Henrico's Top Teachers – Yael Fletcher, Trevvett Elementary School

The moment of joy when a student first learns something new is what made Yael Fletcher, a fifth-grade teacher at Maude Trevvett Elementary, want to pursue teaching.

“You can almost see it in their face, like they light up with this new concept or new way of thinking about something, and I'm just so excited about that,” she said. “And if I can be a part of that for somebody else, that’s what I want to do all day.”

Fletcher’s classroom has been virtual this year, but it’s provided an opportunity for her to focus on the core principles of teaching and use new tools and strategies to do that, she said.

“What I really let drive me is getting to know [my students] and their families – what they’re interested in, what they’re excited about, what they want to learn,” Fletcher said. “How do they like exploring things? Do they like playing games? Do they like reading books – which books? So, just focusing on the point of teaching, which is to focus on that child and how we can help get them to that next step in their education.”

It was most important to her that her students still feel that team, classroom family environment, even while at home during the pandemic, she said.

“Ms. Fletcher has been so incredibly responsive, supporting and encouraging,” a student’s mother wrote in a nomination letter. “There has been numerous emails and phone calls throughout this year that she took the time with myself and my son. She was able to devise creative solutions that would help motivate him to engage.

“Ms. Fletcher, knowing his love for video games, designed a ‘Minecraft’ based reward system that helps him earn rewards for completing assignments, engaging with instruction and interacting with his peers. This has been very successful and turned this difficult time into an amazing opportunity for my son to grow, challenge himself and learn.”

Fletcher is looking forward to getting back to in-person learning next school year and applying what she’s learned teaching virtually to the physical classroom environment.

“It's really been a cool opportunity to kind of grow our craft as teachers, and I'm excited to be able to integrate in some of the new cool things that we've learned and mix it all together and see how much better we are next year, because I think we'll see exponential growth.”