HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter of recommendation Page 1Anchorage School act
School
4025 E. NoAhem Lights Soulavard
Anchorage, Alaska 99508-3599
24i Phone: 277-3575 l"ax: 2778510
4f20/08
LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION FOR EPIN PHILLIPS
I am writing this letter in support of Mr. Erin Phillips. Erin was a member of one of my
Physics I classes during the 2006-7 school year, and is a member of my Advanced
Placement Physics (B) class this (2007-6) year. My current responsibilities include
teaching four classes of Physics I, one class of AP Physics, and managing the school's
local area network and website. I chair the East High Science Department and the An-
chorage School District's Physics Teachers'.group.
Most students are intimidated by the rigorous math requirements and sometimes bizarre
viewpoint demanded by the physicist's world. I am always pleased when students de-
cide to try my classes. These students are confident and competent, and because of
them, my classes have been exciting and satisfying to teach.
I have been teaching physics at East High School for twenty-five years, and have been
teaching for twenty-nine years. East received the United States Department of Educa-
tion Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award .during the 1991 school year and is gener-
ally acknowledged as one of the finest high school in Anchorage. In 1996, 1 was se-
lected as the British Petroleum (Alaska) _Teacher of the. Year_ . During November of
1999, 1 was selected as one of four Alaskan recipients of the Milken Family Foundation
National Teaching Award.
In a sense, I am writing this letter for Mr. Phillips a bit prematurely, but the juxtaposition
of my imminent retirement and Erin's precocious completion of AP Physics in his junior
year have obliged me to write the letter now. I am still afforded the benefit of having
taught him for two years, but will not see him evolve into the accomplished senior that I
predict he will become.
Erin was completely unknown to me when he enrolled in my Physics I class last year.
He first came to my attention because he was such an active participant in our esoteric
classroom- discussions. He made his., mark that year because of his exemplary per-
formance, earning "A"s for both semesters. Every one of the almost eighty assignments
that he submitted was of the.same_high quality: legible, literate, accurate, and punctual.
He has continued this pattern of work for all these one andone-quarter years he has
been in one of my classes.