Merion Elementary’s Glackman Wins Presidential Math & Science Teacher of the Year Award

Editor's note: This story has been updated from an original version posted late Tuesday morning.

Penny Glackman, a NASA-trained educator at Merion Elementary who lives in Ardmore, is one of 85 teachers in the nation to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Glackman, a 21-year veteran of Merion Elementary, has been lauded for years for incorporating aeronautical and space science into her curriculum, receiving numerous awards. This one is different, she told Patch in an interview on Tuesday.

"This one, I felt, was the ultimate affirmation of all the work I've done as a science teacher, and it is a thrill," she said.

The annual award winners are selected by a panel of scientists, mathematicians, and educators after an initial selection process at the state level. The awards alternate each year between K through 6th grade teachers and those teaching 7th through 12th grades. This year’s awardees are from the former group.

Glackman teaches 3rd grade at Merion, but it was her nine years as a 5th grade teacher that got her involved in aerospace education, she said.

"In 1997, I was teaching the solar system and I wanted to expand what I did in my work, to include space exploration, because it is part and parcel of today's world," she recalled. "I thought it would enrich and expand their world."

Glackman's efforts led to a spot in a special NASA educator program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a fortnight that expanded and enriched her own world in ways she could not foresee.

"Those two weeks down there really changed my life as an educator," she said.

For one thing, she now hangs out with astronauts—if only online. But sometimes in the flesh, too. In October of 2009, Glackman had former NASA astronaut Dr. Donald Thomas come to the school. She had met him at a conference a couple of years before.

"I said to him what I always say to people—'Oh, maybe someday you'll come and visit my school.' ... Sometime later he told me he wasn't living a very far drive from Philadelphia, and so he just came."

But it has been another astronaut, one she met during her two weeks with NASA, who has been a sort of main part of Glackman's curriculum in the years since. Astronaut Joe Tanner struck up a friendship with the teacher, and began answering correspondence from Merion Elementary students.

"He was great about it, but at one point—these were the days before email [in schools]—we just decided, why not do a teleconference call?" The tradition continues to this day, and Tanner will be answering students' questions over the phone on Wednesday.

Glackman said she was a psychology major in college, and had always been "very curious about the people side of space exploraation." She wanted to know what kind of person would be so dedicated to science, at such a high level, that they would push their physical and mental limits as far as they could go—and then put their lives on the line in doing so.

Winners of the President's award receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion, along with an expense-paid trip to Washington for the awards ceremony and other events, including visits with members of Congress and the Administration. Glackman is keeping her fingers crossed that she will meet President Obama.

"The way they frame it is that is's 'possible,' depending on his agenda," etc., she said. "For me, just being in the same room with someone of his stature, and him in particular, would be an experience that would be amazing, that would be awesome."

In February, Glackman won an Educator Achievement Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics—one of only seven in the nation to do so. It is considered one of the most prestigious honors for teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She will receive it on May 11 at the 2011 Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala in Washington, D.C., in what turns out to be just her first visit to the nation's capital in 2011 to accept an award.

“Ms. Glackman is more than worthy,” said Christopher McGinley, Lower Merion’s superintendent of schools, at a meeting of the township’s school board . “We’re pleased that people outside of the school district recognize her as one of the seven most incredible teachers in the nation.”

“The teachers we honor today have demonstrated uncommon skill and devotion in the classroom, nurturing the young minds of tomorrow’s science and math leaders,” said President Obama, in a statement. “America’s competitiveness rests on the excellence of our citizens in technical fields, and we owe these teachers a debt of gratitude for strengthening America’s prosperity.”

A complete list of all winners can be viewed here. The other winner from Pennsylvania is Gail Romig, a math teacher in State College. The sole New Jersey winner is Kathy Burgin, a math instructor in Mullica Hill (Gloucester County). 

Today, May 3, is national Teacher Appreciation Day. But Glackman, at the end of our conversation, turned that around in light of the intense appreciation being showered on her right now by her fellow teachers and staff at Merion Elementary.

"If it weren't for my students and their excitement and their intellectual curiosity, I would not have been able to accomplisgh what I have done," she said. "They have fueled my interest in learning. It is a fully complementary experience. I want to learn more so that I can then teach more."