Reference Letters

I am writing this letter to wholeheartedly recommend Ariel Starlight for any position for which she qualifies within education. At Jefferson Community School Ariel Starlight worked as a teacher and counselor from September 2019-June 2020. Due to her adaptability and capability, and the obvious care and involvement Ariel took in our students’ lives both while in school, and during outside activities, she was able to forge strong relationships with our students that both improved overall student behavior and contributed to a positive school environment.

Ariel is an exceptional classroom teacher that engages her students in a meaningful way. She builds trust with students authentically. Students look to Ariel for leadership and support, and readily find it. At Jefferson Community School she taught Social Studies in a project based learning environment, 3 levels of Digital Media for students from middle through high school, Physical Education, Health and Art, while also providing support for student projects in Applied STEM. Ariel is a versatile and competent teacher, who has proven her ability to manage multiple curricula simultaneously while remaining effective. Ariel was tasked with creating curriculum for Social Studies, Digital Media and PE/Health and ART which aligned with school goals and requirements for skills integration. Ariel was responsible to structure assignments for students from grades 7-12, differentiating for varying levels of ability while simultaneously meeting grade-level requirements for common-core standards on a student-by-student basis. In addition to these demands, Ariel led all school projects which interacted with the community at large and prepared our students for civics engagement and student activism. Ariel spearheaded student fund-raising events, and provided organization and support for students and faculty in developing community out-reach and interaction.

Ariel creates well developed lesson plans, scaffolds learning effectively, and holds students accountable to high standards of performance and personal attendance to all matters relevant to their development. Ariel comes to the position full of ideas of not only what she wants the students to learn but how she wanted them to learn it. She understands the importance of teaching skills and not just content, skills like two-column note taking, creating a PowerPoint, and speaking in front of a group. Ariel also helped students to develop important interpersonal and reflective skills which will benefit them in numerous ways as they advance in their education career and in their lives. Her work in the art classroom was both creative and engaging, encouraging students to reach outside their comfort zones and try new things, often producing amazing results. Ariel has many strengths as a teacher; positive and engaging classroom management that involves students, the ability to develop creative lessons which challenge students and elevates their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and the desire to build trust and positive relationships with students that fosters their development not only as students, but as individuals. One of Ariel’s strongest attributes as a teacher is her desire to have students learn.

During the course of her tenure at Jefferson Community School, Ariel evidenced open and honest communication with parents and faculty members. She responded quickly to parents, and student concerns, and attended all faculty and team meetings. Ariel creates effective rubrics and communicates expectations clearly. She can be counted on to remain current with her grading, and entered student grades into the school’s computer grading program in a timely manner. Ariel also made herself available to students both during and after school to support them with assignments and concepts that they might have been struggling with.

Ariel also served as student advisor, helping students with issues related to their instruction, and also helping to support students in relation to their social and emotional learning. Ariel helped students through Mindfullness practices, to be more reflective and think through their actions in all areas of their education and social interaction. Ariel took a proactive role in relation to student well-being and academic success, reaching out to students on a daily and weekly basis and seeking opportunities to show she took a true interest in them as an individual, and asking them about their progress. Ariel often took the lead in community circle, engaging students on a myriad of topics related to student health and well-being, and also providing meaningful and considerate support in addressing difficult and challenging topics which impacted our students.

Ariel is a pleasant, friendly, and passionate teacher, who genuinely cares for her students and school. We were lucky to have her ,and will miss her cheerful nature, and competent ability. Please accept my recommendation for Ariel.

I am writing on behalf of my colleague, Ariel Starlight to wholeheartedly recommend her as a classroom teacher for the South Whidbey School District. I have had the distinct pleasure to teach alongside Ariel this school year. Her creativity, collaboration and clear knowledge of content would make her an exceptional addition to your district.

