Enthusiastic, energetic and genuinely caring are just a few words that describe this year’s Teacher of the Year award recipient, AHS alumni-turned-teacher, Micah Green.

When asked about what it is like to work with Green, Jennifer Nguyen, Student Council sponsor, had nothing but compliments to share.

“It’s just fun!” she said.

Green is in his seventh year of teaching at his alma mater. For the past three years Green has been director of the theater department, but before that he taught Communications Application for four years.

“I want to help kids with their confidence and just light fire and help them find what they are passionate about,” he said.

Before becoming a teacher, Green pursued a career as a musical theatre performer. He went to college for musical theatre and eventually moved to New York to perform Broadway shows.

“I always knew he’d be doing something in performance,” Lynn Varelans, theatre tech teacher, said.

Varelans and Green met in high school and her first impression then was that he was “just so full of energy and enthusiasm”. He was still the same person when the two started working together in the theatre department.

Green is now in the running for the Kiwanis Teacher of the Year Award and the City of Arlington A.W.A.R.E. Award. These two awards are some of the highest honors a teacher can receive in Arlington. Green couldn’t really say what his chances were, but Nguyen had something to say about it.

“Yes! Definitely with all that he does for the school across campus,” she said.

Green is much more than a theatre teacher and director. He is the senior class chairman, a major player in the yearly Mr. Colt competition, a key player in the yearly planning of prom, the alumni association representative on campus, a Code Green leader, and a go-to for any hard to answer fine arts questions asked by teachers across campus.

To Green, it’s about more than just his classroom, teaching is about every person on the entire campus.