Even though Bobbi Jo Erb is employed as an eighth-grade mathematics teacher at Mirror Lake Middle School in Chugiak, AK, she is personally committed to teach hundreds more students at the same time. Once a student in Erb’s class, always a student in Erb’s class; through her “guarantee for life” math teacher policy, she assures all of her students that as long as they live, they can call or email her with questions about math and she will gladly tutor them indefinitely. Students in high school and even college, graduate school and beyond, still call on Erb’s mathematic expertise.
Until a few years ago, Mirror Lake Middle School had never achieved Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) through the No Child Left Behind act. But since Erb arrived, it has achieved AYP two years in a row. This success has been attributed to the unique ways Erb’s classes maintain high levels of creativity. Her students make commercials and air them on the school broadcast system to demonstrate math in different professional settings. She once wore scuba equipment to class to simulate life in space. As chair of the school’s math department, her classroom is the standard by which all math classes are measured. Erb also serves as the school technology coordinator because of her extensive knowledge and use of technology in her classroom. In addition to using Smartboards and classroom pod casts, she gives absent students the option to use Ichat or Web casting to view the classroom live from home if they are absent. Erb received a $10,000 grant from Toyota for her idea to use digital video and editing techniques to teach math. Her combination of hard work, emphasis on technology, and unending dedication are reaping rewards for the growing number of “lifetime” students she teaches.
1991 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, B.S.
