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Citation For Math Teaching-Glenn Marlowe

Part of the Lab School’s Success
Marlowe sets high expectations—then helps students meet them

Glenn Marlowe was almost there from the start.

A seventh grade teacher at the New York City School for Collaborative Education—or the Lab School, as it is commonly known—Marlowe has been with the institution for the past 18 of his 25 years as an educator. His wife and valued confidant, Judy Geller-Marlowe, an administrator and consultant in the school district, introduced him to Lab in its second year. Back then, it only serviced grades 7 and 8 and employed just six teachers.

Marlowe’s passion for math began during his ninth grade algebra class in his Long Island public school. Although he studied history in college with an aim to pursue law, he was re-directed into teaching as a way to avoid going to war. “Like many of my generation,” he said, “I chose to teach rather than to fight in a war.”

Middle school social studies was his first focus, but Marlowe soon realized it did not fulfill him the way mathematics did, and he began to work in a math lab in Long Island’s Nassau Community College. “I decided that I wanted to become a classroom teacher again with this rediscovered passion of mathematics on the middle school and high school levels,” he said.

It was during these years that Marlowe also developed a passion for visual arts; he is also a sculptor and his work is currently on display at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park until June 28. Sculpture, he said, fosters his mathematical creativity in the classroom. “The two work in tandem as math appeals to my sense of logic and art to my emotional being,” he said.

That cross-disciplinary approach was also evident when Marlowe recently teamed up with the science department to teach about architecture and the construction of buildings and bridges. The assignment was inspired by the Patronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lampur. “That was the basis for the project,” he said. “Each group of kids built model cities with twin towers connected by bridges.”

Marlowe taught about the mathematics of architecture while the science instructors explained the physics involved in developing these projects.

“My aim is to have my classroom as student-centered as possible,” Marlowe said, “and to maximize student involvement so that many activities are student directed and designed.”

Parent Ellen Tabor says Marlowe is the best teacher her son, Robert Bennett, has ever had. Homework is a must, and when students are tested they are always given the opportunity to go back and make corrections so they learn from their mistakes, she explained. He also encourages students to pair up and tutor one another. “He commands integrity from his students,” Tabor said, “challenges them and has high expectations that he helps the kids meet.”

— Wendy Ilene Friedman