Cara Matzen To All Instructors

Warmest greetings Thrive family ! I am beyond thrilled to join the Thrive community, and I am eager to share the adventure of high school math with you!

A bit about my career: For most of my 20+ years in private schools, I taught math at the high school level, including Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry, Precalc, AP Calculus, and AP Statistics. As a math department chair at a PK-12 school in Houston, I collaboratively designed a new high school with an integrated curriculum (connecting math with science, humanities, and the arts) and taught all of the founding students. Most recently, I taught Algebra 2, Precalc, and Calculus at Pacific Ridge in Carlsbad, and before that I was at Rhoades in Encinitas teaching middle school math. Despite my thorough background, I’m new to the world of homeschooling, and I can’t wait to get to know all of these amazing students.

A bit about my life: Born in Hawaii to two math professors, I had the kind of access and support in math that I like to provide to my students. Choosing somewhere exotic for college (New England), I enjoyed the math program at Williams College, a semester abroad in Sydney, Australia, and the Master’s in Education program at Harvard University. After teaching math, coaching swimming, and college counseling at top schools in Texas and California, I moved to Germany when my husband, Evan, was awarded a professional fellowship there. We brought our two young boys to live in Heidelberg for an incredible year. I absolutely love exploring our world’s cultures and environments (I’ve taken students to China, South Africa, and Costa Rica, and went this year to Japan and Latvia), but I’m happy to be back at home in Carlsbad, where I enjoy swimming, planning travel, weekend camping, and dancing hula.

Right from the start of this academic year, our class will become a supportive team, learning to work together in a safe and brave learning environment. Students will develop a balance of self-reliance and collaborative skills, discuss complex ideas, contribute meaningfully to projects, and cultivate both curiosity and discipline. I have planned a rich, engaging curriculum for the year, full of challenging and purposeful assignments and lessons to help students think deeply and become confident problem solvers.

Current Classes
ALGEBRA 2 - 10TH-12TH- MW1 - MATZEN - F26 – (open)
GEOMETRY - 10TH-12TH- MW2 - MATZEN - F26 – (open)