Is Mr. Escalante a good teacher?

 

Mr. Escalante shows his great desire for teaching.  He comes from a better paying job, but has a heart for kids.  He has a real down at their level attitude, but not going to take any bunk from them either.  The first day of class, all the students are rowdy, not sitting down, jabbering with each other.  When he comes in students don’t pay him any respect.  He ends up rearranging the seating and one student says, “hey, I have a seat”, Mr. Escalante replys , “don’t worry, I will get you a seat”! 

One great example of his teaching:  The students arrived at class and he was in a chef’s outfit.  Everyone had an apple on their desk.  So he is asking them, “whatcha got”…Some of the students are smart alec, “I have a core”, “I have an apple”…he is trying to get them to think in percentages, finally he asks Anna and she says, “25%”, they then all get the idea of what he is wanting.  He uses illustrations and talks in their “language” to get the meaning across.

I didn’t like the example he made of the girl who wouldn’t take her quiz.  Not sure if she couldn’t or hadn’t studied, anyway, he puts her in the “dunce” chair.  She sits there for a short time and finally gets up and goes taking her quiz. It seemed like a harsh example, but it did work in the end.

The example of “rising to the level of expectations” is shown by “everyone” taking the quiz and him giving the quizzes regularly. The students knew it was coming and had to prepare for it.  The one student, Jo – with the pony tail, actually wanted to study, but afraid of criticism from his peers, but ends up getting 3 books he could use at different locations.  He was “rising to the level of expectation”.