Third Grade Teacher Christine Neitzel Puts God First in Her Career

By Lauren Rose Correa, October 30, 2025

Christine Neitzel is a third grade teacher at a public school in Maple Shade, NJ. She is currently in her twenty-third year of teaching and has taught kindergarten, first grade, and third grade over her career. Christine is well-loved by her students, and she is passionate about her job. She always seeks to serve her students, while putting the Lord first.

I had the opportunity to interview Christine to learn more about her career as a third grade teacher, the challenges she faces, and the way that her faith has helped her to be the best teacher she can be. I hope you enjoy learning more about the exciting and busy life of an elementary school teacher!

Q: Walk me through a typical day with you on the job.

I’m probably the first car in the parking lot each morning! I get to work around 7am. We don’t have to officially be there until 7:54am. However, that first 45 minutes of the day when there is not a lot of other activity in the school is probably my favorite time. It’s really quiet. It gives me time to pray for my students, pray for my colleagues, pray for myself [as a teacher], [and pray] on what I am going to share with my students that day. I am also able to get copies ready, curriculum sorted, and my day organized.

My kids come in at 8:18am. Within the first twelve minutes of each day, I need to take lunch count, breakfast count, feed them breakfast, check their homework folder, stand for the pledge and then get them off to their special area class for the day. Their special varies from day to day, from gym to art to music to technology.

The kids come back to me around 9:18am. We then have what’s called our WIN period, [which stands for “what I need.”] This is when I get to work with students on their individual academic levels. If I have a group who is struggling in one academic area, this is the time I can pull a small group to work with me on that skill. The other students will be working independently or in small groups. It’s the most valuable point of the day as far as giving students what they need academically.

During the third period each day, I am teaching math. Maple Shade uses the Illustrative Math program. This is an awesome program that really gets students involved in critical thinking in math. Each day students get learn a new skill and apply that skill. For math homework, students get one math problem each evening. It’s not just about getting the answer, but showing their work and explaining how they arrived at that answer.

Then I go into social studies or science, depending on the day. We start that off with Circle Time. Circle Time is an awesome portion of the day where my third graders will all be heard. We sit on the carpet and talk about an issue that they struggle with. [It could be] a life scenario, or maybe just something they did over the weekend. We have a special talking piece that a different student gets to choose daily. As the talking piece moves around the circle, each student gets a time to be heard. Students can only speak if holding the special talking piece. All the students really love this portion of the day, because they feel heard, seen and valued.

Then we head to lunch. I usually sit in my car or take a quick drive to get an unsweet tea with lots of lemons and eat my lunch. This is a sweet time for me to be refreshed in God’s Word, pray for my students again, and sometimes just listen to music and work on school work. When we return from lunch, we have three blocks of Language Arts in the afternoon. Our first block is reading. Maple Shade teaches from the Benchmark Advance ELA program. We focus on reading comprehension and fluency during this time. The second block is writing. In this block, we write to respond to the close reading passages that we utilize in class and learn grammar. The last thing we do for the day is funDations, which is our phonics and cursive handwriting program.

After school, you can often find me tutoring students. I enjoy tutoring, because not only am I able to help students academically, but it also gives me a chance to get to know the parents a bit better. Since I’m not on school time, I can often share a little bit more about my faith as well.

Q: What is the biggest challenge that comes along with your job and how do you tackle this challenge?

I would have to say that the biggest challenge has been the expectations [placed on the] teachers. COVID has certainly been a game-changer for education. Not only did our students academically and socially regress, but the expectations from administration and parents have become far greater.

Prior to COVID, our day was filled with pencil and paper learning, but with COVID came a huge push in technology. Technology is amazing, and I love incorporating it into our day. But now the expectation is to have Google Slides for every lesson and testing is all completed on computers now. Many of our students do not have computers at home, so we are teaching them how to use them and complete work on them that used to be pencil and paper.

Another challenge is the time commitment. Being a teacher does not mean your job ends at 3pm, like most people think. Each night and on weekends, you can find me at home creating rubrics for grading, lesson plans, and Google Slides for the next day. You can also find me communicating with parents and guardians about their child’s education.

Another big challenge would be what the state requires of our students and the testing that they require. I actually do not believe that we should be testing our students all the time. I think we need to know where students stand academically, and I do believe having educational data is valuable to drive instruction. However, I never want to be a teacher who is teaching toward a test. I want to maintain that integrity in my classroom, and I want students to acquire a love for learning.

Q: What is your favorite aspect of your job?

My favorite aspect is the kids, of course! I absolutely love teaching them and watching them learn. I love the light bulb moments when we have been working so hard to understand a concept and then, all of a sudden, it just clicks for them.

Additionally, I love that I live and work in Maple Shade, as well as go to church in this town. I have had the blessing to see students come into our church and see them grow here, but I also see them grow in my classroom. It’s an awesome blessing, that I am truly grateful!

Q: What advice would you give someone else looking to step in the same vocation as you?

My advice would be to know how much heart and time you are going to need to give teaching. You can’t walk in late and leave early if you want to change little lives. The students need all of your love and attention. The reality is you may have 20 to 25 students all learning at different levels in the same classroom, so you will have to put the time in to reach each one. My advice would be to make sure that you absolutely love working as a teacher and that you are willing to do anything and everything for these students and build them up.

Q: What qualities about you do you believe will help you do your job well?

God has really worked in my life [over the years]. I was really shy when I started teaching, and the Lord has just really pushed me out of my shell. A lot of it has to do with coming to Immanuel Baptist Church. I have learned how important it is to make sure you value someone and welcome them.

Getting to know parents and being willing to be transparent with them is probably one of the qualities that I feel like I have. I think showing that you care about and love the kids is really helpful.

Q: How has your walk with the Lord influenced your career choices?

I came home from my very first day of kindergarten and told my mom that when I grew up, I was going to be a teacher. I never strayed from it. However, I did not know the Lord when I made this choice. I didn’t meet the Lord until I was 25 years old. My walk with God has definitely changed how I look at the kids and what I think is most important.

I think [my walk] also helped me in many areas of the church, such as Vacation Bible School, teaching Sunday School, teaching kid’s programs, and going on mission trips. I feel like my walk with Jesus has just overflowed into all areas, but I also think that it has helped me pray for my students and their families.

Generally speaking, even though I am in a public school, I have been able to tell parents that I am praying for them. To see how much they value that is really important to me.

Q: How do you balance your career with your personal life?

Sometimes it’s very overwhelming, because when you live, work, and go to church on the same town, everyone thinks that your personal life is part of your work life. It all meshes together. I can’t say that there is a true dividing line.

There are students who attend my church and are in my class. It is truly a wonderful blessing, but sometimes it is hard to know where that line stops. People are used to seeing me with my computer, so I might be at Sunday dinner at your house and working on lesson plans, or I might be sitting in the church creating my daily slides.

Balancing can be blurry at times, but what a blessing! I am truly thankful God has allowed me to live, work, and go to church in this wonderful little town of Maple Shade.

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