Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Bridget Seals has been voted the A+mazing Teacher of the Month by readers of The Natchez Democrat.

A 1996 graduate of Ferriday High School, Bridget Seals has taught elementary education for 13 years in Concordia Parish. She teaches second grade students at Concordia Parish Academy.

“Bridget Seals is our very first honoree,” said Sabrina Dore’ of Shelter Insurance, sponsor of the award. “From the beginning of the month to the 15^th you nominate your favorite teacher and from the 15^th onward you vote for your favorite teacher. She scored way up there. It was a landslide.”

After working in a bank and managing a shoe department store in her young adult years, Seals went to college to earn her teaching degree when her oldest daughter was six months old.

“I guess having children made me realize that I wanted to teach,” she said. Seals said she now has a son who is 14 and a daughter who just started college, but she still gets to experience the joy of being with younger children every day.

“They’re the only reason why I do what I do,” she said. “It’s just the joy of teaching the children and the excitement on their faces when they learn something new or a lightbulb going off.”

Seals was not only named a winner of the A+mazing Teacher award but was also voted Teacher of the Year at Concordia Parish Academy by her colleagues, she said.

As such, Seals will be eligible to compete for the title of Teacher of the Year in Concordia Parish.

As with all teachers, Seals said COVID-19 has presented her with many challenges.

“Last year, I was teaching nine students virtually and 13 in person,” she said. “It was like I was keeping up with two different classes at one time.”

Seals said typically her class is capped at 22 students and this year she is down to 14 students. However, she is grateful to be teaching them in-person again, she said. She and her students get to see each other again but still have to hide behind plastic shields and facemasks to keep themselves safe. Additionally, they have to make up for all of the classroom time lost during the pandemic, she said.

“I thought it would be normal again, but with kids being out for a year and a half it is not,” she said. While having to work twice as hard, Seals said she keeps the class fun by keeping the kids moving and engaged in lessons with a lot of hands-on activities. Recently in science, she had her students go outside and collect leaves to study how they change by tracing them before and after placing them overnight in a freezer.

She also uses technology to stay in touch with students’ parents and shares videos with them that help them practice lessons at home.

After being voted most A+mazing Teacher, Seals said if feels wonderful to know that her work has been appreciated by the community.

To vote for your favorite teacher this month, visit natchezdemocrat.com/amazing-teachers.