Crawford named Beauregard Parish Middle School Teacher of Year

Special to the News Leader

Nicole Crawford, a seventh-grade science teacher at DeRidder Junior High School, has been named a 2024-2025 Beauregard Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year.

The Louisiana Department of Education sponsors the Excellent Educators Award Program annually to recognize the state’s most exceptional teachers who demonstrate expertise in their field, who are innovative in creating pathways for student success, who build collaborative relationships with students, parents, and colleagues, and who deliberately connect the classroom to the community.

Crawford has been a science teacher at DJHS for four years after earning her alternative teaching certification through iTeach Louisiana. She earned her Bachelor of Science in dairy science at Louisiana State University. She is on the DJHS Internal Leadership Team, is the science department head, and sponsors the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club at the school.

At DJHS, Crawford strives to create hands-on, real-world lessons to make science relatable to her students. Her lessons focus on the five “E”s of learning: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Science lab stations enhance content learning as students are able to use their preferred learning style, work in groups, and delve into the subject matter.

“By creating an environment that encourages exploration and questioning, the scientist within each student can develop in learners of all styles and all levels,” she said. “I want thememorizer, the artist, and the visual and tactile leaners to want to dive deeper and to learn in a way that works for them.”

Crawford offers her students two unique opportunities to experience real-world science. She has partnered with Discover Dairy’s Adopt-a-Cow program. Students adopt a calf for the school year and are able to have virtual tours of the farm and interact with the farmer on live calls to keep up with the growth of the calf.

Lessons related to animal growth, food production, food safety and nutrition are incorporated into the experience.

A second program her students participate in is the Space Seeds Plant Growth Experiment by Energy Made Visible. Radish seeds are planted on Earth and also on the International Space Station so students can conduct experiments comparing and contrasting growth. They learn about germination and plant development as well as data collection, analysis, and space exploration.

Crawford strives to engage her students in understanding their relationship to the scientific world by giving examples of how science affects their lives every day. She provides facts that surprise and inspire her students to want to learn more about their world, such as telling them that the ground moves beneath their feet at the same rate that their fingernails grow. She teaches them about chemistry by sharing that they use it when they mix flavor packets into their water or make a meal. These fun-facts peak their curiosity and help them relate classroom content to the world they live in every day.

“When I begin to see st udents connecting their learning through content-related drawings, essays, content sharing about a topic that excites their interest, and asking thoug ht-provoking questions, then I know that they are creating a love for learning that is helping them develop a love for science, education, and personal growth,” Crawford said. “That is why I became an educator.”