Maria J.

Coolican
Director Ann Arbor Languages Partnership (A2LP)
Lead Faculty, World Languages Teacher Education

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
610 E. UNIVERSITY AVE., ROOM 1228
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
734.417.6806
mariajc@umich.edu

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION: EMILY KONKEL

12 April 2018

To Whom It May Concern:

I am asked quite often to write letters of recommendation for students. These

students are usually either looking for teaching jobs or applying to graduate
school, and I can typically offer praise for the majority of them, and high praise
for a few very special students. In the case of Emily Konkel, however, I can
offer not only high praise, but the very highest. Emily is a bright, passionate,
self-directed and unusually mature individual who will be one of your very best
new faculty members.

Emily is one of my students in the teacher education program here at the

University of Michigan, and she consistently performs at a level of excellence
that I do not often see. This program is an extremely intensive one that
requires our students to operate at a level of professionalism and responsibility
that is rarely required of typical teacher education programs. Emily is a
teacher with a sense of maturity and grace that few young teachers have, and
she creates learning experiences for her students that are richly informed by
best practice, cultural nuance and many opportunities for genuine student
participation. These are things that many veteran teachers struggle to do well;
Emily displays her skills in these areas with grace, dynamism and passion.

My staff and I have also worked with Emily in the Ann Arbor Languages
Partnership (A2LP) at the University of Michigan. A2LP brings Michigan
undergraduates into third and fourth grade classrooms in Ann Arbor Public
Schools to teach Spanish at least twice a week. The A2LP program also
provides participants with seminar training and reflective projects designed to
improve their capabilities in the classroom and in working with people from
diverse backgrounds. From the start of the program, Emily immersed herself
in A2LP. She worked exhaustively to improve both her Spanish skills and her
pedagogical moves to better meet the needs of her students, and has proven
herself to be an amazingly effective classmate, teacher, and colleague.

Emily enters the world of classroom teaching fully versed in its demands, fully
cognizant of her abilities, and fully ready and able to combine those two
concepts into rigorous and thoughtful work with and on behalf of her students.
Emily’s language and cross-cultural skills are superb, and she consistently
brings those skills to her classroom in a way that allows students to learn and
to use language in rich and authentic ways. She has one of the most
outstanding work ethics I have seen in recent years, and I have no doubt that
she will be one of the most outstanding members of your faculty.

One of my informal barometers for teachers is whether I would feel comfortable

having my own children in a given teacher’s classroom. Not only would I feel
comfortable having my children in Emily’s classroom, I would fight to make it
happen. She is a rare combination of teacher and scholar, and if we could fill
our classrooms with teachers like Emily, we would be the envy of the world.
Emily is, above all else, world class.

Sincerely,

Maria J. Coolican