Columbia County School District has a new Rookie of the Year.
That title now belongs to Makyla Jones, an ELA teacher at Columbia Middle School, for the 2023-2024 school year. The announcement came during the Rookie of the Year celebration on Wednesday, May 15, where Jones was one of five finalists for the award.
Jones, a graduate of Lakeside High School, said she was “so excited” to win this award. She originally wasn’t sure if she was going to come back to Columbia County, but ultimately decided to return to Columbia County School District.
“It’s like there’s no place like home,” Jones said. “I feel like I definitely grew here and I feel so fortunate to get the chance to be awarded for this and do the same for my students.”
As for why she wanted to become a teacher, Jones said it’s because she loves her students, impacting their lives and helping her students grow. For her first year of teaching, she added that it wasn’t as challenging as she thought it would be and said she felt like “a fish in water.”
“It was fantastic,” Jones said of her first year of teaching. “It was more than anything I could’ve dreamed of. I felt so fortunate to be at Columbia middle school and to grow with my students, it was phenomenal.”
If she could offer words of advice to other teachers, she said it’s how great it is to see changes in not only herself, but her students, is very reward.
Columbia County School District Superintendent Dr. Steven Flynt said the school district was honored to be celebrating the first- year teachers and future teachers.
“What a great, great group of teachers we have,” Flynt said. “We also have with us today our Teaching as a Profession students. We were able to celebrate those students who are going to college and hopefully one day will come back here and be one of our teachers and we’ll see them here at this event…So, it was a great day to celebrate the profession and say thanks for what you do as a teacher.”
The celebration also featured three speaker, Luke Yelton, the 2022-2023 Rookie of the Year, Crystal McDowell, the 2023-2024 Teacher of the Year, and the 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year, Christy Todd. All three offered words of advice to the rookie teachers and future teachers.
Yelton asked teachers to reflect on their best moment from the year and their worst moment, which they can use to grow. He then told them three things they could do to improve their craft: avoid comparisons, don’t be an island and remember the legacy of Columbia County School District.
McDowell told teacher that the professional is all about collaborating and they should always want to engage, enrich and inspire students. She then said the teachers should reflect on who has influenced them over the years.
“As teachers we are mosaics,” McDowell said. “We are mosaics of the people who have influenced us and all the people that we influence because it is a two-way relationship all the time.”
During the event, students in the Teaching as a Profession program signed letters of intent stating they planned to major in education in college. Four of the TAP students received $1,000 scholarships from Georgia’s Own Credit Union.
The other Rookie of the Year finalists were: William Freeman, Grovetown Middle School, Heather Lockwood, Euchee Creek Elementary School, Sgt. Curtis Marrow, Grovetown High School, and Sarah Moore, Greenbrier Middle School.
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
