Mrs. Clarke-Anderson, one of the most interesting teachers at BF, is also one of the longest-tenured teachers at BF. She has been teaching for 36 years and 30 of those years are at BF. She used to teach English but now she teaches all different types of electives such as word study, mythology, research, speech and debate and many more. She welcomes everyone with open arms and wants everyone to feel comfortable. This is a very important factor in every classroom. One of her main goals for her classroom is to make sure everyone enjoys her class and makes sure that everyone has respect towards one another. Even though you only attend BF for 3 years if you like Mrs. Clarke-Anderson you can still see her at the high school. She is the coach of the speech and debate club. We sat down with Mrs. Clarke-Anderson and interviewed her asking some questions about teaching and what she likes.

What made you want to teach?

“Well, I had a great teacher when I was in high school who was a math teacher. Her name was Mrs. Mally and I think I told a lot of this story. I actually got to see her and tell her that which was really exciting. First I was going to be a famous actress and then my parents said, when they came to visit me on parents weekend, ‘maybe you should have something to fall back on instead of a famous actress.”

What is your favorite part about teaching?

Just being with you guys every day and talking with you and seeing how you learn. Seeing when you get something and you do it very well and how happy you are. 

What do you enjoy outside of school?

“Well, I enjoy being with my family. I love to read obviously. I like playing Words With Friends and Scrabble online with a bunch of people I keep in touch with. I like to cook. I like baking things  like Christmas cookies, which is a tradition in my family. I like cooking from scratch not using box.”

What type of music do you listen to?

I listen to classic rock and my favorite artist is Bruce Springsteen because I actually got to tell him I loved him one time when he opened the Brendan Byrne Arena in 1981. You guys were not even near being born yet. I got to the front and I got to be standing right next to the stage and he came by him and I looked up at him and I screamed ‘I love you’ and he smiled at me. And Bruce has always been my favorite and I’ve seen almost every time he’s gone on tour. 

What’s your favorite elective to teach? 

That’s a hard question because I really love speech and debate obviously and I really love research, those are both great. I love literary analysis, word study and mythology are all different in their own way, so I like teaching them for different reasons. Like I like teaching the sixth-grade electives because I get to know them better. I get to have everyone and I get to see everyone grow. 

What book would you recommend to middle schoolers to read?

“To Kill a Mockingbird is probably one of the best books you could ever read.”

What is the most difficult grade to teach?

“Sixth grade because they’re really young and I feel like I do a better job with older kids.”

What is your favorite book?

“My favorite book is written by Jane Austin is Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austin work about the class system and it was hard for women and what people thought of each other in British society. Back in a time when people didn’t think that way, I like reading almost anything she wrote, but that’s my favorite if I have to pick.”

What’s your most interesting childhood memory? 

“My most interesting childhood memory, I got to read for Mae Carden in first grade and that’s when I had first learned how to read and we learned by this reading method, the Mae Carden read method, where you just pronounced all the sounds of the continents then you threw A, E, I, O, U. My father and mother who were teachers thought that was hilarious but when I did learn how to read I constantly read. When Mae Carden came to my school and I got picked to read for her because I was a really good reader in first grade, but when she arrived she was an older lady and she had that skin underneath her chin, it’s called a gobble. Every time her head moved the thing moved. I was absolutely fascinated by that. I was sitting next to her and my poor teacher Ms. Ward said while she was looking at me ‘read!’ and I was like ok and she took me out and was like ‘what is wrong with you? I picked you to read cause you were like the best reader’ and I was like ‘what’s the thing on her neck?’ and she’s like ‘oh my gosh no that’s called a gobble and you know you’re probably gonna have one when you’re older!’ and I’m like ‘noo’ and so I did finally read and it’s one of my favorite memories from school at least. 

What is your least favorite subject?

“I guess I’d have to say math and Ms. Skettini is gonna kill me for this, I’m really not good at math. And every time I watched Hidden Figures I said this today I wish I could be really smart like Katherine and she was really smart at math and that’s admirable. She got people to space.”

Mrs. Clarke-Anderson has had a very successful career at BF and as a teacher in general. Now that you have read a little about Mrs. Clarke-Anderson you can hopefully get to have her as your teacher.