Rebecca Snead, special education teacher of East Beauregard Elementary, has been named a
2025-2026 the Beauregard Parish Elementary Teacher of the Year. She was also selected as a
Louisiana Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist.
The Louisiana Department of Education sponsors the Excellent Educators Award
Program annually to recognize the state’s most exceptional teachers. Those 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, who deliberately
connect the classroom to the community, and who are inspiring and engaging are considered for
the program. Snead currently teaches fourth and fifth grade special education at East
Beauregard Elementary, where she has completed her third year. She has been an educator for
fifteen years working at Fairview High School, E.K. Key Elementary in Sulphur, and DeQuincy
Elementary, before moving to East Beauregard Elementary.
She is a graduate of East Beauregard High School. She has a bachelor’s degree in
Exercise Science and a Master’s Degree in the Art of Teaching Elementary Education from
McNeese State University and a Special Education certification from Northwestern State
University. She is currently pursuing an Educational Leadership certification.
She has been a Lead Special Education Teacher and Mentor Teacher, and she has
worked with the Louisiana Department of Education to modify curriculum for Students with
Significant Disabilities.
She is involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) at East
Beauregard Elementary where she is the National STEM Society Sponsor, the K-2 STEM
Builders Club Sponsor, and the SeaPerch Underwater ROV Team and the VEX Robotics
Competition Team Sponsor. She is also the host of the EBE STEAM Night.
She participated in the 2024 K-12 Computer Science Standards Writing and Steering
Committee for the Louisiana Department of Education, helping develop K-5 Computer Science
Standards that will be implemented beginning in 2026.
Her motto is: Every student can learn every day, but it might look different to you and
me. One of her greatest joys is watching the moment when a student “clicks” with the
information she has been teaching. When students grasp new concepts, it is exciting and
rewarding, she said.
In Snead’s classroom, students are engaged in their own learning through research,
hands-on projects, group learning, expressing their opinions through discussion, debate, and
writing assignments, and making classroom information applicable to their everyday lives.
Students learn information about the subject and then are encouraged to make their own choices
and defend their ideas.
“I have found that my students learn best with integrating multiple learning styles into the
curriculum,” Snead said. This attitude matches her motto in that she is engaging students every
day to learn in ways that best fit their needs while also integrating all learning styles so that every
student is engage in the learning process during each lesson.
“At East Beauregard Elementary, I have been able to combine my love for my students
and their social, behavioral, emotional, and academic well-being with my love for STEM
practices,” she concluded. “I am committed to helping diverse groups of students at all skill
levels engage in education and become successful.”
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