DEPARTMENT OF LEARNING

AND TEACHING
Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
5998 Alcalá Park

San Diego, CA 92110-2492

December 27, 2018

To Whom It May Concern:

It has been my pleasure to supervise Mariana Giraldez this semester as she completed her full-time student
teaching at Madison High School in San Diego Unified School District. In May, Mariana will graduate with
her Masters Degree and special education teaching credential.

As a retired principal and district administrator , I can tell you that Mariana is a dynamic teacher candidate.
Mariana has demonstrated her skills to teach academic content standards in each content area. She has
experience as a student teacher in co-teaching as well as providing pull out instruction as an eduction
specialist. Her use of a variety of instructional strategies, resources and technology help make the subject
matter comprehensible and accessible to all students.

Mariana does an excellent job of planning instruction, monitoring student learning during instruction and
using formative and summative assessments to appropriately determine progress and plan instruction. She
individualizes, based on student need, and provides access for students to learn and express their knowledge
by using auditory, visual and kinesthetic responses. She provides additional scaffolding across content areas
for English learners as well as others needing additional support.

Mariana has a wonderful rapport and mutual respect with students and uses classroom management
strategies effectively. She is a hard worker and collaborates well with peers, parents and members within the
education community. Mariana has attended professional growth opportunities, department meetings and
has participated in, written, and conducted IEP meetings.

I highly recommend Mariana Giraldez to you as an outstanding teacher candidate. The school lucky enough
to hire Mariana will be giving a gift to their students and the community.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

Judy Shades, M.Ed.


Field Experiences Supervisor

Department of Learning and Teaching School of Leadership and Education Sciences University of San
Diego jshades@sandiego.edu

(949) 500-2577