Rob MeltonBenson Polytechnic High School

546 Northeast 12th AvenuePortland, Oregon 97232503/916-5100, ext. 7211

December 10, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:

Kate Ramey is a talented, dedicated young woman who has excelled as a student teacher in English and Journalism. I am continually impressed at the degree of care, presentation, and thoughtfulness she gives to every lesson and to each student. She is bright, thoughtful and caring; works well with others; learns quickly, and expresses herself clearly. In short, I highly recommend her to you.

I have had the pleasure of working with Ms. Ramey since school opened in September. She attended our opening-of-school meetings and introduced herself to our students the first week of school. She actively involved herself in the life of our classroom and its students during her final three-month student teaching experience.

Benson Polytechnic H.S. is a diverse school, and Ms. Ramey has demonstrated the ability to plan appropriate instruction that supports student progress in learning and is appropriate for the developmental level of her students. Ms. Ramey employed a variety of strategies, lessons, and projects to balance the cultural, socioeconomic and developmental needs of our students. Ms. Ramey effectively dealt with the wide variety of students who attend our school.

She successfully employed engaging activities as well as presented daily PowerPoint presentations that were integral to her teaching as well as student learning, were compelling, and exhibited high production values, in keeping with her experience as a KGW news producer. She is adept at using computers and technology to produce her own work and is an excellent guide in helping students produce PowerPoint presentations of their own about Shakespeare Festivals around the world. Ms. Ramey has done exemplary work in lesson plan design and execution. Her experience in media has prepared her well for the contemporary classroom.

In addition, Ms. Ramey successfully set up and implemented classroom systems to organize student work, grade papers, return them promptly, and enter them into the gradebook. She took daily attendance and entered them into eSIS. She created a positive learning climate and provided differentiated instruction for a range of student needs. She is friendly but

authoritative. She adapts classroom climate needs for different classes as well as for individuals, when needed. Students positively respond to her as a teacher. She expects students to be on task at all times and to participate in discussions, activities, projects and assignments. When students make other choices, she is quick to provide feedback and instruction of appropriate behavior. Her classroom rules apply equally to all students while giving them the freedom to learn and explore.

During the year Ms. Ramey effectively adapted her lesson plans for TAG, IEP and 504 students. She also participated in meetings, parent conferences and department meetings.

Ms. Ramey participated in keeping the classroom blog up to date during her internship, letting both students and parents know on a daily basis about classroom activities, homework, and additional background information to extend classroom learning.

Ms. Ramey evaluates, acts upon, and reports student progress in learning. While much of the daily progress is assessed in the ongoing process of reading and grading student work, culminating projects and tests engage students in both traditional and alternative assessments. Ms. Ramey observes, discusses, diagnoses, and then plans additional group as well as individual instruction. She adapts instruction based on what she has learned from those papers; takes attendance daily; inputs attendance, progress report and grade information into eSIS, the electronic student information management system; and provides progress reports to students, parents, counselors and administrators regularly.

Ms. Ramey exhibits professional behaviors, ethics and values. She is dependable, conscientious and professional in her appearance and demeanor while respecting the variety of cultures present within the school. She works well with students in both formal and informal settings. In addition to her work as an English teacher, she has also assisted journalism students with assignments for the school newspaper Tech Pep.

Ms. Ramey has blossomed into an exceptional teacher and has earned my respect and highest recommendation. I trust she will earn yours, too.

Sincerely,

Rob Melton, M.S., EducationJournalism/English Cooperating Teacher