HEART!. Timothy D. Kanold

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СКАЧАТЬ alt="Image"/> MY HEART PRINT

      Hmm, passion is a strong feeling. Moreover, passion is a feeling of enthusiasm or excitement. And I am supposed to feel this way every day? Not just at the start of the school year? What about February when the year seems to be dragging along, even then?

      Seems like a tough request—but not for Lee Maciejewski. Lee who, you ask? I hadn’t really thought much about my passion as a teacher of students and eventually as a teacher of my colleagues until I met teacher and coach Lee Maciejewski.

      “What is your secret?” I asked him.

      Why did you choose education as your profession?

      Write about what a passion for education means to you. Start with Passion is…

      “What do you mean?” Lee responded as we rode back from Glenbard East High School.

      It was on a quiet school bus on a Saturday night after another loss. We were almost to the end of a very long high school basketball season. I was the sophomore boys’ basketball coach, and Lee was the junior varsity (JV) coach—the main assistant for our varsity team. Our varsity team was not having a very good season, and a small community revolt was mounting against the current varsity head coach. And, by association, against Lee as the JV coach too.

      The secret I was referring to, when I asked Lee the question on the bus, was related to his incredible passion for his job as the JV coach. Despite a losing season, despite a team of athletes, which was not all that athletic, despite our head coach, who was very difficult to get along with, and despite the responsibilities of raising his own young family, Lee brought a passion to his work that was infectious. Lee was the type of teacher, coach, and leader who made you want to give him the best you had.

      It did not matter to him that he was not in the starring role. He wasn’t the head coach, and his input was not often valued. Lee was a few years older than me, but he seemed to have wisdom far greater than mine. His answer to my question that night on the bus, when I asked him how he brought that passion and love for his work day after day—work for which he was never outwardly recognized, or where he was sometimes told to keep his thoughts to himself or asked to do jobs that were not part of his job description, and especially on the days that were not all that great—left a heartprint on me I never forgot.

      Lee quietly said to me, “I just decided that no matter what I do in this life, I will bring the best of me to that job every day. Today I am the JV coach. So today, I will be the best damn JV coach I can be. The boys deserve no less. My family deserves no less. I deserve no less. And no matter what my job is in this school, I will give it everything I have.”

      Funny, there I was all of thirty-two years old, and that single phrase I will be the best damn JV coach I can be stopped me in my tracks. Lee actually went on to say a few more words, but I did not hear them. It became even quieter on that bus ride home, and his words made me realize that I was not always the best teacher I could be. His words, along with the phrase carpe diem, became my family’s mantras for years to come.

      From that day forward, I made no excuses. I decided that as long as I was in this profession, I would be more like Lee Maciejewski. I would be the best damn teacher and leader, father and husband, and colleague and friend I could be: in the moment, every day. I did not and will not always succeed, but it would not be for lack of effort.

      

MY HEART PRINT

      To understand the impact of the story with my colleague, Lee, is to also understand that Lee and I were very different in personality, style, and perspective. Lee was a lifer as a coach. It was his deep passion and love. I really enjoyed coaching, but I also had a deep passion for teaching and leading other adults, not only students; and eventually, that would become my role as a professional educator. Lee saw me as a bit of a “square,” maybe even a bit of an egghead. For example, I would never say the word damn, except in the context of this book. Let’s just say Lee was more flamboyant! Passion manifests itself in lots of ways!

      Over the years, in my family, when any one of us would complain about our station in life, chores that needed to get done, or unhappiness with our current workload, you would hear someone echo the phrase, “Be the best damn JV coach you can be!” This was our way of saying to buck up and get the work done—no matter how big or how small you think the job is.

      Lee’s passion served him well. Teaching was his calling. It gave him meaning far more than a paycheck or health benefits ever could. He went on to have an extremely long tenure as a teacher and a great career coaching football, girls’ softball, and boys’ basketball in the suburban Chicago area.

      Part of knowing if you are measuring high on the passion index is to decide whether or not you will be the best damn educator you can be! Think about it. Teachers are the major players in the education process. That means you and me. We matter! Our daily choices matter! We have so much power and influence over students, more than we realize sometimes.

      Educational researcher John Hattie claims that high-effect or high-impact teachers are passionate and inspired. Hattie describes how expert teachers show a passionate belief that all students can reach the success criteria and that intelligence is changeable.¹²

      Hit the pause button for a moment. How does Lee’s story connect to your own perspective on life and work? To your passion and purpose?

      Passion, therefore, is so much more than enthusiasm. Hattie quotes Christopher Day, a professor of education at the University of Nottingham:

      All effective teachers have a passion for their subject, a passion for their pupils and a passionate belief [in] who they are and how the teacher can make a difference [emphasis added] in their pupils’ lives, both in the moment of teaching and in the days, weeks, months and even years afterward.¹³

      It is the third element (italicized) of Day’s description that causes me to stumble a bit. How about you? I have always had a love for my subject (in my case, mathematics) and a love for my students. However, I’m not sure that in every teaching moment, or in every day, week, month, or season of my teaching life I have had a passionate belief in myself to make a difference (by the way, for those of you old enough to remember, this is what was once referenced in the education genre as high expectations). Could I really win with every student?

      

MY HEART PRINT

      Why did you place the X where you did? At the writing of this book, my X would be about 82 percent. I have been trying to close the “belief in myself to help each child learn” gap for years. I often see both weakness and strength in my work. Can you and I close the gap? Can we close the gap between our X and the top of the line at 100 percent? I believe we can! To close the gap requires us to act with compassion and love, live with hope in our journey, and become more gritty and grateful.

      In the next chapter, we explore the love required to become a wholehearted teacher. Let’s take a look at how to make it happen!

      Draw a vertical line. At the bottom write 0 percent. At the top write 100 percent. Now, draw an X on the percent line that represents your passionate belief in yourself that you can make a difference in the lives of every one of your students.

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