North Canyon High School

1700 East Union Hills Drive

Phoenix, AZ 85024

March 1st, 2022

To Whom It May Concern:

As a mathematics teacher at North Canyon High School, I have had the privilege of working with Hunter
Novak, a May 2022 graduate of the School of Education at Arizona State University. His beginning date as a
student intern was August 2021 and as a student teacher was January 2022. He will complete this journey at the
end of April. It is my pleasure to write this letter for Hunter as part of his application for employment as a
Mathematics Teacher.

It can be very difficult to relinquish control in all areas of managing a classroom to someone you met not long
before, which is exactly what happened when I accepted Hunter as my Student Teacher. Hunter observed my
teaching in the Fall 2021 semester and within that time during the first week January 2022, Hunter was able to
take control of his first class. He jumped in full force accepting responsibility for all areas of the classes he
taught. He wrote lessons plans, taught the entire day including differentiation instruction, graded assessments
and homework, took part in contacting parents to relay feedback on their student’s positive and negative
process, and found creative ways to keep the classroom educational yet a fun and a comfortable environment for
students to be in.

Hunter built strong relationships with students. I can tell from his current job as a behavior coach with Arizona
Youth and Family Services that he uses the same strategies as a behavior coach in the classroom such as one-to-
one and having extreme patience with struggling students.

Hunter is very comfortable in and out of the classroom. He continuously asked me for constructive criticism; he
accepted the criticism very well. He took it upon himself to use this experience as an opportunity to learn from
several professionals rather than just me. I respect him for his eagerness to take with him as much as he could
from this teaching experience.

Hunter is always learning and looking for ways to improve and make himself a better educator. With this
enthusiasm and interest in improvement, he will be an effective teacher. Please feel free to contact me at 616-
481-1581 with further questions.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Smith, Mathematics Teacher