CALI FORN IA STATE U N IVE RS ITY, LO N G B EAC H

COLL EG E O F B US I N ESS AD M I N I ST RAT I O N

D EPARTM E N T O F ACCOU NTAN CY

Date June 6, 2014

Re: Recommendation for Ms. Britney Ward

I am writing this letter to strongly recommend that Irvine Unified School District (IUSD)

retain Ms. Ward at Alderwood Elementary school. I have known Britney Ward from fall

2013 when she joined Alderwood Elementary as the 5th/6th Combo class teacher.

My daughter is a fifth grader in the combo class and so I have had the opportunity to

interact with her in great detail. I am also the Vice-president of the School Site Council

(SSC) and have had the occasion to interact with her as she is a member of the School

Safety Committee and attends the SSC meetings regularly. In my capacity as faculty at

California State University, Long Beach, I am a member of the College of Business

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee as well as Director of the Master's program in

Accountancy. So I am well versed in curriculum issues and can comment on Ms. Ward's

abilities and her implementation of curriculum.

My daughter has been in a combo class twice before the current year -Kinder/first and

again in 4th;5th last academic year. Both the teachers were well versed and had years of

experience before they taught a combination class. I first Britney when I found out that

she had joined Alderwood and was assured by the Principal that though she was new, she

had handled combo classes before. On the first day of school, Britney mentioned that she

was new teacher starting her career with a combo class. That astonished me -what was

the Principal thinking? But I was pleasantly surprised. Britney works hard and was able

to adjust to having two grade levels moving in and out of class.

In the beginning, Britney made a few mistakes - she was not familiar with the software

used by the school to report grades -Jupiter grades. But she got familiar and learnt how

to use it. It was nice to see a sixth and fourth grade teacher help her. I did not observe any

of the 5th grade teachers helping.

I got an inkling of trouble when my daughter and her friends talked about how other 5th

grade teachers were treating their teacher by keeping her out of the loop. They were not

told when the 5th grade running club started. Ifany 5th grade gathering was cancelled, the

1250 B ELLFLOWER BOULEVARD-MS 8504 · LONG BEACH. CALI FORN IA 90840-8504

562/985-4653 · FAX 562/985-7586 · http:l/wwvv.csulb.eduldeptslaccounting/

CALIFORNIA STATE LONG BEACH

combo class was not informed. Most of the kids in the combo class were GATE

identified but the class allotted to them was the old Science laboratory with an awkward

structure and minimum facilities. The class size was 36 students - one of the largest in

the school in one of the smallest classroom. They were away from the computers in the

5th /6th pod structure and often did not get access to the computers. Many of the kids

brought electronic items such as computers, ipads, ipods etc. from home to work at

school as they rarely had access to the computers. The class computer was old and often

did not work. I am impressed that Britney faced all these obstacles with grace and still

managed to teach and keep the students occupied in class. She made the facilities inviting

and made the students feel they were still a part of Alderwood. I saw many students

blossom and learn new skills during this year in her class.

Britney created a blog for the class that allowed students to keep in touch and parents be

updated on class happenings. She created book circles so that students learnt how to

critique books. For example, she used "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio as one of the books for

class but connected it to non-fiction (as required by common core) by bringing in articles

on facial disfigurations. She allowed students to do an extra credit assignment on creating

a trailer for a potential movie based on the book. I got to see all the trailers as she

uploaded all of them for the parents to see on her class blog. She introduced the concept

of peer evaluations at 5th grade level. That was impressive and taught students to be fair

to others. Talk about applying concepts learnt from the book "Wonder" in the classroom.

Wow!!!

This academic year, I was in charge of astounding inventions at Alderwood. Astounding

inventions is a science contest in IUSD and Tustin Unified School District (TUSD) where

student learn to identify a problem and provide a solution in the form of an invention that

has not been attempted before. The solution can be original or an improvement of an

existing invention. Though ability to do research is an important skill for students to pick

up, it is even more important for 5th graders as they have to participate in a research based

science fair from 6th grade onwards. As the combo class was mostly GATE identified

students, Britney made it mandatory for the 5th grade to participate in the Astounding

invention contest. To enhance their learning, each student had to present their invention

to the rest of the class. We had 38 entries and out of the top 12 entries, seven were from

Britney's class. Four of the seven made it to first place across IUSD/TUSD.

