This year, teachers, staff and administrators have come together to nominate and select Mr. Dearie as Carlsbad High’s teacher of the year. This honor allows staff and students to truly appreciate the hard work and passion teachers put into their work everyday.

Dearie teaches regular U.S. History, AP Government and is the advisor for the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club. His unique teaching techniques work to inspire and push his students to their fullest potential everyday.

“An important part of my teaching is that I try to get students very actively involved, opposed to just myself lecturing all of the time,” Dearie said. “I also try to understand students and their personal stories and who they are as individuals, because when you can make that kind of individual connection, you make better connections and ultimately students tend to perform better.”

Even though Dearie focuses on relating to his students, he also ensures a positive, accepting and informative classroom that engages students.

“He maintains a very educational environment, but at the same time his classes aren’t without fun,” junior Sam Spring said. “He knows how to keep people interested by relating the history textbook to our local area in Carlsbad, and adding in good advice about economics.”

Dearie has lived in Carlsbad his whole life, which continually influences his ability to help students make connections between history and the culture of Carlsbad.

“I started in first grade at Buena Vista Elementary in 1965, and then I continued on to Valley Middle and Carlsbad High,” Dearie said. “It’s very different today because the wealth of the community generally has increased, and the school is obviously completely different as far as buildings and all, but it has always been a good school district to be a student or a staff member. The biggest change I have probably seen is that today there is much greater academic focus than when I was in school for all students. Also the culture of acceptance, especially toward LGBT students, has grown tremendously over the past decade with all of the help the students and staff members have done.”

In addition to teaching history classes, Dearie stands as the advisor for GSA four of the five days of the week in his classroom during lunch. His extra effort to care for the well-being of his students pays off through their ability to trust him in and out of class.

“Mr. Dearie was the teacher who started GSA back in 2002 in  and it has grown so much since then,” senior Fiona Cisternas said. “He promotes a safe environment through GSA and I think that carries over to his other classes because he is perfectly willing to help anyone out. He provides support and stands as an activist for all his students, especially kids who are struggling with gender sexuality or with bullying.”

Along with GSA, he is very involved with the support of all kids of students in his classes. He believes in equal opportunity and continues to involve himself in programs that assist students across the board.

“I am very involved with my department and I have been an advocate for making AP classes available to all students,” Dearie said. “Also I work for AVID because I am their national trainer for history social science. I often get many of the AVID and special education students here for 11th grade U.S. History because I work closely with these programs.”

As Dearie closes off his 31st year of teaching at Carlsbad High, he continually impacts the lives of many and sets himself apart from other teachers through his passion.

“I have been in three classes with Mr. Dearie and I think that in all of his classes he has a really open personality where you feel comfortable asking questions,” Cisternas said. “Mr. Dearie cares more about his students than any other teacher I have had before. He always wants to talk to you, he will always take time out of his day to help you solve a problem, and he always gives really good advice.”