Erica Rood

Erica Rood, a third grade teacher at CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School and a graduate student at California State University, Northridge, has been nominated by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson for the 2014 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

Rood is one of six California elementary school teachers Torlakson nominated for the honor. He nominated two in math and four in science. Rood was nominated in the science category, which also included a fifth grade teacher from Ninety-Third Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, a first/second grade combination class teacher in Fresno and a fifth grade teacher in Pacific Grove. The math nominees included a first grade teacher in Mather and a first grade teacher in Oakland.

“The subjects these outstanding educators teach so well are part of STEM education, an area that is critically important to the success of our students and our state,” Torlakson said. “From these early grades, and with such engaged and inspired instructors, we will be able to encourage more students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics — the building blocks of learning.”

Rood has taught at CHIME for the past six years and is currently enrolled in CSUN’s master’s program in curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis in STEM education that includes working with officials from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She said she was thrilled to receive the nomination.

“I am really excited to have people recognize science and math teachers,”
she said. “Everybody has a hard time liking science and math, and it’s an honor to have what we do as teachers recognized.”

Rood is one of CHIME’s Odyssey of the Mind coordinators. Odyssey of the Mind is a critical-thinking and problem-solving competition that involves students from across the country and around the world. She also is a teacher-consultant for the Writing Project, a statewide effort to improve student writing and learning by improving the teaching of writing, and a participant of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Elevation and Celebrating Effective Teachers and Teaching initiative.

Michael Spagna, dean of CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education, said university officials were very proud of Rood’s nomination.

“One of the things we here in the Eisner College are dedicated to are six core principles, one of which is that we prepare ethical and caring professionals,” Spagna said. “Erica is an example of an ethical and caring professional who is obviously a very, very good teacher. We hold her up as an example for others.

“Erica really embodies both the CHIME philosophy and the connections we have here at the College of Education with CHIME,” he continued. “She represents a caring adult who is knowledgeable about child development and takes on as a personal responsibility the welfare of all children.”

Erin Studer, CHIME’s executive director of charter school programs, said he was “so pleased and proud” that Rood was nominated for the national honor.

“Her dedication and commitment to her students and educating all children in her classes at CHIME is inspiring,” he said. “Her efforts to bring to life the STEM fields of study for her students through new and innovative teaching approaches is such an amazing thing to witness; it is a model for our teachers—and truly teachers everywhere. She is doing vitally important work in exciting her students to learn about science, technology, engineering and math, and we are so fortunate to have her as one of our teachers at CHIME.”

The CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School is an independent school that provides free public education for children in kindergarten through eighth grade through affiliation with the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school serves as a demonstration and teacher-training site for CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education.

The school is part of the CHIME Institute, a national leader in developing and implementing model educational programs and dynamic research and training environments to disseminate best practices in inclusive education. The institute’s research and training center is housed in the Eisner College of Education. The CHIME Institute also offers an infant/toddler program and preschool/kindergarten program that is located at CSUN. CHIME has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a national model for full inclusion of students with disabilities and for providing a blueprint for local schools across the country.

The National Science Foundation administers the PAEMST on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. PAEMST was enacted by Congress in 1983 and authorizes the President each year to bestow up to 108 awards. PAEMST honors primary and secondary teachers in alternate years. Awards are given to mathematics and science teachers from each of the 50 states and four U.S. territories. Since the program’s inception, 86 California teachers have been named PAEMST recipients.

CHIME Institute, Michael D. Eisner College of Education