To Whom it May Concern:
Megan Yeats has been a student teacher in my high school English classroom this semester as a part of her
requirements towards her teacher certification through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been working with all of my classes: English 1 with freshmen, Advanced Composition 1 Honors with juniors and seniors, and Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition with seniors.

The first thing I noticed about Megan is her absolute enthusiasm and passion for teaching and working with the students. She has completely thrown herself into her student teaching, working very hard to read materials and plan lessons in preparation for teaching and managing the grading and record keeping tasks of day to day teaching successfully. She is a very thoughtful teacher: every day she engages me in conversation about her teaching, from wondering why a particular activity turned out the way it did to trying to figure out how to lead her students toward the challenging objectives that she devises for them. I believe that the single most
important quality of an excellent teacher is this ability to critically reflect on what happens in the classroom; Megan absolutely possesses this quality.

Megan took over my English 1 class right away on her very first required day of student teaching. Because of this, she volunteered to come to my classroom a few days early on her own time to observe before she took over with English 1. She also had her plans for the poetry unit in English 1 ready to go well ahead of time so that we could go over them together. I was immediately impressed by the range of poets that Megan included in her unit as well as the range of activities. Upon seeing her plans, I was very excited for my students; they were going to have a very diverse, engaging experience with the poetry unit. She drew from a wide variety of resources to create a well-unified curriculum unit, and she implemented each day of the 4-week unit effectively. She eventually took over activities in all of my classes: she has effectively inspired my AP students into complex, thoughtful discussions over A Tale of Two Cities, and she has effectively worked my Advanced Composition students through a paper cycle including discussion, prewriting, and peer feedback activities. The written feedback she provides students on papers is encouraging and constructive, and she offers her time to work with students individually when they need help. Additionally, Megan manages a classroom and a class
full of students well, easily commanding her students' respect.

Megan Yeats possesses the characteristics that will make her an important addition to any school. She will be an excellent teacher through her ability to critically reflect on her teaching, through her ability to do all necessary preparations for effective lessons from day to day, and through her ability to be a positive influence on her students. I have learned a lot from working with Megan; she will be an exceptional teacher for your school.
 

Most sincerely,

Sarah M. Zerwin English Teacher