"We're gonna call Hamilton, Ham! Everybody say Ham! Ham!"

"Show me your body what you do with Ham!"

Courtney Hengst uses unique methods to reach her students.

"Okay, snappoo!!!"

"Snappo!!"

"Alright!"

She uses props, hand gestures and word association, to help her kids remember things in her history class.

"Many of the kids I work with are English learners. It's gonna be so much more impactful if they see something, than me just describing it."

But it's the gestures you don't see that make Miss Hengst special. She developed an after-school program at Woodlake to help kids who need extra help. And she spends countless hours with them, until they get it right.

"She sets very high standards for her kids. She expects them to do everything right, to turn in their work, to finish their homework on time."

"She teaches everybody to be responsible. There are some kids who wouldn't turn in their assignments before. Now, if you see then, they're actually turning them in."

Miss Hengst knows she's helping mold the minds of tomorrow. It's not just a job for her, it's a passion.

"We need to fight the 21st century of kids that are lazy, kids that get things handed to them, kids that just expect things to happen. No! Let me set the bar and i will help you reach that bar!"

"Woooooo!"

So, congratulations to Courtney Hengst. She goes the extra mile, to be our Educator of the Week.

And KSEE24 isn't the only one to honor Miss Hengst. She was recently named teacher of the year in Tulare county.