Wilson Harris, known for his love of threatening to defenestrate students, has been named 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year at North Atlanta High School. The voting for the award took place during April and the strong endorsement for the Social Studies teacher came from Wilson’s faculty and staff peers.

For the past 13 years, Harris has been a teacher at North Atlanta. Wilson grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, his father was an art teacher. From a very young age, his father’s example created an interest in the whole learning process. “It’s an important job,” he said. “How could our society function without teachers?”

Harris has been in his profession long enough that he knows the pros and cons of working in a school environment. “I’d say dealing with bureaucracy is the hardest part of teaching,” he said. “But it really is cool and fulfilling to watch students as they develop skills over the course of the school year.”

For college, Harris attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history. He holds a master’s degree in social studies which he received from Georgia State University. In 1987, he started teaching at Cedar Grove High School in Dekalb County. He came to North Atlanta in 2003 and has been a content member of the Warrior faculty ever since. “It’s a great learning community, the faculty is awesome, the kids are great so I’ve never felt any compelling desire to leave,” he said.

He feels he learns as much from his students as they learn from him and they enable him to see things in a way he never could have imagined. “My students always have lots of interesting perspectives on things,” he said.

Many students feel Harris truly cares and will go well out of his way to help them improve a grade. “He actually cares about my grade and my overall well being which is really refreshing,” said sophomore Hadley Hurowitz.

Another student describes Harris as the definition of what makes a great teacher. “He is caring, smart and demonstrative,” said sophomore Chandler Smith.

Harris didn’t always see himself teaching world history but came to love the subject in college during the 70s. He was assigned to the course as a new teacher and it didn’t take long for him to love it. “I see world history as an infinite number of fascinating stories and all of those stories are interconnected,” Harris said.

As North Atlanta’s Teacher of the Year he will now represent his school in a district-wide competition where the Atlanta Public School teacher of the year will be selected.

“It’s a great honor. When I look at the people who were also nominated, they were all deserving,” Harris said.” I’m honored even to be included in the ranks of these individuals. And I continue to love being a teacher.”