Three years ago I was asked by Francine Lazarus, Ed.D. who was a teacher at an elementary school in the Tampa, Florida, area, if I would come to speak for their teacher inservice day at the beginning of that school year. Her husband is an executive with Publix Supermarkets in Lakeland, and when I spoke for all their managers, each of them was given a copy of “The Simple Truths of Service Inspired by Johnny the Bagger®.” Francine was so taken with Johnny’s story that she decided to use that as a theme in her classroom and wanted the other teachers in the school to be inspired as well.
Last year I heard from Francine that she had been promoted to be the principal of her OWN school, Bellamy Elementary. She decided to use “Service from the HEART” and Johnny’s story as the annual theme for her whole school. These are some of the ideas she has shared with me of what they are doing:
Barbara,
Congrats on your well-deserved honor! I’m very proud of you and you looked SO beautiful 🙂 I’ve shared the information with my faculty/staff so they know about the person who inspired the idea for our school theme this year.
Things have really taken off with Johnny and “The Simple Truths of Service!” There are HEARTS all over the school and every day the teachers e-mail me with new ideas…I’ll take some pictures for you.
We’re thinking of ordering those rubber bracelets that the kids wear with a HEART of Service message on them for the students to give out in the community when they want to recognize Service from the HEART. During Pre-Planning, each team of teachers adopted their own “Personal Signature” and brainstormed ways to bring their idea to life throughout the year. My music teacher is teaching David Roth’s song about Johnny, “A Little Something More” (I ordered the CD at Maythelightmusic.com) to the teachers on 8/30, and we’re going to put a special heart of service “thought” for parents in the weekly bulletin that goes home every Friday.
Everyone loves the books and the Johnny pads. Everyone says this theme has much more meaning and importance than themes like “Wild About Learning… or Dive into Learning.” From Johnny, our students will learn to be caring citizens while adopting an “above & beyond” work ethic!
Barbara, thank you so much for the work that you do…It TRULY makes a difference!
Bellamy Takes Education To HEART With A HEART Of Service!
Francine Lazarus, Ed.D.
Principal
Bellamy Elementary School
To order “The Simple Truths of Service” book, the DVD of the story of “Johnny the Bagger®”, and the DVD, “Service from the Heart”, click here
For more information about “Johnny the Bagger®” and Barbara’s presentations on “Service from the Heart”, go to www.barbaraglanz.com
