Walnut Creek Teech Picked To Represent California In Nationwide Competition

From the Contra Costa County Office of Education:

PLEASANT HILL, Calif., October 10, 2018—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Tuesday that Northgate High School teacher, Rosie Reid will represent California in the National Teacher of the Year competition. The Mt. Diablo Unified School District high school English teacher is one of five educators selected as 2019 California State Teachers of the Year, but will be the only teacher (and the first teacher in Contra Costa County since 1998) to represent California at the national level.

Reid and Kelly Perkins, Special Education teacher at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, were recently selected as the two Contra Costa County Teachers of the Year at a Dinner Gala coordinated by the Contra Costa County Office of Education. Perkins was selected as one of only three state semi-finalists.

“We are very excited for Rosie, for Northgate High School and for the Mt. Diablo Unified School District,” said Karen Sakata, Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools. “To have a Contra Costa County teacher of the year be named as the only California representative to the National Teacher of the Year competition is an incredible honor, and to additionally have Kelly be recognized as a state finalist is quite a feat for our county.  They both symbolize the amazing teaching that occurs in classrooms throughout our county every day.”

Reid teaches English to ninth through twelfth grade students at Northgate High School, Mount Diablo Unified School District in Walnut Creek. As California’s representative, Reid will compete against other state nominees at the 2019 National Teacher of the Year competition in the spring.

“Ms. Reid does not just teach English. She inspires us to become involved in our community, to relate curriculum to larger world issues, and to express ourselves by articulating our ideas through writing and public speaking,” said student Lark Chang-Yeh.

Reid has been teaching for 16 years, the last two at Northgate High School. She was the first in her family to go to college, largely because of her educators’ efforts, and she became a teacher to pay this forward. She has taught every level of high school English and is part of the English Learner Review Team to monitor English learners and mentor teachers. Most recently, she founded and leads an equity task force at her high school.

“I strive to be a status quo disruptor and an agent of social justice, while engaging in a rigorous, standards-based English curriculum. So often teachers feel that if they are thinking about issues of equity and implicit bias, they must compromise rigor in order for all students to be successful; in fact it is by helping our most socially marginalized students develop literacy (and numeracy) skills that we may achieve social equity,” she said.

County offices of education nominate California Teachers of the Year winners through their county-level competitions. A state selection committee reviews candidates’ applications and conducts site visits to evaluate the teachers’ rapport with students, classroom environment, presentation skills, and teaching techniques. The teachers are interviewed by the California Department of Education (CDE). The State Superintendent then selects the five awardees.

The 2019 California Teachers of the Year, finalists, and semifinalists will be honored by Torlakson at a gala to be held in Sacramento on December 10, 2018. For more information on the award program, please visit the CDE’s California Teachers of the Year web page. For more information about the Contra Costa County program, go to: https://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/departments/communications/toy