What resonated with was this point: "Discipline patterns are another form of data to analyze. Who is being disciplined? What is the profile of kids who are most likely to be suspended, expelled, or referred for punishment in the office? In many districts we disproportionately punish the kids with the greatest needs." I will analyzing every single referral at my research site for the past five years. This data will undoubtedly allow me to see inside the inner workings of my research site's discipline expectations and processes. As the quote says, most schools punish their students with the greatest needs, and my research should be able to determine whether or not my site unfortunately subscribes to that stereotype. 

The information that will influence my thinking is: "When you collect data and analyze the patterns, then you will also need to discuss the data with your staff. You want to discuss the data because everyone must embrace the strategies we devise to correct the problems that have been identified. Everyone must know what the situation is. You want that problem to be owned by your entire staff. If the staff doesn’t believe that they share responsibility in coming up with solutions there will be no change in academic achievement. " Since this is no longer the site I am employed at, I need to approach this research with the mindset of handing something to my former administrators that they can form a strategy to lead their staff with. 

Equity issues influence our actions as bold, socially responsible leaders by guiding us with how we articulate and allocate our time and energy. Our values determine where we give our focus, and if we want to be bold and socially responsible, out focus has to be on equity. 

One of the suggestions that resonated with me was the suggestion to “teach students the way they learn rather than expecting them to learn the way we teach.” As educators we often become robots by utilizing the same teaching strategies and the same curriculum year after year without making earnest attempts to modify lessons or supplement lessons based on the needs of our students. This robot style of teaching relates to my inquiry project because so often when teaching math educators solely focus on teaching a specific procedure to solve a mathematical problem in order to get the correct answer. With this scripted style of teaching, students often solely focus on results instead of the process of learning and thinking. When this happens students begin to internalize that if they do not consistently solve mathematical problems and get the correct answers they must not be good at math. Then the students' self esteem is lowered and a negative math identity is subconsciously created.   

As I conduct my inquiry and analyze the results with my teammates, I will make reference to the importance of teaching students the way they learn rather than expecting them to learn the way we teach. It would be interesting to see if any trends are identified with our students of color and if I can encourage my colleagues to self reflect on their teaching practices. 

Equity issues consistently influence the way I discuss student success with my colleagues. As a socially responsible bold leader I am always looking for opportunities to speak up against educational disparities and I am now at the point in my educational career where I am ready to take action to help create change. 
-LaChelle McDaniels

I will use the information in this article to further my inquiry by noticing the leadership abilities of people in our community and assisting in elevating them so they can be better for our students. Another idea that will help me further my inquiry is what the author said about noticing how students learn. It is important to notice that students all learn differently and we as their leaders need to recognize that and adjust our practices accordingly. 

As educators it is important to make each student seen. We do that by addressing the differences of students and dismantling the inequities. To do this, we need strong well trained leaders. 

I originally chose my topic because I wanted to work on something related to my current teaching practice. In the podcast he states,  “The real gap that we don’t close is the gap between the research and the practice. The key is to evaluate, to make sure it’s having an impact…” I do believe there is a lot of focus on creating interactive lessons, but we often don't take the time to solicit student feedback to see if they are really enhancing the learning experience. It is important to continuously evaluate our teaching practices to see if they are effective but also that they are culturally sensitive and relevant. This is especially true and important in social studies. Unfortunately there have been many news stories recently of teachers conducting social studies lessons and interactive activities that are not appropriate and damaging to students. 

I  teach at a Title I school and we have a large English Language Learner (ELL) population. Within that population we have a large percentage of hispanic students who are children of immigrants or have immigrated to the United States when they were very young. He states in the podcast, “In the same ways we want to mainstream special ed students, we want to make sure all kids have access to the full resources of the school and the curriculum. Immigrant students, whether they’re English learners or not, need to take rigorous courses, need to have access to counselors. We can’t allow language to be a barrier to providing high-quality educational service.” I wholeheartedly agree with him and feel passionate about providing our students with a quality education. I am hoping that my inquiry focus on interactive social studies activities will further hone my teaching skills and help inform future effective instruction. 

My two biggest take aways from Hammond's lecture were that "learning is social" and that "we need more courage." I was encouraged by the fact that Hammond believes that relationships are so important. As an teacher of the youngest students, I always try to spend more time at the beginning of the school year getting to know my students as well as letting and encouraging my students to get to know each other. I know that if my students feel that they are part of a community, they will feel safe and thus be more ready to learn. 

I believe that the idea of building relationships and encouraging my students to get to know each other ties in with my inquiry project because in order for my students to get the most out of play-based learning, they must first learn how to interact with each other.

Equity is a not just a word. Equity requires action. That's why I really liked that Hammond said that "we need more courage" in order to follow our conscience and do what is right. As a bold, socially responsible leader, I always strive to do what's right, even if it's sometimes a difficult journey.

I know that I will keep these ideas in mind when I begin to plan my Math play-based lessons. I know that I will have to include some Math games in which my students will have to interact and collaborate with each other. Even while using Math manipulatives, my students will be more likely to interact with each other because they have already had many opportunities to do that during our community building time.