Ay ALVERNO COLLEGE Date February, 2015 To Whom It May Concern: With genuine pleasure | offer my endorsement of Ms. Rebecca Cleveland for a teaching position in any educational institution that serves students. In my capacity as a Student Teacher Supervisor and Instructor for Alverno College, I had the opportunity to know and observe Ms. Cleveland as she taught a group of kindergarten students at Country Meadows, a rural, suburban, public school in Muskego, Wisconsin during her first student teaching placement and during her second placement at Walker Elementary, an urban, suburban, public school in West Allis, Wisconsin where she taught a mixed group of primary students in the “Next Generation” Program at Walker Elementary, Ms. Cleveland was known as a complete professional and ideal educator in both settings. know Ms. Cleveland to be an enthusiastic, professional and highly skilled educator with a wealth of experience from ‘working with students from a variety of cultural backgrounds, age levels and educational systems. In the first student teaching experience Ms, Cleveland's teaching was distinguished by her interactions with students, and by the students’ responses to Ms. Cleveland and to each other, which were positive, respectful and supportive. Rebecca’s ability to create a supportive respectful environment responsive to the needs of all students (as detailed context and accommodations in the lesson plan) was abundantly evident when she taught. Students were always actively engaged and involved from the moment the lesson started until the end, the time and activities were proactively managed with clearly communicated directions, modeling and student-to-student interactions. Her cooperating teacher noted at the end of the placement, “Ms. Cleveland has left a positive impression with everyone she has worked with here (students and adults). Her professionalism and caring are commendable.” Ms. Cleveland’ teaching was also distinguished by her commitment to excellence. Her lessons plans and lessons aligned the common core standards, district expectations, objectives, assessments and activities and provided evidence of an awareness of the academic needs and social emotional needs of the class as @ whole and specific children, included differentiated tasks and accommodations are now used as exemplars for new students. Again her distinguished approach to fostering and sustaining a safe, welcoming and supportive learning environment was notable. During one lesson she noticed students’ reluctance to honestly self-assess their understanding and shared her struggles to understand the concepts asa student, which provided the security students needed to honestly reassess their understanding. Another cooperating teacher noted, "Ms. Cleveland is fantastic at rolling with the punches, uses her time efficiently and addresses the needs of all students.” She embraced the district’s 21 Century skills emphasis, on technology and was a support to and active participant to the team teaching, and became skilled in planning for the “unique learner approach.” In a glowing summary of her performance she described Ms. Cleveland as “very professional” noting she met all deadlines in a timely matter, that she became a part of their team, was willing to meet any challenge and that she participated in all staff activites in the school communtiy as well as the classroom. Adding “she has an innate sense of what needs to be done and just does it.” These examples only begin to validate Ms. Cleveland’ excellence and | encourage a favorable consideration of her application. She is a quality educator with excellent skills, a commitment to, and passion for teaching which will make her a valuable member of any school in need of a quality and dedicated educator. Please do not hesitate to contact me with additional questions regarding Ms. Rebecca Cleveland's abilities or this recommendation, sincerely, Yerbad- thhnh Teresa Valent, Instructor, student Teacher Supervisor W (414) 382-6247 C (414) 659-2416