How do I go about asking for letters of recommendation? I know some teachers have letters of recommendations just in their portfolios just to have. How would I go about asking for this? Would you write me a letter as if I were applying for a job? Who do they write to? In what manner? Recommending your for what? Saying what about you? I just started my masters so it would be nice to just have the letters already on the off chance I do start searching. I don't plan on job searching but I'm sort of blase about it. I don't want to look because of my masters and just being still for right now. But I do feel I'm losing my love/like for teaching and I know it's my campus and grade level and just the overall culture and climate or lack of this year. I'm simply building my portfolio now as part of my masters but this is the one thing I remember always seeing. I'd rather not wait to ask when I'm looking for a job. Most applications have the e-references anyway but it would be nice to have a hard copy letter just for my records.
Just simply ask them if they will write you a letter of recommendation so you can keep for your records for the future. They can just state: "To Whom It May Concern...." and it would be recommendation for any future jobs. They'll know to write your positive attributes. Make sure you get them to sign a few copies and make a whole bunch of copies for you records.
I have sometimes found LORs are useless because schools want to contact the person for a reference by phone. I guess it depends on area norms?
