Week 15, May 1st, 07

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Week 15, May 1st, 07
Grow up as a Professional
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Agenda for today, the last class

• Making effective professional presentation
• Writing for funding and for conferences
• Research critique
• House keeping (final submission final
  presentation)

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Making Effective Professional Presentations
What makes a good presentation?
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Presentations bad ones

• PowerPoint presentations the good, the bad, and
  the ugly
• Performing arts (group work)
• Recall the presentations you made or you attended
  imitate/perform (could be in an exaggerating
  way) a very bad if not the worst, presentation.

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Presentations good ones

• 10 rules for keeping your audience awake

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What is in a Title?

• Be creative have fun with titles - pique the
  curiosity of readers
• Cathy opening and a colon Come to My Web
  (Site), said the spider to the fly Reflections
  on the life of a virtual professor
• P184
• Its memorable!
• It provides a focus

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Final Presentation how to get a full score?

• Title of the study ( your name)
• Study purpose in a nutshell
• Major research questions
• Research site participants in brief (how many
  classes/students/teachers/parents? How are you
  related to them - for instance, do you teach
  there or substitute or else?)
• Data sources to answer your research questions -
  highlight one of the sources to answer one of
  your questions
• How will you increase the validity, reliability
  and credibility of your study? What critical
  ethical issues could there be (or not)?
• Show one of your instruments from appendix and
  explain, for instance, did you design the
  instrument? Is it valid - can it answer your
  question?
• Timeline and justify your timeline (only focus on
  the total length of data collection process)
• Significance what will you learn from doing
  this research? How will this improve (or not)
  your teaching?

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Writing for funding and for conferences
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Take a chance

• If you dont ask for funds, you will never
  receive it this is the most important funding
  principles.

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Rituals and Writing

• Establish a writing routine
• P173-4

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Geoffs Tips for Being Able to Avoid Writing

• Think about all the things at school that I need
  to do before tomorrow.
• Scan my desk to see if someone has left me a note
  about a meeting, sports practices, birthday party
  that I need to go NOW.
• Check my voice mail
• Check my e-mail
• Check my checkbook to see if it is balanced.
• Call my wife/husband/child/friend/enemy to see
  what they are doing.
• Walk down the hallway to see if I can find
  someone to talk to.
• Dream about winning a lottery.
• Make an appointment to see my dentist

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Proposal Format for funding

• Purpose and significance of the study, including
  the research questions itself and why this is an
  important teaching question.
• A short exploration of the topic literature
  review.
• Method, which explains what data will be
  collected and how it will be analyzed.
• The feasibility timeline.
• Dissemination plan- who do you intend to do with
  the results of this study.
• A budget with justification.
• Letters of support.
• An example
• http//web.cortland.edu/shis/webfolio/shi_FRPpropo
  sal.pdf

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Grant resources for teacher - researchers

• Teacher As Researcher Grant Interntional
  Reading Association
• http//www.reading.org/association/awards/researc
  h_teacher_as_researcher.html
• Download application guidelines
• Download cover sheet
• Download application form
• Many local and state Writing Project sites, as
  well as local and state affiliates of NCTE and
  IRA offer small grants to fund teacher research. 
  I suggest checking your local site for further
  information.  

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Conferences

• NCTE National Council of Teachers of English,
  Annual Conference
• http//www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/annual
• Action Research Special Interest Group (SIG) of
  American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  http//coe.westga.edu/arsig/
• New York State Art Teachers Association
  http//www.nysata.org/
• Annual Conference http//www.nysata.org/conferen
  ce.php
• More conferences, see list compiled by Shi and
  the Research and Technology Committee.

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Journals

• Networks An Online Journal for Teacher Research
• http//education.ucsc.edu/faculty/gwells/networks/
  
• Action Research International
• http//www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/ari/arihome.h
  tml
• Others
• English Quarterly
• Journal of Research in Science Teaching
• International Journal of Science Education
• The Journal of the Learning Sciences
• New Directions for Teaching and Learning

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Action Research Resources

• Teacher Research Resources
• http//www.ed.arizona.edu/teacherresearch/grant
• Educating as Inquiry A Teacher Action Research
  Site
• http//www.lupinworks.com/ar/index.html
• Reflections on Teaching (The National Writing
  Projects)
• http//www.writingproject.org/Resources/reflection
  s.csp

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Grow as a Professional with a Critical Mind
Research Critique
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Research Critique

• Understanding and evaluating published research
  articles
• Relate the evaluation guidelines to your own
  research.