If you work at a school or educational institution, there are going to be times when a student will ask for a letter of recommendation. These recommendations can be for a plethora of reasons; ranging from volunteer opportunities, internships, and even jobs. Through some tact and organization, you can conjure up an informative, truthful letter where one can easily assess the potential of the student.
It is best to have a personal connection with the student. You don't want to create a generic letter of recommendation. To create an informative letter of recommendation, you want to have a connection with the student where you can easily differentiate his scholastic, educational, and career successes and pitfalls. You can always ask to have a one on one meeting with the student, and try to decipher what he is good at and where do their passions lie. Ask for professional references and character references. Schools are often the center of social circles among students; ask about their relationships with other teachers, students, and faculty. Make poignant points in the successes of the student. If he has good grades on a specific subject or sport, make sure that you point this out. Try to import details about time commitments.
A letter recommendation has to be accurate where one can make an easy analysis of their aptitude, curiosity, and the individual personal abilities of the student. You might want to point out educational or scholastic endeavors where the student might be lacking. For example, if their strong point is not English class, make sure to point out that they are still a contributing member of the newspaper society in school, where they contribute ideas for newspaper articles on a regular basis.
To avoid conflict of interest, try to include one negative comment to every three positive comments. If there is a subject or endeavor that the student might be lacking in, make sure to point out that the student is thriving to improve in that particular subject.
In your career as teacher, you will be asked for a letter of recommendation many times. But with a bit of poise and constructional assessment of the relationship between student and teacher, you can easily create a venerable letter of recommendation.