NGSS Writing Team Member: Jennifer Gutierrez

Jennifer Gutierrez began her teaching career in Avondale, Arizona in 1988 and in 1990 joined the Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) in Chandler, Arizona, teaching 1st–4th grades as well as a K–2 multi-age class. In 2006 she moved into the role of Instructional Specialist at the district’s Instructional Resource Center. There her responsibilities include teaching a variety of staff development courses, coaching and evaluating teachers, and facilitating the district’s science curriculum for grades K–12.

Jennifer has co-coordinates CUSD’s districtwide science fair for the past five years and has presented on the anatomy of a science fair for the Intel Educator Academy. She has facilitated two Mathematics & Science Partnership grants on improving teachers’ content knowledge and instruction in physical science. Jennifer has served on several writing committees for the Arizona Department of Education working on 4th grade state assessments in science. Recently she completed training with the Boston Museum of Science to become a teacher trainer for Engineering is Elementary.

A California native, Jennifer earned a BS in Journalism and a post-degree K–8 certificate from Northern Arizona University (NAU). She received her master’s in Elementary Education from Arizona State University and most recently an Administration certificate from NAU.