Christian Teacher of the Year: ‘Thanks for the adventure!’ Nick Cason incorporates biblical accounts into special education science, gym classes

Students at Lions Learning Academy in Dacula, Georgia, are building arks, conquering cities and slaying giants in Nick Cason’s physical education course, with each class focused on a specific Bible lesson. 

“They had to bob and weave while under the net, and they had to find five stones, because David had five stones, and then, when they got to the end, there was an eight-foot-tall, laminated Goliath hanging on the inside of the net, and they had to throw their foam balls and hit Goliath,” Cason told Heartlander News. 

Cason, a physical education and STEM teacher for special needs students, said he orders his lessons according to biblical events and implements class objectives. 

“We take these biblical accounts and turn them into physical action,” he said. “So, we’re doing all of the physical activities that we need to move our bodies.”

He is teaching kids to “live out Scripture” and transforming physical education into a “kinesthetic narrative,” he explained.

“In August, we got kids coming in, and we need to let them know how to follow rules and instructions, so we build an ark,” Cason said. “We physically build an ark. Pool noodles make great logs for an ark.” 

Creativity such as this is one reason Cason is one of 12 honorees named a 2026 Christian Teacher of the Year by the Herzog Foundation, publisher of Heartlander News. 

Lions Learning Academy

Cason teaches pre-K through fourth grade students at Lions Learning Academy (LLA), an offshoot campus of Hebron Christian Academy (HCA) designated for special needs children. Hebron Christian first opened in 1999, and launched Lions on its original grounds in 2024 after the school expanded to a larger location. 

Cason has been teaching for more than 20 years. He joined HCA in 2023 to teach seventh and eighth grade math and language arts, as well as serve as an enrichment teacher – or a resource teacher for students in an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which the school calls a “learning plan.” Once LLA opened in 2024, the school asked Cason to move to the new campus as the P.E. and STEM teacher. 

Seventeen students joined LLA in its inaugural year, and this fall – the school’s third operational year – 45 students are attending. The hope is for students who are able to graduate from LLA to transfer to HCA after a year of evaluation.

Each year brings a new set of students with different challenges, and the range of disabilities means some students will graduate to HCA, but others will stay at LLA. The special needs school hopes to join HCA’s campus after an extensive building project that will provide the space and equipment to accommodate challenged students.

“We will be at max capacity next year,” Cason explained. “To the point that we had to go and renovate another building on our campus, so that we could house the therapies, because at our school our kids get physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. We have somebody who comes over from the main campus for what they call conservatory, which is like piano lessons.” 

The Battle of Jericho for LLA’s new campus

In anticipation of the coming campus, Cason brought his students to march around the school’s property and pray, incorporating stories from the book of Joshua into both his STEM and P.E. lessons. 

“So, when we would walk around it, we would stop and pray at each station, and when I say we would pray, the students would pray,” Cason said. “We have a plethora of students who are unabashedly eager to pray.” 

He had his students make fossilized footprints and place these clay feet in specific locations on the future campus, in reference to Joshua 1:3, when the Lord tells Joshua that wherever his foot touches will be his.

For P.E., Cason built a wall of foam blocks to represent the wall of Jericho and to teach kids to identify different shapes and colors – a necessary objective students had to meet. 

“So, we march around the wall. And then we march around the wall with a soccer ball. And then we enlarge the wall, and they have to march around the gym, and I’ll kick them a soccer ball and they have to kick the ball into the goal,” Cason said. “And then the next time they came around, they had to stop, then kick the ball. The objectives for the month were to learn how to dribble a soccer ball, kick a stationary object, kick a moving object.” 

At the end of March, students demonstrated their new skills at a community walk on the main campus, where other HCA students joined them.

“So all of our students came over. We walked the campus seven times,” Cason said, referencing the biblical account of the fall of Jericho when the Israelites marched around the city seven times. “We didn’t have horns, but what we did have was a speaker system, and we came out and we held a little mini three- or four-song concert right there with the community.” 

LLA students lead HCA in spirit, joy

At another school-wide event, field day, Cason’s students show off all their skills in a mass incorporation of each lesson they learned to celebrate the end of the year. 

“We made field day biblical as well, because before each one, I read the verse for what that month or unit or game was about,” he said. “So, we really don’t skimp on biblical integration anywhere.”

LLA students also led the school’s homecoming parade, with special needs kids riding in homemade race cars that they built out of wheelbarrows and two-by-fours for a father-son community day. Cason said this is the type of community his team at LLA hopes to build. 

The educator hopes to instill the joy of learning and freedom of movement in his students, no matter their performance. A phrase from one of his students “still gives me goosebumps,” he said, adding that he aims to fulfill it each day:

“Hey, Mr. Cason! Thanks for the adventure!” 

The Christian Teacher of the Year honor is part of the Herzog Foundation’s Excellence in Christian Education award series. Each of the 12 winners was invited to attend a special professional development and recognition event.