John Nealy

John Nealy, a history teacher at Omni Middle School in Boca Raton, said he plans to stick with teaching for a long time.

"There has never been a day where I've had to say, `I don't want to go to work today,'" he said.

Nealy was the manager of his family's restaurant west of Boca Raton when he decided to enter the classroom about three years ago.He had a bachelor's degree in history and decided to add education courses so he could teach his favorite subject, American history.

He substitute taught at Omni as he worked on his extra credits.The school offered him a full-time job in 2000.

He said student discipline has not been a problem.

"I am always firm but fair, and students respond to that," said Nealy, 35."I get into the subject matter, so they get into the subject matter."

He loves hands-on lessons.When his eighth-grade students studied life on the frontier, Nealy brought cream in a Mason jar and had each student churn butter.As the jar went around the classroom, he said the students were stunned they could make butter themselves.Afterwards, they put it on crackers and ate it.

"I still feel I can make an impact on them," Nealy said."They are not totally molded yet."