Personal Passion and Eager Energy, Visionary vs Vision, and Heartprints:

Furthering a School’s or the District’s Vision and Mission

Marshall M. Stewart, EdS

         A clear vision and mission statement drive day-to-day operations in any organization, and they are the cornerstones to the pursuit of success. The school's or district’s vision and mission are clearly established, and to further both, I would emphasize what I call personal passion and eager energy of students and teachers, leaders being visionaries instead of visions, and leaving heartprints instead of footprints on all whose paths we cross.

         First, I would work with district and site-based leaders to understand and capitalize on personal passion and eager energy. Personal passion is what drives an individual in any given situation. It could be restoring vintage cars, model railroading, reading, writing, painting, teaching, mentoring, etc. For teachers, it is a passion for helping students learn, become the best they can be, and creating a change in tomorrow. For leaders, that passion lies in taking command and leading others through words and actions, to achieve common goals. I would push for all to recognize, list, and focus on those personal passions that drive us as educators, and utilize these in our lessons, our committees, our meetings, our visions, and our day-to-day lives. To most effectively put our personal passion into use, we must take advantage of eager energy, that sudden onset of additional adrenaline that causes the “giddy” feeling of excitement over something. The best way to describe it is that “back-to-school” feeling that a classroom teacher has on the first day back in her room. The sights, smells, and sounds that she experiences puts the teacher into that eager mode to blaze ahead full speed—to get desks in order, posters hung, classrooms decorated, gradebooks prepared, student folders in order, lesion plans underway. It is these areas of eager energy that either create or renew a teacher’s love of the profession. All too often, that eager energy is quickly doused, crushed, or dampened by a back-to-school meeting held on day one. What could be worse than dampening the eager energy by sitting through a four hour meeting instead of allowing teachers to roar off the starting blocks by preparing to do what they do best—teach? The same is true for site-based and district administrators, allow them to get out into classrooms and schools to meet, greet, and offer help to classroom teachers, assistant principals, principals, counselors, or coaches. The same I would ask of school board members: come out and offer assistance, move desks, share a story, introduce themselves, and all join in as one eager team using our eager energy to jump full speed into a new school year.  Faculty back-to-school and/or other required meetings would begin no sooner than day two, with the day before students arrive being protected for teachers and administrators to utilize their eager energy for the start of day one.

         Next, I would push all administrators and teachers to be visionaries, not visions. The tired exclamation that “I am a visionary” is an over- and often misused subjective complement. Too many profess to be visionary, only to prove years later to have been merely visions. What I mean here is that educators must be change agents in practice, not in speech. Lip service comes very cheap, while delivering on promises often takes time, effort, and perseverance. There are many valid, important, and effective “in-the-box” methods that still work in today’s 21st Century schools and classrooms. Understanding when to reach outside the box and grab ideas and practices that are effective is critical for a continuous improvement environment and in the success of a school or district. Leaders, classroom/administrative/school board, must always be forward-looking yet not blind to the past. Reading professional journals or online articles, or visiting schools and classrooms in other districts are key ways to add to our district’s bag of tricks. I have never discarded a teaching method in my twenty-eight years; instead, I have added and added and added. What worked nineteen years ago may be just what little Tommy needs to succeed in his Algebra class; however, Jill may need the online Kahn Academy tutorials and lessons to move forward at the accelerated pace she requires. I believe in encouraging and rewarding innovation in the classroom and at the school/district level. Making sure that all employees strive to be visionary and innovative is central in keeping an organization “alive” and full of life. I have had custodial staff come up with the most ingenious solutions to issues my administrative team found hard to tackle, classroom teachers share new ways to quickly assess students on multiple choice quizzes using online programs, bus drivers who devised more efficient routes than our TIMS programs could, and administrators whose suggestions paved the way for smoother management of schools and school activities. Visionaries do not need to produce the most earth-shattering changes, they simply need to have a clear focus on the goal and develop multiple means of achieving it. In short, I expect a staff to produce constantly, offer suggestions, and take chances at improving. I do not expect lip service, a used-car salesman approach to promising a prize, and then failure to deliver. Actions speak louder than words. It is that simple.

         Last, and most importantly, the best way to ignite a passion for learning and maintain a  mission where students come first and will be college and career ready, is to leave heartprints, not footprints. Footprints are temporary, for as sure as we make them in the sand, the waves erase them with the rising of the tide, the wind blows them away, or time renders them invisible. Heartprints, on the other hand, make an indelible mark on an individual and last forever. In his book Heart! Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader, author Timothy D. Kanold defines a heartprint as “the distinctive impression and marked impact your heart leaves on others—your students and your colleagues, as your career and your school season unfolds.” How we act towards and interact with students, peers, superiors, and parents/guardians has the power to make permanent impressions. To this day, I still get emails, phone calls, or face-to-face conversations from students I taught 10, 15, or 20 years ago who come up to me with a hug or say/text/write “Thank you, Mr. Stewart, for when you. . .” More times than not, they thank me for something I consider highly insignificant—“. . . for giving me that dollar for lunch,” or “. . . for the stories you shared with us in class of your experiences in growing up,” or “. . . for showing us how to overcome the greatest challenges life can throw at you.” Very seldom are they about a lesson I taught or any curriculum subject matter. Strangely, the larger number of complements have come from challenging students who “hated” me as a teacher. From them, Marvin. D. and David B. among others, they thanked me for “being consistent in what I said and done. For teaching us the importance of practicing what you preach.” These lessons, these heartprints, are what we leave behind. We leave them with students, with our fellow teachers, our administrator peers, the parents, and on others we never knew were watching us. These heartprints may appear to lie dormant, but each will most assuredly spring forth somewhere, sometime, in the future, and with them, lessons that each individual will pass along to other generations.

         These are the three approaches I would take to furthering a school's  or a district's vision and mission. Though they may be quite different from all other applicants, they are driven by experience, a deep love of education and of children and teachers, and a desire to leave my heartprint on others’ lives. To that end, if I am successful, then each teacher and administrator will in turn leave their heartprints on every student who walks through our doors.   Marshall M. Stewart, 2019

Kanold, T. D. (2017). Heart!: fully forming your professional life as a teacher and leader.

   Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.