S.U.C.C.E.S.S. that’s the way we spell SUCCESS. 🙂 The former cheerleader in me can’t help but chant that old cheer out loud at the completion of our first ever Education Undergraduate Action Research Conference held Friday, April 8, 2016 at the SMSU’s Schwan’s Regional Event Center (REC) on campus. We applaud our students for a job well done!!

For years, our SMSU School of Education teacher candidates have had to carry out an action research project as part of their training. In their junior year field experience placement, the teacher candidates identify an issue in their classrooms that they believe they can make better for elementary students. Teacher candidates research this issue, find ways to make it a little better, then take action by applying what they’ve learned in their research and hope for a better outcome for kids.

One example might be… maybe elementary students are struggling with spelling. Our teacher candidates identify this, research how to help these struggling students, then apply a strategy that they may have found in their research. The teacher candidates take action by applying this and use three different instruments to collect data. Teacher candidates discover if the action they took helped the elementary students or not. That’s just one example of several great findings.

In the past, the teacher candidates would present their findings by using a poster as their platform. This year we tried something new. The teacher candidates still had to present their findings, however, they were able to choose their platform. A few still chose the poster to present their findings, while others chose Power Point, Prezi, Weebly, and Smore, to name a few of the presentation platform tools chosen.

Rather than present their findings using the poster, the teacher candidates and I decided to turn the presentations into a conference style event. First ever “Education Undergraduate Action Research Conference” which was held in the REC in the morning from 8:00 – noon.

Dr. Dennis Lamb kicked off the conference at 8:00 a.m. with his keynote talk and he had us laughing and even shedding a few tears. He connected well with the teacher candidates. Presentation sessions then began at 9:00. Parents, brothers, sisters, and other family members came to watch and support their family members. Very cool! 🙂

All I know is the REC was a fantastic place to hold a conference and a few of the comments from the teacher candidates were:

“I would say, have this here every year.”

“It made us feel very professional.”

Our tech support young man even said “This is cool up here. You might have started something.”

We believe it was a success, and we are very proud of our kids…the teacher candidates. 🙂

It wouldn’t have been as successful, though, if it weren’t for a team effort. Ron in scheduling, Laura in Maintenance, Ben and Emmanuel in Technology, and the volunteers who scored the presentations using the PVLEGS method…all of you were a HUGE help to us!! We SO appreciate you and all you did! Thank you!!

Are you on Twitter? A few pictures can be found there. You can see some of them on Wendy’s account @kiddielitprof or on the School of Ed account @smsuschoolofed.

CONGRATS, Action Researchers…

Stay Calm & Research On!
Profs Dr. C. & Dr. V.