Karen Shimer

English teacher/AVID
Mt. Carmel High School

Karen Shimer partners with others to empower change at the most important and basic levels, by building relationships and connections with the students and staff of Mt. Carmel High School, and making sure students do not miss opportunities to learn and gain knowledge. For her English and AVID students, she strives to make those connections every day, adding value to each person's time in class, and leaving the students with something to come back for tomorrow.

Karen is co-leader of the Mt. Carmel New Teacher Mentor Program. The program pairs veteran teachers with new teachers to ensure that new educators are able to begin the year successfully. Karen is always there when needed, and has served as class advisor, English Department Chair, and on the UBC committee. She is a member of the AVID Site Team and is the advisor of MC Shine, a student anthology of published work. Karen helps plan fundraising activities at staff functions, and has created a teacherstudent connection by pairing ASB students with a teachers on campus.

Mt. Carmel's student clubs dedicate their efforts to giving back to the school as well as the community. As class council advisor for seven years, Karen supervised many community service projects. Most recently she helped a student adopt an Afghan family. The student's father was serving in Afghanistan, where he met an Afghan father of seven children who is unable to work because of the hostile environment within his country. In two weeks, students collected clothes and toys for his children, as well as money to send the boxes to her soldier father in Afghanistan.

As a staff member of the AVID team, Karen constantly asks, "What are the foundational skills that my students are lacking to be proficient readers, writers, and speakers?" When those are identified, the students progress from there. Karen has worked in collaboration with other English teachers to develop common course assessments, core curriculum, and consistency within the English department.

The junior class paper is a cornerstone of eleventh grade, an assignment that carries great weight in class. Karen, in collaboration with a Special Ed teacher, developed a handbook that now is online on the PUSD Learning Point website. Materials have been organized into a practical handbook with examples and clear expectations. Students learn from the first day of their junior year what is expected of them and how to complete the necessary components of the paper.

Karen recalls a Mt. Carmel student who spoke primarily Polish. She was not only in school, but also helping her family by going with her dad to help as he did his carpentry work. It was not certain she could go to college, yet Karen worked with her and encouraged her throughout high school. The student went to college and wants to be a teacher. Keeping in touch with Karen through Facebook, the student has just recently asked Karen to be at her wedding.

Karen received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo where she majored in English and her Master of Arts degree from Grand Canyon University. She has worked at Mt. Carmel High School since 1999.

Shaylene Watkins

Grades 4/5 Teacher
Monterey Ridge Elementary School

"Education saved my life," said Shaylene Watkins. "Having lived a childhood peppered with hardship and adversity, I found refuge in the structured, loving, and caring environments my teachers created in Sunset Hills, Black Mountain, and later, at Abraxas High School. They taught me that connections build resiliency. From my teachers' guiding hands, I saw first-hand how education changes lives, and how, through the power of writing, you can be the author of your own life story."