7/30/2019 Hodkinson Letter of Recommendation

1/1

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing this letter in recommendation of Todd Polansky, an applicant for ateaching position in your school district.

I first met Todd when he enrolled as a graduate student in my General Methodscourse at Drake University. Since that time, I have come to respect his abilities,both as a student and as a future teacher.

Todd is an intelligent man who possesses many of the skills and characteristics of anatural born teacher. He is open-minded, respectful of others opinions, polite,hardworking, caring, and willing to give advice to those in need. These attributeshave allowed him to succeed in my class, and I have no doubt that they will allowhim to excel as a teacher in your district. It is his passion for his content-area andhis ability to design engaging and rigorous curriculum; however, that separates

Todd from his peers.

As a student in my course, Todd was asked to create a unit of instruction using theUnderstanding By Design (UbD) framework of curriculum development. Thisapproach to curriculum design emphasizes critical thinking, as well as performance-based assessmentand it encourages teachers to engage students in real-world

problem solving. Todd embraced the UbD framework and created a unit on theform of the parable where students were asked to consider how literatureas arecord of human experiencemight help us to better understand ourselves and our

world. His unit was, by far, one of the best that I receivedwith respect to bothits level of rigor and concern for authentic student learning.

Please accept my highest recommendation of Todd Polansky. He will make a fineaddition to your faculty. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact meby email at todd.hodgkinson@drake.edu or by phone 515-271-4565.

Sincerely,

Mr. Todd HodgkinsonAssistant Professor of Secondary EducationDrake University

School of Education, 3206 University Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50311

mailto:todd.hodgkinson@drake.edumailto:todd.hodgkinson@drake.edu