Teacher of the Year (2014)

Truman High is a charter high school in southwest Los Angeles. Its students come from neighborhoods that they would like to be able to leave, and some students will succeed and likely make it in life. The teachers seem committed to making this happen, but many of the students don't seem to care. English teacher and soccer coach Mitch Carter is Teacher of the Year for California.

Many of the students like him. But he has a chance at a high-paying job which will involve a lot of travel, and even though he loves teaching, it has its problems. And he has a wife who doesn't like her advertising job, which allows her to work from home a lot, and an adorable daughter and another baby on the way. The movie is a documentary, though it's obvious early that it is too silly to be real, and there are actors playing cast members. But almost the entire movie is the documentary, and while the viewer may forget the cameras are there, there are often signs that these people are being followed around, and sometimes they want what they say to be private. The person making the documentary actually speaks a number of times but is not seen. Also, the documentary has a lot more than just Mitch's story. It almost seems to be about the school, its teachers, and the problem students. Parents come in when their children have done something wrong. Some care, some think their kids can do no wrong, some don't understand why their kids are being criticized. One teacher is falsely accused of an offense by a student and nearly fired. I won't say how his situation turns out, but the plot does show what a good man Mitch is. Will Mitch leave the school? It's not clear the question ever gets answered.