Examining the budget at my site was one of the most meaningful assignments that we have had. Working at a Title I school means that we receive more funding, but that also means we have more decisions to make and more pots to watch over. I was impressed with the savvy way that my Principal, GIS, resource Teacher and Officer Manager work together to make sure that the funds are spent wisely and appropriately. They have a keen sense for finding money and know when, where, and how to use it.
Maintaining my personal finances and establishing a budget has never been a problem for me. However, as an administrator I will be making more important decisions about funds that will affect the entire site. Keeping the specific needs of the students in mind will be of the upmost importance. I am thankful to work in a district that leaves much of this decision-making up to the site so that their specific needs can be addressed.
Our class sessions proved once again to be valuable. I enjoyed the communication activities on Friday night. We are all aware that communication is a key to effective leadership, but this is one of the only times we have been explicitly shown how to improve in this area. I will continue to practice listening without responding.
While I am not an administrator at this time, I appreciated the insight we got from Dr. Terry Bradley about the budget and funding for K-12 education. The factors concerning our budget may seem out of our control at times, but we are still responsible for providing a quality education. This class session opened my eyes to the complexities of school finance.
It seemed as though the presentations on educational law couldn’t have come at a better time. I am teaching 6th grade for the first time this year, and that has seemed to open up a whole new can of worms for me. Just last week one of my students was the victim of cyber bullying via Facebook. I had no idea this type of harassment was reaching such a young age. The information presented by Roberta Rowe left me feeling more prepared to deal with these actions and consequences in the future.
On Saturday, Dr. Hauser provided me with additional new insight on holding meetings. I think that as the school year wears on, and the meetings become routine, it can be easy to become laxed in planning and execution. Her strategies and set of procedures are practical and useful. I plan to use her agenda template in the future and abide by the rule that the time spent planning should be more than the meeting itself.
As an aspiring administrator, I am constantly keeping an eye on current administrators and learning from them. There are those that seem to just have it all and this chapter helped me to see how they’ve gotten there. I really appreciated the statement, “These leaders have a passion for and are committed to a healthy life, nurturing relationships with their family and friends, and their jobs.” It was encouraging to read that it is the best leaders who are able to balance their careers with their personal lives. It is possible. Some of the keys ideas that I will reflect more upon are:
