Monte Vista High School

Patricia Carothers

                                                                      

Professional Bio for A+ Pro Tutoring

Awards   

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY TEACHER OF THE YEAR 2006-2007

San Ramon Valley Unified School District Teacher of the Year 2006-2007

Region 4 Northern California State Educator of the Year

Warren Eukel Teacher Trust: Teacher of the Year 

Jerome R. Davis Teacher of the Year 

Monte Vista Teacher of the Year

Who's Who Among American High School Teachers (13consecutive year award distinction )

Alamo Rotary Educator of the Year

University of California  Outstanding Teacher Recognition (12 consecutive year award distinction)

Johns Hopkins University Talented Youth Program California Teacher Recognition

National Institute of Health Research Project Coordinator *DART* Project "Drug Abuse Research Team"

Tri Valley Science and Engineering Fair Mentor Teacher 1st Place Sweepstakes Winners: 2001, 2004, 2007

Intel Science and Talent Search Mentor Teacher - International Winner 2001, 2004, 2007

Personal:   

When I was a child, I loved animals and brought home every animal that seemed homeless.  My parents were tolerant and let me keep many of them.  I also owned and showed quarter horses, though my favorite horse was Folly's Echo, a 1/2 Arab 1/2 Quarter Horse who kept me busy training him as a jumper.  I spent most of my time at the barn or reading books.  My claim to fame in the small town I grew up in is that I had read ALL of the books in the juvenile section of the library by the time I was 13 years old.   Both of these events in my life have contributed to my love of biology and learning.  Today I still have several exotic pets. I always have a pile of scientific journals by my favorite chair and read every spare minute.     

I am  married to Bill and have one son, Logan, who is instudying pre-physical therapy/kinesiology.  When I have spare time, I work on keeping my web page active and up to date, take care of the garden and pets and read.  I especially love "who dunnit" types of books that have a scientific or medical twist, also I enjoy biographies.  I read scientific and medical journals on a daily basis to keep up with the latest news in order to keep my students up to date as well. 

My husband's job takes him to some other part of the country and world most of the year, so when we all get a chance, we travel together (we LOVE those frequent flyer miles).  One of our most memorable trips was the 5 weeks we spent in Africa.  We've recently gone to Aruba for some Rest and Relaxation.  We also visit Europe as often as we can.  I especially love France.  Our trip to China was great!  We had some wild adventures!  We had an Eco Adventure in South America for the summer. We spent 4 weeks and some quality time trekking through the rain forests, repelling down waterfalls, rafting the rivers  and on the beaches. During Winter break we like to get away for a week or two in the Southern Caribbean to do some awesome diving.  During Spring Break  we often make a quick trip to Thailand or Singapore, we've even made it to Cambodia. I can definitely recommend Thailand as a relaxing place to visit.  While in Cambodia we visited the ancient ruins of Angkor.  On another extended spring break we headed for Morocco and experienced the beaches, the high mountains while it was snowing and met up with some members of the Bedouin and rode camels into the Sahara desert where we cooked a meal in a traditional pit and spent the night in a tent.  Logan and I skied (he snowboarded) down the steep sand dunes.  It was a great thrill.   My goal is to fill up another passport, soon!      

For three summers (here some photos of the  06 trip) I've taken a group of students to Costa Rica on an Eco Adventure in the Rainforests, rivers, ocean and volcanoes.  What a fantastic trip we had learning from and interacting with the people from the remote Osa Peninsula. It definitely is a life changing experience for one and all as we learn that you can exist without wealth and live off of the land around you.  Though where we travel is wild, and remote (often traveling long hours on dirt roads and hiking for hours on end to get to our destinations everyone says it was the best 2 weeks of their lives. 

We have a home in Tahoe, so we water ski, river raft, windsurf, wake board, bike, hike, and snow ski.  My son and husband snow board, but I stick to the skis after some horrendous snow boarding lessons and more stupendous falls on my head!   During the summer months I make it  my goal to spend at least a couple of weeks becoming a sun roasted vegetable while in Tahoe.

I  take time during the school year and during the summer to take at least one enrichment class in my subject areas of biology or physiology.  Recently the concentration has been focused on forensics course work because I'm always adding to my honors A&P course forensics section.  I especially enjoy  honing my skills in the laboratory, doing research and sharing teaching strategies. 

I am currently working with Livermore National Labs as a LLNL Education Fellow. My job is program manager and developer of Science Fair 101, a hands-on program designed to give high school students a competitive edge in conducting a science fair research project.  I'm also on the IRB (Internal Review Board) for the Tri Valley Science and Engineering Fair and have the opportunity to preview and read each of the middle and high school science projects that are entered into the fair.  If you've eve entered the TVSEF the comments and notes you've received about your project prior to the fair are often from me.  

After I retire from teaching, I'll most likely  disappear to live on one of the more remote islands we've found in our travels. My husband and I are planning to buy a huge live aboard sailboat or a place out of the country for that section of our future lives.   But for now, I love my job because the students at Monte Vista are absolutely great, they make it a pleasure to be a teacher.

I believe in learning something new each day.  I believe in teaching something new each day. I believe there is no limit to what your brain can do....if you put your heart into it.

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