IEPs, teaching to test, lower salaries causing second jobs, increasing caseload and class sizes) will shed light on the fact that the current model of education in the United States is due for a shift in order to meet the needs of the modern learner in the age of multi-media information delivery.
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Research: Inquiry Meets Technology
The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of Achieve3000 Intensive Intervention (inquiry-based lesson) would have an impact on the reading comprehension of high school students in the Special Education English Language Arts instructional setting. The
problem is that High School students in the Special Education ELA (English Language Arts) instructional setting demonstrate low reading comprehension skills and a lack of motivation to read. Low reading comprehension skills will hinder student learning in post-secondary education and future occupations. The action research methodology asks a pertinent question about a way to affect reading comprehension, addresses, and experiments with an inquiry-based lesson plan paired with technology. Outcomes were evaluated, and recommendations were made. As a data collection tool, students received an Achieve3000 article with multiple-choice questions to measure Reading Comprehension at the beginning of each lesson and a post-assessment following the intensive lesson. Students are in 9th through 10th grade and come from varied ethnic backgrounds. Students have an IEP with a Reading Comprehension goal. Findings of the study indicate growth following an intensive, inquiry-based reading lesson, although more research is recommended in the area of learner fatigue and academic burnout.
Question 2
If money were no object, what kind of car would you drive and why?
Answer (400-700 words): If money were no object, I would still drive my Subaru. I chuckle at this, really. Flashback to a few years ago, and you’d see a woman in a business-professional dress trying to climb the rails on her lifted and oversized-tire Jeep Wrangler trying to get home without making a spectacle of myself at the college where I worked. I loved my Jeep days. I came to the rescue of those who were snowed in. I plowed through the muddy roads to get to my favorite fly-fishing stream, and I drove across the country and back with my black lab by my side. That was my brand. I was a Jeep girl. “Jeep hair – don’t care” and all! And then it happened. I changed.
I moved to coastal Georgia and found myself day after day commuting to work in a vehicle that got 16 mpg. I found myself stuck in traffic on I-95, pushing my foot back and forth from the clutch and the gas inching for a mile an hour. A person can get a Charlie horse this way. I pulled into the faculty parking lot at the high school after traveling 15 short miles on the pavement with the vinyl logo “Extreme Terrain” pasted across my windshield. Suddenly my brands were colliding. No snow to conquer. My dog up and died, like the dog in the Mr. Bojangles song, and I was ready to accept my new fate. I became an on-roader and was no longer an off-roader. And then I decided. Subaru! Yes, I am getting a Subaru! I remembered when I had a Forester when my kids were young and how it hugged the pavement in the wettest, gnarliest conditions. I always felt safe in that car. Yes, a Subaru will do.
I didn’t even ugly cry when I saw my Jeep in the rearview mirror as I pulled away from the Subaru dealership – new owner envelope on the passenger seat.
I don’t regret it. If money were no object, I would still drive my Subaru. I carry everything on my Subaru. All of my present and future adventures and endeavors rely on my Subaru. My rooftop tent is like a home on wheels; I am like a snail. My fat-tire bikes are on the hitch, my kayaks are ready to float, and the inside mats shake off the ocean sand like it is nothing at all. When it comes to my trips back to Wisconsin, I drive and drive and hardly get uncomfortable; I pop on the seat heater, and I’m solid for a few more hours. When it comes to traffic, I play my favorite Spotify playlist or podcast and enjoy the moment. I feel good about saving money on fuel, too. But most of all, I feel good about accepting the new me. I took a leap of faith; I resisted the change and wanted to go back, but then I moved forward. I’m glad for it now.