AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ADA INSTITUTION

Learning, Teaching & Curriculum

Kathleen Unrath Ph.D.

303 Townsend Hall Columbia, MO 65211-2400

FAX (573) 884-2917

(573) 882-6572

February 14, 2012 To whom it may concern, I am happy to recommend Melissa Mudd as an exemplary teacher and artist. I worked with Melissa as an undergraduate student in art education and again as a doctoral student at University of Missouri. In both degree programs shs exhibited an admirable work ethic, producing creative, dynamic products for her teaching repertoire and research agenda. Her work is consistently of the highest caliber. She is a wonderful role model for all the students in her class, because she strives for excellence in all that she attempts. As an art teacher I am impressed with her continuing research into new ideas and strategies for presenting instruction to children. She continues to impress me with her preparation and the enthusiasm in her voice when she speaks to the students she teaches. She is a fine artist as well earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting while at the University of Missouri. As a member of the prestigious University of Missouri Fellows program Melissa earned a masters degree in curriculum and instruction in 2006. She is now a doctoral candidate in Art Education and in this role has taught coursework for elementary education students and art education majors. In her role as a Graduate Research Assistant we have published several articles together in important journals in our field. Melissa has always had a profound interest in Museum Education. In the interest of gaining experience, she has volunteered her time at the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology. In this capacity Melissa has helped to organize exhibitions, catalogue and clean work and assist the preparatory. Melissa has also worked with a pre-school program so she brings a strong background of working with children to a teaching position. Melissa also taught middle school students and most recently high school students at Rockbridge High School in Columbia Missouri. In her teaching much like her student achievement she excelled. The work that the students produced under her tutelage is nothing short of spectacular. She integrates photography, digital media with traditional art media and mark making to lure students into their creative capacities and therefore encourages students who may not have previously viewed themselves as artists. She has also made several presentations to educators within her community and on the state and national stage.

College of Education University of Missouri-Columbia

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ADA INSTITUTION

Melissa possesses the positive attitude, and energy that is required of good potential teachers. I am sure that she will embrace her teaching position with the same vigor and passion that she brought to both her undergraduate coursework. Melissa is one of the strongest students that I have ever taught and I recommend her very highly. Sincerely, Kathleen Unrath Ph D. Associate Professor of Art Education

University of Missouri

Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum

303 Townsend Hall Columbia, MO 65211-2400

PH (573) 239.4779 EMAIL ostrowj@missouri.edu

JILL OSTROW

!To!Whom!It!May!Concern:!!! It!is!a!pleasure!to!write!a!letter!of!recommendation!for!Melissa!Mudd.!I!came!to!know!Melissa!in!the!fall!of!2009!when!she!and!I!were!students!together!in!an!Art$Literacy!graduate!course.!Melissa!was!a!doctoral!student!at!the!time,!while!I!was!a!professor!auditing!the!course.!Immediately!I!knew!that!Melissa!was!not!only!an!outstanding!artist!I!was!anxious!to!get!to!know!–!she!was!also!an!outstanding!teacher.!!!During!the!course,!Melissa!was!often!called!upon!to!teach!small!mini!lessons!to!the!class.!Being!an!accomplished!artist,!this!wasn’t!an!unusual!request!by!the!two!professors!teaching!the!course.!But!as!a!student,!it!became!quickly!apparent!to!me,!just!how!much!experience!she!had!teaching!student!artists.!Melissa!understood!about!respecting!and!nurturing!individual!creativity!to!the!fullest.!!When!someone!in!the!class,!for!instance,!would!make!a!comment!such!as,!“I’m!so!bad!at!this,”!it!would!be!Melissa’s!voice!to!first!say!something!to!the!effect!of,!“There!is!no!such!thing!as!‘bad’!when!you!are!creating.”!She!made!every!person!feel!as!if!they!were!Artists,!as!opposed!to!students!making!stuff.!!The!course,!having!a!literacy!and!art!focus,!sometimes!made!the!artists!feel!uncomfortable!with!the!writing!they!were!asked!to!do,!and!the!writers!feel!uncomfortable!with!the!art!they!were!asked!to!do.!Melissa!dove!into!all!the!challenges!with!such!force!that!I,!to!this!day,!have!taken!her!ideas!and!infused!them!into!my!own!literacy!classes.!For!example,!she!introduced!me!to!the!idea!of!“destroyed!books.”!She!showed!me!a!book!she!had!deconstructed!in!such!a!way!that!the!text!within!became!completely!different!in!its!meaning.!I!have!used!this!idea!in!professional!development!I!do!with!teachers,!courses!I!teach,!and!with!my!own!personal!journals!I!keep.!!!She!also!introduced!me!to!textile!printing.!I!was!absolutely!fascinated!by!Melissa’s!techniques!and!uses!with!fabric!printing.!The!way!she!incorporated!text!into!her!fabrics!completely!opened!my!eyes!to!looking!at!textiles!in!a!new!way.!I!purchased!several!of!her!prints!at!a!local!art!show!and!have!them!in!my!home.!I!was!never!interested!in!fibers!or!textiles!until!I!met!Melissa.!It!was!she!who!got!me!interested!in!signing!up!for!local!weaving!class.!Something!I!never!would!have!considered!before!meeting!her!or!seeing!her!work.!!!