As a part of social studies, Britney held elections in class every month. The president was

elected from 6th grade while the vice-president was elected from the 5th grade. The

students standing for the positions had to campaign without using anything that would

violate campaign laws -no cookies, brownies, toys etc. Posters and "vote for" stickers

were allowed. Campaign speeches or videos were allowed. I could see the excitement on

the day of election and the eagerness to know the results that would be announced on the

blog. My daughter created the position of a campaign manager for her friend and then

stood for elections twice. She loved the concept and actually became interested in

1250 Bellflower Boulevard Beach, California 90840

CAUFORN!A S11\TE LONG BEACH

elections held in India during April/May, 2014.

Every student in 5th grade in most schools in IUSD prepares a state float and brochure.

This teaches them to research and learn about the state. Britney added a component that

impressed me. She had each student stand up in the front of the class and give an

impromptu presentation of 2 minutes on why their state was unique and should be visited

by others. As a result, my daughter learnt about other states and also not to get nervous

about a presentation.

As the students are GATE identified, she assigned Math Olympiad problems for practice

at least twice every month. She used Time Magazine articles for kids on various world

leaders for assignments every week. I remember her working on Cesar Chavez, and

Nelson Mandela among others. One assignment question that I remember vividly is to

identify who else could have been Time "person of the century" and why. That generated

active conversation over the dining table at home. Such discussions over 5th grade

assignments are very impressive. Talking to parents from other 5th grade classes, I found

out that such assignments were unique to Ms. Ward's class.

Currently the students in her class are learning how to research and debate. They have

either been allotted a topic or a historical figure. Students are learning how to compare

and contrast and discuss pros and cons. I have not seen such enthusiasm in a long time at

school.

As mentioned before, 36 students have been stuffed into probably one of the smallest and

awkward classrooms in Alderwood. So an issue came up as to how to exhibit all student

work in the classroom during Open House day. Britney came up with a clever idea. She

assigned QR codes to each student and scanned all their work. I was able to scan the QR

code using my iphone and was able to see my daughter's entire work online. Very

innovative and clever!

For a first year teacher, in spite of obstacles from administration and colleagues, I am

impressed by how Britney has been able to manage a combination class. She has kept up

the enthusiasm of the class and made the children look forward to going to school. She

has taught the students important research and communication skills that would help later

in school, college and career. What do I need from my daughter's elementary school

teacher? -teaching her basic skills, keeping her enthusiastic about learning, being

innovative and creative in assignments, helping them push their boundaries and still

keeping them in check. Britney did all that and more.

1250 Bellflower Boulevard Beach, California 90840

CALIFORNIA STATE LONG BEACH

I would strongly urge you to retain Britney Ward as a teacher at Alderwood. Currently, I

notice that Alderwood seems to have many problems. I hear many complaints as a

representative of the SSC. Parent volunteering has reduced. PTA fund raising seems to be

lower. Many of the teachers and staff are retiring or resigning. There have been many

complaints about the administration. Britney remains a bright star that the school could

use along with others to get back to what it used to be -a reason for many of us to buy a

house in Quail Hill.

Please contact me at Sudha.krishnanl@,csulb.edu if I can provide you with any further

information.

Sincerely,

Sudha Krishnan

Director, MSA program

Professor, Accountancy

College of Business,

California State University, Long Beach

Tel: (562) 985 5757

Email: Sudha.Krishnan@csulb.edu

1250 Bellflower Boulevard Beach, California 90840

To Whom it May Concern, I am writing this letter with the hopes of seeing Ms. Ward return to Alderwood next

year. For reasons that I do not know or understand, it has been brought to our attention that she has not been offered a position back at Alderwood for the 2014-2015 school year. Many people take time out of their schedules to express dissatisfaction but not many people take time to express gratitude and praise. As a mother of 2 students (twins Trevor and Gavin James) in Ms. Ward’s class I would like to express my overwhelming praise for her.

