Recommendation

For a number of years I worked at a Special Needs school for Dyslexic Children in Ballerup, Copenhagen. A beautiful school that gave many dyslexic students another chance to regain confidence and feelings of self-worth, lost in the public school system. My boss at the time Mrs Ulla Knudsen had this to say about me at the time. I am still in contact with Ulla whom I have always affectionatly called “Chef” this loosly translates to “Boss-lady”. When I was creating this website I wrote to ask her if I could use the recommendation she had given me all those years ago on my website and she wrote back “of-course, it has been a while but it is still all very true.” The English translation of the recommendation follows the original Danish version.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ilo Ajufo har været ansat ved Ordblindeinstituttet i en 4-årige periode. Hun har opsagt sin stilling ved skolen på grund af indeklimaproblemer. Vi er meget kede af at miste Ilo som lærer og kollega, men indeklimaet på skolen er desværre for generende for Ilo’s helbred.

Ordblindeinstituttet er en specialskole for svært ordblinde elever fra 3. - 10. klasse. Skolen drives af Ballerup Kommune, men optager elever fra hele hovedstadsområdet og resten af Sjælland. Ilo har undervist på 4. – 10. klassetrin i fagene dansk, matematik, engelsk, geografi, billedkunst og idræt.

Hendes undervisning er fagligt ambitiøs, og hun formår på fornem vis at gribe elevernes motivation for de forskellige fag, så alle elever opnår flotte resultater og er glade for fagene. Ilo’s faglighed og engagement i engelsk var meget stort. Hun har således været vejleder for kollegaer mht. til det faglige indhold i undervisningen samt udarbejdelse af årsplaner.

Ilo har selvstændigt været med til at opbygge vores engelsk bibliotek samt haft tilsyn med vores materialerne. I faget billedkunst var hendes undervisning noget helt særligt. Hendes egen smittende skabertrang og iderigdom kombineret med stor faglig indsigt betød at eleverne bliver interesserede, koncentrerede og opnår imponerende resultater. Ilo var skolens AKT lærer og har i samarbejde med elevråd stået i spidsen for featureuger og trivselsdage for hele skolen, hvor temaet var, at alle elever skulle have et godt skoleliv. Derudover har Ilo udarbejdet skolens sociale handleplaner. Hun var også en del af skolens pædagogiske udviklingsgruppe, hvor hun har været med i planlægningen af kursusforløb for alle skolens lærere og har på fornemmeste vis været med til at påtage sig et ansvar for skolens pædagogiske udvikling og nye indsatsområder.

Undervisningen på Ordblindeinstituttet varetages af klasseteams. Som medlem af et klasseteam og et årgangsteam demonstrerede Ilo særdeles gode samarbejdsevner, loyalitet og initiativ. Hun er pålidelig og pligtopfyldende, hun efterlader aldrig et problem uden hele tiden at arbejde på en konstruktiv løsning. Hun udviste stor indsigt og forståelse for elevernes særlige problemstillinger og hendes arbejde fik dem til at vokse og trives - både fagligt og socialt. Hun er også et tydeligt menneske med klare holdninger, som elever, forældre, kolleger og ledelse respekterer - og så har hun en dejlig humor og medmenneskelig varme.

Ilo er med sine sine faglige og menneskelige kvaliteter en ønskekollega og vi giver derfor Ilo Ajufo vores bedste anbefalinger.

Med venlig hilsen Ulla Knudsen Souschef

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ilo Ajufo has been employed at the Dyslexia Institute for a 4-year period. She has resigned from her position at the school due to indoor climate problems. We are very sorry to lose Ilo as a teacher and colleague, but the indoor climate at the school is unfortunately too troublesome for Ilo's health.

The Dyslexia Institute is a special school for severely dyslexic students from 3rd to 10th grade. The school is run by Ballerup Municipality, but admits students from the entire capital area and the rest of Zealand. Ilo has taught in 4th to 10th grade in the subjects Danish, Mathematics, English, Geography, Visual arts and Physical Education.

Her teaching is academically ambitious, and she manages to grasp the students' motivation for the various subjects in a distinguished way, so that all students achieve great results and are happy with the subjects. Ilo's professionalism and commitment to English was very high. She has thus been a supervisor for colleagues with regard to the academic content and the preparation of annual plans.

Ilo has independently helped build our English library and supervised our materials. In the subject of visual arts, her teaching was something very special. Her own infectious creative urge and wealth of ideas combined with great professional insight meant that the students became interested, concentrated and achieved impressive results.

Ilo was the school's AKT teacher (Well-being councelor) and, in collaboration with the student council, has been at the forefront of feature weeks and well-being days for the entire school, where the theme was that all students should have a good school life. In addition, Ilo has prepared the school's social action plans. She was also part of the school's pedagogical development group, where she has been involved in planning courses for all the school's teachers and has in a most distinguished way helped to assume responsibility for the school's pedagogical development and new areas of focus.

Teaching at the Dyslexia Institute is carried out by class teams. As a member of a class team and a year team, Ilo demonstrated extremely good cooperation skills, loyalty and initiative. She is reliable and conscientious, she never leaves a problem without constantly working on a constructive solution. She showed great insight and understanding of the students' special problems and her work made them grow and thrive - both academically and socially. She is also a clear person with clear opinions that students, parents, colleagues and management respect - and she has a wonderful sense of humor and human warmth.

Ilo is a desirable colleague with her professional and human qualities and we therefore give Ilo Ajufo our best recommendations.

Kind regards Ulla Knudsen Souschef