Ian McCarthy

10538 S. Wood St.

Chicago, IL 60643
imccarthy@cps.edu
March 2, 2021

To Whom It May Concern:

Salwa Sadiq is currently a student teacher in two of my classes at Whitney Young Magnet High School. She is
exemplary. One of the worries that a practicing teacher has when taking on a student teacher is whether or not the class
will be at a disadvantage during the time of the student teacher’s practicum. This year has been particularly an anxious
time due to the fragility of full-remote-learning within Chicago Public High Schools. I am intensely relieved that
Salwa turned out to be my student teacher. Salwa has all the qualities that make for an excellent teacher: she is
organized, creative, and thoughtful. She put in good work by voluntarily observing my classes for two months before
becoming a teacher in them. Those efforts went a long way to building a rapport with students that is visible the
moment class starts each day.

When teaching, it is essential to have everything prepared, organized and planned. Salwa is always responsible in this
way. Not only did she plan a schedule for her entire student teaching experience, working closely with me to ensure
that the content and classroom activities would be dynamic and engaging, she adjust plans- weeknights and over the
weekend. She works continuously to improve the weekly syllabus, lesson plans, assignments, homework, and
assessments. She is prompt in running her plans and assessments by me and adjusting anything that needs fine-tuning.
In addition to having her lessons planned, she also has all her materials prepared and organized before class starts. This
includes many different materials: jamboards, whiteboards, electronic copies of poems and literature, videos, slides,
etc. This makes the class run efficiently and smoothly. Even though Salwa has a definite goal for each class and is
prepared, she does not panic when class does not go as planned. She is flexible and quick-thinking enough to adjust
when a discussion goes longer than expected or when an activity fell short of the time expected- and most importantly
when the technology is not cooperating. Most of those technical glitches are due to the shortcomings of Google
Classroom- something we have all struggled within the last year. Regardless, students love her approach as evidenced
in the uptick in substantive participation during class.

One of the best things about having a great student teacher is that I am able to observe new and creative ways of
teaching material that I had never previously thought of. For example, Salwa’s recent poetry unit successfully blended
technology, poetry, and interactive response and discussion. The students were engaged and took risks in writing and
reciting their own poetry. Salwa uses her creativity in all classroom activities. It is refreshing to witness this energetic
and confident teacher trying out new ideas and approaches to literature. Her feedback to students on assignments has
substance and reflects a genuine interest in their improvement. Her interest in the students’ improvement has also led
her to a coaching position on the school’s Slam Poetry team.

Salwa’s thoughtfulness resounds not only through her reflection on how she is progressing in her teaching ability, but
also the way she interacts with her students. At the beginning of her student teaching, I observed her and gave her
feedback everyday after her lesson. While it is easy to become defensive listening to constructive criticism, she never
was. Salwa acknowledges a weakness in the lesson and asks pertinent and thoughtful questions in order to improve.
This interaction continues to improve her teaching- although she is already at a very high level of ability. As for her
kindness and thoughtfulness to the students, she is respectful, good-natured and concerned with what the students are
going through during this very trying time in education.

This has been a wonderful, carefree time for me because Salwa has been such an excellent teacher for my classes. Any
school would be lucky to have her as a teacher- she will be a tremendous asset. She will educate, enlighten and enrich
students for many years.

Sincerely,

Ian McCarthy
imccarthy@cps.edu
(773)844-9043