Connie Carr, a dedicated educator for the digital age, programming and computer science, but is that all the majority of her students know about her? For ten years, Carr has aided in developing the culture of Foothill, but there is much more to her than what many have come to know.
Carr attended Carpinteria High School as a teenager, where she was “always in everything.”
“I was a drama geek,” she said. “We did musicals at my school twice a year.”
Also in high school, she was on the drill, dance and cheerleading team where she expressed her fondness for dance. Dance was a hobby she developed as a toddler when her babysitter enrolled her in classes.
She even founded the first ski club at Carpinteria High School alongside some of her fellow classmates. Even though Carr was involved in a lot as a teenager, she still managed to be “very self directed, very independent.”
Carr’s dream job growing up may not be exactly what most would have expected.
“I wanted to be either an astronaut or a marine biologist. I liked space and I liked sea animals,” she said.
So, how did a space shuttle or submarine turn into a Foothill computer lab?
“In high school it really started changing when I thought about what I wanted to do and it was teaching,” Carr remarked.
Growing up in a family of teachers and teacher’s aids, volunteering in her mom’s classroom after school and junior counseling at camps through the YMCA, “just kind of naturally led into it.” As she got ready to go to college “I knew I wanted to be a teacher, an elementary school teacher, so I went in as a [psychology] major.”
Even though becoming a teacher wasn’t necessarily influenced by her hobbies, she has in no way forgotten about what has always made her happy and has allowed her list of hobbies to grow as she was introduced to new things through her teaching career. As a child and throughout her high school career her strongest loves were for “dance and reading and Star Wars.” Many of her hobbies, she claims have stayed the same.
“I’m an avid reader. Still like to go to the beach, still like to paddle board, still like to camp,” she said.
Although, not everything has stayed the same. For example, computer programming was a hobby that she never saw herself partaking in. Programming is “something I have liked more than I thought I would.”
Carr claims she was “never drawn to computers” but actually fell into computer programming as part of a college job. She was forced to teach herself everything about software and programming. She enjoys the fact that now she is “learning along with the kids” only “a couple steps ahead of them.”
“I spend time practicing and I find it fun cause it’s like a puzzle,” she remarked.
The best advice Carr could give to students at Foothill is to “go talk with a friend.” Teacher Kristen Pelfrey is her “wacky cohort” who she goes to when she is “feeling down.”
Reading is also a relaxing hobby for Carr.
“That’s how I unwind is going home and relaxing, getting a book. That’s my relaxation. Like some people do yoga, I curl up with a good book and a cat,” Carr said.
