Employee Directory

Lee Marcus

• English Faculty
• Email
• Dyker Heights
• Middle School, Upper School

“I am a student-centered teacher. Growth mindset is an important element of my English classroom at Poly Prep, and it’s been so exciting to see my students develop their literary skills.”

In 2019, Lee Marcus joined the English Department to teach in Middle and Upper School. Lee grew up in northern New Jersey. He was inspired by his fourth grade teacher, who encouraged him to write in a journal, and a fifth grade teacher who challenged him to excel. The summer after his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, Lee taught low-income middle school students through the non-profit Breakthrough New York. Lee worked at Leadership Prep, a public charter school in New York, for six years, helping students with their writing skills. He taught the book Animal Farm each year to eighth graders and teaches the novel at Poly. Lee’s goal is to have his Grade 7 students make connections between the books they read and their own lives and for his Grade 9 students to refine their analysis skills to write effectively about what they have read. He and English teacher Laura Caldwell led Grade 7 through a service learning project about water that had its origins in a book the students read, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Lee, who is a vegetarian, loves cooking and takes part in a community-sourced produce program.”