Thomas F. Russo, PhD., Principal 95 South Main Street Phone (860) 653-7113
Anne McCluskey, Guidance East Granby, Connecticut 06026 Fax (860) 413-9126
June 7. 2011
To Whom it May Concern:
East Granby Public schools want to extend our sincere appreciation to Ratosha Terry for her work with our faculty during the recent CURIT training sessions. This is an extremely busy and difficult time to get teachers to participate in anything outside of their classrooms because they have so much to do. Ratosha's presentations, coaching, support, and sheer volume of information made it worth the effort for our teachers. Everyone walked away excited and energized with some new piece of technology that they can now really use in their classrooms.
Ratosha's interpersonal skills coupled with her extensive knowledge and expertise make the CURIT model of professional development work so well. The fact that Ratosha can shift gears and match her teaching style and information selection to any individual at any moment in time makes her very relevant and an extremely effective teacher. She teaches people what they want to know when they are ready to know it. In a room filled with teachers having diverse backgrounds, motivation, and learning styles, introducing new material can be very challenging. Ratosha does this very, very easily and with a sense of humor. She knows who to challenge, whose hand to hold, and who to leave alone once they are started.
We have had the pleasure of working with Ratosha now for a few years, and the staff insists that she is the best trainer we have ever had for anything. Ratosha surprised our staff by bringing a gigantic pan of her homemade Paella because she remembered a casual staff discussion about their love for seafood. Our staff reciprocated with a cake and end-of-training party for her. In all my years as an administrator, I can never remember such a warm and respectful relationship developing between teachers and their professional development provider. Ratosha is a special person.
Aside from the wonderful and productive relationship, Ratosha continues to motivate and inspire our "early adopters" of technology. These key teachers continue to innovate and explore the programs that Ratosha has helped them understand and utilize. Her ability to help these motivated teachers want to use the technology in everyday classes is the reason we are successfully integrating technology into our instructional programs.
East Granby is grateful to CURIT and to Ratosha in particular for helping us leap forward.
Sincerely,
Missy Bavaro-Grande, Principal EGHS
Thomas F. Russo, Principal EGMS
Betsy Cutting, Technology EGPS