Golden Apple Award: Madison Limburg, Walker Valley High

“Miss Limburg’s fabulous. She does all kinds of things, goes above and beyond. She is involved obviously in our classrooms, has wonderful test scores. She knows how to raise the expectations with students, but still build those relationship relationships. She does all kinds of extra curricular, involved with our musical. our choir. She also heads up our graduation program. And so she truly makes Walker Valley Shawn,” Jeremy Jones, Principal, Walker Valley High School, said.

“I am a wife and a friend that one of my favorite titles is Miss Limburg; as a teacher here. So I went to Walker Valley as a student and met my husband here. I was one of those success stories. But we’re both educators and we both come and families of educators. And so it’s just kind of a family business,” Madison Limburg, English Teacher, Walker Valley High School, said.

She says, “My mom is an assistant principal in Athens schools. And she was inspired by my grandfather who was also. He was a high school principal at a local high school. And I grew up saying “I’m not gonna be a teacher because I don’t want my kids to have to stay after school in the classroom”. And I learned through those times that I would be in her room after school I would be teaching the other teachers kids. And it just became a passion of mine.”

“She is a very sweet woman. She’s a very godly woman. She is very firm in her faith. And she’s actually helped me a lot… both in my… academic journey and in my faith journey,” Rylee McCullough, Senior, Walker Valley High School, said.

“I struggled in English coming into her class, but she gave me a hunger to learn more, and to read more. She pushed me to learn more in school and learn more outside of school. And not just inside… inside the classroom but push me to pursue knowledge in that,” Matthew Wilson, Senior, Walker Valley High School, said.

“She was my first teacher coming into high school and she’ll be my last before I leave. So, I think she’s pretty special person in my career here at Walker Valley,” Trooper Norman, Senior, Walker Valley High School, said.

“I want them to know that they were loved. And I… have no idea the level of attachment and concern that I would feel for them. And so even, I mean, I have over here a wall of graduation cards and invitation,  and those faces I can still take you to where they sat in my specific memories and conversations that I had with them, that they’re still my kid, even after they’ve left and I’m just very proud of them,” Limburg says.