Besides!being!a!dedicated!student,!Melissa!is!an!exceptional!teacher.!I!often!overhear!

undergraduate!students!say!how!much!they!have!learned!from!her!and/or!how!much!they!

enjoyed!her!classes.!I!hear!rave!comments!from!high!school!students!who!have!had!“Ms.!

Mudd.”!!

!

Melissa!is!extremely!respectful!of!those!around!her.!She!understands!where!a!learner!is!

and!knows!how!to!pull!creative!possibilities!from!those!she!touches.!!

!

I!highly!and!strongly!recommend!Melissa!for!the!position!she!is!seeking.!!

If!you!have!any!further!questions!about!her!abilities,!please!do!not!hesitate!to!email!or!call.!!

!

Sincerely,!

!

!

!

Jill!Ostrow!

!

Assistant!Professor!of!Teaching,!Literacy!Education!

Department!of!Learning,!Teaching,!&!Curriculum!

University!of!MissouriXColumbia!

303!Townsend!Hall!

ostrowj@missour.edu!

573.239.4779!

!

1220 Tartan Place Columbia, MO 65203

January 11, 2012 To Whom It May Concern: This letter is written in support of Melissa Mudd’s job search. As art department chairman of Rock Bridge High School, where Melissa taught for several years, I observed her and interacted with her frequently both in and out of the classroom. What I learned from that experience is that Melissa is enthusiastic, intelligent, thoughtful and creative. I realize those words are probably in every recommendation letter you read, but they are not just “yadda yadda” terms when applied to Melissa. Put all of them into the superlative category for her. Students loved Melissa’s energy and her ability to personalize projects for them, to make them fit the current world where they live. They knew she actually cared about them and wanted them to succeed. Melissa sought to send our curriculum into the future with big ideas and out-of-the-box thinking. She was able to balance being a team player with applying her own unique touches to lesson plans, committee work, and community collaboration. Her own artistic skills are at a high level, so she was able to help students develop their technique as well as their ideation. She pursues both her artwork and her career with passion and those things are often intertwined—beautifully so. If you have a job that requires energy, creativity, and commitment, Melissa is the woman for you. Sincerely, Cynthia McCord

October 2011

RE: General Letter of Reference – Melissa Mudd

Dear Hiring Administrator:

I am pleased to offer this letter of recommendation on behalf of Melissa Mudd for consideration for art teaching positions in public and private schools and in community settings. I have known Melissa for three years as my friend, mentor, and art education teacher.

When I think of amazing art teachers who leave an everlasting impression on their students I think of Melissa. She has an exceptional ability to communicate with all types of learners and inspires all of her students to do their very best work. She was my art education teacher at the University of Missouri during my graduate studies. She revised and rewrote the old class curriculum to ensure that the new semester-long course was more creative, more student-focused, and allowed the class to collaborate as a real-world professional learning community. Under Melissa’s guidance and inspiration, our entire art education class had an opportunity to operate as real-life schools — we created our school names, our mascots, school colors, etc. — and worked together as professional learning communities. We designed a powerhouse of successful high school unit plans that were big idea driven, student-focused, creative, insightful, inspiring, adaptable, and challenging. I can wholeheartedly say that when I finished Melissa’s class I was even more excited and invigorated about becoming an art teacher, extremely proud of our work we had accomplished as a team. Melissa inspired all of us to be more thoughtful, compassionate learners and teachers, and to believe in ourselves as a community of art educators. None of this would have been possible without Melissa’s heart and hard work.

I highly recommend Melissa for any art teaching positions, whether working with children, adolescents, or adults. She is an inspiring individual, an incredibly empathetic and caring person, and has a heart of gold—all qualities that make her an exceptional teacher, artist, and friend. I would be happy to elaborate further on her strengths as they pertain to specific positions for which she is under consideration.

