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WHITEHILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

621 PEBBLEBROOK, EAST LANSING, MI 48823


517-333-7900
ANDREW WELLS, PRINCIPAL

David Montgomery
Fifth Grade Teacher, Whitehills Elementary
david.montgomey@elps.us
Work: 517.333.7900
Cell: 773.573.5736

March 31, 2017

To Whom It May Concern,

It is my pleasure to write this letter on behalf of Ms. Katie Sanchez. Katie has been a Michigan State
Intern at Whitehills Elementary in the East Lansing School District during the 2016-2017 school year.
During her year-long internship, Katie has shown tremendous growth and development as an educator.
Her passion and desire to help students achieve success has been on display throughout the school
year.

Our 5th grade classroom consisted of 28 students. These students were diverse with regards to their
socioeconomic backgrounds, academic abilities, family structures, and social/emotional needs. Within
the various areas of study we taught, we had students who needed to be pushed and students who
required more guidance to achieve success. From early in our school year, Katie made observations
about these qualities with our students and initiated conversations with me about how to best provide
instruction to meet students needs. When conversations would occur, Katie always made sure to take
detailed notes that she could reflect upon, and she would use this information to help drive her planning
and instruction. For example, she used assessments in math to group students based on their
instructional needs. However, when she saw that students needs changed based on her analysis of
their work, she reflected on her teaching, solicited my suggestions, and implemented a new grouping
strategy that provided greater assistance to students who were struggling to grasp multiplication and
division concepts. In addition to this providing evidence of her ability to differentiate instruction, it also
demonstrated her ability to focus on student learning as a key component of her teaching.

Throughout her internship, Katie became increasingly more effective at understanding the process of
planning and implementing curriculum in accordance with Common Core State Standards. In the fall,
she taught lessons involving literacy, mathematics and writing as a part of her guided lead teaching.
She had experience with whole and small group instruction along with working with students
individually. When that period ended, she continued to be involved in the planning, instruction, and
assessment. Katie and I would reflect about how lessons went, analyze student work/assessments, and
determine together what our students needed on a daily basis. As she transitioned into her lead
teaching in February and March, Katie fully took over writing, revising, and implementing lessons for
literacy, mathematics, writing, social studies and science. After teaching, she reflected on their success
using formative and summative assessments. Her lesson plans reflected a thoughtfulness in what she
was planning for our class, as evidence by choosing different activities for our reading centers and
adapting the math problems that she would be using with the class. At the same time, she came to
understand that her lesson plans were a guide for her teaching, but not a fixed document. Katie learned
to adapt her lessons when the need arose due to school events, taking advantage of teachable
moments, or having to reteach material. For example, when she noticed students had significant
difficulty with a pronouns lesson based on student feedback and assignments, she developed and
inserted a follow-up lesson to provide the students with extra practice. Katie also demonstrated a
willingness to try new things when teaching. This included implementing a new seating arrangement to
encourage more student discussion and utilizing technology. She used technology to show videos that

NURTURING EACH CHILD EDUCATING ALL STUDENTS BUILDING WORLD CITIZENS


WHITEHILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
621 PEBBLEBROOK, EAST LANSING, MI 48823
517-333-7900
ANDREW WELLS, PRINCIPAL

gave background knowledge for a story they would be reading and to require collaboration in our novel
groups through the use of Google Classroom. All of these things led to her plans becoming more
developed over time, and, in turn, made her more proficient when teaching the material.

In addition to her academic understanding, Katie has done a great job cultivating relationships and
connections with students. She showed a genuine interest in our students by leading Monday morning
share-outs, asking questions that relate to their lives and experiences outside of the classroom, and
attending an extracurricular event of some of our students that occurred outside of school hours. She
also wasnt afraid to share her personal experiences as a student growing up, including bringing in a
book that she made in 5th grade about herself. She was able to accomplish these things while
maintaining an appropriate professional boundary between herself and the students. She understood it
was necessary that students viewed her as a teacher as opposed to a friend in my classroom.

Throughout the year, Katie worked within our schools framework to create a safe and productive
classroom environment. She assisted in establishing and maintaining regular classroom routines, from
guiding student transitions to developing seating charts in a thoughtful and reflective way to supporting
our school-wide bucket filler program. She was respectful of students ideas, and encouraged an
environment where students felt comfortable expressing themselves. Katie dealt with inappropriate
behavior using fair and appropriate consequences when necessary. This would include helping
students to realize the causes of their behavior and helping them to take the steps needed to improve
instead of telling them to stop and behave.

From a professional standpoint, Katie has exceeded my expectations throughout the year. She
understands that teaching doesnt begin and end with first and last bell of each day. She always put in
the time before or after school to set up everything (morning announcements, computer carts, student
handouts/materials, etc.) that was needed to give our students her full attention when the start of our
day began. She also has done a great job collaborating with other teachers. Because my co-teacher is
responsible for teaching social studies, she met with her on multiple occasions before and during her
lead teaching to plan their unit, analyze student understanding, and adjust instruction appropriately.
She attended district required professional development and building staff meetings. In addition, Katie
communicated with parents in a professional and effective way. She took responsibility for developing
monthly newsletters for parents, responded in a timely manner to parent emails when necessary, and
took the lead when spring conferences occurred. If she was ever unsure about how to handle
something, she wasnt afraid to ask for assistance. I believe parents felt Katie had their childs best
interests in mind when she was educating them.

The conversations I had with Katie over the year have made it apparent to me that she has thought
about and had the desire to be a teacher for a number of years. Her desire to be a teacher is not just
something she says, but its demonstrated through her actions. She is a thoughtful and hard-working
individual who is sincerely committed to the art of teaching. As a result, I enthusiastically recommend
Katie for an elementary teaching position, confident that she will continue to dedicate herself to
becoming an excellent educator. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate
to contact me via email at david.montgomery@elps.us or by telephone at 773.573.5736.

Sincerely,

NURTURING EACH CHILD EDUCATING ALL STUDENTS BUILDING WORLD CITIZENS

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