UIC UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

AT CHICAGO

Department of English (MC 162)

Room 2027, University Hall
601 S. Morgan Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607-7120

Chicago, Illinois 60607-7120

December 21, 2022

I highly recommend Emily Hernandez for an English teaching position. Emily was
my student at UIC, where she was licensed in Secondary English and received her B.A. in
English. She was a leading student in one of my methods classes, and I was also her field
instructor during her student teaching semester. She’s already a very fine teacher: Creative,
thoughtful, organized, smart, energetic, caring. it’s clear she loves kids; in short, she’s
everything you’d look for in a successful teacher. She’s a great person, too, a great
colleague, who will add life and energy to your school.
Emily had a very successful experience student teaching at Argo High School, in
Summit. I particularly enjoyed her teaching of The Crucible, but in the semester her toolkit included
the student creation of podcasts, paintings, reenactments, dioramas and multi-genre projects. She was
just great, the model of a beginning teacher, very connected to her students. In addition,
Emily has a wide range of experience at very different schools, including at Benito Juarez
High School and Westinghouse High School. I think she might fit in very well in any school,
as she has worked with such a range of students.

Emily is clearly an intellectual leader (see her 3.9 gpa, and 4.0 in English), but she’s
also an engaging, positive, thoughtful person, who can also be assertive and confront
problems as necessary. Above all, she demonstrates that the most effective way to deal
with classroom management is to create positive relationships with her students as
persons as well as learners, and to help them connect deeply with the subject matter. She
is fast becoming a great teacher, and also will be a supportive colleague, as well.

I strongly recommend you hire Emily Hernandez for an English teaching position. I
would have no reservations whatsoever about hiring her myself, were I the administrator
of a school.

Sincerely,

Dr. David Schaafsma, Professor of English and

Director of English Education
(630)-880-2446 (cell); schaaf1@uic.edu

Phone (312) 413-2200 ∙ Fax (312 413-1005 ∙ www.uic.edu/depts/engl/