Teaching at Jefferson Community School this year, Ariel has had to wear many hats. She not only was responsible for teaching core subjects like math, English and history, but she also took on digital media, art, health and physical education. Ariel can best be described as a jack of all trades and a master of all. Her ability to create engaging, thoughtful, content packed lessons for each of these classes was incredible. She is one of the most creative people I have ever met, and that shows in her ability to plan truly outstanding lessons that hit on multiple learning styles and differentiate for varying learning needs.

Another of Ariel’s teaching strengths is her ability and willingness to collaborate. Ariel comes to the table with a list of ideas and has an incredible ability to merge everyone’s ideas into a project, lesson, assessment that best suits the needs of the students. She always has ideas ready and loves to hear the ideas of others in order to improve an activity. We worked together on countless activities and projects that would encompass ideas brought to the table by all three of the staff members. Ariel approaches teaching as a team sport, where working together produces better results for the students. Through her collaborative efforts, we were able to create a two-week long science project that involved experts in the field coming to meet and teach our students, as well as a solid week of out-of-school field experiences for the students that enhanced the content they learned in school. Ariel was also instrumental in designing many of the projects for our Project Based Learning course this year.

While Ariel excels at creativity and collaboration, her breadth and depth of knowledge is incomparable. Growing up in Alaska, Ariel has had experience in medicine, working with native tribes, and working as a professional deep-sea fisherman. Ariel also spent time teaching at Calyx Community Arts School before coming to Jefferson Community School this year. Ariel is well informed, well read and has an open mind to new information. She is constantly reflecting on her teaching and striving to ensure that all of her students have an equal opportunity to learn and grow as much as they can. She takes advantage of professional development opportunities in order to learn and grow as an educator. She is able to use her incredible background and wealth of knowledge to help enhance student learning. Ariel has an innate ability to make all subjects relevant to the students.

On a personal note, I will truly miss teaching with Ariel. I have grown as an educator from just this year of working with her. Having the ability to truly collaborate, as well as learn from her knowledge and teaching style has rejuvenated my passion for teaching. Ariel is a kind, great natured person who gets along with everyone. She is incredibly professional; dealing with students, parents and other teachers in a timely, respectful manner. She has a tremendous work ethic that shows in her ability to create the many relevant, engaging lessons that helped our students achieve success this year. The loss of my friend and colleague will certainly be to the benefit of your district. I hope you will consider her for a position, I can think of no one more deserving.

I met Ariel as a mentor at the Calyx Community & Arts school in 2016 when my daughter began attending. My daughter was 11 years old, in 5^th grade, and this was her first experience outside a traditional public school. As you can imagine, we took great care considering the transition, and supporting her through what we anticipated would be a very positive change in educational approach and learning environment. The Calyx community is very special, any my daughter blossomed as she became comfortable getting to know everyone and how things worked.

It was Ariel who was the standout in this community, who had the greatest impact on my daughter’s experience. Ariel has a gift for connecting with children, taking the time to get to know each one as a whole person, and tailoring learning experiences that will meet them where they are, with what they need. In my observation, she has a lot of tools in her toolkit, and will find or create new ones to meet the learning need.

As an example, my daughter used to struggle with math a lot and lacked confidence in her ability to grasp concepts and solve problems. Ariel found practical ways to help her see that math was everywhere, that math happens all day long, and helped her see math from an entirely different perspective. One that was more approachable, and that provided opportunities for her to realize she was perfectly capable of doing math and solving problems. Ariel took away what intimidated her, presented problems in new ways, and then helped her see that she could also solve problems presented more traditionally in math workbooks or tests.

Beyond this subject example, Ariel established herself as a trusted mentor/teacher, a person capable of cultivating curious learners and then nurturing them with rich learning experiences. From reading books, to the Calyx state park classroom, time on farms, field trips and the 1:1 tutoring and time in between, I deeply value the role Ariel plays in my daughter’s life. While she is not currently an active mentor/teacher as my daughter is now homeschooled, they see each other at Calyx as my daughter still participants in the community. Outside of this, we stay connected, and Ariel remains invested in my daughter’s development, as well as in her overall health as a human, she cares deeply.

