Newsroom
 Riverside Unified School District teacher
is named State Teacher of the Year
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Young today (November 5, 2009) congratulated Amber Carrow, seventh grade teacher at Chemawa Middle School in Riverside, as one of the five California Teachers of the Year.
"Amber Carrow is a teacher who energetically lives and exemplifies the best in teaching," Young said. "She operates from one core principle: what is best for her students. As a dynamic middle school social studies teacher, she helps students realize the impact that their knowledge and abilities have on their world, locally and globally. With Amber, they have a voice that is heard. All Riverside County and statewide teachers can be proudly confident in having Amber represent them."
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell named the five winners today.
“Our five California Teachers of the Year are outstanding educators and amazing instructional leaders,” O’Connell said. “Each Teacher of the Year has many stories to tell about overcoming obstacles, achieving goals, and igniting inspiration. I am honored to congratulate each of them, and I hope that their successes will encourage other educators and aspiring teachers who are working hard each day to make a difference in students’ lives.”
The five 2010 California Teachers of the Year are:
- Kelly Kovacic who teaches Social Studies at The Preuss School, an intensive college preparatory school for low-income student populations that is located on the University of California San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla (San Diego Unified School District). She also was selected as California’s nominee for the prestigious National Teacher of the Year competition.
- Amber Carrow who teaches World History at Chemawa Middle School in Riverside (Riverside Unified School District).
- Kathy R. Marvin who teaches Physical Science at Sierra Vista Middle School in Irvine (Irvine Unified School District).
- Melanie Tolan who teaches English-language arts, History, and Physical Education at the Sarah Anthony School in San Diego (Juvenile Court and Community Schools – San Diego County Office of Education).
- Valerie Ziegler who teaches U.S. History, Economics, and Advanced Placement U.S. Government at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco (San Francisco Unified School District).
“I am extremely proud of all teachers, here in California as well as across the nation, who in the past year, have had to endure devastating cutbacks in funding and programs as well as layoff notices and elimination of positions,” O’Connell added. “It is more important than ever to honor people who chose to become teachers and to celebrate this most noble of professions.”
O'Connell chose Kovacic to represent California in the National Teacher of the Year competition.
The National Teacher of the Year winner will be selected in the spring of 2010 by a panel convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers. All candidates in the program will be honored at a White House ceremony.
The California Teachers of the Year program began in 1972 to pay tribute to the state's educators, the growing complexity of challenges that confront California's schools, and the need to promote collaboration among teachers to meet those challenges. The program is also designed to help draw new people into the teaching field.
Each year, the State Superintendent selects five Teachers of the Year who best represent California's teachers and symbolize the profession's contributions to quality education by focusing public attention on their noteworthy accomplishments. The competition is open to educators who teach pre-kindergarten through grade twelve. County offices of education nominate winners of their regional Teacher of the Year competition.
A state selection committee reviews the candidates' applications and conducts site visits to evaluate the teachers' rapport with students, classroom environment, presentation skills, use of teaching methods, among other criteria. Following interviews held in Sacramento, the State Superintendent then selects the awardees.
The 2010 California Teachers of the Year will be honored at a dinner January 25, 2010 in Sacramento made possible by donations from corporate sponsors. Seven semi-finalists also will be honored.
AMBER CARROW
Seventh Grade
Chemawa Middle School in Riverside
Riverside Unified School District
I have a simple teaching philosophy; reach the student first, and then you can teach the subject. — Amber Carrow
Ms. Carrow has been a teacher for six years, all of which have been spent at Chemawa Middle School, where Principal Sean Curtin says she has “created a positive and exciting learning environment in her classroom.”
“I am challenged by my teacher-student relationships and I recognized that I will always be adjusting, re-thinking, and striving to attain their respect. I work very hard to take my class from ordinary to extraordinary. I attempt to bring history to life through a variety of teaching skills and hands-on learning techniques. As a World History teacher, I am able to teach students about diverse cultural achievements, religions, governments, geography, and arts from around the globe,” Ms. Carrow wrote.
Ms. Carrow not only teaches about the world, she travels around it as well. This past year, she was awarded a Teacher Fellowship Grant from the Earthwatch Foundation to conduct scientific research in Nova Scotia related to the effects of climate change. She was in daily contact with her students via the Web. “They truly were transported through this experience,” she said, “and it has sparked their desire to participate in affecting positive world climate change from their school.”
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies from Pitzer College in Claremont and a Master of Arts in Education from the Claremont Graduate University. She is a Riverside Unified School District Middle School Teacher of the Year as well as the Chemawa Middle School Teacher of the Year.
For information contact:
Rick Peoples,
Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6642
Fax: (951) 826-6199
rpeoples@rcoe.us
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