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Client Testimonies About Barry Sweeny's Services


Customer Testimonials:


About Barry's Expertise and Assistance

"Barry, thanks for what you have done for our district and our mentor program. We've had the program for 10 years and felt proud of what we have accomplished. However, your Best Practices Conference and mentoring materials gave us the jump start we needed to revitalize us. Our strongest mentors have once again become "mentor magnets" attracting other veteran teachers into the ranks of new teacher advocates. (PS. I love that term "mentor magnets"! It says just what we want it to be.) - Sandy Nobles, Director of Instructional Initiatives, Richardson ISD, Texas.


"We found Barry Sweeny right at the point when we were trying to figure out how to improve our mentoring program to make it a full induction program. Barry's wonderful advice and materials were invaluable to us in this challenging transformation. We especially love his mentoring styles inventory and mentor training ideas!" - Sharon Mullen, Staff Development Department, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, December 1999.

"As the mentor coordinator for a brand new mentoring program with over 700 mentors, guides, and proteges, I learned quickly that you may have only one chance to get it right. Thank goodness I discovered Barry Sweeny and listened to his advice!
  • First, I used Barry Sweeny's advice as my guide for creating in one year what I believe is a very effective mentoring program. Everyone in our district is thrilled with the program we created. The time spent learning from him was the best investment I ever made.
  • Second, Barry taught me several great strategies for evaluating my program and how to use this data to defend it. He helped me to plan proactively and to see that accountability is sustainability. Thanks to Barry's wisdom, insight, and advice the mentoring program in my district has weathered challenges and restructuring when every other program was cut back. I am so grateful.
  • Finally, Barry is an exceptional role model of what a mentor should strive to be."

- Mary Hasl, Mentor Coordinator, Poudre School District, Fort Collins, Colorado


On Target Assistance - "Wow, Barry! You gave me all that I needed and more! It is like you are reading my mind. This only goes to prove that you are very experienced and therefore, right on target. Thanks again, for all the input." - Fern Cohen


"Barry, I want to thank you for the outstanding presentation you provided at the Houston TX Focus Conference. I heard numerous positive comments from your audience before we headed back to Austin and also excitement about your ideas and strategies. We were very pleased. During the presentation, it was easy to see that the participants were engaged in your topics. Thank you ever so much for all the effort and thought you put into it to adapt to our special educators. I'm really glad that I now know about all the resources you provide. You WILL be hearing from me again."   - Ruth Ann Marsh, State-Wide Mentor Coordinator, TX School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Austin, TX

(PS - Barry was invited back and did another training at their state-wide conference the next year too.)


Training, Consulting & Program Evaluation for 2 years!  - "When our ESC was awarded one of eleven of the TxBESS Pilot Grants, we had to start the program from scratch. We immediately decided not to hire additional staff persons who would need over a year to become expert in mentoring and induction. Further, I was not a mentoring expert and I needed BIG help right away! I discovered Barry Sweeny, had several email and phone conversations with him, interviewed him face-to-face while he attended a nearby conference, and hired him on the spot.

Barry worked for us as a trainer and consultant, and as MY personal mentor, spending over 130 days in our region over two years. His expertise and professional manner made the experience both highly productive and a personal joy.

Barry was instrumental in helping us avoid many problems and detours and in making our first year an immediate success. He was also a critical aid to me in so many ways, including development and use of needs assessments, the year-end reports, and proposals for funding of the next phase of the three year state pilot.

The second year, after realizing his value to the project, we dropped our original program evaluator, and we expanded his responsibilites even further to include development and conduct of our external program evaluation. You should see the excellent process he used and the clear data patterns he displayed! Ask him also to see a copy of the final product he produced! We were more than satisfied with everything he did for us!

Even though we paid him quite a bit for this work, we always got back much greater value than what we felt we bought! Our staff and the participants in our program were very pleased with Barry's work and support. Hiring Barry was one of my smartest decisions and I continually recommend him to others I meet."

- Ms. Zoe Windley, TxBESS Program Coordinator, ESC Region XI, Fort Worth, Texas.


"I cannot thank you enough for your great advice to my questions about mentoring. You have given me many ideas that I want to explore more. I really appreciate your caring enough to respond and share with me some of your expert knowledge. As I continue to work in mentoring I will use your advice and hopefully can continue to correspond with you. Thanks again for the wonderful advice!" - Jeanna Weldon, Athens Georgia


Projects on Which Barry Has Worked:
 
Goals 2000 Program Evaluation - Hired as external evaluator, designed and conducted a year-long evaluation of a complex staff development program. The program coordinator, Adrianne Roggenbuck, of the Professional Development Alliance, Joliet Illinois stated, "Barry, the evaluation looks great! Marge, Beth and I are impressed and pleased with the work you have done on the evaluation design. I am finally sure that we will be able to gather the relevant data we need to help us with improving our impact and our planning for next year."

Grant Writing - "Barry recently worked with us to develop the most difficult part of our recent FY 2000 Illinois Secretary of State Literacy Volunteers Grant. His part of the grant was the program goals, outcomes, activities, and evaluation components. We were so pleased with his work and the quality of his writing because these parts are the core of the proposal, around which we had to build all the rest of the project, and his work made ours go so well. Also, Barry was prompt in meeting our short time line for completion and was a pleasure to work with. We certainly feel we got our money worth and more, and will definately be using Barry again on other projects". - Ms. Pamela Meadows, Director of Education Services, World Relief DuPage.


About Barry's Training and Consulting Materials
 
 "Barry, Thanks so much for sharing your excellent induction information with others. You must be a super person!"
- Dr. Doris Henderson, Director , Department of Profesional Induction & Success, Guilford Public Schools, Greensboro, NC


"Thank you, thank you, thank you! The mentoring materials you sent me were great. I can't wait to share them, as they were just what we needed. I sure appreciate your support." - Nyana Sims, teacher leader, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

"Wow! You are truly the GURU of mentoring and yours is by far the best of all the mentoring information available. What a resource you are for mentors and mentoring programs! That was why I choose to incorporate so much of your great information into our new 'Inductiona and Mentoring Source Book' that we distributed to every district in our state. We also sold many copies to schools across the country. It has been a pleasure working with you."
-Rita Stringfellow, Assistant Director, South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment, Rock Hill, SC.


"Your materials and information have been really helpful to me as we began our mentor program for new teachers in our district. We so, wanted to be sure it would be successful. Thanks for helping us reach that goal!"
-Sharon Morgan, Bargaining Chair, NEA -Los Lunas, New Mexico

"I have found your materials and information to be a virtual GOLD MINE! Thank you for providing this terrific information. That is why I now want to invite you to do a training for mentors in our region. I KNOW it will help them off to a great start!" - Carol Pulsfus, Staff Development Coordinator, CESA #5, Portage Wisconsin


"While doing some searching, I ran across a link to your work on mentoring. I was excited by what I found available for sale and for free! I want to buy a large amount of your materials, as they are exactly addressing what I need for my own work on new teacher mentorships. Thank you!"

- John Morrow, Abbottsford School District, British Columbia, Canada