January 4, 2022

To Whom It May Concern:

It is a delight to write this le>er of recommenda@on for Janan Jawhar. Ms. Jawhar was assigned
to my classroom to support all students who were on-line and in-person during our spring semester in
2021. Many of these students had socio-emo@onal needs. Ms. Jawhar was part of the Teaching Fellows
Program that came to our class daily, here at Wishon Elementary, in the Fresno Unified School District. I
was the classroom teacher with 24 students, whom 30% were English Language Learners, 17% had
special needs, medically and social-emo@onally, 70% were from single-family homes, and 100% of them
received free-school lunch. Upon mee@ng Ms. Jawhar, she always demonstrated commitment,
dedica@on, and a sense of urgency to improve our students’ levels of academic, social, and emo@onal
success.
Being in the classroom as a Teaching Fellow, Ms. Jawhar was a tremendous team player when it
came to using her knowledge of working with At-Risk students, children with special needs, English-
Learners, and students who needed bonding with an adult, who served as a posi@ve role model. For
example, she handled situa@ons when students’ ac@ons needed a>en@on and could have escalated into
a bigger distrac@on in the classroom. In response, she used her clear judgment to calm the situa@ons
where students were resistant, defensive, angry, emo@onal, hungry for a>en@on, or in need of a
listening ear. Students opened up to her because she was transparent and wanted to authen@cally help
the children. At the same @me, Ms. Jawhar knew the students were unable to focus their a>en@on to
the academics when their safety and social emo@onal needs were not first met. She was that missing
link that some students needed in their lives, amid a pandemic.
Ms. Jawhar demonstrated many posi@ve characteris@cs as a Teaching Fellow. She was
energe@c, professional, enthusias@c, prudent, crea@ve, and ini@a@ve-oriented. As a result, she used her
knowledge to help the students learn their academic subjects while mo@va@ng the students to stay
curious. In turn, the students felt competent and valued. Ms. Jawhar worked diligently to have the
students reach a level of mastery in Language Arts and Math, and she con@nued to have them progress
through the use of technology, hands on manipula@ves, and collabora@ve conversa@ons.
Moreover, Ms. Jawhar built that sense of community when working with the students, yet more
importantly, she fostered an environment that led students to have a love of learning while being at
school. She thrived to build strong nurturing rela@onships with the students that were struggling in the
classroom and in life. She would be an amazing asset to any program. I fully and highly recommend Ms.
Jawhar for the Masters in Curriculum and Instruc@on Program at California State University, Fresno.
Sincerely,

Cindy Martinez
Cindy Mar@nez
Third Grade Teacher
Wishon Elementary
(559) 248-7330