Directors’ Comments

The following are unsolicited comments from directors and teachers during my consulting years. I received numerous emails and notes after delivering training sessions, workshops, consulting, coaching, and mentoring services.

FeedbackI thought you might find the feedback helpful, as you consider how best I can support you in your work. As you’ll see, I work with directors in many different ways.

In their own words…

“I found your blog, and your consulting/mentoring/coaching services sound like exactly what I need. I was reading about them and nodding “yes!” the more I read!  What is the best way to start?”

“I have FINALLY taken some time to read your blog! What a pleasure! I feel you are writing from MY heart—thank you for your insight and for making me feel that I am not alone in what I want for children.”

“There are a few teachers on the staff who worked with you at John Hancock, and their high praise of your work is the best recommendation we could get.”

“I wanted to thank you for talking with me, and for helping me think about how to bring my program to the next level.”

“Thank you so much for your inspirational email response! I am very excited about the prospects of having some training, and helping the teachers move into the Reggio direction.”

“What a success yesterday’s training was!  Karen, my toddler 2 teacher, stayed after the meeting and simplified her classroom – looks awesome!  Three other teachers came in this morning with baskets and dried herbs. Jane came in early to work on her writing center to reduce clutter. Thank you!”

“I shared the attached [photos] at my monthly division meeting—to show everyone what we have been up too. I wanted to share with you too! This is just a small snapshot of the things that we have been working on! We are all so excited about improving our environment! We will have to have you come for a visit in a month or two so you can see how far we have come. Thank you again for the motivational presentation.”

“OMG—that email was totally helpful. Thank you for your wise advice. It is most appreciated.”

“Thank you so much for all your help, thoughts, and inspiration!  The teachers are very excited about re-thinking our rooms, philosophy, and the pace of our days. I will be in touch in the upcoming months as we begin designing our classrooms.”

“I loved your new June blog. It is everything we are trying to do in our classroom, thanks to your eye-opening presentation last fall. I look forward to reading the rest of your summer blogs. Working with Jim Greenman must have been the highlight of your career. Wow! A picture is worth a thousand words, so any more that you can include in your summer blogs would be wonderful.”

“Thank you for your words of inspiration. I needed to hear them. I’m so glad to have you in my life!”

“Thank you for your time today, and sharing your ideas and inspiration. We all found it helpful and engaging. It is the first time we spent the day on parents and, although we all like talking about the children, our curriculum, ourselves, etc., it was a meaningful time to think about the three legged stool. Your comments and handouts will allow us to continue our dialogue about how to support parents and create a collaborative relationship. Best to you and we look forward to inviting you back in the future.”

“Thanks for a great meeting. I got a lot of good feedback. I will be in touch to set up times for consulting  work with individual classrooms.”

“I really appreciate and value your opinion, and I want to make sure that I’m making intelligent purchases.”

“Thank you for your honest, thoughtful, valid observation. I appreciate your support. I knew something was not quite right and you confirmed what I thought. Let’s talk about how to fix the problem—how’s next week?”

“We’ve made lots of changes to the school since you were here last, but it would be great to have you back soon.”

“The upstairs space looks great. It is so calm and inviting. Parents have been impressed.”

“I’d love to have you give us some input with the new rooms.  I’d also love to set up some time to have you work with the teachers on curriculum planning.”

“The first week of August would be good for having you work with the staff on classroom set-up for the infants and toddlers. I think the preschool/pre-k have it down pretty well (although when they were setting up their new rooms they kept saying “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. Where’s Marcia?!!!!!”). I’ll have you take a look when you are here and get your thoughts.”

“First, I’d like to thank you for those trainings. My staff is on fire!!!! You did a great job.”

“In your last email you had asked ‘what do I hope to gain from your working with my teams? what outcome am I/they looking for?  a good, basic design? correcting problematic areas? a facelift? a move toward natural elements? etc., etc.’ I think we want to work on all of that.”

“Essentially, I’d like you to come in, pretend this was your school (on a budget, of course), and show us how you’d set it up.  I know the teachers input should be taken into consideration as well, but I think we are all open to new ideas.”

“Yes, this is all exciting.”

“Thank you for everything yesterday!! It was such a breath of fresh air hearing about Reggio and seeing light bulbs go off from my staff. I have already seen some changes in some of their teaching today!! I think it would be great and wise to have you come again and go more in depth with the toddlers and infants.”

“By the way, I am so glad to have your support. I use many of your phrases in all types of situations. Thank you!”

“These are all excellent resources. Thank you so much for your willingness to share.”

“I wanted to thank you for the wonderful workshop. You presented with great enthusiasm and warmth, and our staff was quite taken with you and the materials. For some, it was an affirming shot in the arm and, for others, it was a significant perspective shift. Just what we needed.”

“Thank you so much! Let me know if you will come by my school for a short visit! I would love to show you what we have started!”

“Loved hearing your passion, as my team and I share the same vision, and very much appreciate the handouts!”

“I just want you to know what a great gift you have given me. It was incredibly helpful to have the time to talk with you and think about my professional life together.”

“All went well at the board meeting. I’ll give you a call tomorrow. Thanks for your guidance!”

“Thank you for providing a wonderful and effective workshop. It gave all of us new techniques, ideas for reflection, and the power of our words.”

“Thank you so much for your workshop. Great feedback from the teachers! When can you come back?”

“I’m on a bit of a campaign about de-cluttering, neutral, and natural elements. You got me started! And, what a difference it makes in the children and their ability to play. Have you thought about the difference it makes in teachers? I have. I see it. The better the environment, the better the teacher. Now, that doubles the effect on young children. Wow!”

“Thank you, Marcia. The teachers really enjoyed your workshop!”

“Thank you for the training. The management team was totally engaged! They could have stayed through lunch and into the afternoon! Next time …”

“Can we be your groupies? Did you see us nodding after everything you said?”

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