Stacey Lambiotte has been in the field of education for 15 years and is currently the chair of the science department and a teacher at Vicksburg Catholic School.

Lambiotte is a finalist for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Educator of the Year award. One elementary and one secondary teacher of the year will be announced at the Chamber Luncheon in February. The winner of each award will receive $1,000 from Ameristar Casino and the runners-up for each award will receive $500 from Mutual Credit Union.  

Lambiotte earned a Bachelor of Science in educational psychology from Mississippi State University and said teaching science is a wonderful way to expose students to an array of topics.

“Teaching science each day is an incredible opportunity for me to expose students to the world around them,” she said. “Daily, I strive to link our lessons to real-life scenarios and current events in our community and the environment. At Vicksburg Catholic, junior high science is an integrated course of life, earth, and physical sciences. If our lesson is on genetics, then we are completing a Punnett square to predict the possible outcome of our Thanksgiving turkeys. Working with the education outreach coordinator at ERDC is also a way that I incorporate real-world experiences for my students.”

Lambiotte also said it is important to recognize that each student is unique.

“At the junior high level, students are recognizing and beginning to assume their own individual learning styles,” she said. “I feel it is incumbent upon me to provide them with the exposure to different learning styles and testing methods for those styles so that they can become comfortable and confident as both learners and test-takers.”

And Lambiotte said science allows her to use everyday activities to demonstrate how the subject is present in all areas of life.

“Making homemade ice cream in a bag is one of the many hands-on lessons I teach that I feel truly represents my teaching style,” she said. “This lesson, while based on the movement of thermal energy in and out of chemical reactions, also focuses on a student’s ability to follow directions, work together with a partner, troubleshoot problems and relate important information from the lesson to their daily lives. Each student is engaged as different styles of learning are all incorporated into this one activity. My beliefs about teaching in general are highlighted in this lesson by the presentation of various opportunities of learning styles and opportunities for success. While making ice cream is the goal, students experiencing small successes of learning along the way encompass the lesson and my beliefs in their entirety.”

Lambiotte said she also believes her students give back to her.

“I teach because, teaching in junior high, I learn something new every day,” she said.