Dr. Joshua Plocher is an education enthusiast. He has always thought of it as his passion and truly enjoys teaching his students. Even though Dr. Plocher is entering his first year at Westwood, he has a strong background in teaching.

“I taught college classes for a number of years as I was finishing my dissertation, actually in music. My family moved to Texas when I decided to move on from [pursuing] higher education. I was applying for jobs, mostly writing jobs. I started substitute teaching while applying for the other jobs [and] I ended up with a few long-term sub gigs at middle schools. What those long-term sub jobs reminded me was how much I love teaching,” Dr. Plocher said.

Dr. Plocher also loves to play and coach ultimate frisbee. Ultimate Frisbee is fairly popular amongst the Westwood community and Dr. Plocher hopes to find more time to have more fun with it.

“I’ve played ultimate frisbee in the past year. That’s something that I’ve coached in the past and may do again if people are available,” Dr. Plocher said.

Dr. Plocher teaches IB Literature and English IV. He really enjoys reading and writing. Each year, he competes in a contest in which he has to write a 50,000 word short story. It’s another one of his passions.

“I do a lot of writing recreationally. I do National Novel Writing Month every year. With the exception of my first year teaching, I have won every year which just means that I wrote 50,000 words,” Dr. Plocher said.

Dr. Plocher has been happily married for 19 years. He originally grew up in Idaho where he pursued advanced collegiate studies before moving to Austin, where he started finding teaching jobs. After a while, he found himself at Westwood.