“I didn’t even know I was going to be a teacher until I was a teacher.”
Ms. Clark is a College Readiness and College Prep math teacher. She reflects on her thoughts on being a teacher and why this role is so important to her.
“I didn’t even know I was going to be a teacher until I was a teacher.” When Clark was in college she took a class called Poetry for the People and her facilitator suggested that she should be a facilitator the following year. She thought she couldn’t do it until she tried it and ended up really enjoying working as a teacher. Then she helped out at an alternative school and taught math. “It’s history from there,” Clark said.
Clark grew to have really good teaching skills. She later realized that everything in her life led to her becoming a teacher whether she knew it or not.
Clark discussed how important it is to make connections with her students and integrate humor into the classroom. She recognized that most people don’t like math: “If you can at least be a little crazy and give them a reason to laugh a little bit, even if they are laughing at you, it makes it not as bad.”
For Clark, making connections in her classroom teaching math helps open the door for students. It allows students an opportunity to be willing to learn and enjoy learning.
Clark thinks it’s important to integrate humor into her teaching as well. “You want to do what you can do to make the environment fun.” Clark commented, “It’s just part of my personality, I’m a big goofball, and it makes it fun for me too.”
Clark said that she has no regrets in life. “I recognize every choice that I made, good or bad, made me who I am, and allowed me to learn the lessons that I have learned,” Clark said. If she hadn’t made mistakes along the way, she wouldn’t have learned lessons that affect her decisions now. She uses her learned lessons to keep growing as a teacher.
