"I want them (students) to be good, empathetic, honest, and socially responsible individuals....Those are the skills that build a better society and maybe build a better person." - Patrick William James Lynch
Patrick William James Lynch is a dynamic and successful 3rd grade teacher at the Charter School of Morgan Hill in Morgan Hill, California. He leads with love and puts socio-emotional learning at the heart of his work as a teacher leader. This exciting episode highlights a bit of what makes Patrick an unconventional educator.
Patrick shares in this episode that teaching was not always his dream job, but he now considers it to be so! He began his education career as an instructional aid, where he worked 1-1 with students needing a bit more support. His success with that led him into the classroom where he has not looked back. He works at CSMH which is a highly successful project based learning and parent engagement school. The support of the parents and surrounding community truly benefit teachers like Patrick and visa versa.
Patrick Lynch began his work at CSMH as an Instructional Aide in 2012. He earned his B.A. in Psychology at John F. Kennedy University and his Multiple Subject CLAD credential through CSU Monterey Bay. He has volunteered for the Special Olympics and the Pacific Autism Center for Education for many years.
Lastly, Patrick is a highly talented blues musician in the Bay Area and his music can be found at his Official Billy James Blue Website here.
Episode Highlights:
-Socio-Emotional Learning Focused: Patrick tells his parents at the start that establishing trust with and loving his students comes before academics.
-Project Based Learning: Patrick believes in seizing the organic learning opportunities that pop up so often yet are missed often because of scheduling and curriculum restrictions.
-Project Based Learning and Team Oriented: Patrick tells a story of his grade-level team changing their project they had done consistently for years to something newer and better and online. This risk paid off greatly!
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Podcast Credits:
Host: Jon Hinthorne
Podcast Editor and Producer: Jon Hinthorne
An Unconventional Teacher Social Media
Website and Media Designers: Nina Telthorst and Gracie Bonwich
Episode Production Note: This episode was recorded using Zoom on a day when the internet was a bit spotty. We did our best to make the audio as clear and fluid as possible, but a few unstable audio spots still remain.