Sincerely,

Dawn SeesGraduate Student in Art Education at the University of Missouri, Columbiadsvvb@mail.missouri.edu

Abbey Trescott 4804 Clark ln. Apt. 104 Columbia, MO 65202 (636) 443-5601 mizzoulove@gmail.com

September 26, 2011

To Whom It May Concern, I have known Melissa Mudd for the past three years as a colleague, a teacher, and an artist. We studied alongside each other as graduate students at the University of Missouri in Art Education. Working with her as a peer was a wonderful experience. As someone new to the program, Melissa was enthusiastic and encouraging to work with. Her knowledge of contemporary artists, current conversations in art education, and new technology was a huge asset in furthering the learning of her peers. As a doctoral student, Melissa taught a secondary art education class that was composed of both undergraduates and graduate students, myself included. For this course, she was a co-creator in developing the structure and content. Her ideas completely revamped the previous outdated and unsuccessful class into something beneficial and progressive. Melissa was able to bring in her experience of teaching at the local high school, which expanded our learning and understanding of secondary art education. She shared rich curricular ideas, experience in differentiated instruction for gifted and challenged students, as well as classroom management and organizational tools. Melissa is extremely tech-savvy and shared her technical knowledge and tools with us all. As technology advances and becomes more crucial to our students and the direction  of  education,  Melissa’s  knowledge  and  ability  to  teach  it  is  of  high  value  and  importance. The professional skills she possesses along with her wonderful people skills make Melissa an asset to any employer. She is helpful and cooperative in teamwork scenarios, and she is always willing to go the extra mile. She is a fantastic colleague and teacher. Sincerely, Abbey Trescott

Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Nathan Hall. I am currently attending the Pacific Northwest College of Art as an illustration major, and I owe a lot of where I am today to my former teacher and friend Melissa Mudd. To properly understand Melissa Mudd's impact on my life, I think it is important to understand who I used to be versus who I am today. I would consider myself a driven, motivated student. I want the best for myself, and I know that I alone hold the power to make that a reality. I haven't always been driven in the way that I am now, and a lot of the change that has occurred within me during the past few years has a lot to do with the time that I spent as a student in Melissa Mudd's class. I was a slacker in high school, no doubt about it. I was definitely capable of great things, but I was completely unmotivated to succeed and apply myself to the best of my abilities in class. I maintained a B- average, and wasn't planning on changing my ways any time soon. I then had the privilege of taking an art class with Melissa Mudd as my teacher. It covered everything from designing album covers for our favorite song artists to making stamp-able carvings for textile designs. I looked forward to the time I spent in her class. I had always loved fine art as a child, and loved working with my hands, but my distracted and unmotivated teenage mind was preoccupied with everything but honing any type of tangible skill other than the doodles within the margins of my math tests. Early on I was still avoiding my responsibilities, but there was something different about Melissa and the way she taught that caught my attention more than other teachers and their respective subject matters. We as students had a lot of respect for Ms. Mudd, and for many reasons. When she was demonstrating a project or showing us a technique required to succeed in a project, there was passion behind her demonstration. When we were watching her work, or when she was showing us an easier way to accomplish our goal, Melissa Mudd would often relate what we were doing to a moment when she was first learning to do something she was accomplished in, like painting, and used her personal experiences with success to motivate and inspire us to work harder, in hopes that we too would eventually become successfully creative individuals. On top of gaining our respect through her skill and ability as an artist, she had a natural ability to connect with us socially and emotionally. It only took a few weeks of her class before we felt like she was just one of us. Rather than feeling pressured to govern us with authority, she kept us on track with the understanding of mutual respect and friendship. She allowed us to play our music in class, shared her tastes with us, and joked with us about everything under the sun. That doesn't go to say she wouldn't show us her ability to punish us if she really needed to, but that rarely occurred because most of us had too much respect for the way she treated us ever to defiantly act out without being disappointed in ourselves for doing so. To a lot of us, she was more than our teacher; she was also our friend. After recognizing how her hard work and positive attitude towards her students and her art alike allowed her to accomplish her creative goals, I began to see that my current path was leading me in to a life of mediocrity. I knew that was the last thing I or anyone else wanted for me, and I had finally seen a representation of something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. It wasn't until two years after my class and time with her that I decided to commit myself to the arts, but a planted seed that grows is a success under any measurable amount of time. I owe much of where and who I am to the time I have spent as a student in class with Melissa Mudd as my teacher, and I continue to cherish our friendship outside of the classroom to this day. Thank you for your time, Nathan Hall

To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Jennifer Glennon, I am currently a student at the University of

Missouri. In 10th grade I was initially  impressed  with  Melissa  Mudd’s enthusiasm towards her students. I was a student of hers only for a semester, yet she already had such an impact on my high school career. On a daily basis she was a fun, reliable, upbeat instructor. I can honestly say she was one of the few classes that I looked forward to attending and being a part of. Miss. Mudd brought out a positive personality within myself, along with a newfound love for art that I never knew I had. I believe Melissa Mudd will be nothing short of a tremendous asset to your faculty.