Recently, she’s engaged us in new possibilities of high school education, as she tenaciously continues to bring new and valuable thinking to the community that can foster incredible learning experience for our children. I’m excited to see what the future holds for Ariel, and our children, as I believe she can help bring transformative and meaningful change to learning and development to Whidbey Island.

I am writing on behalf of Ariel Starlight, with whom I have had the pleasure of co-teaching at Calyx Community School in South Whidbey State Park. We have shared in collaborative programs on-and-off for the past two and a half years, but this year we teamed up to design and execute a primarily outdoors program for 8 to 11-year-olds. This was a multi-disciplinary program designed to cover math, literacy, social studies, science, health etc., in an emergent pedagogical style. Our days also focused on earth based skills such as friction-fire and fire-tending, first-aid and nature connection.

During this time I have learned so much from Ariel, and it has been a deep pleasure to work with her. I have found her to be an extremely devoted educator, impeccably prepared with well-organized: well-researched and creative material prepared to meet each day’s needs. I have leaned on her for these qualities, as well as for her talent for captivating a group of kids with her personality, humor, and stories, and her gift for harness their energy into excellent work. I have observed her mediate conflict between kids with a balance and compassion that leaves both parties feeling heard, able to express their needs, and cared-for. I have also been witness to Ariel’s constant striving for excellence as an educator, by ever-educating herself further in various areas, and searching for new and engaging teaching tools.

Ariel is a self-described “compulsive journaler,” and I have seen how Ariel’s note-taking has enabled her to track the progress of each student and tailor her approach accordingly, taking into account individual gifts, growing edges, interests and learning needs. All of this comes from a deep love and fastidious care for the next generation. I have been greatly blessed to work alongside Ariel, and I can say with clear confidence that any group of kids in her care would be blessed as well. Likewise, anyone working beside Ariel in this field can expect a mature, confident, and competent individual devoted to personal integrity and clear communication

I am thrilled to recommend Ariel Starlight as a candidate for a position within your organization. I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Ariel in our school garden program from 2015-2018. Ariel is a thoughtful, talented, and creative teacher who develops lasting relationships with students, staff, and community members..

I first met Ariel when she was starting the Kindergarten Garden program at South Whidbey Elementary School. Her goal was to create a program that would engage children in the art of growing and caring for the food they eat. She was passionate about developing an age appropriate environment where children could explore and question their world. She met with my class in the garden for 45 minutes weekly. The children loved working and learning with Ariel. Her lessons were often a topic the children would choose to write about in their classroom journals!

Ariel used creative ways to teach the children how to care for our garden. She used songs, stories, art, and a special garden bed to deliver multiple lessons around lifecycles and seasonal growing patterns. The children helped care for their garden and even harvested potatoes for a our annual Friendship Feast in November. My kindergarten students received amazing integrated science lessons from Ariel and each student had a deep understanding of the garden because of the hands on experience that Ariel provided to them weekly.

Ariel has a wonderful rapport with people of all ages, especially children. Her ability to connect with students is natural and organic. She has an ease that makes even the most challenging students feel safe and relaxed. Ariel is well respected in our community and her former students still ask about her to this day!

It is with great pleasure I write this letter of recommendation for Ariel Starlight. I am currently a kindergarten teacher with the South Whidbey School District and have been a teacher here since 1992. I had the privilege of working with Ariel as she was the garden teacher for the South Whidbey School District garden program. She created engaging and relevant lessons for a very unique age group. Ariel was always attentive to developmentally appropriate lessons and my classes always looked forward to our time with her.

Ariel was instrumental in developing a garden program that allows our youngest students to participate. She included music and movement along with storytelling to engage the kids, as well as teach the content. Ariel was excellent at interpreting their behavior and changing lessons plans according to their needs. Her ability to include all abilities and levels in the hands-on activities was excellent.

