Recommendation for Nicole Swenson

Recommendation Submitted by:

Name & Title: Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutirrez
Submission Date: Tuesday January 21, 2014
Affilation: Professor
E-Mail: Alejandro.Acevedo-Gutierrez@wwu.edu

1. Describe your experience working with this candidate that forms the basis of your recommendation.
Nicole Swenson took SCED490-Laboratory/Field Experience in Elementary Science, a field-based experience in
which students teach science in an elementary classroom and participate in weekly seminars. The focus of this
course is planning, teaching and assessing elementary science lessons in a real classroom. Teams of three students
plan and carry out appropriate lessons for the assigned grade levels.
2. Describe the candidates academic and problem solving attributes and talents in relation to those
necessary to be an ambitious, capable, and effective educator for all students.
Nicole was one of the best students I have ever had in the class. She quickly became a bona fide science teacher to
the children, rather than a student trainee. I was very impressed by her ability to effectively modify lesson plans in the
classroom as conditions dictated: be it that children were making gains at different rates, be it the behavior of the
students, be it that classroom equipment malfunctioned. Also, she rapidly became comfortable in the scientific
content that she taught in the classroom (oceanography) and has a very strong background in teaching pedagogy
and management.
3. Describe the candidates ability to effectively communicate with students and colleagues in a pre-primary
through secondary school setting.
Nicole was able to communicate effectively with her other group members via email and personal meetings. As a
result, their work was tight, organized and timely; unsurprisingly, they became the best teaching group in the school
and one of the best I have ever had. She also constantly communicated with the classroom teacher, submitting her
lesson plans in advance and requesting feedback on them and her classroom pe4rformance. Nicole also excelled in
her ability to communicate with the children in her classroom (fifth grade), her demeanor, body posture, voice
inflexion and enthusiasm enabled her to lead the classroom successfully. All children liked her because she treated
them warmly yet pushed them to learn and succeed. I appreciated the fact that she maintained a friendly yet distant
relationship with them, acting not like a friend but like a teacher and disciplining them when required.
4. Describe the candidates ability to collaborate with primary/secondary school students, teachers,
professors/instructors, and/or colleagues in an effective, positive, and open-minded manner and the degree
to which the candidate is receptive to constructive feedback/criticism.
As mentioned before, thanks in part to her communication skills Nicole and her team became one of the best
teaching groups I have ever encountered and worked extremely well with the teacher in the classroom. I was also
impressed by Nicoles ability to productively work with another group teaching the same curriculum in another
classroom: sharing notes, information and the curricular materials and supplies; almost acting like a professional
learning community. She also actively sought feedback from her classroom teacher to improve her practice. In short,
Nicole is able to successfully collaborate with anyone because she is organized, disciplined, motivated and friendly.
5. Describe the type of school-based pre-primary through secondary activities the candidate has been
involved in with as much detail as possible (lesson planning, teaching, assessment, etc.).
Nicole adapted an assigned research-based curriculum to create a coherent science unit. She explicitly related her
lesson plans to the K-12 Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Washington State Science Standards.
Some WWU class time will be provided for planning lessons; however time outside of class will be necessary to
prepare adequately. She demonstrated knowledge of a variety of methods effective in the teaching of science,
emphasizing hands-on/minds-on and inquiry-based teaching methods and science teaching approaches derived from
How People Learn. She also developed an authentic classroom assessment strategy appropriate to the science topic
and grade level that included identifying the key learning targets and the big idea for their unit, delivering a pre-

Recommendation for Nicole Swenson
assessment, tracking progress with assessments for learning, and creating a post-assessment. In detail: -At the
beginning of the quarter, Nicole and her teaching group used Curriculum Topic Study to develop a framework within
which you they would be teaching the children: what, why and how. -At the beginning of the quarter, Nicole and her
teaching group outlined the sequence of learning that students would need to acquire in order to reach each learning
target at the end of the quarter. -Nicole completed a paper reflecting on her initial visit to the cooperating classroom
and at the end of the quarter, she finished another reflection on her personal growth as a teacher of science. -Nicole
and her teaching prepared two group lesson plans to be submitted at least 2 days prior to teaching for review by
myself and the classroom teacher: pre-assessment (lesson 1) and post-assessment (lesson 11). Once the lessons
were taught, the group turned in a revised lesson plan, with any corrections or revisions made, along with an
individual reflection. -With support from her teaching group, Nicole led the classroom on three days. She was
responsible for preparing and submitting the lesson plans at least 2 days prior to teaching for review by myself and
the classroom teacher. Each lesson plan covered 1 day in the classroom. Once the lesson was taught, she turned in
a revised lesson plan, with any corrections or revisions made, along with her reflection. The lesson plans followed the
format of a learning cycle. -During individual lessons Nicole and her teaching group completed monitoring notes as
evidence of assessment for learning. The lead teacher during the day posed questions that she and the helper
teachers asked during the lesson, they wrote down the childrens responses, which were used for any necessary
adjustments to the lesson. The monitoring notes were turned in along with the revised lesson plan. -Nicole observed
a different classroom once during the class. The goals were for the observer to inform and enrich her/his own
practice by learning how science is taught in another classroom and to provide constructive feedback to the student
being observed. -Based on their experience in the class, Nicole and her teaching group offered suggestions to future
SCED490 students on how to succeed in the elementary classroom and the course. -Nicole and hear teaching group
were responsible for planning an entire assessment cycle including identifying the key learning targets and delivering
pre-assessments, assessments for learning, and post-assessments. They gave a presentation summarizing the
learning gains made by students, providing samples of student work as evidence.
6. Describe the professional dispositions (engagement, respect, responsiveness, care, honesty, etc.) the
candidate reflects when working with pre-primary through secondary school students in a classroom
setting.
As mentioned before, Nicoles personality allowed her to connect well with the children, her classmates and the
classroom teacher. She is enthusiastic, warm, positive, motivated and sincere. I was happily impressed by her
professional demeanor in the classroom. I have seen and worked with many in-service and pre-service teachers and
Nicole is in the top 5% in terms of disposition.
7. Describe areas of professional development that EducatorsAbroad faculty and school personnel ought to
focus on to best help the candidate become an effective educator of all students.
Nicole is a fast learner and works well independently as well as collaboratively. She works best when she has
detailed information at hand. My recommendation is then to provide her with all the information that is required to
succeed in your program or with the tools to seek that information.
8. What personal and professional strengths will the candidate bring to their placement?
Motivation, enthusiasm, professionalism and knowledge on how to effectively teach children.