February 7, 2015

To Whom It May Concern,

Iolanda Chiodo has been a student teacher in my grade 4/5 class for 5 weeks; this was her first
placement working in a classroom. She came into my room to observe and then gradually took on a
larger percentage of teaching each week. Iolanda was responsible for taking on all teaching of my class,
classroom management and yard duties.
As Iolanda became comfortable within the classroom, her role as teacher began to dramatically
improve. She began teaching a Math strand for only the grade 5s, and planned and implemented the
lessons, daily homework, quizzes and unit tests. She quickly took on an increased work load and began
working with the grade 4s. Iolanda has successfully demonstrated her awareness of different learning
styles and has adequately adjusted assignments to meet the needs of all students and she modified
work for students who were on IEPs. Her lessons were thoroughly prepared and with some guidance
she was successful in implementing them to the students.
Over the weeks of teaching Iolanda took on the responsibility of all lessons; including Language, Art,
Social Studies, Math, Physical Education religion, etc. In some cases she was able to start and finish a
complete strand. She developed an assignment for Social Studies and taught the students how to create
an avatar for Bitstrips. In doing so; she was able to see how one unit/lesson can actually be graded cross
curricular. The Bitstrip assignment covered several strands; Social Studies, Language Media, Written
and Oral, and Art. This became very important in the respect she was able to see how teachers are able
to cover so much work in a set time frame. Iolanda was also able to teach the history of Lent, and
enjoyed practicing her faith at our school.
Iolanda possesses a positive and enthusiastic personality. She developed a great rapport with the
students in my class, as well as with other staff. She was punctual, flexible, articulate and always willing
to help and take on any challenge offered to her. She was open to suggestion and always found a way
to use them to improve her lesson.
I am confident the Ms. Chiodo will be an asset to whomever she works with. She is becoming more
confident, knowledgeable and has the skills that will develop into a wonderful and caring teacher. I
believe, with more classroom experience, she will continue to grow and become even more effective as
a teacher. Please feel free to contact me for more information.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Michelle Benoit
Grade 4/5 Teacher at St. Jean de Brebeuf, Bradford
mbenoit@smcdsb.on.ca