I'm afraid I am one of those "flip-flop" type of people who is going to switch research topics on a weekly basis until I am inevitably required to choose one for good. This week the Analysis I assignment got me thinking about the differences between the high schools in Forsyth County concerning the percentage of students that pass the Algebra EOC. As we have all seen, there is a big discrepancy between the schools, with certain schools significantly out-performing others. Immediately I was drawn to the schools with the lower scores with a desire to teach in such a school and help raise the percentage. Less than a year from now most of us will have decided where we are going to be teaching. I just don't want to go into the decision blindly. This led me to consider researching the relationship between percentage of students passing the Algebra (or other Math) EOC and the morale of the teachers at the various high schools. When I say this, I mean how stressed/happy are the math teachers at a given school? Do they enjoy their jobs? And is their a relationship between the performance of their students on the EOCs and their overall satisfaction with their job? This study would be correlational, and I would like to use surveys of some sort to measure the stress/happiness/job satisfaction (among other things - I'd love suggestions) of the teachers at each school. I would also like to incorporate some qualitative data by interviewing several teachers from different schools and really hearing what they have to say about their job and the amount or lack of stress that it puts on them. I would also like to observe classrooms and consider the teacher-students interactions and the way the teacher responds to the students as an indication of their stress levels or composure or joy to be in the classroom. So to wrap it up - that's what's going on in my head this week!