At the beginning of the school year many parents were concerned with the fact that a first year teacher was given a 5th-6th combo compromised mainly of GATE students. I have never been one to question selection of teachers or my children’s placement in classes. I always assume that the school has the best understanding of the potential of their staff and the teachers have the best interest of my children when placing them each year. I am aware that other parents approached our Principal with concerns at the beginning of the year but it had nothing to do with the teacher herself.

As the year has progressed I have witnessed Ms. Ward exceed any/all expectations that the parents and children had set out for her. The children have been in a classroom separated from the rest of the school. They have not had computers readily available to them and have been excluded from many of the other 5th and 6th class activities. Nonetheless, Ms. Ward has managed to overcome these obstacles, as well as many other obstacles that have been thrown her way.

Ms. Ward is the teacher that my boys will remember when they grow up. We have all had that one teacher that really stood out and she is DEFINITELY that teacher. When students and parents found out that she has not been asked to return next year shock waves ran through our class. While we as parents may not be entitled to an explanation with regards to staffing, I think it is important that the district be made fully aware of the wonderful teacher they have currently on their staff. It would be absolutely devastating to not give this amazing teacher a position for the 2014-2015 school year.

Many parents have decided to write letters with the hopes of shedding light on this very confusing staffing decision. I am attaching letters from students and parents to this email and I hope that you are able to take the time to read them. I have additional letters that are sealed in envelopes that I will drop off at the district. I think you will agree that they speak volumes. I have also attached the most recent reviews that I found posted onwww.greatschools.org. I would like to point out that Ms. Ward is completely unaware of the groundswell of support and does not know we are doing this on her behalf. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, Kristen James (Mother of 4 Children at Alderwood) cell 951-733-8880

June 13, 2014

Dear IUSD,

I am writing this to you because I want you to know what a wonderful

experience my son has had this year with Miss Britney Ward as his teacher.

She has gone so far and above what I have come to expect from a teacher here

in IUSD that I feel compelled to write this on her behalf. Not only is she a new

teacher to Alderwood, but she is navigating a 5th/6th combo class of very bright

and energetic kids. She has not only taught the rigorous IUSD standards, but

she has integrated lessons on character, not fearing failure and overall kindness.

I have another son in 6th grade at Alderwood, and I see a dramatic difference in

the assignments that come home. For example, where one student brings home

the standard writing assignment that says, "Write about your experience at

Outdoor Ed. Use lots of details." Miss Ward's class is assigned to write about

their Outdoor Ed experience from the perspective of their shoe. The engagement

and fun that came from that small tweak took an ordinary assignment and made

it memorable. That is just one small example of the culture that Britney has

created in her classroom.

I was horrified to find out last month that Miss Ward has not been asked to

return to Alderwood next year. I cannot imagine how this gem of a teacher is not

seen as a valuable asset. I have run a 6th grade leadership program at

Alderwood for the past three years and have worked very closely with the

students every week. The way the kids talk about how much they love Miss Ward

is unparalleled.

Even students NOT in her class say she is their favorite teacher. I can't believe

that the faculty and staff at Alderwood could not guide her to be a valuable part of

their program. She is the most enthusiastic, passionate and dedicated teacher I

have ever come across.

I hope IUSD will not waste this amazing resource and will strive to find another

placement for her in the fall. There are not nearly enough teachers like her. She

will be the teacher my son will remember forever.

Sincerely,

Linda Burns

lburnsi @cox.net

Open House

Connie Bae <cbae111@gmail.com>

To: Britney Ward <britneyward@iusd.org>

Hi Miss Ward!

Thu, May 22, 2014 at 12:49 PM

I read Michael's reflection on his web page. I hope you read it too. As a parent, I was genuinely touched. He told me

he wanted to write so much more about you and his class but stopped because it would be too long.

Thank you for inspiring Michael and showing him that school is a great place to be. I know that you can hold your

head up high tonight knowing that you made a difference in the lives of your students. It can be a little cliche to say,

but I do believe you actually did make a difference!

Anyway, have fun tonight! Kudos to you on a job well done. Most importantly, my husband and I really want to thank

you. Thank you for making Michael's last year at Alderwood so positive and memorable! You are going to be one of

those teachers I think he will remember when he is older. We all have that one teacher we never forget, and Ithink

you will be the one!

Again, thank you!

