Course+Reflection


 * After reading the passage from the text //School// //Leader Internship// it is imperative to understand the process of reflection as it relates to our professional improvement and growth. Throughout this course, we have had ample opportunities to reflect on our past knowledge, as well as learning new information that supports our current knowledge. In week one, we had the opportunity to assess our strengths and weaknesses concerning the ten competencies embedded in the three domains of the superintendents program. This reflection upon our current state of strength and weakness will help focus the attention of the selected activities that are included in the internship plan. In addition the TExES exam provided some support to the personal assessment that was developed. A current opinion regarding the practice TExES exam is that participating in the disaggregation of data utilizing TAAS data is irrelevant to the current AEIS data that is currently being utilized in the current education system.

In week two I had the opportunity to interview our Superintendent and visualizing the needed knowledge to successfully be the Chief Executive Officer of the school district. I had the opportunity of learning this knowledge and utilizing this information in the development of my internship plan. Further meetings with the Superintendent gave me the opportunity to refine my internship plan into the document that I will be working with throughout the continuation of this certification program. In visiting with my Superintendent, who is also my site supervisor, he has challenged me to focus certain areas of my education program towards finance and operations. This is an area he had to learn quickly, and recommends learning this area slowly and in depth to have a firm understanding and ease of transition into a district leadership position.

Being a Superintendent in the school district, it is imperative to stay current on the new innovations of technology and how it will benefit the school environment. Utilizing blogs in our coursework has been a valuable tool to share the information we have learned and developed with our peers. I have never utilized a blog before, and now that I have experience with this, I see where this is a valuable tool. In addition, I am not as impressed in using a wiki. As of now, I do not feel like this has been a valuable tool, however, I am still novice and unsure how this tool could be utilized to its full potential. Everything I have completed on my wiki, I feel has been best utilized using the blog.

The discussion boards have been a valuable tool in sharing our information with peers. This has also been a good area to ask questions and receive feedback on concerns we have had. I was concerned whenever I registered for these online classes, because of the lack of networking that I have been accustomed to, however, the EPIC and Adobe system has given us the opportunity to network by the way of discussion boards and web conferencing.

On the subject of web conferencing, I enjoyed the opportunity of seeing and hearing from the peers involved in our class, and knowing where everyone is from. However, I do offer some criticism to the web conference, due to everyone not understanding the components of the web conferencing system. For example, not understanding when to mute the microphones; this makes it difficult for everyone hearing echo’s whenever someone is talking. I would like to recommend that everyone have headsets so the feedback is eliminated. After week five, and our last web conference, I had some technical issues and had to restart my computer and whenever I signed back into the system, the class was complete. With this being said, there were a few students still visiting with each other, and I had the opportunity to jump in and ask what I missed in the last few minutes. With only four people involved in the conference, we were able to work with each other collaboratively explaining different aspects of the program and concerns about requirements on assignments. In my opinion, this was the most valuable opportunity I had in utilizing the web conferencing program. I would like to recommend that we have the opportunity to utilize this small group discussing using the web conference program.

Overall, from the first week, getting familiar with the system and working through all the technical issues up until week five, I feel like I have had tremendous growth utilizing the online program. I would like to thank everyone who has offered comments and assistance throughout this first course as well. ||