There is a new addition to our GEHS staff this semester, a new English and teen leadership teacher, Megan Clark. Clark was just recently hired for these positions, specifically working with both freshmen and sophomores.
“I have just been hired for English and teen leadership,” Clark said. “I have three sections of sophomore English, one section of 9th graders, and then I have the teen leadership as well.”
Before coming here, Clark worked at a private school in Missouri for six years, where she taught many different subjects.
“I actually worked for six years at Grandview Christian School over in Grandview, Missouri,” Clark said. “As a private teacher you don’t have to have a license, so that’s why I was able to teach there. I taught English, I taught math, I taught history. I even taught cooking and sewing. That’s kind of how private schools roll.”
While Clark had thought about working at different schools, specifically in Title I School Districts, she realized that it would be an unlikely opportunity.
“I had a lot of different places that I thought about [for teaching], and initially, when I stepped away from teaching the first time, I wanted to teach in Title I School Districts, particularly middle school,” Clark said. “But there’s only [maybe] four in the entire county that qualify for that, so I realized that’s probably not going to happen.”
After realizing that there was a low chance for her to get the specific job she was looking for, Clark began to open up to other schools as well, leading her to eventually apply to GEHS.
“I kind of opened up my horizons on places that I would like to teach at, and when I was doing my student teaching over at Olathe West, Mr. Bell sent out notifications to all the administrators saying that he needed an English teacher for the second semester, so I thought I’d go ahead and apply,” Clark said.
Clark got her bachelor’s in English, math, and history from MidAmerica Nazarene University, but she got her masters from another university.
“[During] my undergrad I went to MidAmerica Nazarene University, and that’s where I got my bachelor’s in English, math, and history,” Clark said. “I just graduated from Western Governors University with my masters in English education.”
Clark describes her teaching style as more student-inclusive than just full of lectures. She feels that allowing students to contribute to conversations in the classroom gets them more engaged in what they are learning.
“I would describe [my teaching style to tend] to be a little semi-socratic in that I ask a lot of questions as we’re going through different [materials] and things,” Clark said. “I don’t always like to just stand up there and read everything off of a script, I kind of like to have a little dialogue back and forth because I feel like it gets the students a little more engaged.”
While many things about teaching tend to be Clark’s favorite, she really likes the moments when students finally figure out something they have been struggling with.
“There’s a lot that tends to be my favorite part, [but] I really like the aha moments, when you just see the student’s face light up because they finally get something they’ve been struggling with,” Clark said.
