Lafayette Parish School System’s Superintendent Irma Trosclair and district administrators visited schools on Tuesday to formally announce the 2023-2024 Teacher of the Year, and for the first time ever, New Teacher of the Year honorees for elementary, middle, and high schools. Each teacher was surprised to learn that they were selected as the district’s Teacher of the Year.
Teacher of the Year:
Elementary School: Amy Landry, Pre-K 4 French Immersion teacher at Myrtle Place Elementary
Middle School: Traci Sudduth, 6th & 8th grade ELA teacher at Scott Middle School
High School: Jennifer Morrow, 10th, 11th, & 12th-grade Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology and Medical Terminology teacher at Southside High School
New Teacher of the Year:
Elementary School: Iola Malveaux 4th grade ELA teacher at Evangeline Elementary School
High School: Madison Richard, 11th & 12th grade US History and World History teacher at Northside High School
About Teacher of the Year Nominations
This is a high honor for outstanding teachers who have been selected by their peers and evaluated by district administrators and community leaders. Every year, educators and administrators in each public school in Lafayette Parish vote to select a Teacher of the Year, and now New Teacher of the Year based on nominations. The winners of each school are then eligible to participate in the district competition.
The district utilizes the comprehensive application provided by the Louisiana Department of Education that includes submitting a lesson plan, student learning targets, and letters of recommendation in order to fully showcase the talents of each teacher. A rubric is utilized to score the applications and top contenders are interviewed by a committee of community leaders in order to select the district winner at each grade level. District winners compete in the state competition through the Louisiana Department of Education. Winners at the state level move on to the national competition.
About LPSS Teacher of the Year Winners
Teacher of the Year - Ms. Amy Landry teaches French Immersion for Pre-K4 at Myrtle Place Elementary in Lafayette, LA. She graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She received her teaching certification from the Louisiana Resource Center for Educators (LRCE). Myrtle Place Elementary has received multiple awards for growth in Leap for students scoring advanced and mastery and the school was recently awarded the National Blue Ribbon award. Landry's mission is to lay the foundation for young students to become successful, confident, and socially strong adults by providing them with skills to problem solve and self-regulate. Landry works hard to help provide a safe space for her students and build strong relationships with her students and parents through connection and positivity. Landry is passionate about her work as an early childhood educator and believes that every child should have access to an equitable and quality education.
New Teacher of the Year - Ms. lola V. Malveaux is a fourth-grade English Language Arts and social studies teacher at Evangeline Elementary School in Lafayette, Louisiana. She earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and a Master of Education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Mrs. Malveaux instills, through word and example, that respect, effort, attitude, cooperation, and honesty promote success. By working together each student can be excellent.
Teacher of the Year - Ms. Traci Sudduth is a 6th and 8th-grade English Language Arts teacher at Scott Middle School in Scott, Louisiana. She has been an educator for 24 years. Sudduth graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1998 in middle and secondary English education. She earned a Master of Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in reading from UL at Lafayette in 2005. In the past, she has taught middle and high school at multiple levels, including advanced, bilingual, and multisensory, within the ELA classroom. Her favorite, however, is working with students who struggle with comprehension for various reasons. Sudduth prides herself in providing a multi-sensory experience in the English Language Arts classroom. She has been trained in many strategies for students with diverse learning needs, especially dyslexia and low comprehension. With this knowledge, she is able to help students bridge learning gaps with a more individualized approach to education. Sudduth believes that strategies that help to build relationships with students are most effective. This belief has proven to make her classroom setting similar to a family dinner table. Everyone approaches the table with different wants and needs, but with one end in mind... dessert, or relishing in the success of a job well done!
New Teacher of the Year - Mrs. Richard is a native of Pineville, Louisiana, and a graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. She has a bachelor of Science with a major in Family and Consumer Sciences with a concentration in housing Interiors and fashion merchandising. She is currently enrolled in the ITeachLouisiana program and is eager to finish and become certified in teaching. She is a first-year teacher at Northside High School, located in Lafayette, Louisiana. There she teaches 11th and 12th-grade students US History and World History. Mrs. Richard not only loves to teach but loves to learn; from learning from other teachers to learning about her students. In the classroom, she likes to help students relate history to today's world. She feels comparing history to today's actions really helps the students to be open to the past events that have made America what it is today.
Teacher of the Year - Mrs. Jennifer Morrow teaches 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade students at Southside High School in Youngsville, Louisiana. She teaches an Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology and Medical Terminology class that is dual-enrolled with South Louisiana Community College as well as the Emergency Medical Responder course, where students earn their State of Louisiana EMR Certification. Morrow graduated with honors from the University of Southwestern Louisiana where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Secondary Science Education with a concentration in Biology and Chemistry. She has been teaching for 25 years in the Lafayette Parish Public School System, with the last 18 years focused on healthcare education. Morrow is a CPR Instructor and a Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician. She worked part-time with Acadian Ambulance for 10 years as a ground medic and educator. Morrow has taught the EMR Instructor Course for the Louisiana Department of Education's Super Summer Institute for several years offering first-hand experiences teaching EMR and EMT at the high school level. She was previously named the Lafayette Parish School System High School District Teacher of the Year and Schools of Choice Educator of the Year Award.
She currently serves as the National Honor Society sponsor, on the Crisis Team, and as the Graduation Committee co-chairperson. Morrow values the opportunity that teaching affords her to build lasting relationships with her students and to connect their classroom educational experiences to their future and to the community.