Teacher spotlight: Jamie Meyer of Hampton Bays High School

From a young age, Jamie Meyer knew she wanted to be a teacher. What she didn’t know was how long it would take for her to get there.

“I was such a shy, in-my-shell high school student,” said Meyer, 43, of Baiting Hollow. So shy that she majored in accounting in college and crunched numbers for three years before she realized she’d rather be helming a classroom and went back to school for a master’s degree in education at Stony Brook University.

After a year as a leave replacement physical education teacher at Hampton Bays High School, Meyer shifted in 2015 to teaching juniors and seniors about early childhood education. She has since added College and Career Exploration for ninth graders, and Hospitality and Tourism and Child Psychology for 11th and 12th graders to her course load.

Meyer’s education students study child development, from reading to basic math. Then they spend two period getting hands-on experience at the district’s in-house preschool.

“My students are able to apply what they’re learning in the classroom directly with the children overseen by me and the preschool teacher,” she said.

By the end of their studies, students sit for a Level 1 Teaching Assistant certification, a credential for an entry level teaching assistant job.

Conor Curtis, who teaches Food Prep, Cooking With Confidence and Culinary Arts 1 and 2, said he considers Meyer a mentor.

“She just knows how to really relate to the kids and make connecting relationships,” he said. “She breaks the units down into sections and puts the students into groups where they’re learning about a specific thing and then teaching it to the class.”

Some kids take the class to see whether they want to go into education; others already know, Meyer said. 

Chris Scott, 24, took Meyer’s early education courses from 2017 to 2019. He now works as a substitute and leave replacement teacher for Hampton Bays Elementary School.

“I just went into this class thinking it would be a cool thing, teaching in a pre-K, and didn’t think I would get a lifelong job out of this,” Scott said. “I felt like I was really able to shine with her direction and guidance.”

Meyer teaches about restaurants, hotels and recreation in her Hospitality and Tourism class, adapted from a St. Joseph’s University course. It includes cooking competitions, where students are graded on taste, presentation, creativity and other factors. The students demonstrated how to make smash burgers, a thin patty smashed in a hot pan, for a Newsday photographer during a recent visit.

“They love this kind of stuff: anything that they can compete and add their own spin and their own creativity,” she said. “They really don’t feel like they’re learning, but they are in a roundabout way.”

Nominate the passionate, engaging and innovative educators of Long Island to be featured in our Teacher Spotlight series by sending details to LILife@Newsday.com.