October 31, 2016

Dear Assessors,
My name is Emily Michi and I am a returning student in the Licensure to Masters
program. I received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Clemson University in
2003. Immediately following graduation I got a job in New England at Natures Classroom as an
environmental educator. I fell in love with teaching and nature. Eventually I was hired by the
Urban Ecology Center as an educator when they opened the branch in Washington Park. My coteacher and I planned new programs as well as adapted existing programs to create the Neighbor
Environmental Education Project in Washington Park. I spent 8 years as an environmental
educator in Washington Park teaching field trips to neighborhood schools. Over the years I felt
very fortunate to be able to do my job. There is nothing more rewarding then to experience the
city park from the perspective of a student. Whether they were building damn from the snow
melt or finding macro invertebrates in the pond everyday offered a new opportunity to find joy in
our city park. I started wishing that I had more time with groups of students and decided that I
wanted to become a classroom teacher.
I have created my portfolio as a sampling of the work I have done over the past couple of
years that best represent my growth as an educator. The assessments and lessons that I included
were both challenging and rewarding to create. I carefully choose artifacts that protray my
competency in representing each of the Wisconsin Teaching Standards. In my selection process I
determined which Alverno Education Ability each artifact best represented and used that to
organize my portfolio. As I examine the work I did my first semester to my last semester I was

amazed by the evolution of my work. Comparing the first lesson I wrote in LTM 612 to the
final unit plan I created in LTM 635 it is hard to believe they were made by the same person.
Thank you for taking the time to look over my portfolio. I look forward to meeting you
and discussing my work in greater length.

Sincerely,

Emily Michi
michiem@alverno.edu