Reflections of EDLD 5342 School Finance

Overall, I’m so surprised at the amount of information I’ve learned in this 5-week course. I am happy with the content and the assignments. They were all relevant and useful. The reflection pieces have caused me to pause and consider each assignment and just how much I gained from each one. They caused me to consider each activity and how each one related to my own district, my own roles and responsibilities, and the current status and future possibilities of my district. The reflections help keep me in a state of constant evaluation (self and decision-making evaluations) where I look to improve myself each day. If I can find something good from some decision I’ve made that may have been a poor decision, then I can still leave school feeling pretty good about myself. By reflecting on each day’s decisions and experiences, I can say that I learned something about myself and know what I need to do to improve. 

Competency 8 Self-assessments

• The self-assessments have been good for me to measure the growth that I feel I’ve made through certain courses.  The pre-assessment helped me to know what I would be focusing on throughout the course and made me stop and reflect on my own experiences with regard to each item on the self-assessment tool.  Then, taking the self-assessment again is another opportunity to reflect on what I’ve learned during the course and how it applied to me and my own experiences.

Lectures, interviews and readings, and resources

·         The lectures gave me very useful information and helped direct me through each week’s assignments.  It’s nice to hear information from the experts in their field, especially for a topic like school finance.  If I didn’t get needed information through the interviews in this course, I could many times go to the lecture notes and find answers. 

The interviews were the most helpful to me.  In the past when I’ve gone to our CFO to get explanations in areas I didn’t know much about, I didn’t even know enough to ask appropriate questions.  The assignments focused on specific questions, and that was a big help.  Having the CFO explain and show me examples of a variety of finance activities, procedures, and rules was a tremendous help.  I know I’m a visual and auditory learner, so this had an impact on my learning about finance.  The greatest amount of new knowledge for me was regarding district revenues.  I had always been afraid of that topic because I thought it was a giant monster that I would never be able to conquer.  Once our CFO talked with me and explained things, I had a strong understanding of how the system works.  I was amazed how quickly I picked it up. In reflection, I know that I went into the course a little scared of the topic, but am leaving the course with a great deal of confidence.

Weekly assignments and activities, including information and insights from interviews

·         The weekly assignments and activities were very useful and relevant to what we needed to learn during this 5 week course.  Although they were intimidating to me the first time I would look at an assignment, once I began and started talking to the CFO or other cohort members, my confidence became stronger.  Then, I’d complete an assignment and feel very confident in myself.  I found very quickly that I knew more about finances than I’d realized – my experiences to this point as an administrator have given me more knowledge than I knew. 

The assignments that included comparing district was most helpful.  It was a great way to teach the concept of “Robin Hood.”  I took a finance class in my masters program from one ot the original authors of Robin Hood, and I never did really grasp  the concept like I did with these simple activities and the lecture.  However, I didn’t have as much administrative experience then as I do now, so my experiences could play a big role in my understanding of it now, as well.  I probably learned the most from those comparison assignments and from the interviews with the CFO.

Any other highlights from the course – this may include wiki group experiences, blog comments and reflections, Web Conferences or other school finance insights or experiences during the course.

It was tough trying to get all of my assignments taken care of early in the week for my wiki group, but I managed.  I think the best part of the group experience and blog comments is that it gives us insight into what other districts are doing, what other students are thinking, and what they are experts at or need help with.  Even though we didn’t meet face to face for the course, I feel a connection with my wiki group and that it’s the beginning of a “networking” stage; I will continue communicating with them via emails.  We’ve already shared problems with each other outside of school finance through email, so it’s been a good thing. 

Interviewing my CFO was a good experience and I think it helped build a stronger relationship between us.  It’s not that we had a poor relationship before, it’s just that we didn’t really have a relationship of any kind.  I got to see a different side of him and gained insight into what his job entails.  I know it’s a job I would never want!