My Personal Research Journal (Week 2)

Greetings to all my colleagues in this research class. First let me say I feel this class will be challenging but I'm still looking forward to walking away with an A. I'm not a research fanatic and I'm use to just finding two or three scholarly articles and calling it a day. I already have had a headache with my research topic but hopefully some or many of you can help me clarify exactly what I'm trying to research.

The Topic I chose is standardize learning. I'm not sure if that is too broad because I'm having such a hard time finding resources for this topic. I chose this topic because I see so many child care centers taking play out the classrooms and changing the curriculum to more standardize learning. While I do believe that children need to learn, I also feel that play shouldn't be eliminated from there schedule. As I begin to do the research I see myself moving from standardize articles to elimination of play in the classrooms. So do I change my topic or keep the same? I'm really disturb at why play is being eliminated because their are so many researchers that says play helps children learn. I'm curious as to who really benefits from standardize learning. In my last class I really showed interest in this topic because my nieces and nephews are in Mastery Charter Schools and they never have gym or outdoor play. They are in a structured learning environment for 8 1/2 hours. I feel that this is wrong because children learn differently and they tend to get frustration with school because someone is always constantly teaching teaching and teaching. In addition, standardize learning doesn't even allow teachers to be creative and teach outside of the curriculum. Ok I feel like I'm just venting but I just wanted to give you all a sample of how feel about standardize learning.

My personal experience with the stimulation process has been like a roller coaster. While I am learning about the ways of finding a good reliable resource I am also trying to understand the language of the research. I can't even remember the last time I looked at a research study. While I am very familiar with the topics in the research model it just gives me the feeling of being back in high school. I can see now that everyone has an opinion but some people are lazy in doing research and they might begin the process but not finish it. Lastly, I understand what I need to know about credible resources.

The insight that I want to share is don't be a procrastinator in this research class. Since we are researching topics I feel that you can't wait until the last minute to do assignments. I am a person that works best under pressure so I tend to do my assignments during crunch time. As I look over the assignments for this course I am mentally preparing myself to put additional time aside to work on these assignments. So I encourage my colleagues to don't be like me and allow yourself time to ask questions or get feedback for others.

Currently, I don't have any resources to share but I am open to suggestions, feedback, criticism, and anything else that will help along on this research journey.