Miko Otoshi and David Clarke to retire

BY QIANZI LOO

Otoshi leaves lasting impact on music Clarke fosters engaging learning

After working at Lynbrook for a decade, peer tutorial clerical assistant Miko Otoshi announced her retirement from Lynbrook during the Pops Concert on May 17. A master of the band room and homework center, Otoshi continuously found ways to give back to the community.

“It’s nice to be in an environment where there’s a lot of youthful energy, and I feel productive helping teachers,” Otoshi said.

As a mother with three Lynbrook alumni, Otoshi found herself involved in the Lynbrook community starting with her joining Lynbrook PTSA. After working behind the scenes to attain grants for various programs and helping out as a parent volunteer through Lynbrook Instrumental Music Boosters, Otoshi joined the music department as an administrative assistant.

“She’s very earnest about her responsibilities, making sure everything is organized,” Pakaluk said. “She really stands out, dedicating her time and energy , and it’s kind of rare to see that in parent volunteers.”

Her role in the music department included managing the instrument rental system, coordinating domestic and international tours and copying sheet music among other responsibilities. Students greatly appreciate the continuous effort she put in to provide a smooth and positive classroom experience.

From there, Otoshi dabbled with other ways to help students, eventually becoming a coordinator for the STTAR program.

“Ms. Otoshi is dependable in everything she does for STTAR tutoring, homework center and National Honor Society,” said senior and NHS internal Vice President Vivian Zhao. “Without her, we wouldn’t have been so successful with maintaining and improving our school’s peer tutoring programs.”

Whether it was during her time as a parent volunteer or a clerical staff member, Otoshi found seeing students progress over their high school journey extremely rewarding.

“It’s always nice to see students who got matched with a STTAR tutor become a tutor themselves in their junior or senior year and say that they enjoyed doing it,” Otoshi said.

Otoshi hopes to spend more time with her family and pick up old hobbies. She also plans to continue being involved at school, occasionally volunteering for the instrumental music department.

After 23 years of teaching, of which the past three have been at Lynbrook, English teacher David Clarke decided to retire. His students hold lasting memories of his teaching approach and will cherish their memories of his class for years.

“Mr. Clarke is one of the most intelligent teachers I’ve ever had,” Clarke’s teaching assistant Owen Yuan said. “He explains things in a way that makes it simple to understand and you can talk to him about anything.”

After graduate school, Clarke considered teaching as he had a Master’s degree in English education, but instead spent most of his young adult life working jobs ranging from hospitality to construction. Returning to Silicon Valley, Clarke worked in the technology sector for a decade. Still, he remained open to exploring other careers.

“It was a very interesting time to be in tech, but I wasn’t really invested in it,” Clarke said. “When the company I worked for went under, I got into teaching.”

As a teacher, Clarke wanted to emphasize the importance of fostering creativity in his classes through discussion-based learning, as opposed to only having lectures, while also giving his own commentary periodically.

“My feeling both as a parent and teacher is to provide kids with opportunities to make their own decisions,” Clarke said. “It’s much more a matter of opening their eyes to how things work.”

Clarke has enjoyed engaging in stimulating conversations with students, particularly from when he used to teach AP English Literature and Composition. He cherishes his experiences teaching overall, as they gave him a deeper understanding of students’ learning. Looking back, Clarke says that he would have tried to explore more ventures in his life.

“Don’t be held back by the thought that because what you’re doing is comfortable, you ought to stick with it,” Clarke said. “When it’s time to jump, close your eyes and jump.”

Jumping into a new stage of his life, Clarke plans to continue his regular activities such as home and garden renovations. He also hopes to get back into construction and may take college classes as well.

“Mr. Clarke brings so many different perspectives because of the different lives he’s led,” English teacher Terri Fill said. “It will be difficult to replace the knowledge storehouse that is Mr. Clarke.”