HOME OF THE ROYALS 

CALIFORNIA DISTINGUISHED SCHOOL 1994 & 2005 

CALIFORNIA GOLD RIBBON SCHOOL 2015 
 

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to provide a recommendation for Anjali Abraham. Anjali and I have worked together for the past two
years as colleagues at San Marcos High School. My experience working with Anjali has centered around our shared teaching
of physics, and our collaboration in finalizing our transition to a complete NGSS course. Throughout our work together, I have
found Anjali to be a teacher with a passion for at-risk youth who excels in building relationships with many of our most
disengaged learners.

Anjali and I worked together to teach Conceptual Physics during her first year at San Marcos. That class was designed for
freshmen whose math skills were insufficient to achieve success in traditional Physics. It was an extremely challenging class
that included large percentages of students with disabilities, newcomers to the country, and even several students who were
misplaced. Her Conceptual Physics course would stand out from many others with the amount of time and quality of the
laboratory investigations and engineering challenges that got students to practice science in an active and hands-on fashion.
In her second year, the department chose to combine conceptual physics with physics to create a single NGSS-aligned course
for freshmen. This added new challenges by broadening the spectrum of students in the class even further. At the same time,
Anjali was teaching college prep chemistry to a similar population. In each of these placements, Anjali relied upon her strong
pedagogical knowledge and her fantastic content knowledge to create high-quality learning experiences for a diverse group of
students.

I’d also like to highlight Anjali’s dedication to collaboration. Along with our team of physics teachers, Anjali has worked
tirelessly to reinvent every aspect of our physics curriculum. In this process we have greatly increased the role of students in
constructing their own learning and moved the teacher to being the “guide on the side.” We have also created and analyzed
common assessments, and increased the parity between all levels of physics at our site by significantly increasing the rigor of
the conceptual course. Anjali’s many ideas and open mind when it comes to change made her an ideal partner for this kind of
work, and her experience with this course places her at the forefront of California’s transition to NGSS. It would be difficult to
find a teacher more prepared to begin teaching these new standards.

Finally, Anjali’s greatest strength is the way in which she bonds with and focuses her attention on her most struggling students.
In many conversations, she has revealed how students trust her with things that no one else on campus is aware of. For
many at-risk youth, her classroom is the place that they feel most safe. Her sincere passion is to see all of her struggling and
disengaged students find that they have skills and abilities that can make them successful in science.

Anjali is a teacher who builds strong relationships with students, has experience with a wide variety of classroom
environments, and can collaborate to build world-class learning environments for students. The team at San Marcos has
learned a lot from our work together, and for that reason I give her my recommendation.

Regards,
Joshua LaForge