Mrs. Clark's 4th Grade Class
Joyce Clark is currently teaching 4th grade at Weller. This is Mrs. Clark’s third year at Weller, her 23rd in the district.
Mrs. Clark grew up in Springfield. Her parents moved her after her father spent 20 years in the Navy. He then attended SMS on the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1966. He also worked for SPS and retired a second time in 1976.
Mrs. Clark attended Sunshine, Jarrett, and Parkview. She graduated from SMSU in 1976 with certification in elementary and Latin (K-12). She began teaching fulltime in Boonville, Missouri, at the Missouri State Training School for Boys. She taught all subjects to adjudicated delinquents who were full-time guests of the state of Missouri, aged 13-17.
In 1984, Mrs. Clark moved back to Springfield to raise her son and help her elderly parents. She began teaching Latin at Central High School. She taught Latin at Central, Parkview, and Glendale from 1984-1992. She then moved to Portland School where she taught 4th and 3rd grades. In 2001, she began teaching Latin again to 6th graders in the Middle Years Scholars Program. In 2004, Mrs. Clark earned a Masters Degree from Drury University just a month before she turned 50. In 2005, she came to Weller.
Mrs. Clark has raised one son, mostly in Springfield. Gabriel is now 25 and will graduate from MSU in May of 2008. He is the 3rd generation of the family to graduate from the same place, although the official names of the place have changed. Although Gabriel moved out when he graduated from high school, Mrs. Clark still lives in the same house she’s owned since 1988.
In her free time, Mrs. Clark enjoys reading mysteries and historical fiction. She collects buttons and buys a lot of fabric, some of which she occasionally actually sews. She has a smart dog named Harley, whom the vet describes as a “big orange dog.”