Patty Clamage always knew she wanted to teach.

“When I was a kid I liked to play school with my sisters and my friends,” Clamage said. “So I’ve always liked the thought of teaching people and just sharing my knowledge with others.”

Now a senior history major, Clamage is currently pursuing teaching by working at an after school program at Greenfield K-8.

Clamage has been at Greenfield for nearly one year, where she plans activities for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

“We have all different students who are in all different spots in their development,” Clamage said. “We do homework time and help them with their homework, and we have a snack and we teach an enrichment activity.” 

For the enrichment activity, Clamage is able to use her history expertise.

“I like to teach little social studies lessons,” Clamage said. “I like to make it kind of fun, so I’ll teach about different cultures or different languages and maybe I’ll bring in some different food, and that way the kids can explore social studies, but in a fun and interesting way.”

Clamage teaches at Greenfield every weekday for four hours, in addition to taking 18 credits at Point Park. 

“I have to lesson plan, do my homework and then with education classes, I have to do lesson plans for my class,” Clamage said. “I’m doing a lot of lesson planning and a lot of paperwork it seems like.”

Clamage enjoys ancient history, and hopes to eventually teach it.

“I really like ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece and Rome, that whole time period,” Clamage said.

After graduation, Clamage plans to seek an associate’s degree in early childhood education in order to teach middle school.

“I think it’s a nice age range,” Clamage said.  “They’re kind of independent, but they’re not too independent like high schoolers that have senioritis and just want to get out of high school. I just kind of like that age. I think it’s an important age to have a good educational experience.”