For 33 years, Clark Carey has been passing the ball – literally.
He just retired as a physical education teacher at Willow School in Homewood where he helped students develop their motor skills, hand-eye coordination and fitness and exercise routines.
For 33 years, Clark Carey has been passing the ball – literally.
He just retired as a physical education teacher at Willow School in Homewood where he helped students develop their motor skills, hand-eye coordination and fitness and exercise routines.
Carey worked a number of jobs before his buddy told him he’d be a great physical education teacher. Carey took the advice and went back to school, earning his bachelor’s degree from North Park College. He was accepted as a graduate assistant at Eastern Illinois University and taught PE to middle school students in Charleston while completing a master’s degree.
Carey got hired by District 153 in 1987, the year the district went from three-day to five-day PE classes. At the time, Willow School was serving kindergarten through fifth grade and Carey team-taught with Marge Laskero and Denise Mastela.
“Things were a little bit different then. The older kids had written tests and skills tests. There’s a lot more stuff involved, but you also got to know the kids better then because they’d be there for six years,” he said.
When the district converted to grade centers. Carey elected to stay at Willow School. He taught preschoolers once a week and kindergarten, first and second graders every day.
“The Lord wanted me with the little kids,” he said. Laskero transferred to James Hart School, and he and Mastela continued teaching together for 25 years. Mike Witkowski joined them three years ago.
“Working with the little kids it’s enjoyable, it’s fun. You have to have a sense of humor. I tease them a lot. I tell them ridiculous things just to get them thinking. I’m a firm believer that humor’s a good thing. I like to be the practical joker in the building,” Carey said.
To his way of thinking, everyone’s job is unique, and his has “definitely been a challenge at times, but you learn what works and what doesn’t work. I guess that’s the key.”
His lessons were organized around five areas of proficiency: skills in locomotion (moving from place to place) and non-locomotion (moving while in place); small and large ball skills, such as rolling, throwing, catching bouncing and dribbling; fitness and exercise to learn how to take care of one’s self; rhythm and dance using balls, parachutes and other props; and hand-eye coordination activities.
“We cover all those units and incorporate activities with them and of course we teach different games. Every game, besides having fun, has a purpose to it and exercise,” Carey said. “It’s all very controlled and I think the No. 1 thing is that we have to make sure they’re safe. It’s all geared around safety.
“The little kids are fun. You just have to have a structure, and I feel like that’s related. They need structure. Then they know what the effectuations are and you develop all those things over time. It takes a lot of time and repetition to go through all this stuff,” he said. “Once they have all the structure down it’s a lot easier to teach them.”
When the district went to e-learning due to the pandemic, Carey and his fellow teachers made up a list of exercises for the Willow students, such as skip five times in each room in your house, throwing socks or jumping rope. Nothing was too difficult, but something to keep the kids moving and active, he said.
Looking back, Carey says his career “has been enjoyable.” He’s left Homewood, but he hopes to find a part-time teaching job and stay busy for the foreseeable future enjoying time with his wife, Janet, and their two daughters.
