Reflections!

Reflection is such an important aspect in that it allows an individual the opportunity to think back and review the lessons learned.  In a leadership position reflecting back on decisions made and lessons learned can be so beneficial in that it allows one to see the things that worked and the things that didn’t work.  It provides such an effective opportunity to learn and benefit from the hands on activities.  Once you reflect back on decisions and learning opportunities, you are better able to see the impact and get a better understanding of the way things worked out.  This allows you to not only make decisions based off of these learning experiences it also gives you an opportunity to compound the learning experience.

     Throughout this entire program we have been given the opportunity to reflect back on every assignment and activity in order to understand the learning or lesson we received.  The first reflection that I remember doing is actually reflecting on building our blog.  This activity was new to me and I had reservations about doing the whole blog thing.  After getting the blog build and navigating it, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined.  Within that reflection I was able to communicate how effective a blog could be for an administrator and see the actual benefit.  The first reflection activity that I will discuss is posting our reflections to our personal blogs.  This activity is extremely beneficial for all students because it not only allows us to reflect back on what we learned, but we are also provided with the opportunity to see what others learned.  I think that this is important in that we may have missed lessons within the activities and by reading other reflections these will be brought to our attention.  When reading other reflections it allows us to understand other lessons that were part of the different assignments that we may have missed.  Not only can we see what others have posted, but we can also discuss these lessons with the other program students and get a better understanding of all aspects of the lesson.  While reading others reflections I was able to gain extra insight and see other perspectives from different individuals in different situations.  These activities were extremely beneficial for me and provided me with some great information.  T

     Reflecting back through all of my intern experiences has been greatly beneficial to me in my journey within the Superintendent program.  The first thing that comes to mind about these activities was being involved in the interview process during the summer months.  While reflecting over the interview process, I was able to learn and see areas that I could improve upon.  The next internship activity that I reflected upon had to do with improving the UIL academic team and encouraging our students to become more involved.  This has been an ongoing activity and a continuous process that our district is still working towards.  Fortunately from using reflections, we have been able to make adjustments to recruiting strategies and have even begun to offer incentives for participation.  This activity will continue to be reflected upon in hopes of continuing the overall effectiveness of the program. 

     Another reflection activity dealt with the collaboration with my site supervisor, when we began the process of developing the 12 month internship plan.  Putting the reflection into my course imbedded log enabled me to think about the suggestions and ideas that Mr. Driskell had made to me during our meetings. I was able to have time to process and work with some of those ideas and then reflect back over them and have a better understanding of what he was suggesting.   The next reflection activity that I found to be beneficial was the final reflection assignment that we had to do in EDLD 5396.  I think this particular reflection was instrumental in that I was able to really learn a lot about myself as a school administrator. It allowed me to review my self-assessments and compare them from beginning to end.  In doing this I was able to see what areas I had weaknesses and in what areas I might possess strengths.  In doing this reflection it enabled me to set my sights on my weaknesses and to also build upon my strengths in order to make my internship a success for myself.

     The next reflective activity that has been beneficial to me is about the school facilities and what all that encounters.  During this I was able to get a better understanding of what all went into the planning and procedures for school facilities.  I was also able to look at our current facilities and see what improvements or updates were needed and possibly find allocations to correct the issues and problems.  Initially I really didn’t understand the significance of school facilities, but by taking that course and then have the opportunity to reflect back on the research and studies that we learned, I was able to get a better understanding of how important the facilities can be in a child’s education.

     The most important reflection to me was during the school finance class.  During this Superintendent program, this course proved to be the most rigorous and challenging course I have had.  I think the complexity of school finance creates a challenge for Superintendents that must be learned in order for a Superintendent to be really successful.  I found this course to really make me read, study, and apply the materials, so I could really grasp all of the particular topics and information needed to be successful.  I feel like this particular reflection that I participated in during this course was most beneficial in it allowed and made me consciously think about all the different topics within school finance.  Not only did I have to think about each topic, but I had to apply them and understand the different aspects in order to utilize the information.  During this reflection I was able to discuss the foundation system of Texas public schools and understand the basis for the funding system we now have.  I was also able to discuss what I had learned about the funding formula and the impact that it has on different school districts.  We looked at the inequality of the systems and I was made to think about ways to make adjustments in order to close that gap.

     Reflections are so important not only in course work, but with life in general.  Reflecting back on the outcomes and looking at alternative actions and how they would have affected those outcomes is so critical in being successful.  I have found that reflecting also gives me the opportunity to gain knowledge on things that I may have missed when the activities first occurred.  Written reflections are great, but I also think that just reflecting back on things in ones mind is just as beneficial.  This allows us to make better informed decisions and also gives us the opportunity to avoid those decisions that didn’t work out and truly be successful in whatever we do.