Again, I would highly recommend Ariel for a teaching position. She is a passionate learner and continues to engage in her own education.

I am privileged to write this letter of recommendation for Ariel Starlight. After serving as a superintendent of schools and a principal for a number of years, I was fortunate to supervise Ariel's Master of Art's in Teaching yearlong internship for the University of Alaska Southeast campus, in Juneau, Alaska. I can easily rate Ariel in the top 5% of all MAT students and teacher interns I have worked with over my career. Ariel will be an asset in any district she considers applying for as she peruses her career in teaching children.

I have observed Ariel on many occasions during her student teaching, and I was always delighted to be in her classroom. The content area she was student teaching in was in home economics (cooking, baking, etc.). She was very engaging, personable, organized and dedicated to each child's learning style. She is a constructivist teacher, integrating a multi-sensory approach in her teaching. One of Ariel's greatest strengths as a teacher is the way in which she connects with her students. It is clear to them how much she cares about each one and how well she relates lessons to their interests and needs.

During her student teaching, Ariel was in a number of classes with students who had very demanding parents, as well as students who had a number of learning challenges. Ariel demonstrated a level of maturity that created an atmosphere of cooperation that everyone felt at peace in. Ariel's supervising teacher at the school was very impressed with her and noted this to me on many occasions.

I consider Ariel to be a very collaborative teacher, mature beyond her age, and committed to the field of helping children. She is also a commercial fisherman in Alaska during the summers, which is a very demanding summer profession. She loves challenges and being the creator of new and innovative ideas. Ariel is also very likable and will add a great deal of creativity and positive energy to any situation. If I were looking for a teacher who will add value and energy to my teaching staff, and will have high expectations of themselves and their students, I would have no hesitation in hiring Ariel.

I have known Ariel Starlight while she was employed in three of her past positions that involved working with children from about 2008 through 2013. I recommend her as a teacher because she will give more of her energy, effort and skill than would be expected. She is enormously talented as a teacher and can build personal, respectful and mentoring relationships with students.

I hired Ariel as a child care provider for my daughter when she was about 8 to 10 years old. Ariel was completely dependable and I was confident in trusting her to come to work on time and keep my daughter safe and happy. She expended extra effort to create projects that kept my daughter interested and interacting. These projects ranged from cooking a meal to learning various fiber art techniques to creating puppets. While I certainly appreciated having a care provider with so much initiative, who came prepared with the supplies and ideas, what I really valued was the life lessons that Ariel taught along the way. As a working mother, our family hired six different child care providers, some students and some professional providers, as my daughter was growing up and Ariel was the best.

Ariel was a student teacher in my daughter's middle school for World of Art and Sewing. Both of these were a mix of 7th and 8th graders. Ariel was teaching as part of her Master's degree program. She taught the entire weaving unit in World of Art. She was a substitute teacher in sewing when the teacher was ill. My daughter appreciated Ariel's excitement and passion regarding the subject matter.

My daughter was a teaching assistant to Ariel last summer at the Juneau Fine Arts Camp. This summer art program for kids entering kindergarten through sixth grade has been a popular opportunity for Juneau families for almost 40 years. Overall camp attendance is about 150 students. Ariel was given only the course title for two classes and then developed the curriculum for each. She taught a different group of students every hour throughout the day. Students were grouped as K-1, 2-3, and 4-6 grade combinations. In addition, parents were offered the flexibility in registering for one week up to all four weeks. This convenience for parents has the consequence of the teachers having a new classroom group every Monday. Even with the changing faces, Ariel learned the student's names and connected with each one. She delivered a class that was interesting, age-appropriate and helpful in developing student's self-confidence. My daughter said she helped each student with individual attention and still maintained control over the classroom. Students remembered the vocabulary that Ariel taught, due to the teaching method that Ariel used. Ariel also mixed learning and fun.

In summary, I enthusiastically recommend Ariel for a teaching position. She is creative, interacts superbly with youth and is a wonderful role model. You will be happy you added her to your staff.