Letters of Reference
Workday - 8:15am-4:15pm
In my careers class, I have each student get a letter of reference/recommendation from someone by the end of the course to keep on file. Basically, these kids are building a portfolio of things they'll need to apply for jobs in the future (be it part-time and menial, or a real career after graduation).
The letter should just be a general one from any reference (who isn't a relative...or church leader either, I believe. I think they're not allowed because of some bias, too). As long as it works to give to potential employers or even future schools, that's fine with me. In the end, it's really for the student and not myself.
Unfortunately, somewhere down the line there's been a breakdown in communication. Most of the students (of course) asked their teachers at school, which is fine because references at their age are often teachers. It was the teachers who are having trouble writing this letter. They're not understanding what it's for or what should be on it. Many have assumed this is a letter they need to write for me, and have personally addressed some paragraph (if not, a sentence) about how the student in question is an upstanding individual.
Thanks.
A teacher who wrote the atrocity above is actually someone I know in the math department -- so I confronted him, myself. I hate that I now have repeatedly clarify what this letter is about to every teacher asked. In fact, I told this one guy exactly what he should write. A couple of days later, he churned it out and showed it to me excitedly. I even found myself replying with, "Good work! Good for you!"
Picture a man who I believe is 60 years old and has been teaching for decades; me, in my mid-20s. It must have seemed so condescending. And yet he grinned, proudly.
Meanwhile, other teachers had told the students they are not going to do their homework for them and that the kids should be writing this letter themselves. Then the referee will sign this letter. The poor students don't have a clue how to write a letter of reference, so they're whining to me about how I never taught them the format for one.
Of course, it seems the teachers don't have a clue how to write a reference letter, either.
In my careers class, I have each student get a letter of reference/recommendation from someone by the end of the course to keep on file. Basically, these kids are building a portfolio of things they'll need to apply for jobs in the future (be it part-time and menial, or a real career after graduation).
The letter should just be a general one from any reference (who isn't a relative...or church leader either, I believe. I think they're not allowed because of some bias, too). As long as it works to give to potential employers or even future schools, that's fine with me. In the end, it's really for the student and not myself.
Unfortunately, somewhere down the line there's been a breakdown in communication. Most of the students (of course) asked their teachers at school, which is fine because references at their age are often teachers. It was the teachers who are having trouble writing this letter. They're not understanding what it's for or what should be on it. Many have assumed this is a letter they need to write for me, and have personally addressed some paragraph (if not, a sentence) about how the student in question is an upstanding individual.
Thanks.
A teacher who wrote the atrocity above is actually someone I know in the math department -- so I confronted him, myself. I hate that I now have repeatedly clarify what this letter is about to every teacher asked. In fact, I told this one guy exactly what he should write. A couple of days later, he churned it out and showed it to me excitedly. I even found myself replying with, "Good work! Good for you!"
Picture a man who I believe is 60 years old and has been teaching for decades; me, in my mid-20s. It must have seemed so condescending. And yet he grinned, proudly.
Meanwhile, other teachers had told the students they are not going to do their homework for them and that the kids should be writing this letter themselves. Then the referee will sign this letter. The poor students don't have a clue how to write a letter of reference, so they're whining to me about how I never taught them the format for one.
Of course, it seems the teachers don't have a clue how to write a reference letter, either.
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