Meet Clare Parks
My name is Clare Parks. As a citizen, I believe I respect all people, places, and things that I come in contact. I am open minded to others opinions and obey rules and laws. I am a Junior studying Elementary Education and English. Thanks to the wonderful instruction, inspiration, and guidance I received from my teachers throughout all of my elementary, middle, and high school experience, I decided I wanted to pursue this career path. I hope to mimic the way in which they presented material with passion, patience, and enthusiasm. They were excellent role models, not only in their ambition to engrave the skills they were teaching into the brains of the students, but in the sense of their kindness to my peers and dedication to their profession.
For my entire life, I participated in musical theatre, vocal lessons, singing ensembles, and liturgical choirs. In high school, as I pondered about what I wanted to study in college, I played with the idea of pursuing theatre. After advice from my mom and guidance couselors, I decided I wanted to keep theatre as a hobby as opposed to studying it at school. I believe that teaching is an appropriate and great profession for someone who loves to stand in front of a crowd and “put on a show.” I plan to bring the passion and energy I had on stage and reciprocate that liveliness to the students I teach.
One day in middle school, I was being a moody pre-teen as they are sometimes, complaining to my dad about how I did not want to do my social studies homework because it is “boring.” My dad looked at me shocked, responding, “Clare! Social Studies is the most exciting subject there is.” Knowing my love for plays, musicals, books, and television, he encouraged me to love the subject by saying “History is just like a really good play, book, or show. It has interesting characters, compelling plots, and wonderful lessons.” When I began to read my history books with that perspective, it made all the difference for me. Although I loved most of teachers in school, I sometimes felt that my history teachers in middle and high school formed the class with a surplus of reading, numerous lectures, and tons of note taking. I believe there are many better approaches to teach the subject than the way my older teachers did. For example, my elementary teachers always seemed to teach social studies in a way that excited my peers and me. It almost felt as if they would transform the classroom to be wherever they wanted us to be. They differentiated the learning to be unique daily. We would watch a film, play a game, , do art, complete a worksheet…all teaching us about social skills, culture, or history. We would go on field trips to local historical places. This pattern lasted until about the 7th grade. As a future educator, I would plan to see this pattern last until 12th grade.
Social Studies has the power to be amazing. I’m confident with the skills I’ve been learning at Marquette that I’ll be able to prove that to my future students.