Spring 2021

Blanca Payan was a student teacher at Sue Shook Elementary School during the Spring semester, 2021. I was
the UTEP Field Supervisor assigned to conduct the four required observations during her internship. It was a
pleasure to be her supervisor. She has passed her content exams and will graduate in May with a degree in EC-6
Bilingual Generalist Education.

At Sue Shook Elementary, Ms. Payan was responsible for all the classroom duties of a regular classroom teacher.
She designed developmentally appropriate lessons for her first-grade Bilingual students and ensured the lessons
and goals were aligned to state content standards. She worked very well with her cooperating teacher, Ms.
Lucio. Most important, she maintained a safe, accessible and efficient classroom environment for the students,
whether the students were physically present in the classroom or learning remotely from home.

The semester was a difficult one for Ms. Payan and other student teachers. She had students present in the
classroom and others learning remotely from home. Designing lessons for all students, giving students the
attention and help they needed and coping with constant technical difficulties was a challenge; however, Ms.
Payan was very successful in all she attempted.

Ms. Payan had previous experience to help prepare for a position as a classroom teacher. She worked as a
temporary PK Instructional Support aide for two Monolingual classes at Sierra Vista Elementary. She also
volunteered as a tutor at Mesita ECDC. Her experiences as a student teacher are also very valuable.

Ms. Payan is Bilingual in English and Spanish, proficient in Google Docs, Google Slides, Google classroom, Class
Dojo and is proficient in MS Office programs. She used these programs with all her students, regardless of their
location. She worked with teacher facilitators each week to plan interactive lessons based on students’ reading
level and grade. Ms. Payan is more than ready and prepared to have a classroom of her own.

Student teaching during a pandemic is not an easy task. Everyday there were technical challenges, teachers did
not know which students would be attending school that day, whether at home or in school. Sometimes,
parents did not pick up materials their child needed for class. Ms. Payan learned very quickly to always have a
Plan B when technology did not work as expected and other daily problems occurred. I sincerely believe this
semester provided real life lessons most student teachers do not experience, adding to their value as regular
classroom teachers.

I highly recommend Ms. Blanca Payan as a classroom teacher. She has the patience, common sense and the
ability to deal with the unexpected on a daily basis.

Sincerely,

Mercedes Guzman
UTEP Field Supervisor
Mguzman9@utep.edu
915-433-2603