Henrico's Top Teachers – Jamice Lee, Ashe Elementary School, fifth grade

At the beginning of every school year, Ashe Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Jamice Lee and her students make lists of all the things they are to other people in their lives. 

“Brother,” “daughter,” “friend,” “cousin” and others are among the terms that appear.

But at the top of everyone's list, Lee said, is the same word: “human.”

“I just want the kids to know that, yes, I’m here for you academically, but I know that I’m a human and there may be things that you or your family may be going through, and we get it,” she said. “I'm a teacher, but I'm a human first.”

Lee aims to provide the structure and repetition that she believes most students crave, whether they know it or not, but after she's established firm guidelines at the beginning of the year, she becomes a friend and advocate for her students.

"I start off year very stoic, keep things very cut and dry, until they are ready to see some of that soft side of me," she said.

Lee is a Long Island, New York, native who taught in her home state for two years before heading south to Henrico, where she taught for seven years at Donahoe Elementary before moving to Ashe for the past three years.

Her impact during her decade in Henrico has not gone unnoticed.

“Mrs. Lee pours her heart and soul into her work,” one nominator wrote. “She works tirelessly to provide engaging lessons that students will thrive from. She goes above and beyond to create learning opportunities outside of the classroom, like initiating programs or creating avenues for creativity to shine.”

Wrote another: “She is creative, empathetic, compassionate and just an all around wonderful human being who pours herself into her students. Teaching is not just a job to Jamice, it’s what she was created to do. Jamice makes children feel safe and seen and loved and cared for. She also facilitates a love of learning in her students, which is so important.”

During her time at Donahoe Elementary, Lee started a theater program that quickly gained its footing and made a significant impact. She aspires, at some point in the future, to start a program that incorporates education and the arts.

Lee's certainty about her career choice was solidified during an open house event just before the start of her first year teaching first grade, when one of her incoming students walked in with a puzzled look on her face.

“She touched my face and said 'You look like me,'” Lee recalled. “I knew then.”

The girl had never seen a Black teacher before.

Those who wrote to nominate Lee echoed each other's sentiments in describing her as a teacher whose influence has positively affected her students year after year.

“She creates bonds with her students like no other. Her students love and respect her,” one wrote. “Mrs Lee makes the students want to do well and shares the importance of a good education.”

“Jamice brings light into the classroom,” wrote another. “She gives the students her all. She communicates and teaches her students what is needed to achieve and accomplish their goal, no matter how small.”

Lee sometimes encounters students who have already given up on themselves because they've struggled in school previously.

“They already feel so far behind and defeated,” she said. “That breaks my heart. Everybody in this planet is capable of something. I hate that children already count themselves out so young – they're only 10. I’ve already seen that several times in the past year.”

Often, those feelings translate into misbehavior and a dislike of school, she said.

“They don’t know how to express themselves,” she said.

Lee's solution is a simple one.

“It’s always a conversation about the 'yet,'” she said, explaining her advice to those students. “[For example], you don’t know how to do that well 'yet' — but you can definitely get better. Don’t play the comparison game Just worry about you and focus on what you can learn.'”