Mike Patterson, a high school mathematics teacher at Advanced Technologies Academy, was named the 2025 Nevada State Teacher of the Year in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday, October 14, 2024.
The 2025 Nevada State Teacher of the Year is a veteran high school math teacher who uses board games to illustrate geometric concepts and who has a love of both numbers and people.
Mike Patterson has spent most of his 30-year career at Advanced Technologies Academy in the west valley. A-Tech, as it is called, is one of the Clark County School District's high-achieving magnet schools, a career and technical academy that consistently leads the district on math exam scores.
So when district and state officials told him to come to an assembly Monday to honor the whole math department, it was a credible cover.
The students in attendance stood and cheered when Patterson found out that he was Nevada's best teacher, making him eligible to be named National Teacher of the Year.
"My young friends in front of me, you ought to find what I found -- which is to go to work and never really feel like it's work, to go to a place where every day is more rewarding for me than for you," he said. "I have found a way to, every year, make 180 new friends, and to carry the 180 from the year before and the year before with me."
Patterson spent the first five years of his career in Canada before moving to the Las Vegas area. He has been with CCSD for 25 years; 20 of those have been at A-Tech, teaching geometry, algebra and calculus.
He is well known for his popular board game club, which grew out of his use of games to excite students during lessons.
Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell said some A-Tech students told her they didn't really like math until they had Patterson as their math teacher.
"He's the kind of educator our district loves, loves, loves to have in our classrooms," she said.
State superintendent of schools Jhone Ebert, herself a former math teacher in CCSD, said that Patterson was one of the first teachers to embrace online learning when he taught math to the students who would become the first to graduate from a fully virtual high school. That was 20 years ago.
"What I want to share especially is that watching him over the last 25 years in the Clark County School District, over three decades in education total, is how adaptable he has been to the environment," Ebert said.
The Nevada Department of Education invites teachers who are nominated for the state teacher of the year honor to apply to move along in the process. Ebert reviews finalists, with identifying details withheld, and picks the winner.
Patterson will represent Nevada in the National Teacher of the Year contest next. The National Teacher of the Year award is a program facilitated by the Council of Chief State School Officers. A Nevada teacher from a CCSD elementary school won the top honor in 2021.
James Nguyen, a junior at A-Tech, had Patterson for honors algebra II as a freshman and calculus as a sophomore. Nguyen is now in an advanced calculus class and he tutors his peers in math after school, on Patterson's urging.
He said Patterson was one of his most influential teachers, and he served as a reference encouraging Patterson's selection as the state's best.
"He really cares," Nguyen said. "It's not about just teaching."
Patterson credited his family, his late parents and his peers in the math department for his success.
"I recognize it as a celebration for teaching in Nevada and great teachers all across Nevada," he said.
Through the years Patterson has also won a national Milken Educator Award, a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching from the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the local Heart of Education award. He holds a national board certification and is a former president of the Southern Nevada Mathematics Council.
"What sets Mr. Patterson apart is not just his commitment to excellence but his genuine care for students and staff," A-Tech Principal Anthony Marentic said. "He leads with his heart, bringing compassion, creativity and a relentless passion for education to every lesson, every conversation and every challenge," he said.