Fondly,

Connie Bae

Sent from my iPhone

David and Gwen Aquino

30 Cipresso

Irvine, CA 92618

June 11, 2014

To Whom It May Concern:

We are writing to offer our sincere thanks and hearty recommendation of the teaching

excellence of Ms. Britney Ward. Our daughter, Lauren Aquino has been a student at

Alderwood for the past two years, and was a student in Ms. Ward's 5th and 6th grade

combination class during the 2013/2014 academic year.

Lauren has thrived with the care, attention, effort and creativity within the classroom

environment that Ms. Ward led. Lauren does best with instructors who are caring,

thoughtful, and minimize authoritarian techniques. Ms.Ward consistently offered the

right balance of instruction, support and care that made this academic year an outstanding

one for Lauren.

We would like to offer Ms. Ward both our thanks, and our strong support for her to

continue to be part of the Alderwood school faculty, and believe that she is an asset to the

students as well as the overall learning environment.

Sincerely,

David and Gwen Aquino

i

11 June 11, 2014

To: Whomsoever It May Concern

Our daughter Ria Shrivastava is a 5th grader at Alderwood Elementary School. She is in

the 5/6th grade combination GATE class taught by Miss Britney Ward. Miss Ward is a

very talented teacher and an amazing person.

Despite limited resources offered to her classroom she has done an excellent job of

managing the students -both academically and in terms of their personal growth. While

Ria has continued to excel academically in Miss Ward's class, more importantly I have

seen her grow and blossom into an confident young women. I strongly believe that this

is due to the opportunities that were offered to the students by Miss Ward. She

implemented several new programs that allowed the students to learn and grow. At the

beginning of the school year, she started a president/vice president initiative where

each student got to contest for this position. The students were expected to make

posters and PowerPoint presentations and promotional movies to explain why they

should be chosen. This was very well received and Ria's confidence soared after she

won the very first vice president spot. Miss Ward also started a debate club that taught

the students how to take a stance and maintain it in a constructive manner.

Miss Ward is a very involved and receptive teacher and is always available to parents in

person and via email to discuss their child's academics and growth and development

areas. Ihave another child in Alderwood and would love for Miss Ward to be his 5th/6th

grade teacher. It would be a shame to lose a great teacher like Miss Ward and we hope

she continues to teach at Alderwood Elementary in the future. Thank you for your

attention.

Sincerely,

Maithili and Sanjay Shrivastava

16 Teardrop

Irvine, CA 93603

Ph: 949-509-9784

To: Irvine Unified School District

June 12, 2014

As residents of Irvine for the past 20 years, and parents of two Irvine Public Schools students, we

would like to express our enthusiastic support of Ms. Britney Ward, 6th grade teacher of our

older daughter, Nadia Sadri.

Even though we have been fortunate to have great teachers in the public schools of Irvine that

our daughters have been attending for the last six years, and have had wonderful experiences

with teachers of both our kids (Nadia Sadri, 6th grade, and Artemis Sadri, 3rd grade) since their

kindergarten, Ms. Ward has been by far the best teacher of all that both our daughters have had.

Both of us have had teaching experiences at different grade levels and have interacted with many

students at different grades and levels. Ms. Ward's impact on our daughter has been of the highest

quality and can easily be quantified. Nadia has made astounding progress in all different subjects,

especially Math and English, over the past nine months. Moreover, she has learned "how to

learn," and her approach to studying and homework has fundamentally shifted toward a more

holistic, long term, and goal-oriented one. She has, many times, pleasantly surprised us with her

depth and breadth of knowledge, a result of the classroom work in Ms. Ward's class. We couldn't

be a happier mom and dad.

In addition, Ms. Ward has created a great sense of collaboration and social responsibility among

her students and has fostered a strong teamwork spirit. We have had the pleasure to watch how

the students are much more collaborative and have learned how to align their incentives to work

toward common academic and social goals every week.

Above all, Ms. Ward has been a great mentor and friend to the students, including our daughter.

Nadia and her friends really love her and are inspired by her. They appreciate all the workload

and homework and always talk very highly of her. A few times that we have been to school

gatherings, it has been very clear how much Ms. Ward cares about her students.

