Gary Spence director of IT

Today we met another great leader. Very engaging speaker who obviously uses humour in his relationships.
The salience is far too expansive to cover in this format. There truly was too much to cover.
However, the process was simple - don't do anything that the teachers won't use or that doesn't increase student learning.
This is inspirational that these leaders are all worried about learning above anything else. I can tell why they are successful leaders - there goals are the goals of education. I am sure they inspire those who work with as well.
Characteristics: I was impressed with his respect for others; some of the things he said that exemplify his characteristics:

• "Reasonable people will come to the same conclusion if given enough information."
• “Every voice is important”
• if it doesn’t fit the vision, don’t do it
• and once again: relationships built on great communication skills!

He of course gave an extensive list of characteristics that he feels is important:
Be committed to kids, staff, and excellence; have integrity ("open and honest" - again!); have dignity and respect; be visionary – know where you are going; be humble – recognize everyone is important; you can’t know it all, rely on your peers, give credit to others often! – "be hard on ideas and soft on people", be technical savvy - know what you don’t know and know who does know it, but don’t allow yourself to be mislead; Pedagogy – stay up on research, always consider the teacher eye-view; Other: remember that technology is neutral, be transparent, be pragmatic, be a strong negotiator and an advocate for students.