March 2016

Recommendation for Lucy Dawson

Shortly after our Head of Upper School posted the announcement of Lucy’s departure, I began getting emails. “Such a loss!” and “I am so sorry” were typical responses, and I heard much the same the next day when colleagues saw me in the hall. These sentiments sum up what Lucy has become in her 4 ½ short years at McDonogh -- a central figure in both the English department and the community as a whole.

To begin with, Lucy is a gifted teacher whose breadth of knowledge and intellectual passions make her able to teach an enormously wide range of texts, from Aristotle to graphic novels. She is always interested in improving her pedagogy and has been one of the leaders in the department in attending conferences and workshops in project-based learning and team-based learning. After moving through our Macbeth project her first year, which we teach by the Folger Shakespeare Set Free performance-based method, Lucy became a convert of this more active and engaging style of teaching and designed electives to employ it. She also took the lead in designing a project for the Food in Literature elective we teach together. The project was designed to get students to understand the food system in Baltimore city, which is less than perfect for many residents, and students were put in groups to choose one problem, research past solutions, then come up with their own solution that they then presented to an outside expert. Lucy also uses carefully structured student-led discussions frequently. As you can see, a common thread in her pedagogy is student engagement and ownership of their own learning. Having read her student feedback for four years I can tell you that students both love her and learn from her. My own teaching has improved by working with Lucy as her work leads me to question and refine my pedagogical practices.

Outside the classroom Lucy has been an active member of the department and the school community. Always willing to try new things and to dive in where needed, Lucy has coached cross country and girls’ soccer, supported diversity initiatives, and taken on leadership roles. She is in the second year as Character Coordinator for the Upper School, and her vision and sense of mission have create many fantastic service opportunities for students, connecting them in meaningful ways with the community outside our campus. Within the department, she is the tenth grade team leader this year and a mentor for a new teacher. Lucy is organized, plans ahead, and runs a great meeting in which all voices are heard but good work gets done in a timely fashion. I certainly regarded her as a future chair of our department.

Lucy describes herself as a “pathological extrovert,” and this quality informs everything she does. She is the first to volunteer to cover a class when a colleague is sick or to participate in some extra activity. Just last week she played (again) in the annual faculty-student basketball game, even

though she doesn’t play basketball, and was a member of the faculty step squad in the Faculty-Senior Follies (ask her to show you her moves). And Lucy always wears the best costumes to school during Halloween and our annual Spirit Week. In short, she is both fun and funny, and I have been privileged to count as a friend as well as a colleague.

I have had to edit myself severely to keep this recommendation to a reasonable length, but I would be more than happy to elaborate on how and why Lucy would be a wonderful asset to your school. Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Cynthia Cox

Head, English department ccox@mcdonogh.org