Erath’s Broussard is Vermilion’s High School Teacher of the Year

ERATH — Laurie Broussard is the Vermilion Parish High School Teacher of the Year.
While exciting, that news came as a surprise to Broussard, an English III teacher at Erath High School.
“I was very surprised,” Broussard said.
This is Broussard’s second time winning the award. She earned the same title in 2010-‘11 while at Kaplan High School. With that, Broussard did not expect to be in the running, but she did not throw the process aside, either.
“When I got the nomination from Erath High School,” Broussard explained, “I felt that the people who nominated me deserved for me to at least do the paper work and the packet.
“I really thought they would go in another direction, so it was shocking to receive the honor.”
Humbling and emotional, too.
“It is,” Broussard said. “When they walked into my classroom (to present the award), I told them I was going to have to look away because they were going to make me cry.”
Life, the real world, is full of emotion. That is the area for which Broussard tries to prepare her students. That starts with analytical readers and thinkers.
“My goal is to help students be thinkers who can go into the world and preform in the real world,” Broussard said. “My main focus is creating citizens who can go to college and do well. If they don’t want to go to college, they will be people who can think.
“That is what we need in this future generation.”
Broussard engages the students to facilitate thinking.
“If my students can read a text such as ‘The Scarlet Letter’ independently and discuss it self-sufficiently,” Broussard said, “then I have succeeded as an English teacher. I instructed my students on how to examine a text such as this one for its message and delivery. Then, I challenged them to showcase their speaking and listening skills during a class discussion. My students conveyed their thoughts to their peers in my classroom as rehearsal for the real world.
“As an educator, my students’ success in the real world is my ultimate outcome.”
That is just part of what makes Broussard deserving of this award, according to Vermilion Parish High School Supervisor Christina Menard.
“Laurie Broussard is an exceptional educator,” Menard said. “She makes all instructional decisions based upon her deep commitment to achievement of all students. Laurie not only believes all students can learn at high levels, she proves it every day with student achievement data.”
Menard referenced 95 percent of Broussard’s English III students earning proficient scores on the Louisiana End of Course test.
“I believe that Laurie Broussard is the Teacher of the Year,” Menard said.
Broussard has been a teacher for many years. After spending 13 years at Kaplan High School, where she earned the Parish’s top teacher award, Broussard came to Erath for the ‘13-’14 year. She has evolved as a teacher during a decade-and-a-half in the classroom.
“Oh, definitely,” Broussard said. “I went back and got my master’s (gifted education) in the spring of ‘11. I think that’s what changed the way I view teaching. Sitting in classrooms learning about gifted students, I realized that I may have been shortchanging some students by not challenging them enough.
“Every student has talents and I am there to challenge whatever skills they have to bring out the best in them.”
Broussard, who is married to Jason Broussard, with whom she has two sons, Lawson, 8, and Janson, 2, takes the same approach with her children.
“I tell my son every day when we are doing homework that God gave you this ability to think,” Broussard said. “He gave you a brain. You have to use it to the best of your fullest ability.
“I am always telling my students that I believe in them and what they are capable of doing.”
Broussard has certainly brought her best to the classroom. She said the results are simply a reflection of those around her.
“I think I’m blessed to work around the people I work with,” Broussard said. “I think it’s an honor to be chosen, but I don’t think of myself in that category. I always try to do my best in the classroom.”