wk Scottsdale eyed School District Engage, Educate and Empower Every Student, Every Doy Mountainside Middle School Telephone: 480-484-5500 11256 N. 128" Street website: www susd.org Scottsdale, Arizona 85259 March 18", 2019 To whom it may concern: Its with great pleasure that I write this letter of recommendation for Miss Alexis Baumgartner. Ithas been a professional and personal joy to work with Miss Baumgartner for the past two and a half school years. Miss Baumgartner joined the staff at Mountainside Middle School in February 2017 and filled the role of long-term substitute in a Social Studies classroom. It was apparent that Miss Baumgartner was a shining educator and we were pleased to bring her on full-time as an ELA and Theatre teacher for the past two school years. Instructional planning and organization is one of Miss Baumgartner’s professional strengths, She plans and delivers rigorous, real-world lessons that elicit student participation and authentic student engagement, Students in Miss Baumgartner’s classes support each other and are members of a highly functioning learning community because of Miss Baumgartner's classroom climate, Miss Baumgartner both explicitly models exemplary product/performance and/or presents problems/situations that allow open-ended processing of thinking or experimentation. She has been a teacher leader as Mountainside Middle School adopts the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IBMYP) and shifts instructional planning, delivery and assessment to support the rigors of IBMYP. Miss Baumgartner is a key member of the Mountainside Middle School teacher community. She actively seeks out and participates in committees and ongoing professional learning opportunities within and outside of the school and contributes to the knowledge and skills of others. She engages in both grade level and subject area Professional Learning Communities on an ongoing basis and shares the responsibility for all student learning. Both her teacher peers and I cannot adequately express how essential her collaborative nature, organizational skills and innovative ideas augment the professional experience of all staff members at Mountainside. This letter of recommendation cannot fully articulate how fe as.a teacher and colleague. iiss Alexis Baumgartner is Sincerely, Mountainside Middle School