April 18, 2024

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to strongly recommend Mary DiMaggio for the position of elementary general
education classroom teacher. It has been my pleasure to work with Mary this semester as her
cooperating teacher during her graduate practicum in my first grade classroom. Mary has
demonstrated so many essential qualities of being an effective educator: focus on evidence of learning,
patience, accepting of feedback, reliability, and incredibly hard working. Mary would be an asset to
any elementary school.

This semester, Mary went above and beyond in taking over the curriculum. When offered the
opportunity to take on as much responsibility as she felt she could carry, Mary jumped at the chance.
She enthusiastically took over lessons and curricular units weeks before her takeover time and she has
been our first graders primary instructor of both phonics and math for over one month now. She is
focused on her students' learning, not just by planning and teaching a lesson, but by finding evidence
of their learning in their work. Mary has demonstrated strong instructional planning skills in all
academic areas: social emotional learning, math, science and literacy.

Mary is incredibly patient with all learners in our classroom. When given feedback about
making connections with some of the struggling students, she took action quickly. Mary took the time
to meet with these students individually and build a trust that changed how they were able to respond
to her. In every instance, Mary has been thoughtful about taking feedback given to her by her program
supervisor and me. She reflected and made adjustments to her instruction almost immediately and
described the impact of these small changes. Mary even sought out feedback from our principal. Due
to Mary’s strengths, we are currently implementing some mentoring activities that are helpful to first
year teachers.

Every day, we know that we can rely on Mary to step up and help out in any fashion. She is
reliable, on time and well organized. She listens carefully and absorbs everything. Several staff
members have commented on her calm and welcoming demeanor, as well as her willingness to jump in
and help out. Mary asks excellent questions about her own practice and demonstrates a joy of
educational discourse by wondering which different strategy would work best for her upcoming plans.

It will be difficult to let Mary go at the end of the semester, but I am so looking forward to the
few remaining weeks with her support in the classroom. For all of these reasons, I strongly
recommend Mary DiMaggio for the job of elementary general education teacher.

Sincerely,

Karen Sandison
First Grade Teacher
Horace Mann School