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PO BOX 871104
TEMPE, AZ 85287-1104

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October 5, 2015
Tempe Union High School District
500 W Guadalupe Road
Tempe, AZ
To Whom it May Concern:
I am writing on behalf of Erin McDowell to recommend her for employment within your school
district. Erin has exceptional teaching skills and incredible character.
Erin worked under my purview as a writing tutor for over 2 years. She worked for TRIO Student
Support Services, which is a federally-funded grant program that provides academic success
resources for low-income, first generation, and college students with disabilities. All of the
students that Erin worked with had a different disability (ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.).
With these different disabilities, it was incredibly important that Erin work with each individual
learning style. She was able to explain concepts in various ways and constantly checked for
understanding.
In the time that Erin worked with our students, she truly inspired students to pursue their highest
writing abilities. She assisted students in creating long-term goals pertaining to writing. She
guided them toward these goals through differentiated instruction, patience, and building
excellent rapport. Students consistently commented on Erins ability to help them craft a
thoughtful paper, but moreso, her ability to meet their individual needs by further building their
academic strengths and improving their weaknesses.
In addition to praise from students who learned from Erin, her peers, as well as myself and other
colleagues found her to be an extremely valuable employee. Erin is always willing to collaborate
with others to catalyze student success. She is responsible, punctual, interdependent, and always
creates a positive environment for those around her. She is truly an ideal employee who
continually looks for ways to improve her teaching abilities. Beyond this, she is a self-starter
who brought in new ideas to improve our programming for students. She created and presented
a workshop for students to help them understand online tools more readily. She also presented
information on study skills to students. These were not part of Erins job description, but
endeavors she took on to build students academic repertoire.
Erin is an exceptional educator and individual. Erin understands how to build rapport and treat
students as individuals with individualized learning styles. More importantly, she is truly
capable of inspiring students love for learning. I would hire Erin again in a heartbeat, for any
educational position.

Abby Dalpra
Academic Success Specialist