Advocating for our children to learn

 

If you are not familiar with the man in the picture above, I would love to share more information with you about this inspiring educator. 

According to The Ron Clark Academy (2023), Ron Clark was named Disney's American Teacher of the Year in 2000. He has been honored at the White House three times, he was named Oprah's first "Phenomenal Man," and Matthew Perry starred as Ron Clark in the inspiring movie, The Ron Clark Story.

So what makes this man so special? 

Ron Clark has the internal passion to help children be their best, as well as share and encourage teachers to use the same strategies that you can learn from visiting his school, one of his professional developments, or by reading one of his books. 

Upon my own visit to the Ron Clark Academy, I gained many new teaching strategies to bring back to my own classroom. The visit also sparked my own passion for fun and engaging lessons to try inside my own classroom. Eventually, my principal encouraged teachers to come and visit my classroom to get new ideas that they could use in their classroom to help with student engagement. 

While not everyone will be lucky enough to visit The Ron Clark Academy or meet Ron Clark, one can still find inspiration in his drive to make education a better place for all students. Ron Clark believes that all children can learn, but it takes the creativity of the teacher to make that happen (Glanton, 2007). This is apparent in his movie, The Ron Clark Story. 

Ron Clark dreamed of teaching in an inner-city school in New York. When starting out with his disadvantaged class, he realizes that it is not going to be as easy as he thought. However, Clark learns more about each student and discovers the best way to motivate each student. No spoiler alert because I am sure you know he successfully teaches his students (The Ron Clark Story (TV Movie 2006) - Plot - IMDB, n.d.). In the movie, Ron Clark utilizes preventive teaching strategies, which include establishing rules and procedures and teacher-student interaction. Additionally, Ron Clark uses reactive strategies that are issuing warnings and punishment (Hakim et al., 2023).

If you have not been persuaded to consider Ron Clark as an education advocate, let me continue with more facts below.

Contributions

• Has motivated and inspired millions of teachers from across the world through his professional development at his school (The Ron Clark Academy, 2023) 
• Has shared his ideas and strategies with millions of teachers through professional development across the globe (Belieftnet, 2004).
• Has written four books to help educators and administrators be more successful.
• The Ron Clark Academy is for low-income families, which provides children with opportunities that they might not have ever received (Glanton, 2007).
• The House System, which is being used by schools across the world to build school culture and climate (Ron Clark Academy, 2023).
• Inspiring new teachers and college education programs in new teacher preparation (McBride & Gieselmann, 2018)

Challenges

• No Child Left Behind "sucked the education system dry of passion and creativity" stated Ron Clark (Belieftnet, 2004).
• Opened his school as a private school to have the freedom he wanted in the education process, public or charter school laws would not allow the flexibility (Belieftnet, 2004).
• Funding. It costs $14,000 a year per kid to attend the Ron Clark Academy, so finding corporations and people to sponsor and continue to help each year (Glanton, 2007).

Ron Clark has the passion and the energy. He seeks out other educators to work at his school that has their own excitement to teach students unconventionally. In closing, do not just take my word for it but listen to what others have to say about it.

References

Belieftnet. (2004). Inspiring teacher Ron Clark gives his secrets for back to school success for students. Beliefnet. Retrieved January 28, 2024, from https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/2006/08/the-inspired-teacher.aspx

Glanton, B. D. (2007, March 1). Groundbreaking teacher builds school of his dreams. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-03-01-0703010230-story.html

Hakim, M., Ahmadi, N., Lail, H., & Nuriadi, N. (2023). The Teaching Strategies to Control Unconducive Class in The Ron Clark Story. Journey: Journal of English Language and Pedagogy, 6(1), 113-119. https://doi.org/10.33503/journey.v6i1.2622

McBride, A. & Gieselmann, S. (2018) The Ron Clark Academy’s Influence on Preservice and First-year Teachers. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, [s. l.], v. 85, n. 2, p. 31–33.

Ron Clark Academy. (2023, November 16). House system. Retrieved January 28, 2024, from https://beta.ronclarkacademy.com/house-system/

Ron Clark Academy. (2011, May 8). The Ron Clark Academy - Kids who enjoy going to school (CNN) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFSR53NJFAY

 The Ron Clark Academy. (2023). Retrieved January 28, 2024, from https://ronclarkacademy.com

 The Ron Clark Story (TV Movie 2006) - Plot - IMDB. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473389/plotsummary/