In sum, we would like to give her our strong support. We think teachers like Ms. \Vard are the

very core foundation of great school districts like IUSD and sincerely ask that she will remain at

Alderwood. We hope that our younger daughter, as well as other kids will have the great benefit

of being Ms. Ward's students in the future.

Sincerely

;-; ·

Katerina and Reza Sadri

Email: rsadri@gmail.com

Phone: 949-756-1345

To Whom It May Concern:

We, the Firoozi family, want to give all of our support to Miss Ward, our

daughter's bright and loving 6th grade teacher. In all of the years that our daughter has

been in Alderwood, she has never been this satisfied with a teacher. To our daughter and

her peers, Miss Ward is not just a teacher. She is a mentor, a best friend, and a trusted

person to them.

Miss Britney Ward has sparked so many bright ideas and intelligent thoughts in

our child. She inspires them with empowering quotes and aspects of life, as well as

providing her class with state-of-the-art education and academic concepts.

Our daughter, Melissa Firoozi, has excelled so much during the time she has been

in Miss Ward's class. We have noticed a huge improvement in her studying and grades,

as well as her overall teamwork and cooperation. She works amazingly well with her

peers now (thanks to Miss Ward!) and is able to accomplish many things when she is part

of a team. Our child's amazing teacher has inspired her to break out of her timid self and

become a true leader who enjoys listening to her peers' requests and needs.

We truly love how Miss Ward also takes so much of her pastime to cater to the

children whilst providing an amazing learning experience. She perfects her teaching

materials to make her class feel like they are the best environment to learn. She sees

teaching as inspiring children to do their best and empower them through their lives. Miss

Ward truly loves what she does, and she is very skilled at her occupation.

To wrap this up, we Firoozis strongly hope that Miss Britney Ward can continue

to be an employee of IUSD so that more children can find pathways to bright futures. We

thank you for your time and wish you a great day.

Best regards,

The Firoozi Family

p ( Ft Y- , ,'

6 (\ ?.- / 12-o l Y

June 09, 2014

To Whom It May Concern,

We would like to express our appreciation to Miss Britney Ward for her

dedication to her students in 5th/6th combo class at Alderwood Elementary School

during 2013-2014.

Since we started the school year, we noticed numerous occasions that Miss Ward

was working late after school. We attended a Cub Scout meeting at the school

and noticed Miss Ward was still in the classroom after 8pm. We often receive e­

mails from Miss Ward very early before school starts, late at night and during

weekends too. Miss Ward is very dedicated to her students!

Miss Ward is an amazing teacher who inspires students in many ways. Our son,

Jonathan is a very smart boy; however, writing skills was his weakness and we

thought he would never be able to write well. Since Jonathan has been in Miss

Ward's class, he has improved tremendously in writing that we are so surprised

that our son is now able to express himself in writing so well. Jonathan was

moved by Miss Ward's personal experience when she was a student.

Miss Ward is very creative that she makes the class of the gifted students very

challenging and yet fun so the students would never be bored. Miss Ward also

shows a lot of respect to her students and in return, her students are very happy

to have such a wonderful teacher. When I pick up Jonathan after school, I always

see the class very cheerful.

We appreciate Miss Ward very much for being such an amazing teacher!

Sincerely,

Tiffany Fang and Michael Notarangelo

To Whom It May Concern:

In the six years my children have attended Alderwood, we have seen some of the best teaching

practices in education. Out of eight total classes, all of our children's teachers have had at least

seven years of experience and five of their teachers have had at least 28 years experience. Not

only were these teachers experienced in many models of educational theory, but they had a

passion for teaching and they truly combined the art and science of education into every lesson.

So, I was a little surprised when I learned that my children's 5/6 combo teacher was a first year

teacher. Not only does a 5/6 combo teacher need to understand two grade levels of material, but

they have to teach out of textbooks from two different publishers. This is a year of adapting to

Common Core, and our textbooks do not align to the new standards, so every teacher has to

modify their educational approach to address the new standards. In addition, every combo class

is assigned an aide who delivers educational content that is ultimately the responsibility of the

classroom teacher, so each combo teacher is thrust directly into a supervisory role. This is a tall

order for experienced teachers and it was surprising to see the role given to one of the newest

teachers in our school.

