How am I going to do Action Research on my Campus?

I am excited about the prospect of actually doing a research project. When I was going through the nine different areas for possible inquiry in Dana's Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher, I could see nine different areas that Richardson High School could benefit from action research.

The one that I am focusing on for my research project is school culture/community.

My notes after reading from Dana's text:

This is my passion. As a teacher leader in my building, I am the voice of our staff. They feel comfortable discussing their issues with me because they know that I cannot take disciplinary action. I love Richardson High School, and I love my co-workers and our students. I believe if we can build our sense of community, we can succeed even more than we already do. I think that what Gabi, the master student, learned in her study and that it lead to collaboration between grade levels is important at all levels. I think vertical teaming is just as important as horizontal teaming. We have to know what is expected in the year below and above our curriculum levels to be successful. 

In particular with my research, I am going to focus on building community with our staff and in our classrooms. Because our campus is very diverse, and we have regular classes that have inclusion, ESL, and regular education students all in one class, we have to work on differentiating the content, and in order to do that, we need teachers who feel like they are a valued member of our community and students who do as well.

My research will focus on how we do this. We already have PLCs and a committee to help me with this research, and I feel honored to work with such wonderful staff who really just want to see successful, passionate students walk across the stage at graduation.