Boomer among recipients of Outstanding Teachers of America award
- LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
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UPPER LAKE, Calif. — One of Lake County’s standout educators has received a national award.
Erica Boomer, the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Upper Lake High School in Upper Lake was recently selected to receive one of the five 2021 Carlston Family Foundation “Outstanding Teachers of America” awards.
Boomer, who has been teaching for 16 years, was named California Teacher of the Year in 2018.
She started the agriculture program at Upper Lake High in 2005.
Four other teachers representing high schools located in Garden Grove, Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs will join Boomer and each will receive a $15,000 cash award.
Additionally, each of their high schools will receive a grant in the honored teacher’s name in the amount of $5,000.
This award will be formally announced at the Feb. 8 Upper Lake Unified School District Board meeting.
The Carlston Family Foundation awards are given only to California public high school teachers who primarily teach in the most challenging school environments.
A teacher must be nominated by former students who are either currently enrolled in a four-year college or university or who already have earned a college degree.
In 2020-21, the Foundation received over 100 nominations from students attending or have graduated from colleges throughout the United States.
The evaluation and selection process is extensive and involves interviews with as many as seven or more former students, the school principal, two teaching colleagues, and the teacher being nominated.
Ten teachers are selected as finalists and each finalist is observed in their classroom by the foundation’s executive director.
“These are the real-life stories of how students have overcome incredible personal and academic obstacles with the guidance and the extraordinary efforts of dedicated teachers who believed in them, inspired and motivated them, and supported them with the academic skills to be successful in higher education,” said Tim Allen, recently retired executive director of the Carlston Family Foundation. “These are the stories I share with the Carlston Board of Directors and what is considered most when selecting the 2021 honorees.”
Students who nominate their former teachers describe the reasons for their nomination, identify the specific characteristics of their former teachers that influenced their learning, and focus on specific teaching strategies that increased both their interest in the subject and the motivation to rise to the high expectations of their teachers.
Each former student shares in detail the life changing impact their former teacher had on his/her life. More than 80% of the nominating students are first generation college students, many of whom have overcome significant obstacles to become academically and personally successful, and they give credit to their former teacher for their success.
“My main goal is to help foster diligent, respectful, contributing members of society,” said Boomer. “Providing students with the skills to recognize a problem, come up with a solution and work until the job is completed, are the main things I try to teach in all of my classes. When I run into a student after they have graduated and they thank me for helping them realize the importance of respecting others and the value of hard work, that is when I know that my students are achieving.”
Boomer and the other four honorees will join 81 previous honorees as members of the Carlston Family Foundation Board of Advisors and will participate in the Annual Educational Symposium that focuses on addressing major issues facing education in California.
This exceptional group of educators also provide professional development to early career teachers throughout California and support their novice colleagues in one-to-one mentoring relationships.