Dear Hiring Committee:

As the Director of Adult Learning and Music Teacher at Chicago Tech Academy High School, I
have had the pleasure of working alongside Rachel Duellman in a variety of contexts over the
past five years. Rachel has shown herself to be a consummate professional, a critical and
thoughtful colleague, and an invaluable asset to our school community. I would like to share
with you a few insights into why I believe Rachel would make an excellent addition to your
team.

I first worked with Rachel in ChiTech’s cohort for the Education Leadership Academy at High
Tech High in San Diego, California. Our leadership project focused on the display of high
quality student work and its impact on student culture. We designed and curated public displays
to share student work with our school community, documenting our progress with student and
staff surveys, and leading professional development in the areas of designing and curating
permanent displays of student work. Our work was captured in a book written by our team that
serves as an institutional history and guide for those seeking to change their school communities.
Rachel’s collaborative project with Spanish I and Biology, entitled El Cuerpo Humano, was
featured in our book and set a standard for collaborative project-based learning in our school
community.

Not only has Rachel been a model teacher in the classroom, she has been a consistent contributor
on the Instructional Leadership Team. Over the past three years, I have served on the ILT with
Rachel and have seen her lead a number of professional development sessions for our staff in the
areas of critique, student-to-student discussion, and standards-based grading among many other
topics. When leading professional development, Rachel establishes a clear focus for each session
with her talent as a master facilitator, she consistently implements high quality plans for each
session, adjusts on the fly to meet the needs of our staff, and regularly follows-up with
one-on-one coaching. For example, when the ILT decided to focus on critique for the second
quarter of the 2018 school year, Rachel designed the entire sequence of professional
development to support the work. She introduced the topic to our staff by asking teachers to
participate in a critique session of her students’ work, modeling how she uses critique in her own
classroom. Next, she provided an overview of best practices for critique as well as examples in
varied contexts. She then asked teachers to create lesson plans incorporating their learning and
provided an opportunity for colleagues to engage in peer critique, adroitly using another critique
protocol that could be adapted for the classroom. Finally, Rachel lead the staff in instructional
rounds to see how the lesson plans looked in action.
Rachel is an excellent teacher and instructional leader, but her work as a coach may be her
strongest attribute. As an ILT, we consistently gave Rachel the most difficult coaching
assignments because she has a unique ability to connect with teachers, find quick wins to
implement immediately, and to help adults build stronger relationships with their students.
Rachel has helped teachers with classroom management, creating and adhering to classroom
procedures and routines, developing high quality project and unit plans, and assessing student
work. Her work as a coach has been invaluable to the ChiTech community.

On a personal note, I have really enjoyed working with Rachel while designing professional
learning experiences for ChiTech’s staff. In terms of her working style, Rachel is a fast processor
who is extremely organized and efficient, she can handle a tremendous workload without
becoming overwhelmed, and has excellent communication skills. Whenever our team is
struggling to generate ideas, Rachel seems to have a limitless supply. She has been the strongest
and most consistent voice on our team for evaluating professional development by always
considering the direct benefit to students and the practicality and usefulness for staff. She will be
greatly missed by our whole team.

I offer my strongest recommendation for Rachel Duellman because I know she will be an
invaluable addition to any team she joins. I would be happy to discuss Rachel’s attributes in
more detail and provide any further information requested.

Sincerely,

Joshua Dresser
Director of Adult Learning​, ​Fine Arts Teacher
Chicago Tech Academy High School
jdresser@chicagotechacademy.org
918.691.7043