ST. STEPHEN'S & ST. AGNES SCHOOL

Living Our Mission

4 March 2011

Dear Sir or Madam:

It is with genuine regret that I write this letter on behalf of Lucy Wood because she is notonly a truly talented teacher, but also an irreplaceable asset to my department and our community

as a whole. Over the past four years, Lucy has taught five different English classes: English 9,English 12, Writing Workshop, Monsters In Literature, and Graphic Narrative. In fact, as our mostexperienced 9th grade teacher, Lucy has become the de facto leader of the English 9 team. She hasplayed an integral role in redesigning our 9th grade curriculum, shifting it from a course based on atraditional notion of the canon to one that reflects the globalized world in which our students our

growing up. Two of the most successful new units that Lucy has helped to develop focus on Chinaand the Middle East. At the same time, however, Lucy possesses a knowledge base firmly rooted ina Great Books tradition. As a result, she achieves a balance in her curriculum that both honors theclassics and respects newer literature and media. Her current 12th grade seminars exemplify thisversatility; her first semester course focuses on the newer medium of graphic narrative, while hersecond semester course explores the nature of monsters in classic texts like Bram Stoker's Draculaand Robert Louis Stephenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Likewise, as our WritingWorkshop teacher and a tutor in her spare time, Lucy has honed her skills as a writing instructorover the past few years, particularly with students in need of remediation.

Beyond the classroom, Lucy has worked tirelessly to better our school community andfoster a culture of literacy. As one of two faculty mentors for our Unity Through Diversity club, Lucyspends two lunch periods a week-not to mention the extracurricular time-with the student clubmembers, organizing diversity workshops, lunch forums, the annual Multicultural Night, and theUpper School Multicultural Assembly among other activities. She has also coached the girls' juniorvarsity soccer team for the past four seasons; and this spring marks her first season coaching thejunior varsity softball team. In addition, Lucy mentors our school Quiz Bowl team which annuallycompetes in the Washington-area "It's Academic" television quiz show as well as various other localtournaments. And, finally, Lucy has also served as a judge in our school-wide Poetry Out Loudcompetition.

A true mark of an educator is someone who can inspire, and I have seen Lucy inspirestudents in so many venues-the classroom, the athletic field, Multicultural Night-it baffles me tothink that she was ever employed anywhere other than a schooL. When Lucy gave the keynoteaddress at our first academic honors convocation this year, I looked around the auditorium andmarveled at her ability to keep 450 teenagers in rapt attention with the sheer force of her poise andcharisma. There were no teachers admonishing students to remain quiet that morning.

Truly, any school fortunate enough to have Lucy Wood on their faculty will be a better placefor it. I know that in four short years she has left an indelible mark on our community, as a teacher,a colleague, and a friend.

SijJeiy,

JO~~!.f~:::J 1-

English Department Chair

Grades JK- 5: 400 Fontaine Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22302

Grades 6-8: 440 i West Braddock Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22304Grades 9-12: 1000 St. Stephens Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22304

(703) 75 i -2700www.sssas.org