Hello!  My name is Stephenie Clarke, and I am a new teacher at Sand Creek this year.  I teach Spanish II and III. 

I grew up 7 miles outside a small town in northern Minnesota and spent most of my summer days running around in the woods, riding my bike, swimming and boating in our lake, and generally avoiding wearing shoes.  In winter, I ice skated, went sledding and built enormous snow forts.  I love to be outside, and I love living in Colorado Springs!  It's great to have so many trails and beautiful places to visit.  I love hiking in the mountains and running on the Cottonwood Creek trail.  

I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English Teaching and a minor in Spanish Teaching.  Go Cougars!  I taught in Utah for a couple of years, and then my husband graduated from BYU, commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army, and we moved to Georgia. For the past 20 years, I have followed him all over the world.  The longest we have ever lived in one place was our 3 1/2 years in Baumholder, Germany.  We've lived in 7 different states here in the U.S., and, most recently, we lived in Korea for a few years.  It has been an amazing adventure!  Now that my husband has retired from military service, and my youngest child is in 7th grade, I think it's time to get back to a career I love . . . teaching, of course!

I had fantastic teachers in high school, and I hope to be that same kind of teacher to my students.  I hope that all of my students will find my classes stimulating, informative, interactive and, at least a little bit, entertaining.  I love Spanish.  I lived and worked with Spanish speakers for 18 months in Dallas, Texas, after my 3rd year of university, and that time was the most valuable time of my young life.  I hope that my students will feel my love for the language and for the culture of the people who speak it.