Reflection of presentation by Larry Jacobs, Superintendent of Wolf Creek Schools

We had the pleasure of meeting another senior level administrator today. This approach has proved to be a very effective exercise in understanding different models of leadership and how each board was able to take an approach that worked for them. As with the previous superintendents, Larry Jacobs spoke to the need to have a centralized vision. He strongly emphasized that you need to have buy in from all levels, otherwise there is just compliance but not commitment.

Wolf Creeks's vision highlights student learning as the first priority. Dr. Jacobs explained that this overarching goal was to be accomplished through developing assessment for learning and instructional design. Technology is embedded in everything. He spoke to how technology is ubiquitous and that we need to prepare the students not to be lifelong learners, but "learners for life." Dr. Jacobs quantified this by giving the analogy of a tidal wave bombarding our learners throughout the course of a lifetime versus giving children the skills they need to access knowledge throughout their lifetime.

Dr. Jacobs's presentation was geared more toward the organizational structure of the school board and less toward leadership per se. However, several characteristics were evident:
- Dr. Jacobs strives to immerse himself in the technology and led by example. In fact, today was his first experience with video conferencing.
- He is a strong believer in that how the organization functions is an equation of how well it is set up.
- He is a strong proponent of professional development and consistency, providing a list of titles that each principal was meant to read.
- He works with a group of third year teachers in a mentorship capacity.
- He has a strong grasp of current research and best practice. He highlighted the example of how they created their vision statement graphic using Marzano's principles of information retention.

Dr. Jacobs briefly discussed how Wolf Creek moved away from their previous system of leadership to allowing principals and teachers greater input into how to implement the vision. The vision was created in collaboration with principals and teachers. He explained in all honesty that teachers were really reluctant to get involved in these meetings, but eventually there was a line up to be a part of them.

"We don't have a technology vision, we have a learning vision." - Larry Jacobs