March 26, 2013 Dear Mrs. Reil, I really enjoy interning in your classroom.

I look forward to working with the students and learning more from you each week. This is the first semester I taught a lesson by myself. I think that I am improving and gaining more confidence each time I am teaching in front of the class or working with a small group of students. Before interning in your classroom I never would have thought I would be able to teach a lesson that would hold the students attention. As I wrote the Ruby Bridges read aloud lesson plan I began to get nervous. However, while I was prepping for this lesson, I used the Post-it note strategy that you use to remind yourself of the questions that you want to ask the students. I read about using Post-its while planning for a read aloud in one of my textbooks, Balanced Literacy by Linda Chen, in order to demonstrate thinking. I found that this strategy completed its purpose during the lesson while it also eased my nerves. I know that I will be using this strategy in my classroom one day. I also like the feedback you gave me after the lesson. I thought it was very helpful and I now know what I need to improve on for the next lesson I teach. I also like how you conference with the students during writing workshop. I read about three different kinds of conferences in my textbook The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins. I like how you sometimes have Brad and I pull out the lower level writers into the hallway to conduct an expectation conference in order for these students to organize their thoughts, focus, and stay on task without any classroom distractions. I also like how you take home the students writing notebooks to respond and comment on their writing with Post-it notes. I think this is very effective and engaging because this shows the students that you care about their progress as writers.

I am looking forward to teaching the two math lessons in the upcoming weeks because I never taught a formal math lesson before. I think the books that you gave me to help me plan for the lesson will be a great help. I also like how at the end of the lesson you have the students watch the Envision Math video to reinforce the lesson. I think the video engages the students and assesses their knowledge on what they just learned. Will you want me to play the Envision Math video at the end of my lesson? I want to thank you again for allowing me to intern in your third grade class. I am learning so much from you and I am gaining more confidence as a teacher. I think that you are a wonderful teacher and I can see that your students really look up to you. I admire this about you and I hope that one day I can become a great teacher like you! Thank you, Kelly Collova