Teacher Of The Year, Student First

Curiosity is contagious when a classroom feels like a journey. We sit down with Louisiana Teacher of the Year Lorie Hutchins at LACUE 2025 to uncover how she turns social studies into immersive “mini field trips,” builds trust with the toughest kids, and uses technology to amplify—not replace—human connection. From ancient civilizations to local culture, Lori shares a playbook for engagement that is joyful, practical, and grounded in real classrooms.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I'm Devin Pentosi, your host. We are here at LACU 2025, and we are so excited to be here with our special guest, Lori Hutchins.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Lori, so nice to see you today.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Nice to see you.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Lori joins us from a Tesh Elementary School in St. Martin's Parish.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Yes, Cecilia, Louisiana.

Presenting At LACUE And Goals

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Wonderful. And so Lori, tell us a bit about uh your experience. What brings you here to LaCue today?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Um, well, we're invited to come to LaCue because um we're a presenter for our technology boot camp, and um they want us to come out just to kind of learn new things that we can share with the other people in our district.

Teacher Of The Year Recognition

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Oh, that's wonderful. And uh, can you tell me a bit about um I understand you've received a special award uh this year?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Um I was announced as Teacher of the Year for Test Trail Minor in St. Mont Parish.

Engaging Students Through Culture

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Oh, congratulations! Yes, wow. What are some of the things you're doing in your classroom to innovate?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Um well, we really like to um incorporate different things to keep our kids engaged and um bring different experiences to them that they may not be able to experience in their given situations. Um we also try to get social studies more engaging because it can get kind of boring at times. Okay. So with our new um standards, we're we're hitting all these different ancient civilizations. We try to make them fun, so it's almost like little mini field trips for them. And it's like they're experiencing the culture within our classrooms.

School Namesake And Community

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success. I am David Pentosi, the chief operating officer of American Book Company. We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, Georgia. All of our materials are printed in the USA. We have horse. You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abc12.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Gosh, that's wonderful. I understand that uh Tesh Elementary has a certain namesake or something about the Tesh actually means snake after a Bayutesh. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Um, because the Bayou has so many curves and twists in it, and so our school's named Tesh Elementary after that.

Teaching Journey And Grades

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Oh neat. And uh I understand you've been teaching for how many years?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Um I've been at Tesh Elementary for four years, but I'm actually in my 13th year teaching.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Oh, 13th year teaching? Okay. What what areas have you taught in?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I've taught second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth grade. Oh wow, that's wonderful. I have taught the spectrum.

Relationship-First Teaching Wins

SPEAKER_01 3:11

You sure have. You sure have. Do you have any special experience or like this was like a golden moment where like wow, my students got it. This is why I got into teaching.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Um the main focus in my classroom is mostly building the relationships with the kids. And um, I feel the most success when I get those troubled kids who are the biggest behavior problems, and I can break those walls down and get them to where learning can be fun again. Those are my big aha moments.

Gratitude And Closing

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Do you have anything you'd like to share with the Lake Hue community?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Um, I just want to say thank you for giving us this opportunity to be able to experience all the different um vendors and um strategies, different things that we can incorporate into our classroom to help make our students more successful.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Okay, wonderful. Well, uh, thank you so much again. This is Lori Hutchins uh here with us uh from St. Martin's Parish and Tesh Elementary School. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Thank you.