This artifact is a presentation I created for a professional development inservice day on March 21, 2003. The district was in the process of implementing a new teacher appraisal system which includes elements of professional development with action research as an option. Since the district superintendent was aware of the action research project I am currently developing, he requested that I put together a presentation in order to help other teachers understand action research, its role in professional development, and its application within the classroom.

Creating and implementing this presentation was a stretch for me in several ways. I had never previously made a presentation to my peers at the district level. Technologically speaking, the creation of this presentation included several other firsts: This is the first presentation I have created using Microsoft Power Point, and using an LCD projector to facilitate the presentation was my first use of such hardware in this capacity.

The process of developing this presentation also required review and reflection on my part. In order to define and describe action research to my peers, I had to clarify the nature and scope of action research from my personal perspective. Using my own experience in developing an action research process gave me a valuable frame of reference for this task.

Click here to view the elements of this presentation in PDF format.