User:Mclar005



Me and my hero.. My mom!!!

About Me
Well first of all, as you can tell with all of my testing 1.2.3 stuff, I am not the biggest computer expert there is.. hahaha.. But with a little bit of experimenting and tinkering, I should be able to figure it out!! So you might say that I am a hands on learning! My name is Michael Clark, I live in the heart of Southwest Virginia, in a town called Richlands. Pretty good size place, not to big though, but not too small either. I have lived here for about 14 years now. Prior to living here, I used to live in Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and finally back here to Virginia. All of that moving was from when I was little and my mom and I would move with my dad while he was trying to get a job. So I landed here in Richlands in my middle school days and have been here ever since. I graduated high school and immediately went into the local community college. I moved out of my parents house and started to find a life of my own. My mom and dad said that they would pay for my college as I went along, so I didn't have to worry about finances, definitely a good thing! I did however want to have some spare cash with me, so I did some local jobs at restaurants, grocery stores, etc. I figured that I would try for a bunch of smaller classes until I figured out which field of study I wanted to go into. So I took several of the smaller classes that could transfer to other colleges. Before I knew it, the small classes added up and I had gotten enough classes to recieve 6 Associate's degrees in various fields of study. I tried some classes here at ODU for the education program, but my grades prevented me from getting as far as I had hoped. After that I focused on the medical field, and attempted to get into the Radiology program here at SVCC, but I was put on the waiting list. I was living on my own for a while and then one day my mom gave me a call and informed me that she received some bad news. She was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2005. I visited a lot with her and stayed at the house with them several nights. It got to the point where I was spending more time at my parents home than at my apartment, so I figured that it would be smarter for me to move back in with my parents, that way I can keep an eye on her and help her out any way I could. For 2 years, my mom's battle with cancer went back and forth. Unfornately in the late summer of 2007, she lost her battle. I stuck around the house helping out my dad and giving him comfort, he did the same for me too! After taking some personal time off from school, I decided that it was time to get back into the saddle with education. So here I am, back in the Education program with ODU!

My Philosophy on Teaching
I believe that all the students can reach the stars! You have to have motivation and the want to be all you can be in order to succeed. As a teacher, we are not only teaching the students, but we are guiding, motivating, and influencing their lives. We have to teach the students that they have self worth and motivate then to do the best they possibly can. We have to challenge their minds, take their though processes to new and never reached before levels! The children are the future of this world, with our help as teachers, we can play a vital role in each of their lives and in turn shape the future as well!