March 3, 2017

To Whom It May Concern,

This letter holds my sincere recommendation of Marcus Maher as he applies for a teaching
position in Social Science. I was Marcus’ university supervisor during his student teaching at
McBride High School in Long Beach USD. During my time as his university supervisor, I
observed consistent growth and refinement of his practice. From the first day that I observed him
teach, Marcus was highly professional and displayed a strong rapport with students.
Furthermore, Marcus demonstrated that he is highly knowledgeable of his subject matter and is
capable of making that knowledge accessible to students.

During each observation, I saw that Marcus was prepared to facilitate standards-based lessons
that met the needs of his students through different forms of engagement. He differentiated
inputs and strategies to reach every type of learner in his classroom. Additionally, Marcus’
students analyzed a range of primary and secondary sources that included traditional text, video,
audio, and images. Marcus’ pedagogy included a strong emphasis on the development of
historical thinking in order to support student analysis and formulation of arguments about
historical events.

Furthermore, Marcus displayed that he is a reflective educator who is open to feedback and
coaching in order to improve his practice. Marcus also showed that he is very purposeful in the
way that he plans his lessons so that each unit and lesson connects to the last, creating continuity
between the units and lessons so that students were able to easily understand the content and
skills being taught.

In short, it is clear to me that Marcus Maher is and will continue to be a devoted educator and
thus, I highly recommend him for a full time teaching position at your school.

Sincerely,

Robert Sheffield

University Supervisor
California State University, Long Beach