Week One- Class Reflection

I just left our first class, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed and out of my league.  I feel like my viewpoint is a little narrowly defined, and I do not have the background that many of the other students have.

I chose to take this class because I knew it would be a challenge, but more importantly, I thought it would be really interesting since I don't have any background in educational policy.  I was hoping that my coursework in my Master's program would help, but I can certainly see a difference in this class with all doctoral students versus my cross-listed graduate/undergrad classes.

I am hoping that this course will push me to think bigger and broader.  For example, when we discussed critical incidents, my example was on my alma mater's alcohol policy.  I thought it applied well to what we were discussing, and it did, but the scenarios that my group members brought to the table were much broader and had more real world implications that a college's alcohol policy.  I think the difference could be that my group was mostly K-12 and my background is in higher ed.  Having a discussion with my group members was really beneficial for me, and I hope that I also added some value back to the group.

In looking at our critical incidents in general, we saw that the policies were all top-down and buy-in was not created before implementation, and how the policy would be implemented and reacted to was not also thought through or the reaction was not anticipated by the policy makers.  It was a good group discussion, but the discussion as a class was ever better.

While a little overwhelmed, I really enjoyed this class meeting.  It makes me excited for two weeks (I need to miss a week for work, and I hope I don't feel too behind when I return) and to push me to add value to the class discussion.