Day 2 begins of the blogging process here at letmeteachya. I’ve always heard that if you decide to come back to your blog the second day, the more likely you are to make millions of dollars off of it in the near future. I’m sure it was a wise man that told me that.
Today we jump back into the Hester classroom management series that I’ve decided to run. Click that beauty link right over there to read the intro as to why I want to analyze this specific class and management video. Hoping that this post will go into pretty deep depth on the first lesson, opening day for Hester’s 9th grade English class and his tactics.
Let’s start off with the class intro. Immediately, the students waltz into class, receive a handshake from their new teacher and work in absolute silence on filling out information for the class. Immediately, a student is given a called back to the entrance and given a verbal warning for not following the procedures. Immediately, I think Mr. Hester is “one of those teachers.”
Don’t get me wrong… I’m all for the strict mentality. I think young students need guidance and the sooner you can enforce it, the better. At the same time, I do believe there is an undeniable difference between being strict and giving a verbal warning to one a freshman in high school on his first day for asking where he should be sitting for these assigned seats. Watching this introduction immediately made me speculate on exactly what we as viewers were going to see. The ultra-confident bravado Hester portrayed was apparent to me from the getgo.
He continued with it. As an outside viewer, the words “arrogant” and “prick” were in mind as the video continued. Sure, I loved the confidence and believe it to be of utmost importance. But this was not just confidence and went beyond that. His jokes centered around enforcing this cockiness. “I’m better than you at baseball,” “I will school you in skating,” “I know I am a great teacher,” “You’ve never had a teacher like me,” were all stated within the introduction of the class. Pretty intimidating for day 1 of the first day of high school, eh (<Canadian dialogue comin’ atcha)? This attitude turned me off… I wondered how other students would react. Add this in to the classroom where students were working in complete silence and passing papers at timed speeds and I was sure this classroom would not work for me. Everything seemed over stressful. Was this a classroom or a modernized Hitler work camp. Why are students ripping papers apart and holding them up as if they are mindless zombies? What is going on? Helppppppppppppppppppppp!
Here’s the thing though: it doesn’t matter if it would work for me. I was and am blessed to have grown up in a beautiful area and environment. Environment matters in how a school and classrooms need to be operated. We learn pretty early in the video that Richmond, California, the high school’s location, is pretty poor. More poor than we could probably understand through just watching this video. The class’ general makeup is very ethnic— Hester speaks spanish to show he can “understand when students are talking badly about him.” And then, as the powerpoint continues to introduce the new instructor and his goals for the semester, we see how it exactly it works for them and not for me.
Boom. Success. Squint with your tiny little eyes and enjoy the picture above! The students were reading at very low, unqualified levels in the past at this school. With Hester at the helm as an instructor, they were reaching literacy levels with much more efficiency. A 17% growth in reading literacy in a single year is stuff teachers dream about. Regular people dream of winning the lottery, for teachers… it’s 17% literacy improvement.
This is where environment ties in. Perhaps a more suburban area with students who need nurturing more so than strictness would struggle with a silent classroom that only allows communication when the instructor says. But in this area, students need to be pushed to learn and to do so, they need structure. A structured, more enforced learning center allows these students to do better. It’s clear, even if it may be a more stressful first day than others, that this teacher has it going on. He clearly knows how to work the rodeo.
I still struggled with this, however. I continued throughout the video to question what Hester would do as the semester rolled on and students began to become more frustrated with his tactics. By constantly having the students communicate and work in complete silence/without discussion for a semester, I figured it would irritate some students.
And then he answered me as the video ended and the class concluded. Following his interesting class conclusion where he stands on a chair signaling for students to pack up their work and then stand beside their own desk before allowing them to leave, he asks one student to stay after class and meet with him. Jump ahead to the 37 minute mark in the video below in the event that it doesn’t “autoload” there like it. Technology, right? :
He nips odd or poor attitude in the butt right away. No time for negativity with Hester. In the terms of modern youth all over the continental united states… “What a savage.” An absolutely awesome move to end the first class. By doing this in such an effective manner and so quickly, he makes it clear that 1) He is very in touch with what is going on in his classroom and 2) That poor attitude will not be tolerated. The student did not do anything overly dangerous, a sigh is a sigh after all. But by calling the student out in a manner that associates the action with a poor attitude, which she agrees with, he makes it clear that his expectations do not allow for this type of attitude. At the same time, he nurtures the student with “I love you,” and “You are awesome” adlibs. I highly doubt his love for this particular student should frighten us as viewers. Don’t call the cops, this isn’t one of those videos. His relaxed tone is refreshing from the strict demeanor during class.
With that, lesson one is over. Students have the homework of getting a binder for the next class, as well as finishing up a minor worksheet. Day one is in the books! How would you feel as a student in this intimidating classroom on day one? Thoughts on Mr. Hester as a professor? Anything else that stands out in the video that needs addressing? Comment below!
LetMeTeachYa By Anthony Forte 