WHS art teacher Mr. Glenn was born in Sherborn, Massachusetts. In high school, art was one of his favorite classes, and though he didn’t really know what he wanted to do for a job, he thought it would probably be something art or design related. 

At the time, he didn’t know much about different options for careers involving art. In his mind, the main job for an artist was an illustrator so in high school he would have probably said he wanted to be an illustrator. 

He graduated from Dover-Sherborn High School in 2003 and went to Syracuse University’s visual arts program. Before teaching he had a variety of jobs: he did freelance illustration and design (on and off), he worked for carpentry and residential construction companies as a  framer and carpenter, and he worked as a graphic designer for newspapers, small magazines, an investment company, and a couple advertising agencies. Through all his different occupations, he has always had art in his life.

When Mr. Glenn started working at WHS in 2014, he knew that he wanted to be an art teacher but started as a paraeducator. A couple years later, he filled an opening in the art department and then became a full-time art teacher.  He is currently attending grad school at Framingham State University.

Mr. Glenn teaches: 2D Art Foundations, Drawing 1 and Drawing 2, AP Drawing, and Mixed Media Painting. He loves all of these classes, but his favorite class to teach is Mixed Media Painting.

 He describes,  “It’s a lot of fun and a lot of materials and construction with cutting things up, collaging, nothing is off the table.” 

He only teaches Mixed Media in the fall so it feels special because it’s only once a year. His favorite thing about teaching is witnessing someone’s ‘a-ha’ moment. He thinks it’s “very cool” when he can see the lightbulb when someone figures something out. He also likes to share and teaching allows him to share techniques and ideas and see his students figure them out. 

 Mr. Glenn loves to fish, hike with his family, travel, and, in previous winters when he had more time, fix old things. If he found an old bike in the fall or summer he would fix it up and give it to somebody or sell it later. Skiing is another hobby of his that got him into teaching. He worked for a ski resort in Colorado, where he wanted to be a ski patroller, but one of his friends said he would be freezing cold all day. 

Instead, he joined their adaptive program where he skied  with individuals with physical disabilities, cognitive disabilities, veterians, and people who were recovering from accidents or trauma. He loved skiing with this program and that’s when he decided that he really liked teaching. He came to the conclusion that he enjoyed coaching, skiing, teaching, and art and was looking for a way to combine them. 

When he came back to Westborough and found out we had a ski team he was “all over it.” In his first year with the ski team in 2016 or 2017, he was a volunteer assistant coach. The next year they needed an assistant coach and the year after that, they were looking for a new head coach. He filled those roles and was the head coach for the past 3 years. He is taking a break from coaching this year to focus on his family but he would love to pick it back up again. 

One of the most influential people in Mr. Glenn’s life was Joe Burbank, a high school art teacher. 

Mr Glenn said, “He was one of the first people that just channeled my energy into something constructive. I was always drawing, I think I probably had an ADHD, just kind of off the wall especially when I was younger, and it was just hard for me to focus and he was one of the first people that, instead of trying to fight that or corral that he was like ‘well why don’t you put your energy into this’ or ‘why don’t you channel it this way.’”

He taught Mr. Glenn that he doesn’t have to sit still, he can get up and do other things and that is okay. He helped him play to his strengths and celebrate the way he learned instead of “one size fits all,” as he describes.

Another influential person in his life has been his uncle. He describes him as an awesome person who instilled a love for doing things outside and building things in him. 

When talking about his road to becoming a teacher, Mr. Glenn comments, “My path was so windy.”

He sees a lot of high school students get hung up if they don’t exactly know what they want to do or where they want to go. If he could go back in time, he would have told himself to relax and enjoy the journey more. 

He thinks it’s easy to feel unnecessary pressure surrounding career and school decisions and advises students that “there’s not as much of a rush as you think”. He says he notices, especially around the time everyone gets college letters and does admissions, that students feel a lot of pressure.

Mr. Glenn says, “I don’t think the timeline is quite as tight as people think. If your solution or journey involves taking the time to travel, go to another school and then transfer, or move around and see what you like, that can be really valid and valuable too.”