Megan Richardson, a 1st-grade teacher at Oakdale Elementary School of Allen Parish School Board (LA) has been named the Open Up Resources EL Education K–5 Language Arts Teacher of the Month for November.

Richardson’s work with EL Education K–5 Language Arts makes her one of the most innovative teachers in the country. The EL Education K–5 Language Arts curriculum inspires a new way of teaching language arts by engaging students through compelling, real-world content to build equitable and inclusive learning opportunities.

Richardson was excited to share the many ways in which her students are engaged in reading and writing. “They are noticing different patterns every day,” she says. “I love when they come up to me with a book saying they found a spelling pattern or about how they took what we learned in class to go stargazing and look for constellations. It is amazing how excited they are about learning.” 

Most notably, she shared a touching student success story from her classroom this year.“ At the beginning of the year,  I had one student who cried when I asked him to get a book and look through it because he didn’t know how to read,” she explained. “Four months into the school year, and he’s acing his spelling test and asking for a new book to read every day!”

Her best advice to teachers new to the curriculum is to find a mentor teacher or someone to talk to and ask questions of in the Open Up Resources community. She also offered that,  “Once you’ve gotten everything in order, the way you like it, it flows like a dream.” 

Open Up Resources is a non-profit on a mission to increase equity in education by making excellent, top-rated curricula freely available to districts. You can learn more at www.openupresources.org. Learn more about and join our communities here.