CALEY PETTY

caleypetty@gmail.com
July 19, 2020

Ms. Stratton
Human Resources
Germantown Municipal School District
3350 S. Forest Hill Irene Rd.
Germantown, TN 38138

Dear Ms. Stratton,

I am enthusiastically submitting this letter and application for the K-6 position at Riverdale Elementary. I learned of
this position through the Human Resources Twitter page and current teachers, such as Katie Faught from Riverdale
Elementary School. One thing that sets me apart from other candidates is my performance as a first-year teacher at
Richland Elementary. I was nominated to be considered for Teacher of the Year in Shelby County and was also
nominated as a New Teacher Spotlight in the month of December. Along with these accomplishments, I completed
my master’s degree in my first year of teaching in Instruction and Curriculum Leadership with a certification in
Instructional Design and Technology. I have also achieved gains in my students’ data from the beginning of the year
to the end of the year that shows that I am an effective teacher that cares tremendously about her students.

I am presently teaching at Richland Elementary in a Fourth Grade English Language Arts classroom. I have three
classes in which we use Expeditionary Learning to provide rigorous and engaging lessons to achieve the state
standards. I recently graduated with my master’s degree in May 2020 with a degree in Instruction and Curriculum
Leadership from the University of Memphis with a certificate in Instructional Design and Technology. With the
current global pandemic, my certificate in Instructional Design and Technology has given me the tools to provide an
engaging distance learning experience for my students. We were able to use Seesaw to complete activities using the
many tools such as drawing, recording, typing, and much more.

Some of my accomplishments consist of my students’ performance on the district’s diagnostic assessment. On the
Fall diagnostic, students achieved 50% mastery of the standards. In the Winter diagnostic, students jumped up to
72% mastery of the standards. Given the circumstances, we were not able to take the Spring diagnostic, but I was
working diligently to use information from formative assessments to help the majority of students reach 80% of
mastery or higher of the state standards.

While researching your district and my personal experience while student teaching in your district, Germantown
Municipal Schools are high achieving schools that provide their students with engaged learning to prepare them for
their future journey. I believe that this vision fits my ideology: I want more than anything for my students to enjoy
and be excited about learning. I believe all students are able to meet challenging goals that will make them successful
in their future careers if they have a teacher willing to give them good educational, emotional, and social tools. I love
to find creative, fun lessons that include the students’ interests, such as games and songs. I would love to work for a
school that places an emphasis on student engagement because it has proven to be one of the most effective ways to
teach state standards. My students were able to learn about inferencing in a lesson where I created three crime scenes
in my classroom and the students worked together in groups to use what they already know paired with what they
saw at the scene to create an inference on what happened with the victim. Students questioned their classmates and
sought out multiple perspectives to reach their conclusions. It is my teaching philosophy to bring higher order
thinking to life with engaging activities.

I am passionate about creating lessons that best meets my students’ needs and piques their curiosity. I love when
students ask questions! I work with my Professional Learning Community to create effective and engaging lessons. I
have implemented this skill during my first year of teaching at Richland Elementary and my student teaching year at
Riverdale Elementary. I fostered positive parent relationships by communicating classroom wins, so they understood
that I value their child as an individual. As the foundation for managing my classroom, I use a punch card system,
where the students are awarded punches for exceptional behavior and academic performance during lessons and on
assessments. The students can redeem a fully punched card for a reward, such as switch desks with another student,
sit on a yoga ball for a day, or invite a friend to sit with them at lunch. I am always searching for good behavior that
should be recognized and will offer punches and positive praise, which encourages a respectful and positive learning
environment.

I personally am a lifelong learner and want to instill the same love of learning into my students. This begins by
showing my students how to relate content to their life, such as showing students how they use inferencing in their
everyday lives. I taught this skill by having the students be detectives and setting up several crime-scene stations
around the room. Students had to use what they see, what they already knew about a situation to formulate what
happened at each crime scene. My goal is to engage my students so that they are excited to learn each day. To do
this, I find out what my students are interested in and what they enjoy. After each lesson. I reflect on the elements of
the lesson and tweak the lesson for next time, incorporating what worked and what I can improve. I am dedicated to
my students’ achievement and creating a way to have every student’s needs met. I am dedicated to my school
community, like participating in clubs and events. I love to be involved with my school and the community, so I
participate in many events the school and community hosts.

This part year I have been a coach for Richland’s Cross-Country team and would love to support another running
club. Some additional interests that I have are photography and athletics. I have the skills of a professional
photographer and would enjoy using this talent through the yearbook committee. I also was a competitive
cheerleader throughout my middle school and high school career and would be interested in supporting cheerleading,
gymnastics, or even pep clubs.

If given the opportunity, I am confident that I will meet the expectations of being a high caliber educator that is
geared towards achieving the highest standards possible. Thank you for your time and consideration. Should you
require any additional information or would like to speak with me further about my qualifications, please contact me
at (901)826-3508 or by email.

Sincerely,

Caley A. Petty