Heidi

Hummel K/Third Educator To Whom It May Concern: I am pleased to write a letter of recommendation for Christen Farr. As a supervising teacher at the University of Utah Lab School, I had the pleasure of working closely with Christen during her student teaching in the kindergarten classroom. I also had the opportunity to instruct Christen in a graduate class where she worked with disadvantaged students through the University of Utah Reading Clinics Early Steps Program. Overall, Christen possesses all of the qualities a teacher needs to be an amazing and successful educator of young children including working knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices, lesson planner, confident team leader, and an expert in differentiated instruction. As a student teacher, Christen was held to high expectations in and outside the classroom. She was held accountable for not only working closely with children, but was also expected to adhere to developmentally appropriate lesson planning and using the State Standards and assessment to drive the curriculum. She proved time and time again that she had a deep understanding of the children in the classroom and produced meaningful and purposeful lessons that furthered the understanding of the students in the classroom. In addition, Christen was expected to work closely with other student teachers to plan lessons, implement instruction and study the childrens Work Sampling portfolios. She took the initiative and became a team leader in her lesson planning with the other student teachers. She created and implemented a curriculum based on the strengths of each of the student teachers, always taking into consideration the needs and interests of the students in the classroom. Finally, Christen was asked to not only implement a meaningful curriculum, based on the needs of the students, but was also asked to create differentiated instruction. She was able to create activities and lessons that helped every student in the classroom find success, no matter the level of understanding. This amazing quality led her to privately tutor one of the kindergarteners after school. Christen took the time and worked with this student one-on-one and was able to use this experience to further her understanding of tutoring students through Early Steps. I am truly honored to write this letter for Christen. She has made an impact on not only the lives of the students she taught, but also on the other educators she worked with and I am certain her teaching will touch many more lives to come. Sincerely, Heidi Hummel