Dr. Jamee Lynch-Moore: 'I absolutely love where I work'

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jamee Lynch-Moore

6th Grade Teacher

Olson Elementary School

 

Dr. Jamee Lynch-Moore considers herself a “newbie” to the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, yet she has accomplished so much in such a short time since coming to MPUSD in 2019. She began teaching at Marshall Elementary School before finding her home at Olson Elementary School, where she is now serving her third year. Prior to settling in California, she taught in Nevada, North Dakota and Texas.

 

“I absolutely love where I work. This is by far the best place that I have worked. The people you work with really make your job great and mine certainly do. My principal has been nothing but supportive with all of the big ideas that I've had,” she says.

 

 

Exemplifying one of the six MPUSD pillars - leadership as the lever - Lynch-Moore imparts that onto her sixth grade students at Olson.

 

“I get really excited to teach the kids new things,” she says. “I teach writing and my colleague teaches reading. I am really into writing and get excited because for a lot of these kids writing has become a passion.”

 

Lynch-Moore finds herself enamored by how far her students have come with regard to writing.

 

“We’ve come such a long way from COVID. When I got these kids, they didn’t want to write a sentence. They were scared and didn’t want to put themselves out there. I’ve seen them blossom, especially with this latest writing piece,” said Lynch-Moore.

 

She also finds joy in cultivating student voice and supports students through student council and extracurricular activities.

 

“Student council was always my favorite thing in school and that is what I want for them especially with student council,” she says. “It makes them want to come to school, to make school a better place, and gives them more ownership over our community.”

 

At Olson Elementary, students loop in grades three to five, whereby kids enter 3rd grade and have the same teacher through 4th grade, and similarly for 5th and 6th grade. Lynch-Moore has only seen positives come out of this system.

 

“Norms are already established at the beginning of the year, I connect with families in ways that I haven’t in years prior, and there is a comfort for students because they have the same classroom and the same friends. It becomes like a family,” she says.

 

When she is not busy teaching, Lynch-Moore serves on the Monterey Bay Teachers Association’s Finance and Budgeting Committee and as a team member on the MBTA negotiations team.

 

“I have an advanced degree in public policy and law and the idea was that I could go in and help with education law and change it at the source. When MBTA came to me, it made me feel I was able to push our district and push our state into a better system of education for the kids,” said Lynch-Moore.

 

She keeps herself busy and recently earned her doctorate from Walden University while teaching. Outside of work, she can be found chauffeuring her children, who also attend Olson Elementary, to their activities. She also enjoys reading and traveling, but most of all spending time together as a family.