COLLEGE

February 7, 2017

To whom it may concern:

Andrew Gesing was my student teacher at Ashbury College in Ottawa during the fall of 2016. He
was with me for the first two weeks of school in September, for one day per week during the
next two months, and then he joined me full time for six weeks through November and
December. During that time he taught one ENG3U and two ENG4U classes, plus many individual
first and second year International Baccalaureate English Literature classes. I found him to be
an excellent student teacher, one of the best I have had during my career.

Andrew was exemplary in his professional relationships with teachers in the department and
around the school. He seemed at ease and yet appropriately tactful from the moment he
arrived. He contributed ideas to our English department meetings, not hesitating to take the
floor to share with assembled teachers his innovative approach to teaching "King Lear". His
tone with students was highly appropriate/ warm and encouraging and yet intelligent and
engaging. He was a careful listener, responding to students with enthusiasm, tact and
sensitivity.

Andrew prepared for his units on "King Lear" and "Macbeth" in a professional manner and
always came to class prepared. He was not asked to prepare to teach the poetry of Wilfred
Owen to the grade 12 IB class, and yet he picked that up as we went along and led or co-taught
many of those classes in addition to his core courses. He was a very quick learner, and his skills
of literary analysis and writing were exceptionally well developed. Andrew quickly gained the
students' trust, and his classes were characterized by happy, engaged, productive interaction
with students. On the odd occasion that students' over-exuberance signaled a need for a course
correction, Andrew redirected their energy with professionalism and tact.

Andrew and I met before the practicum started, and he took advantage of the intervening
weeks to prepare thoroughly. His unit was carefully structured, each lesson had purpose, and
he was able to adjust his plans in keeping with student needs and the pace of his course. He
made a valuable contribution to the life of the English department. He came to us with an
impressive set of pedagogical skills and dispositions, and learned to adapt to the particular style
of teaching here with remarkable efficiency.

Andrew is highly observant and a very quick learner. For example, in teaching the literary essay
I use a workshop method in which students take turns to read their papers to the class over the
course of several weeks, with other students commenting on each paper in class and then the
teacher wrapping things up with an overall summary for each student. I modelled this
technique for one class, and then Andrew took over the following class. He readily understood
my approach to the essay and was able to teach tactfully and purposefully in what could be, in
less skilled hands, a challenging environment. More experienced teachers find this kind of open,
shared exploration of student work to be difficult, but Andrew carried it off with great success.
Andrew learned how to emphasize student performances of understanding over teacher-
centered teaching and, soon into his tenure, demonstrated that he had the skills in place to
teach English full-time.

Andrew showed great initiative on numerous occasions. For example, he volunteered to help us
in the administration of the IB English "independent oral commentary" examinations. He
learned the procedures, problem-solved issues that arose, and helped to ensure a smooth
process. We were so impressed by Andrew's work in this area that we invited him to come back
to the school the week after his practicum to work with us. Andrew also showed initiative on
numerous occasions in the classroom, adjusting his plans to accommodate exigencies. He
graded student assignments and provided detailed and timely comments. When students had
questions about their marks, he spoke to them with compassionate understanding, his
knowledge of the standards informing his explanation of his choice of levels on their rubrics.

Another area of note in Andrew's performance regards the way in which he brought his own
interests into the classroom. A lover of music, particularly jazz, he often played favourite
selections as students came to class. He designed lessons to do with "Macbeth" that brought in
Maya Angelou poetry and a Beyonce video - innovative approaches that contributed to the
department's current interest in multi-modality. As moments of interest arose in the literary
discussions, he connected the text to world events and culture. He was alert and alive to the
world beyond the classrooms and inspired the students to think beyond themselves to the
broader world.

Andrew will leave the teacher of education program prepared and ready to start teaching full
time/ and he will have my strongest possible recommendation. It has been a pleasure to work
with several excellent University of Ottawa teaching candidates over the years, and Andrew
stands amongst the best of them. If you have any questions about Andrew Gesing, please
contact me at jrichardson@ashbury.ca.

Sincerely/

WcL-Ac-
Dr. John M. Richardson
Head of English

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