His Story
Glenn Lid has taught chemistry at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois for thirty-three years. He calls his classes “exocharmic,” and he promises to “exude as much positive energy, humor, creativity, technological knowhow, and inspiration” as he can. Students come to expect the unexpected: he glides across the floor on a hovercraft, dresses as a chef, lights a match with steam, boils water with ice, and raps about acids, bases and precipitates.
His room has “Ten Chemmandents” over the door, a “wall of fame” of former students and an electronic marquee with a weekly riddle. Students make ice cream, build their own models of what atoms and molecules do, and see sound waves made visible in 100 flames on a pipe he built. After a unit on nuclear energy, they held a Skype interview with a survivor of Hiroshima, and many then attended village meetings to urge local mayors to sign the “Mayors for Peace” document.
Lid treats data the way a coach treats statistics. When students scored poorly on a chemical-naming test, he decided “I felt I failed,” re-taught the lesson as a lab, and watched scores rise. His AP Chemistry students have earned 5s on the exam, and one graduate wrote from M.I.T. that his teacher’s humorous acronyms and songs “helped me to learn, understand, and then apply knowledge rather than just learning to pass exams.”
Beyond the Classroom
Lid coaches baseball and wrestling, runs the USA Wrestling regional and sectional tournaments for freshmen and sophomores at his school, and brings his players to help at the Special Olympics. He calls his students “Lid’s Kids.” They present chemistry demonstrations at Chicago’s annual Chemistry Day and at a local elementary school’s Science Night, and they run the Golden Apple 5K for student scholarships.
A member of the Golden Apple Teachers of Distinction class of 2007, he helped plan the Teachers for Tomorrow Conference, which draws hundreds of prospective teachers. After Disney training in 2004 he helped start professional learning communities in his district, which still meet every Monday morning. He has taught summer science workshops for Golden Apple Scholars and Chicago Public Schools, and he has served on his union’s executive board and as PTA vice president. Several of his students have gone to summer programs at Argonne, Fermilab and the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED.
Philosophy Into Practice
Lid compares teachers to explorers. “Each one is the greatest discovery of all,” he writes. A struggling student himself, he credits a printer-turned-custodian father who taught him by patience and play, and he says that experience lets him empathize with students who find conventional schooling difficult.
He works in a high-need community, and he believes the answer is “persistently improving relationships with students based on the highest of expectations possible”: “if we want a great school, we need to act like a great school.” He also wants more good teachers to commit to schools of need, where he says “you will be rich with the lives that you can change.”
“The harder I work the luckier I get.”— Ben Hogan, quoted by Lid to his students
In His Own Words
“It is my mission to exude as much positive energy, humor, creativity, technological knowhow, and inspiration into my lessons as I can.”— Glenn D. Lid
“Teachers are explorers of the next generation.”— Glenn D. Lid
“Class activities must be relevant, rigorous, and discovery based.”— Glenn D. Lid
What Others Said
“Glen Lid is one of the most innovative, passionate and committed teachers of young people I have encountered.”— Simon Joseph Kierulf, nominator
“Whether it be teaching, coaching, volunteering, working with students or staff, Glenn puts his heart and soul into everything he attempts.”— Therese McLaughlin, former athletic director
“Mr. Lid fed my strong intellectual curiosity with humility and enthusiasm.”— Quinnton Harris, former student, class of 2007
“Glenn Lid went out of his way, not only to make me feel welcomed, but also … acted as my un-official mentor.”— Former colleague
“Mr. Lid is one of the best teachers I have ever had.”— Former student