February 2, 2012 Holt High School

To Whom It May Concern: I am writing this letter to support Bryce Coons application. Bryce is currently my student intern during the 2011-2012 school year, responsible for all planning, preparation and execution of lessons in our one trimester Microeconomics class. He performed all his tasks with dedication, determination and creativity. His knowledge, plans and hard work allowed him to develop a classroom with both high standards of excellence and appropriate accommodations for varying skill and ability levels. He will make an excellent addition to any high school faculty. Bryce currently has complete responsibility for the Winter Trimester of Microeconomics, and has been co-teaching Macroeconomics as well. His thorough knowledge and understanding of Economics provide the foundation for creative lessons, which engage the students with the material and require them to develop thorough understanding of the subject matter. He offers the students many different kinds of learning strategies, lessons, activities, and assessments in his development of lesson and unit plans. His plans are designed to accommodate different learning styles and to improve student expertise in the different skills necessary for success in the classroom and beyond high school. Although he is already comfortable with both long term and short term planning and execution, he continues to seek new ideas. We have daily conversations about all aspects of social studies education, which has helped both of us develop a more productive environment for the students. He has great confidence in his own abilities but also seeks to learn as much as he can about teaching and learning, from me and our other colleagues at Holt High School. Bryce has kept the students at the center of his concern this year. He developed rapport with the students by showing respect for them and by demonstrating that he cares about their development as students and individuals. His planning and instruction build on student interest and strengths and encourage active learning and thoughtful response to questions and problems. He has continually reinforced previous content and skills in his development of the Microeconomics course. Bryce has taken my material where he found it useful, but has added new approaches and improved my lessons.

Bryces commitment to the students made classroom management easy for him. His thoughtful planning of lessons, his careful development of teacher-student relationships and his encouragement of an inclusive learning community meant that he had few problems this year. The basis of his management and planning this year was the use of group projects and cooperative learning as well as traditional individual assessments. By providing clear structures and standards, Bryce made the students accountable to each other as well as to the teacher. He has few classroom management problems because his lessons were created carefully to engage the students in active learning, keeping them focused on their daily work, their responsibilities to each other and their final assessments. He dealt swiftly and effectively with any problems by private conversations with students and logical consequences for inappropriate behavior. Students have responded to his high standards by staying focused on the content contained in his lessons and becoming responsible for their own learning. I have been very lucky to have such a talented, dedicated and creative intern this year. He will be a great teacher in any school right now and will only continue to develop as his career progresses. Sincerely,

William Alexander Mann