As part of the State Teacher of the Year Program, Los Alamitos Unified School District honored Rossmoor Elementary School’s Gina Marie Decker as LAUSD Teacher of the Year at its Board of Education meeting on April 21. Family and many staff members were in attendance to recognize her excellent work with children.
Decker embarked on a second career 11 years ago at Rossmoor Elementary School, and never looked back. It was an opportunity to fulfill her dreams of working with children and making a difference in the future of young lives.
As an outstanding teacher and an integral participant/leader with various initiatives at RES site and across the district, she initiated an after school Improvisation Club that joined high school and elementary students.
Decker’s classroom is a model site for Depth and Complexity implementation, and she is a trainer for Reading and Writing Workshop. As a Master Teacher, she is helping college students take their first steps as a classroom teacher. She is a Beginning Teachers Support and Assessment (BTSA) Mentor for new teachers in LAUSD.
As an active teaching role model in the district, Decker has participated on a myriad of committees, such as Operations Steering, Curriculum Steering, and groups that write curricular units and benchmark assessments. As a valued and respected teacher, she recently traveled with her colleagues to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the Blue Ribbon Award for Rossmoor Elementary.
Back home her classroom is safe, nurturing, and academically rigorous. Decker’s relentless desire to help all students learn and thrive is because she believes in the power of public education improving lives. Her lessons demonstrate creativity and differentiation so that all students benefit from the best first instruction.
Decker loves her everyday role as teacher particularly on the first day and any time that a student’s eyes light up with the realization that they have learned something new. She is married, has one son who graduated from Los Alamitos High School, and loves to travel.