VP Rotary: EP Teachers of the Year recognized

By: HEATHER
BOGARD
Associate Editor

Rotarian and Evangeline Parish School Board Superintendent Darwan Lazard invited the Evangeline Parish Teachers of the Year to address the May 17, meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club. The Evangeline Parish Jazz Band also provided music before the meeting.
Lazard said, “They are truly wonderful ambassadors, not only for our school district, but for education in particular. The professionalism they have at their disposal and demonstrate each and every day for our students should give you a lot of joy as it does me that they work with our students. They are representative of the teachers on every single campus.” He said the parish has had eight wins in eight years, “which is phenomenal for a district our size, as we compete with the likes of Lafayette, Vermilion and other parishes much larger than us.”
Title One Supervisor Grace Sibley reiterated the fact the parish had eight winners in eight years, whether it be semi-finalists, finalists, overall finalist or state winner, then gave an overview of the process of the teacher of the year, stating each teacher went through the training process to prepare for the judging, which included a video from the teacher explaining their love of the profession and how they reach their students. She stated over 200 hours of work went into the process of researching, collaborating, reflecting, writing, and videotaping in order to meet the district and state requirements to compete for Teacher of the Year. In addition, Sibley said the teachers competed before a team of judges, participated in eight hours of intense National Board Training led by herself (a Louisiana State Department of Education’s First Certified National Board Assessor Trainer), working with board certified teachers, submitting written prompts, videos, and detailed professional resumes and biographies. All of this was gathered and submitted before the state department of education.
Sibley thanked the generous community partners for their donations toward the process and then introduced the three Teachers of the Year from Evangeline Parish, Bernice Ardoin (elementary), Misti Fontenot (middle school) and Emee Aswell (high school).
Each teacher shared a brief video presentation that they had submitted for the judges and shared a few words. Ardoin, a second grade teacher at Pine Prairie Elementary for 18 years, noted Pine Prairie is her hometown school and the only school she ever taught at and the only one she wants to teach at. She left a 20-year career in journalism to pursue a teaching career because of her love of children and the joy of teaching. She said she was honored to represent Evangeline Parish and proclaimed, “Teaching makes every other profession possible.”
Fontenot, a middle school special education teacher at Mamou High School, said, “The special education program has grown by leaps and bounds and is a great learning experience for those students, who are working at various businesses in the Mamou community, to gain work experience and help set them up for the future.”
Aswell, a high school English teacher at Ville Platte High School, was also named state semi-finalist. “I love teaching. It is my passion, sharing my heart in front of the kids,” she said. The Philippines native stated she was always eager to finish her education and pursue a PhD. She recalled, “I was nine units away from defending my PhD thesis when I was offered a job teaching in the United States. I had to make a choice, but I believe when opportunity knocks, you grab for it.” She continued, “I wanted to teach American kids and make a difference. English is not my native tongue, but now I am so lucky enough to say I teach English in front of American native English speaking kids. I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this parish.”
Rotary President Jimmy LeBlanc presented the annual Rotary LSU-E scholarship to Ville Platte High School graduate Leslie Foreman, son of Shannendoah Foreman and the late Kim Leger. Foreman shared he plans to attend LSU-E and pursue a degree in civil engineering. He thanked the organization for selecting him as the scholarship recipient, noting, “I hope I make you proud.”
LeBlanc also announced the Ville Platte Rotary Club approved donations in the amount of $500 each to the Evangeline Parish Special Olympics and the New Life Pregnancy Center in Mamou.