Despite my reservations, Miss Ward did an amazing job educating our children. With the move

in Common Core toward more writing and more exposure to expository text, I can honestly say

that my children wrote more in the first month of fifth grade than they did in their entire fourth

grade year. The writing prompts were interesting and current. Each week, they wrote about

current events through the CNN Student news program and historical events through biographies

provided through "TIME for kids". They have a monthly writing prompt and a monthly book

report, in addition to increased writing across the curriculum um.

Miss Ward is extremely creative in her approach to reach all students. This class was front

loaded with students who are highly motivated to learn and many have been GATE identified.

She set the bar high in the three "whole class" projects she implemented during the year. In the

fall, the students read "A Wrinkle in Time" as a class, and worked on questions for each chapter,

which required a lot of thought and were challenging, but interesting. My son forgot his paper

at school one weekend, and his sister had already written on hers, so I "Googled" to see if I could

find the paper and I found it on a website for an eighth grade class in an upper North east state -

which made sense given the complexity of the questions.

When the students completed the book, Miss Ward gave all students an opportunity for a small

group project. She provided a menu of options, including writing a poem or a song or creating a

video to explain part of the story. My children were extremely excited to create a re-enactment

of the first chapter using Legos and stop motion film techniques. Although, they had never

touched iMovie on our computer, they watched videos to learn techniques, they scripted out the

first chapter and divided up the voices and they gathered their materials to film the entire first

chapter. This project took time outside of class, but it fully engaged my children in a way that

any parent would be excited to see. Because the project allowed each student to work within

their creative strength, each student had an opportunity to grow and shine.

Miss Ward engaged her students in a variety of group projects and allowed for "cross-grade"

projects whenever possible. This created a very close knit and accepting class for all of the

students. She is extremely respectful of all students and she works very hard to create an

environment of respect at all times. At the beginning ng of the year, some students had a

challenging time respecting other students who had questions about what was being taught,

especially with subject matter that was easy to them. Some students would blurt out: "Why

would we have questions? This is so easy!" and sometimes make other comments that made

other students uncomfortable to ask questions or get clarification on material. Miss Ward

worked closely with all students to help them understand that these comments were

unnecessary and inhibited each student's right to learn. For some of the students, this was a

lesson that could help them for life.

Just before Spring Break, a 5th grade student with an IEP was moved from a regular 5th grade

classroom into our class. This student has vastly different learning needs than the rest of the

class and was often teased and bullied by students in other classes. Miss Ward spoke to her 5th

graders and 6th graders separately and encouraged them to embrace the new addition with the

respect and care that the class requires. The students worked hard to help this student

transition into the new class and to help bridge some of the differences between his former class

and his new one. To help scaffold the work, she rotates a student as a partner when new

material is being presented, so this child has additional help from multiple sources. With this

role modeling, many of the students spontaneously invite the student to play at recess or sit with

them at lunch - a welcome change for the child, and one he has shared with me personally.

Education is not education if the learners are not engaged. Miss Ward has created a learning

community that is vibrant, and creative and accepting. My children have been excited and

engaged the whole year. They have taken risks and tried new experiences. Miss Ward made a

point of supporting her students outside of class as well. In the Fall, she attended both the Boys

and the Girls Harvest Cup Soccer games and this Spring, she attended the Instrumental Concert

and has planned to attend the Spring Vocal concert. By taking the time to honor her students'

hard work, they truly feel that she cares about them and they want to give their best back each

day.

Education is an art and a science. The best teachers have the mechanics in place, but they teach

from their heart. Miss Ward brings creativity and enthusiasm for learning into her class every

day. All of her students know that she brings her heart to school, that she cares about them and

their learning, and she has worked hard to make her class a safe and inspiring place to l earn.

She is a first year teacher, who is still learning all of the science of teaching, in a year when

everything is changing, but has the passion that rivals any of the 28-year veterans I have known.

After watching this teacher grow and excel at many challenges thrown her way, I was

disappointed to learn that she was not one of the new teachers to be offered a contract at our

school. I feel she is an asset to the IUSD community, and I am hopeful that she is given an

opportunity to continue to share her gifts with other students.

Sincerely, Erin S. Sloane