What do I do next???

I know, I know that I have not posted in a while. I have been having a crisis of sorts. My life is so busy right now and I am being pulled in so many different directions that work on my project has come to a stand still. I am actually not enrolled in my project course until spring, but I need to be making progress on it in order to complete this course. I have even considered taking next semester off. I am going to post over the next few days, and hopefully get myself motivated to tackle my project again, words of encouragement would be appreciated.

I'm Loving All the Love For My Project, But...

I thought that I needed to clarify a few things about my project after reading some of the comments left by my esteemed colleagues. Thank you for all of the great ideas and enthusiasim. I have had to simplify my ideas for my project, because I'm really trying to see if using visual presentations that are computer based are an effective means to improve academic achievement for EL students. This is the real aim, so students actually will not be a part of the creation of my movie presentations because I have to control as many factors as I can and having them be the creators would move the focus to how well they are able to use technology rather than how technology may improve their achievement.
That brings me to the second struggle of my project. How will I measure their progress? I do not want to use a written test, because then I will be measuring how well they read and write in English and not how the technology effected their understanding of the material. I think my brain is beginning to hurt...That means short oral quizzes, which is really the only way to take as many obstacles out of my way. Now I just need to get all of my lesson presentations done! I am looking at some pre-made ones that came with the current social studies curriculum to see if they will suit my needs, but I have a feeling that I will have to continue to make my own.

An Idea Grows...

Three weeks ago, I was still struggling with the focus of my project. I knew that I wanted to research in the area of technology and more specifically how technology impacts the achievement of English Language Learners (ELL). This topic is very important to me because of my current teaching position. In the district where I teach, our EL students are not achieving when it comes to standardized testing. A year ago our district's ELL program was dismantled and our students are now really struggling...I feel like every avenue of creating achievement has not been explored. Technology is also a weak area for our school district. It is a hope of mine that through my project I might inspire other teachers in my own school district to use technology and to help those struggling students that need new means to achieve.
I met with my project supervisor Dr. Benavides. As I sat there in his office he fired many questions at me, some I had quick answers for but many I had to stop and think. It was difficult to narrow down the specifics of my project and to control those variables that would disrupt my results. With Dr. Benavides' guidance I decided to focus my project on EL student's achievement in Social Studies and how that might be impacted through the use of audio-visual technology. I will be creating a series of "movies" that will take the place of lessons and presenting them to both EL and English-only students. This will not be easy!!! I am still working on the first lesson...so I will have more information to come.