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Clifton

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Stranahan Elementary Dr. Kyle Lacy, Principal


3840 Holland-Sylvania Rd. Toledo, OH 43615 Phone: (419) 824-8614 Fax: (419) 824-8665

March 9, 2022

Dr. Jeremy Bauer


Ottawa Hills Elementary
3600 Indian Road
Ottawa Hills, Ohio 43606

Dear Dr. Jeremy Bauer,

It is my pleasure to enthusiastically recommend Amanda Sanderson for Literacy and Innovation


Specialist at Ottawa Hills Elementary School.

My name is Courtney Clifton and I am a second-grade classroom teacher at Stranahan


Elementary. I have had the pleasure of working with Amanda Sanderson for over five years. I have been
on her grade-level team for three years in both fourth grade and second grade. Even when I was not a
part of her grade-level team, I attended every professional development that Amanda presented. Once I
had attended one session led by her, I knew that I needed to be a part of any she put on in the future. Her
presentation about teaching gifted learners helped me see these students from a completely different
perspective. Her ability to cultivate and share innovative approaches to literacy and 21st-century
learning is done in a way that is gentle and encouraging to teachers but also inspiring in a way that
changes them upon her impact with them.

From the first time I met Amanda, she impressed me with her enthusiasm and her genuine desire
to create personalized learning experiences for all students that provided multimodal, multisensory,
prescriptive, systematic, structured literacy experiences for students that encouraged their personal
engagement and interaction with rich, meaningful texts that they self-select in the hopes they stay
life-long voracious readers and learners.

During the time I was not on a grade-level team with Amanda, I was amazed by how she was
able to speak with another teacher for just a few minutes and listen with such compassion while helping
generate ideas and encouraging even the most reluctant of colleagues to try something new. Whether it
be an approach that would benefit a gifted student by trying to escape the classroom, getting competitive
and persuasive with March Book Madness, branching out worldwide with the Global Read Aloud,
spearheading staff book clubs, convincing teachers to drive to Michigan for free PD at Nerd Camp, or
creating and posting virtual read alouds for students during the pandemic lockdown, her tenacity and
passion for driving learning reaches far beyond her classroom. During the 2020-2021 school year, we
became frustrated with keeping students focused with masks and plexiglass in the way of their learning.
To combat this, she came up with the idea to do our own STEAM special area within the classroom. We
built a makerspace from recycled materials, taught students how to code, cultivated art projects even
including melting crayons with a hairdryer, and science experiments the students researched ahead of
time on their own. What could have been a difficult year ended up being her most innovative. Amanda’s
passion for experiential and inquiry-based learning is truly evident in all that she does.

Although she has been a classroom teacher, she also acted as a district-level 21st Century
Learning Leader for the intermediate grades for 5 years. Designing a learning environment is one of her
favorite things to do. While in the position, she was involved in helping find new classroom sound
systems, flexible seating tables that crank higher and lower to accommodate different heights and
seatings, and developing and planning organization for the implementation of Chromebooks in a way
that was teacher and student-friendly. Before she begins lesson planning or creating a professional
development or designing a classroom though, she always considers the needs of the students, the
teachers, and the building. She is extremely cognizant of the need for all voices to be heard and
considered whenever a decision is being made. She is all around a flexible, approachable, and extremely
helpful individual to work with and would bring those gifts to the staff and students at Ottawa Hills
Elementary.

When I first met Amanda in her classroom, there was a saying on her wall. “Books should serve
as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.” She approaches literacy, and the field of education as a
whole, as the opportunity to open a window into the realities of others and therefore prioritize the
wonders of diversity, honor different cultures, promote empathy, and better understand the world around
oneself. I am confident without reservation that Amanda Sanderson would be an excellent fit for the role
of Literacy and Innovation Specialist as I could not have written a better job description for her myself.

Feel free to contact me at 501-650-2774 or [email protected] if you have any


questions or would like me to further elaborate on Amanda’s talents and achievements.

Sincerely,

Courtney Clifton
Second Grade Classroom Teacher

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