Reference for Joann Weiner written by Lauren Abraham, Director of Lower School, St. Michael’s Country Day School, Newport, Rhode Island

Joann Weiner joined the lower school faculty at St. Michael’s in September 2013 to fill a one year maternity leave position in our fourth grade.

Joann showed herself to be an extremely hard worker and was often at school ong after her students were gone preparing for the next day. She has a natural warmth and made wonderful connections with her students and colleagues. Her reports were well written and showed an excellent understanding of her students strengths and areas of growth. Joann was always open to suggestions for improvement and devoted much time to her teaching practice.

Joann worked hard to implement St. Michael’s academically challenging curriculum, as this was a very different learning environment than St. Andrew’s School, where she taught fifth grade for 5 years. The pace and expectations of our program presented her with some challenges.Joann’s partner teacher provided her with a lot of support. They met on a regular basis and there were multiple check-ins with both her team mate and myself. Our classes are small but include students with a wide range of abilities and learning styles. Joann’s training at St. Andrew’s provided her with numerous strategies to help children who needed extra support be successful. She worked very well with these students one-on-one and in small groups. Managing a class of eleven children with a wide range of abilities and differentiating her instruction to meet the needs of all her students was an area of focus for Joann this past year. She worked hard on both these areas and did show improvement as the year progressed.Joann also worked on expanding her curriculum knowledge. When working with students who needed extra support, she executed our guided reading program very well. St. Michael’s uses Singapore math program which was new to Joann. She attended a workshop over the summer in preparation for this year and devoted a lot of time to learning the curriculum. She worked well in small groups. Joann was coached on how to manage multiple groups with in her class to differentiate instruction and accommodate the varied math abilities of her students. With the support of her partner teacher, Joann led her students through multi-step research projects. She also used technology well in her class. Joann participated in iPad training and used the tool effectively with her students. She was the first to use the Edu-creations app to provide model lessons for her students to be used at home.

I commend Joann for her openness to suggestions for improvement, her desire to learn and grow as a teacher and for her excellent work ethic. She is a dedicated professional.

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

Lauren Abraham, Head of Lower School401-849-5970 X307