Melissa Mudd has many impressive qualities including her mind blowing talent. She has such a modern twist and creativity within all her work. The way she teaches makes students strive to bring out the best in their own artwork. Students could see how genuine she was with each and every person and how she sincerely cared about helping them with growing in their personal work. Not only was she actually interested in her students, she also was there to really get to know us personally. Melissa Mudd personally helped me through issues outside of school as well as within it. It was very full-filling to know how much she truly cared about us as people. Miss. Mudd is special because she was the only teacher I had that was an instructor, a role model, an inspiration and a friend.

I believe Melissa Mudd would and has been making these kinds of impact on students ever since she started teaching. As a current student I wish I had the option of having her as a teacher once again. Melissa Mudd will rightly full fill all duties asked of her and more. She is an over-achiever in all means of the word. As I have stated before Melissa Mudd will enhance your faculty in numerous aspects and will not fail to be the best she can be at all times. I highly recommend Melissa Mudd for this employment  opportunity,  she  won’t  disappoint. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Jennifer Glennon

Rae Faiman Marketing/Advertising Missouri State University 573-355-1665 rae1134@live.missouristate.edu To Whom It May Concern: My name is Rae Faiman, I’m currently a student at Missouri State University, and a former student of Melissa Mudd. Melissa was my graphic design teacher at Rock Bridge High School, which is a very large high school, and I had a lot of different teachers, most of which I could not tell you their names. Melissa is the only teacher that I still keep in contact with, and the impact she had on my life, as well as career choice is something that I will always be thankful for. The activities she chose for our class were stimulating, interesting, and really piqued my interest in design and art, and are without a doubt part of the reason I chose advertising as my major. She truly cared for each and every one of her students, both what they were doing inside the walls of school and their outside lives. She emphasized the importance of design and art in every day life, which I think was important because it is something people often overlook. For example, in one class we watched the documentary “Helvetica,” and five years later I can still recognize the font in logos and signs I see everywhere. Whether or not every student Melissa has seen go through her classroom has chosen that path of a design career, I can assure you that during their time in her class it was a passion. If you have any more questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me anytime. Sincerely, Rae Faiman

Sheryl Lamme 22200 Ruckus Lane West Waynesville, MO 65583 September 26, 2011

To Whom it May Concern:

Last  fall,  September  2010,  I  began  work  on  a  Master’s  degree  in  Art  Education,  twenty-nine years  after  completing  my  Bachelor’s  degree.  It  was  my  extreme  good  fortune  to  enroll  in  Artistic Thinking: Multimedia Applications for Teaching Art. This course was both created and instructed by Melissa A. Mudd, Ph.D Student at the University of Missouri.

Melissa is an intelligent, compassionate, and highly creative individual. The Artistic Thinking course has provided me with a valuable foundation of both skills and knowledge I use daily, both as an art teacher and additionally as I pursue my own education.

In teaching the coursework, all online, Melissa demonstrated an exuberant and contagious passion, making certain that each of her students were successful. Her support and assistance went far above the call of duty! I was particularly challenged in attempting to learn to use Photoshop. Melissa created a series of screencasts clearly demonstrating the procedures to follow. As I continued to struggle she made herself readily available via phone, Skype, email, and Facebook. She stuck with me, and even though I live two hours from the campus, went so far as to offer meeting me halfway to offer actual live assistance (Thanks to Melissa I am now a Photoshop addict!). Another time I mentioned that I was having difficulty with the editing aspects of iMovie. Though it was not part of the coursework, she researched the issue, a known problem with iMovie, and created a video explaining in detail the perfect solution. Even today, if I needed help of any kind, I am certain that Melissa would do all in her power to lend it.

In the summer of 2011, I met several of my classmates from the Artistic Thinking course face-to-face. Each of us agreed how lucky we were to have had Melissa as our instructor. If you have the opportunity to hire Melissa, I recommend her above any other candidate. Her empathetic and caring nature, creativity, knowledge, and extraordinary organizational skills are unparalleled in my experience. She would be an asset to any position. If you would like additional information about Melissa, you can telephone me at (573) 528-3826.

Sincerely,

Sheryl Lamme Art Teacher Partridge Elementary School