“Get in, get out, get licensed and get to work!"

It’s a school motto that underscores a different way of thinking of education.

Our latest A+ Teacher is helping students thrive in cosmetology careers. But Monica Whitlow’s winning strategies can be used anywhere.

"That's your design line, and then you'll move to the right, to the left to connect,” she instructed one student at Sunstate Academy in Clearwater.

"It's knowing how to cut the hair, how to color it, make it blonde, make it dark, make it red,” she said. “It's the nail game. It's not just that, but it's attitude, personality. It's knowing how do a consultation. It's listening to the client. It's reflective listening."

Whitlow knows how to keep her students engaged and coming back.

Students say her positive energy is contagious, her heart overflowing with compassion, and her mind focused on their future.

"She is the shining, bright star on this campus,” said Brandon Dixon, the academy’s director of education. “She inspires these students. She gets them going and gets them motivated, but she also figures out what motivates them on a personal level."

Whitlow said it’s important to know her students.

"It's engaging with each and every student. What I do here,” she said. I've been here for 13 years and I love what I do, and I mean what I say. I love what I do."

Her students are just over 18, others over 50.

"They have stories,” Whitlow said. “It's listening and sometimes it's just an embrace. How are you doing? Is everything OK?"

"When I was a little girl, I always said when I grow up, I want to be a teacher,” she said. “Now I didn't know it would be hair. I just wanted to be a teacher, that's it, and here I am."