Recommendation from Candice Jones, former student

I am one of the privileged students who had the opportunity to learn with Mr. Jason Haap during his tenure at Purcell Marian High School during the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 school years. It was during these two school years that Jason taught Advanced Freshmen Literature and Advanced Sophomore Literature. His classes were curriculum driven with a format that was also student-centered through participatory learning. Rarely did Jason stand at the chalkboard and lecture. Each student was responsible for contributing to the classrooms’ learning as well.

Classes at the time were in alternating block schedule with 90 minute periods. This allowed my classmates and I time to grapple with material, write, reflect, debate, analyze texts, and work on long-term group projects called “Exhibitions” as well as cover other material at a brisk Advanced Placement pace. It was through these Exhibitions that I got my first taste of group learning and how project-based learning could not only be a successful way for students to cover material, but could also be exciting, relevant, and rigorous.

Jason’s approach to each student’s learning was, to say the least, enthusiastic. It was evident that he was as passionate about literature as he was about students’ learning. At the time, not many teachers were exploring ways to incorporate technology into teaching, let alone implementing them. Jason was on the cutting edge. With his assistance (and technology tools), our small class recreated Richard III in full costume with digital camera, including the scene in which Hastings is beheaded. Jason could take difficult texts and make them accessible to fourteen and fifteen year olds. To this day, I can still recite the opening lines, “Now is the winter of our discontent …”

Jason Haap is an excellent teacher and person, who positively shaped my education at Purcell Marian High School.