January

26, 2015

Re: Phillip Zamora

To Whom It May Concern,



I have had the pleasure of serving as the USD Student Teacher Field Supervisor for Phillip
Zamora at High Tech High North County during this fall semester.

From the beginning, Phillip exhibited those qualities that successful teachers need to
possess; he is engaging, intellectually inquisitive, reflective, intuitive, articulate, trustworthy, and
has a deep concern for his students. Fortunately, his master teacher also recognized his capacity
for teaching and she gave him many responsibilities in her student-centered classroom. I was
able to observe Phillip delivering lessons that had his students engaged and challenged and many
of these lessons he had created to fit into the charter schools philosophy, which encourages
student independence and rigor.

Throughout my observations of Phillip, he demonstrated that he is constantly seeking ideas
and strategies to improve his practice. I had the pleasure of observing many lessons in which
students were guided to do independent research, discuss issues and was given a variety of
primary source documents.

For example, to examine whether Revolution was necessary in 1789 France, students were
given different primary source documents in their groups. Students shared their respective
documents with the entire class in a silent activity in which each wrote a sentence or motto that
reflected what their source expressed about the topic of revolution in France at that time. Then
other students silently responded with a sentence or motto from their reading and a silent
dialogue ensued. In this lesson, the divergent views of contemporaries were articulated by the
student-scholars themselves as a way to examine at the pros and cons of revolution. In this
engaging activity, students were encouraged to conduct a close reading of their documents so that
each could respond in a meaningful and accurate manner.

Phillip has the ability to enable his students to formulate their own views based on the
evidence of their sources. He allows them the time to respond and resists telling the students the
answers. Rather, Phillip supports and encourages them in their independent quest for
understanding. Phillips approach also encourages critical thinking by introducing them to global
events that relate to the subject under study and challenges them to make connections among the
various events. Phillips approach demonstrates his inquisitiveness about the world, which he
shares with his students, so that they begin to view history as occurring around them, and not only
confined to textbooks.

I have the highest confidence in Phillip Zamoras abilities as a History-Social Science
educator. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Irina Segade, M.Ed.
Field Supervisor
Student Teachers, USD
Isegade1@san.rr.com
858 414-377