A Biology teacher at West Potomac, Mrs. Mackenzie Neer is in her first year of teaching but has been a substitute teacher in San Diego for four years. She earned her Masters of Education from Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania, but before that she went to Ohio State University, which explains her love for the Ohio State Buckeyes “I’m a diehard fan,” Neer said. She majored in Biological Sciences with a focus on zoology. 

Mrs. Neer enjoys teaching high school students because it gives her “opportunities to work on and talk about things outside of class content like college applications, job interviews, resumes, essay writing”. 

As far as her inspiration, Mrs. Neer has volunteered in many groups, where she got to lead discussions or teach small classes and picked up her love for teaching in a school setting. The fact that her favorite subject in school was Biology is also a big part of her inspiration. In high school biology, she liked her teacher and the fact that he would do his best to make sure his students were engaged in the lesson.

As much as Mrs. Neer loves teaching, it does get challenging sometimes. “It’s a lot of time and work to create fun and engaging lessons, I love that process, but it gets tiring–and we have to make a lot of decisions and think quickly on our feet, and that can be tough.”