Jessica Paul

Kindergarten/Head Teacher
Lebhart Elementary
807 Coolidge Street
Cheyenne, WY 82001

March 13, 2017

To Whom It May Concern:

Bethany Heaney has been a student teacher in my Kindergarten class for twelve weeks. Last
spring, Bethany spent four weeks as practicum student twice a week, teaching two writing
lessons during that time. She has been a part of a two-teacher professional learning community
with 39 students, five of whom have learning disabilities, and three students who are
behaviorally disruptive to the classroom and are all on active behavior plans. Bethany has been
responsible for teaching our full day Kindergarten schedule, which includes, readers workshop,
writers workshop, phonics, interventions, social studies, science, our anti-bullying program, and
math workshop.
Miss Heaney will have had the experience of teaching multiple lessons and units in all of our
core areas. During this time she has planned and implemented the daily differentiated morning
warm-up, core assessments and unit assessments. Bethany has successfully demonstrated her
awareness of different learning styles and has adequately adjusted assignments to meet the varied
needs of students. Her units were thoroughly prepared and implemented. She was successful in
monitoring and adjusting to various schedule changes in order to complete it during her time of
teaching.
Bethanys experience in Language Arts included teaching a unit on opinion writing about a book.
This involved teaching the elements of an opinion, how to support that opinion with feelings or
thoughts, and how to provide textual evidence in supporting opinions. She completed this unit
using both fiction and non-fiction books to support student learning and their interests. Bethany
developed her own activities including taste tests to support their understanding of opinions,
modeling writing expectations for students, and books that caused discourse to discuss and stir
up differing opinions.
Miss Heaney also spent six weeks teaching core science with an emphasis on weather and the
effects of the sun on the Earth. During this time she taught different types of weather, how to
prepare for the weather, the causes of weather, charting and graphing the weather, the effects of
the sun on different surfaces of the earth, and how to provide shelter from the sun. This unit
included many hands on experiments that provided the students with many opportunities for
thinking deeply about the topics.

1
Recommendation Letter for Bethany Heaney

Bethany possesses a positive and enthusiastic personality. She has a great rapport with the
students she has worked with. She is well dressed, articulate, and always ready with a smile and
a kind word. I have found that other team members have accepted her as a strong working
member of our team and she has had a positive working relationship with each one of them, as
well as with other staff members.
I am confident that Miss Heaney will be an asset to any staff that she works with. She is
confident, knowledgeable, and has the skills of a seasoned teacher. I believe that she will
continue to grow and become even more effective as a teacher with further opportunities. Please
feel free to contact me for more information at (307)640-5185, (307)771-2614 ext. 60304,
Lebhart Elementary, or jessica.paul@laramie1.org.

Sincerely,

Jessica Paul
Kindergarten/Head Teacher
Lebhart Elementary