Linda Clark This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. DentonRC.com | News for Denton, Texas | Local News

   www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/16/2005   Last Visited: 5/16/2005

   Denton's Elementary Teacher of the Year, Linda Clark, gives her fifth-grade science students the freedom to explore in her classroom.
   
   DRC/Barron Ludlum Pecan Creek Elementary School fifth-grade science teacher Linda Clark was named the Denton school district's Elementary Teacher of the Year.
   
   "It's kind of a classroom where nothing's really too much off-limits and hopefully every day they learn something new," said Clark, who teaches at Pecan Creek Elementary. "To me, it's important that the kids want to come to my classroom and feel like it's something they like to do."
   
   Clark keeps classroom pets and works with her students on their observation skills. She also keeps her students interested in class with projects and experiments, she said.
   
   "I'm a big believer in nature being nature and kids should get to observe it," Clark said. "We've dissected owl pellets and done experiments with foam and fizz and popped the lids off of stuff. It's hands-on so they feel like they're really experimenting with things."
   
   Clark helped start the Writing Happens program in the district. Writing Happens teaches students the basic structures of different writing styles. Clark now helps train other Denton teachers in the program.
   
   Clark also enrolled her students in a program that allowed them to talk to astronauts on the International Space Station as it flew over Texas, making Pecan Creek one of 150 schools worldwide to talk to the astronauts.
   
   "It was just so personal to me having spent all these years seeing the astronauts being such idols to kids and having my kids get to talk to them, that was really one of the highlights of my career," Clark said. "Some of the parents said they had tears in their eyes and that's kind of the way it felt for me, too."
   
   Clark said she enjoys when former students visit her to tell her they enjoyed her class, and said she loves the job.
   
   "I'm really glad that I'm that kind of teacher," Clark said. "There are so many things we [teachers] do every day that we don't know how much it means to kids, but I don't consider myself really better than any other teacher in my school - I think we all are like that. I do what everybody else does at our school."
   
   Clark was one of 22 teachers in the district nominated for Teacher of the Year. Clark ultimately claimed the title for elementary-level educators. She has been teaching at Pecan Creek for two years, and taught at Newton Rayzor Elementary for 16 years before moving to the newer school. She also spent eight years teaching in Lewisville.
   
   Clark, who describes herself as soft-spoken, said she looks forward to the moments when she can tell she's reaching her students.
   
   "That moment that some child says, 'Oh, now I get it,' to you - that moment that you know they truly understand that point you were trying to make," she said. "It's as if suddenly you have given them something that has sparked something in them. You see their eyes light up and suddenly they make the connection."
   
   AVA THOMAS BENSON can be reached at 940-566-6875.
   
   LINDA CLARK

2. 2. DentonRC.com | News for Denton, Texas | Local News

   www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/27/2005   Last Visited: 4/27/2005

   The Denton school board honored teachers Linda Clark and Grace Anne McKay as the district's 2005 Jostens Teachers of the Year Tuesday night.
   ...
   Clark, who teaches fifth grade at Pecan Creek Elementary School, has been teaching for 25 years and has been at Pecan Creek for two years. She has also worked at Newton Rayzor Elementary School.
   
   Clark, who was named Jostens Elementary Teacher of the year, helped develop a writing program for bilingual students and led an effort that allowed her students to talk to astronauts as the space station flew over Texas.