Educator Testimonials

Empowered Classroom Leadership Skills

Mona,

Allow me to thank you for introducing me to Harry Wong. He demystifies classroom management, an aspect of teaching I struggled with a lot the first 2 years. But this year was a better one. The "Procedures Reboot" meeting was needed both as a refresher and as a starting point.

I also appreciate you sharing your own classroom procedures with us. I could not use all of them as we met in the middle of the school year but I'll use most of them (especially the phasing into the classroom procedures and school policies: infused at homeopathic doses). I also love the bathroom procedures. It can be very disarming to be interrupted in the middle of a very engaging interactive activity - to go to the bathroom!

The Gift of Peace I received this year was ... The Phone Procedure: I had read about it online - a college professor used it - but I had never had the time to implement it ... until that meeting. The next day, it was implemented. My students were surprisingly aboard. There were volunteers time keepers. We did increasingly added focus time from 15 to 20 minutes but limited the Tech Break at 2 minutes. And also, depending of activities, we are flexible enough to extend our focus time and our Teach Breaks. I was excited not only to see it work smoothly but also to see my rate of phone violation referrals drop considerably. I only hope this practice goes school-wide next year.

I only wish you had hosted the meeting during the summer to give ME time to process. Even if I did not use all you offered this year, I infused its"spirit"in my daily routine. I love your enthusiasm in what you do and I cannot wait to rise higher and shine brighter next year.

Thanks a lot for helping us grow along with our students!

After attending two of your professional development trainings, I saw the total number of referrals I wrote decrease from 161 last year to 45 this year. That is a 72% decrease!

Enhanced Emotional Intelligence

I have been in public education for eighteen years. During my seventeenth year as an educator the line between personal and professional struggles blurred and I found myself in a very low place.

I questioned my purpose and passion for teaching and contemplated whether or not I had what it takes to continue in the education field. Mona came alongside me as a friend, colleague and mentor to help me process all these feelings. She walked me through strategies that helped pinpoint the specific sources of the doubt and inadequacies that I felt. She helped me work through what I saw as failures in my profession so that I would not translate this into failures in my personal life. She helped me reestablish the boundaries I needed between work and personal life. Her guidance and friendship were critical in allowing me to process where I was at and take the steps to renew my purpose in teaching as well as restore relationships professionally and personally.

I am grateful for her guidance and mentoring during this critical time in my life. I am truly in awe of the professional and personal dedication that Mona has to the students, teachers and administrators that she serves and supports.

Increased Culturally Responsive Practices

Let me first begin by stating that I am a 53-year-old white male who was born in the South. I do not state this to profess any sense of white guilt or speak in a derogatory manner about my past or the geographical location I was raised in. I love the South. That being said, I am aware that where I was raised exposed me to certain prejudices and biases that I often considered normal practices. As I participated in professional development courses offered at my high school led by Mona Elleithee concerning cultural sensitivity, I began a journey that would help me change my views on the world we live in. My first impressions were those of a reluctant participant. But the power of change comes through education and reflection. Change does not happen overnight but rather over an extended period of time. Change is indeed a seed that must be planted. And like a seed that is planted, it must be cared for if it is to produce good fruit. Ms. Elleithee's involvement inspired me to be part of the solution rather a source of the problem. In addition to the leadership she provided during professional development sessions, Ms. Elleithee was an integral part of my classroom as she provided support with my at-risk student population. As an educator I am challenged with differentiating instruction and providing scaffolding supports. Ms. Elleithee provided on-site guidance that was an integral part of not only providing my students with the necessary instruction needed, but helped me to build relationships with my students. Healthy relationships in the classroom help the real changes take place. As they say, the "proof is in the pudding" and her support in my classroom was reflected by increased scores on high stakes testing. Of all English I students tested during the course of the year, my classes reflected the most growth and I attribute much of that to Ms. Elleithee's contribution to my classroom. If your organization would like help understanding the diverse world we live in today and how to build understanding that leads to real change, then I would certainly recommend you using Renewed Harmony as that agent of change.

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