Pamela Selby

Mentor Teacher
Peter Howell Elementary School
401 North Irving
Tucson, AZ 85711
(520)323-7200 / Email: pam.selby@tusd1.org

March 18, 2018

To Whom It May Concern;

I am pleased to be able to recommend Miss Stephanie Engel to fill a teaching position in the
elementary grades. I am currently acting as Miss Engel’s mentor teacher in a First Grade
classroom in central Tucson. I first came to know Miss Engel during the Fall semester of
2017, when she came to my classroom two mornings a week as part of her classes at the
University of Arizona. My students loved Miss Engel’s enthusiasm and kindness, and I
appreciated her capable help and her willingness to learn. Stephanie was extremely helpful
working with children as they were reading, writing, and working on math activities in
groups and individually. I was given the opportunity to request that Miss Engel return to
my class for her Student Teaching experience this spring, and she readily agreed.

During this time I have come to know Stephanie as a competent, caring, and upbeat
individual. She has an obvious love for children and a dedication to teaching as an
important career choice. Miss Engel’s experience in my classroom has exposed her to some
of teaching’s more significant challenges. Our school is a Title One school with a high rate
of poverty and turnover. In addition to several language learners, my classroom has a few
emotionally and academically challenged children. Stephanie notices student needs and is
cognizant of their interactions and accomplishments. She gives me valuable feedback and
works to solve problems as the need arises. Miss Engel relates well to students and
parents, communicating with weekly newsletters and pertinent observations when
speaking with parents about their children.

Miss Engel plans ahead and uses Arizona Standards and District Planning Calendars, among
other documents, to guide her lessons. Stephanie remains flexible and responsive to the
classroom environment to make adjustments to plans as needed. She analyzes student
work and data to plan appropriate lessons for students of diverse needs, using multiple
sources for teaching ideas and materials. Her knowledge and use of technology to plan and
implement her lessons is impressive. Miss Engel uses online resources for planning, for
finding supplemental materials for lessons, and for enrichment purposes. She uses a
document camera and projector to display various digitized and non-digitized media as
well as student work exemplars. While Howell does not employ Smart Boards for
instruction, Stephanie is familiar with the technology and its use.

Miss Engel successfully uses a blend of many different books for the students during
Literacy Block. Primarily, she uses Arizona’s Harcourt reading adoption and Scholastic
book sets. Harcourt has literature books for whole group reading lessons, and leveled and
decodable books for independent and small group lessons. Additionally, our school has a
Scholastic Bookroom with leveled sets of high interest books that Stephanie uses for small
guided reading groups. During Literacy Block, the students who are not in a group with the
teacher are at independent Literacy stations that include differentiated assignments for
various reading abilities. Stephanie integrates writing with center activities and also has a
dedicated writing instruction and practice time.

Miss Engel follows the TUSD1 math guidelines and uses Eureka Math, drawing from online
lessons and the provided worksheets. When possible, Stephanie uses hands-on
manipulatives to develop number concepts. She conducts whole group lessons and
independent work time, as well as a small, teacher-directed focus group for students who
are having difficulty with concepts.

My experience working with Miss Engel this past year has been very enjoyable, and the
students in my classroom have benefitted from her presence and teaching. She is well
qualified to begin her career in education, and I believe that any elementary school will
benefit from having Stephanie Engel join its faculty. She is a joy to work with
professionally, and is very willing to work collaboratively with other staff members.

If you have any further questions I can be reached at the above phone or by e-mail.

Sincerely,

Pamela Selby