Golden Apple Award: Macey Neal, Battlefield Primary School

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. (WDEF) – Some people are just born to teach. Macey Neal is one of those people. She makes sure every student in her Battlefield Primary class feels welcome. That’s essential for building a lifelong love of school, and that’s why we are giving Mrs. Neal this week’s Golden Apple Award.

Julie Robbins is the Principal at Battlefied Primary.

She explains, “This is her (Mrs. Neal’s) second year of teaching.  She has taught second grade for both years.  She’s a fantastic teacher.  She does a great job here at Battlefield Primary school. I think what makes Miss Neal special is that you would not know that she is a new teacher.  She just the way she carries herself.  The relationships that she has with the kiddos in this classroom, her classroom management.  She’s just a star. And we are so thankful to have her here at our school.”

 We asked Mrs. Neal about herself.

She told us, “This is my second year (of) teaching. I recently, this past summer, married my husband Camden Neal, and I am someone who, is just who, loves teaching so much.  I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in first grade, actually here at this school, and so it’s really great to be back here at a place that, not only was home to me at some point, in my life but is now home for me again in a whole different way.  Someone did influence me in the first grade.  Her name is Holly Colette.  She was my first-grade teacher.  I was a teacher’s pet almost.  And she knew that, and she helped me bloom and blossom.  Even though I was like that, she let me come to the front and share my work with everybody.  She let me help out.  She let me organize her desk.  She really just made me feel needed and wanted in the classroom. And so that’s really what I would love to do for each and every one of my students that I have here.”

 One student said, “She’s the best teacher. So she teaches me how to read.”

Another chipped in, “She helps us with math and she is very kind to us.”

“She’s really nice. And she helps me out to know what I want to do whenever I’m a teacher,” said Arianna Johnson a 10th Grader at Mentee.

For aspiring teachers, Mrs. Neal offers this advice, “You will have tough days. But the connections that you make with these students will absolutely just change your entire relationship, and view on teaching.” 

Johnson added, “She is like very nice and she helps the kids like learn what to do instead of just telling them to do it.  And them not knowing what to do.”

Mrs. Neal concluded, “I want my students to remember about me just my love and my care that I show for, that I show them.  I just want them to remember no matter what mistakes I made, or what I did, Miss Neal loved me no matter what. Miss Neal loved me when I was happy, Miss Neal loved me when I was sad.  And Miss Neil loved me when I made mistakes.  And Miss Neal, Neal loved me when I did everything right. I just really want them to know that I love. And I care for them so much, and I truly want to make a difference in their life.”