Isao Sugano

4555 Atascadero Drive

Santa Barbara, CA 93110

March 31, 2017

Re: Letter of Recommendation for David Han

David Han is a well-prepared teacher, who has demonstrated throughout his Student
Teaching Experience that he has what it takes to become a successful teacher and will
undoubtedly influence students positively for years to come. I enthusiastically recommend Mr.
Han for any K - 6 position, and would also encourage him to consider Middle School.

Mr. Han impresses me in several areas: he is well planned and prepared with his
lessons, he works extremely hard to know his students and sees his relationship to his students
as critical to encouraging their success, and he always strives to improve his craft. He is full of
integrity and follows-through with what he commits to, is kind and compassionate while
maintaining a professional role in their lives.

David has grown tremendously in developing well-planned lessons with clear objectives,
He is aware of specific standards that he would be addressing and thorough in planning out
specific closure activities. I am particularly impressed with his handling of our new math
materials, which challenges him to become more of a facilitator by using questioning skills to
lead students to a deeper understanding of the material as well as pushing students to persist in
productive struggle with the concepts. I appreciate his patience, allowing the process of
mathematical thinking within the collaborative groups to stew.

From the first day in my classroom, he made it a strong priority to get to know his
students names, and they noticed. Within a few days, he had everyones name down, and
continue to deepen his knowledge of the students, their interests, their quirks, their family
situations, and their academic strengths and weaknesses. He works hard to make each student
feel special about something. In this way, he was my mentor, and reminded me how important a
simple word of specific encouragement can powerfully motivate a student to achieve more and
work harder. In particular, he has helped one of my students who was not connecting with me
soar to new heights academically, and has been an amazing motivator for him to believe in his
abilities.

During a science lesson, Mr. Han demonstrated a clear understanding of his topic,
having spent hours and hours studying the content himself. I loved that he was putting himself in
his students shoes, and doing thorough research to really understand his content. I saw several
instances where he was able to summarize the key objectives, helping students to link several
key concepts together. I saw him employ several different strategies during the lesson including
Think, Pair, Share, and Elbow-partner explanations. I also saw him encourage students to
demonstrate concepts to the class to clarify their understanding. I remember so well discussing
the lesson afterwards with him, and marveling at the maturity and preciseness with which he
seized critical moments to lead them to a deeper understanding of the test and the characters
behavior.
 Mr. Han is destined to be a teacher. I could sense immediately that he was going to be a
very capable teacher, and he proved me correct. His teachable spirit enabled him to learn,
adjust, flex, and cope with the complex dynamics that go into being a successful teacher. He
found his strong and authoritative teaching voice with me, and I continue to encourage him to
be clear with his expectations, clear with his instructions, clear with his objectives, and firm in
his resolve to follow through with discipline issues. He is a wonderful teacher and a marvelous
human being.

Gratefully submitted,

Isao Sugano