Editor’s note: We decided to profile Josh Fletcher to find out what makes the Harmon campus Teacher of the Year tick.

SNAPSHOTS

Favorite food: Vietnamese food

Favorite song: Too many to pick

Favorite Color: Turquoise

Biggest fear: Heights

ZOOMING IN:

Q: What inspired you to become a teacher?

A: “I always wanted to push the limit on how I understand my own art. I’m a painter, and I think it’s neat to see how people learn. I started by working for a graphic design company and I didn’t get any fulfillment out of that other than when I was doing the art. It was fun but after that there was no reward from it. I had the opportunity to interview at a school and I took it, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I always felt like a natural leader like I could talk to anyone.”

Q: What makes you enjoy your work?

A: “That I get to be myself, that I get to come in here and create all day long, and that we could all be doing the same project but from period to period it’s totally different. I enjoy seeing people grow and get frustrated, because if you’re not being frustrated about something every now and again you’re not growing.”

Q: What gets you through tough days?

A: “Probably just knowing that everything changes, that I’m going to go home and see my little boy, my 2-year-old son, [and] that I will get a break eventually. I try to take a break; I try to move around to kind of wake myself back up. I think it’s important to not be in the same class all the time, at least for me it is.”

Q: How do your students motivate you?

A: “I think it’s crazy because I do the same projects year-to-year to perfect them, then I drop them, but they really motivate me every single day. You never can tell what someone can really do. I have one kid who has been struggling all year with really everything, but we started doing pottery and he comes in, and he’s just a natural with a wheel and so much so that he’s almost as good as I am with it. It’s just little things like that.”

Q: What’s your favorite part of your job?

A: “Watching you guys get older. Once you grow, you get older, crying at your graduation, just seeing everything and how the progression is, because really, you guys change so much from freshman year to senior year. That’s all it is to me, building relationships and hearing from you when you’re 25.”