1. To Whom It May Concern:
I’m delighted to write a recommendation for Tori Wilbur‐Kamien. She quickly
distinguished herself with determination to be my intern as a senior at the University of
New Hampshire. She had an ability to engage 7th graders that belied her youth and
inexperience. I didn’t need to “invite” her to interact with my math students when she
came to observe; she seemed intuitively drawn. I listened as she sat at their tables and
asked about their work; I heard: “What is your question?”, “What have you already tried?”,
and “How does this compare to the last problem?” It was clear to me she had the ability to
teach not tell.
The National Middle School Association’s paper This We Believe: Keys to Educating
Young Adolescents (2010) lists four important attributes for middle level educators:
developmentally responsive, challenging, empowering and equitable. Tori’s resume speaks
to her education, certification, and related accomplishments and experiences; her skills and
pedagogy demonstrate the characteristics of an effective middle school teacher. She clearly
values and accepts the middle school learner ‐ “warts” and all. She respects, enjoys and
finds ways to challenge the active, boisterous adolescent learner. As a “digital native”
herself, she’s comfortable with multiple learning approaches, differentiated assignments
and opportunities for challenging curriculum. She understands that an early adolescence’s
sense of “future” is Friday and their sense of “real‐world” is play, fun, action, friends and
personal interests.
With the 7th grade curriculum as a guide, Tori crafted engaging middle school
lessons. She consciously applied what she learned at UNH to her students at ORMS. Her
planning was meticulous and implementation was thorough. As a bridge from geometry to
fractions, she had students create a “Circle of Me”; a pie graph to show personal favorites
using fractions, decimals and percent. These colorful posters decorated the hall until the
end of school. Other lessons she created included music, “Beats of Fractions”, and cooking,
“Creating a Feast”, all of which used different intelligences from Gardner’s “Theory of
Multiple Intelligences”. To culminate the fraction unit, Tori created an assignment from
which students could choose their direction. The instructions read:
Please choose one of the following suggestions (or come up with your own idea) and
create a research project based on the topic. Remember, this is how you will show
that you can apply what you’ve learned in the fraction unit to the real world. The
goal of this project is for you to learn something individually and then pass on what
you’ve learned to your peers.
The results were remarkable – bravo! On March 14 (Pi Day 3.14) Tori and I
collaborated to create a memorable experience; students measured arcs of individual pies

2. before eating the pies and enjoying activities using the SmartBoard. She routinely reflected
on her teaching, incorporating student evaluations as well, to inform her instruction and
growth. Whether it was formative, summative or informal assessment, she worked hard to
find out what worked and how to improve for the future.
Her entry into the teaching world was seamless; she was a well‐liked, valued
member of our interdisciplinary team. She demonstrated a strong work ethic and proved
herself to be dependable, organized and dedicated. Tori attended daily team meetings,
participated in parent conferences, took on duties and served as our team technology
mentor ‐ she cheered on kids at their sports events, tutored them after school, talked with
them during advisory. When she recently visited, former students stopped in to say “hi”
and team members were also happy to see this respected young woman. Working together
planning lessons, coordinating activities using the SmartBoard, or creating a Jeopardy
Game review was very synergetic; Tori’s clear communication and respectful collaboration
made our work together invigorating. She immersed herself in this milieu and flourished.
Tori will continue to grow as an outstanding teacher; she made math real and
important. She raised the bar and challenged them all to “own” their understanding by
making it meaningful, fun and reachable. I enjoyed teaching with and learning from her;
she gave as much as she received. Our time spent co‐teaching together changed us all – for
the better! Lucky is the school that has her teaching their middle schoolers.
Sincerely,
Michele McInnes
Oyster River Middle School
Durham, NH 03824
February 27, 2010