Growing up as the third of six children, Renee Clark noticed how children learn differently.
“Between all six of us, we all are very different learners,” she said, noting that she had to work hard for her grades, while other siblings “didn’t have to open a book and got straight As,” and other siblings struggled with their classes.
After it was noticed that some students at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, were having learning gaps after the COVID-19 pandemic, Clark – who had taught pre-kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade there, transitioned to being the school’s resource teacher.
“I see so many different students, and they all learn differently,” Clark said. “We’re all going to learn. We just learn differently. We have to find ways to learn.”
On April 15, she learned how much her school – and The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington – appreciate her and her work, when during a surprise ceremony at the school gym, Christina Mendez-Hall, the assistant superintendent for Catholic identity and accreditation in the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office, announced that Clark is one of 10 Golden Apple Award winning teachers for this school year.
The Golden Apple teachers, who will be honored at a May 16 dinner, will each receive a golden apple and a monetary award of $5,000 from the Donahue Family Foundation, which sponsors the annual award for teaching excellence and dedication to Catholic education.
Clark was lured to the gym during a talk outside with Ashley Lewis, St. Mary of the Assumption’s principal, who was asked to come right away to the gym. Clark walked there with the principal, thinking an issue might be happening with a student, but as she entered the gym, the school’s 267 students cheered for her and waved gold-colored pom-poms, and a large banner revealed that she is a Golden Apple Award-winning teacher for this school year.
“I was definitely taken aback, and definitely humbled,” said Clark.
Among those congratulating her at the ceremony were her father Tracy Dorsey; her husband, Marcus Clark; and three of their four children who are now attending St. Mary of the Assumption School – Darren, an eighth grader; Karina, a sixth grader; and Mariana, a kindergarten student. Her son Shawn, who graduated from the school, is now a 10th grader at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville.
In a reflection on her life as a Catholic school teacher, Clark wrote, “My teaching philosophy and values stem from my childhood. I come from a large Catholic family, with five siblings and a host of cousins. My parents made significant sacrifices to give all of us a strong Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Washington. Being from a large family, we never had it easy, but my parents did everything they could to make sure their six children went to a Catholic school.”
In an interview, Clark said the example of her parents, Tracy and Maria Dorsey, “really ingrained in me how important education and the faith was.”
She grew up attending St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Hyattsville and graduated from the Catholic elementary school there and then from Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg before earning a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and special education, with magna cum laude honors, from Bowie State University.
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” she said.
Clark said her teachers at Seton were very relatable, “always had their door open” to help, and took the time to know her as a person.
Early in her career, Clark was the director of a childcare center. Then as she began raising her family, she was a stay-at-home mom. When her son entered the pre-kindergarten at St. Mary of the Assumption School, she began volunteering as a room parent and sometimes served as a substitute teacher. When the school had an opening for a pre-kindergarten teacher, Lewis encouraged Clark to apply, and she began teaching pre-K there in 2013, and she has been a teacher there since then.
Clark said that as a parent, she appreciated the family-oriented nature of the school, how the students all knew each other and the parents looked out for all the children.
St. Mary of the Assumption’s principal praised the Golden Apple Award winning teacher, saying, “No one knows the school the way Renee does.” Lewis pointed out how Clark started as a parent volunteer, then became a substitute and later a full-time teacher there, teaching pre-kindergarten and then first grade and later the fourth grade before becoming the school’s resource teacher.
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, St. Mary of the Assumption School like other schools quickly pivoted to a virtual program. Then for most of the next school year, its teachers continued to teach virtually, with some students learning from home, and other students whose parents were essential personnel in military, government and health care fields had the option of taking those virtual lessons at the school, with the help of a teaching assistant. The goal, Lewis said, was for all the students to be focusing on the same mode of teaching.
Afterward, when it was determined that St. Mary of the Assumption School needed a resource teacher, Lewis said Clark was the perfect person to help all the age groups at the school, from 3-year-olds to eighth graders, excel.
“I realized she could best serve the school outside of just one classroom,” said Lewis, who added that Clark as the resource teacher there “is basically the instructional coach for our school.”
Lewis noted that Clark’s role “is not just limited to students with documented learning needs,” and added that as the school’s testing coordinator, “she is incredibly talented at reading and analyzing standardized testing data,” and works with teachers, parents and the students themselves to come up with individualized learning plans for students who need them.
St. Mary of the Assumption School’s principal said the resource teacher “knows where every single child’s grades are in every single class. She will chase you down for missing assignments, but she does it in a way that students don’t feel targeted, they feel supported. They know someone is looking out for them.”
Clark as a classroom teacher centered her students’ days on prayer, and students continue to know that their resource teacher has an authentic faith that guides her daily life and work, Lewis said, adding, “Everything is based on her faith.”
The resource teacher who works to help students improve their grades and test scores said she cares more about their character and that they are good people. In her reflection on teaching in a Catholic school, Clark said she wanted her children, and now she wants her students, to learn the values that she learned in Catholic school. “To instill these virtues of the Catholic faith in others is one of my favorite joys,” she wrote.
Clark knows that when her students go on to high school, college and in their professional and personnel lives, they will face other tests and challenges, and she hopes they lean on the values they learned in Catholic school. She hopes her students “know they always have somebody they can count on and come back to.”
And when her former students do come back or keep in touch in other ways, she said, “It’s really nice to see where they’ve come and how they’ve grown.”
