Reflections of EDLD 5342 School Finance

·   Competency 8 Self-Assessments The Self-Assessments gave me an opportunity to really view the competency areas I was knowledgeable of what areas I needed to seek self-improvement.  I used the self-assessment as a guide to as I navigated through the course work.  As stated earlier by our expert professors the self-assessment is a great instrument to determine strengths and weakness and from the results of the self- assessment an action plan can be developed for self-improvement.  I know my experiences are limited in some areas in Competency 8, but the knowledge I have gained is a significant advantage which I will be able to pursue with confidence. ·   Lectures, interviews, readings and resources I appreciated the lecture video and the lecture scripts.  I actually used the lectures as a study guide to prepare for the weekly assignments.  The lectures always explained in depth the expected performance outcomes and encouraged the student to ask questions if there was uncertainty.  This most disappointing for me during this course was scheduling of the interviews.  Due to extenuating circumstances the main expert personnel that manage our school district’s budget process were not available.  I was able to interview with one of my Site-Supervisor’s and the district’s Comptroller on another occasion.  They both were helpful in provided information to assist with the assignments, but they felt the most benefit would have been provided by the District’s Business Manager and the Superintendent.  Both were unavailable last week.  Arrangements have been made to visit with them at a later time and I plan to take advantage of that opportunity.  I browsed the website reading resources and found them helpful as well.    I have developed my action research skills to build my awareness of school finance articles and topics.  The TEA website I utilized quite frequently, especially with terms that were unfamiliar. ·   Weekly assignments and activities I found the comparison of the two detailed district snapshots as one of the most beneficial hands on forms of engagement to use in this course that modeled a preview what a district makeup looks like when viewing numbers.  Even though I found the assignments challenging and time consuming. I found balance and working with the assigned group really added value to the weekly assignments.  All of the assignments and activities modeled the terminology presented in the lecture videos. ·   Other experiences including Web Conferences, blog and wiki experiences, including any insights from group collaboration I am quite impressed with my ability to have been able to grasp the concept of using wiki groups, blogging comments and posting reflections.  I have to admit I was not comfortable about posting reflections or comments for others to read for fear I would not demonstrate knowledge of the weekly assignments.   However, the most unique advantage of the wiki, blogging experience was the collaboration and communication with experts from other districts in Texas.  The web-conferences provided an opportunity to put faces with names and again share valuable insights on the different topics for the assignments.  I believe the course work would not have been as successful if the web conferences and other technology components were excluded from the syllabus.