Jeremy Haynes: 'Seaside has my heart'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeremy Haynes

Seaside Middle School

7th Grade Math Teacher

Seaside Middle School doesn’t just like teaching middle school, he loves it. Every day you wake up, he feels that math is everywhere.

 

“You have to do math whether cooking or buying something. Math had a bad rap,” he says.

 

Whether it’s students having bad experiences or parents saying they aren’t good at math and their kids are not good at math, he wanted to change the narrative and that is why he decided to teach math at Seaside Middle School.

 

A proud product of MPUSD, Jeremy was born and raised in Seaside, California. He attended Ord Terrace Elementary, Fitch Middle School (now Seaside Middle School), and graduated Seaside High School in 2007. He pursued post secondary school at Monterey Peninsula College and received his Associate of Arts degree in just a year and a half by taking extra classes during the summer before attending Arkansas Tech to play football and earn his bachelor’s degree in human communications.

 

After graduating in 2012, he moved back to the Monterey Peninsula and immediately began working for the district’s Expanded Learning Opportunities program. It was in 2022 that he earned his master's degree in teaching from Alder Graduate School, a program that MPUSD works directly with to recruit and retain teachers.

This is Jeremy’s first year teaching at Seaside Middle.

 

“It’s amazing. It’s my chance to give back to my community in a positive way, impact the youth, and change that narrative about how they feel about themselves. (They get to) see somebody in their community in that leadership position to know their background they come from or situation they come from they can be successful in some shape or form," he says.

One of his professor’s imparted to him that teaching isn’t just the transfer of knowledge that there is no teaching without relationships and Jeremy tries to foster those relationships so when his students come into his classroom that they feel safe and are ready to learn.

He says that Seaside in the past has not had the best reputation but the work that the administration before us and the administration now they are reaping what they are sowing, and building that foundation and it’s going to carry on from there to now.

 

“Seaside isn’t the Seaside of the old, it is heading in the right direction with the leadership that we have on campus now, everyone from principal down to custodian. Everyone plays a part in Seaside Middle School being the school that it is today," Jeremy said.

Jeremy gets excited when he talks about his students.

 

“We feed off of one another. I come here and I see their faces, they are ready to learn and they are ready to go and that picks me up. We vibe off one another and we share that energy. I just try to create a classroom culture that is fun. I’m not just up here talking and they are taking notes. They are talking. We’re debating. It’s the energy in the classroom that makes it worthwhile," he said.

“I am in a position where I can make or break the way a student can feel about themself. We have these students in a time where they are figuring out who they are. If they come across me and have a positive experience it will take them to 8th grade, 9th grade, and so on,” he says. 

“Seaside has my heart. I will be here for a while. Whether as a teacher or administrator or one of the big wigs in the District Office. I am here to stay,” he proudly states. “Literally, it’s my community. It's my city. I really believe I am impacting my community in a positive way. (You have to) share what you have, touch the youth and impact them in some kind of way so they can go out and change the world.” 

Outside of work, Jeremy enjoys physical activity and taking care of his health. He is very active in boxing, playing basketball or lifting weights. His world is his two-year old daughter and can be found spending time with her.