breakthrough

Sitting on the table with my feet on a chair, I tossed the ball up with one hand and caught it several times. The door opened, and two students walked in, backpacks slung over their shoulders. They were obviously tired after a windy day of school, and most likely not in the mood for doing more math. Javier briefly looked up from watching his feet take one step in front of the other, but as soon as he saw what I was doing, his head jerked back up.

"I'm so good at basketball, Miss Olewiler! I'm pretty much the best one of all my friends...plus, I can throw it 3 meters and make it in the hoop with my eyes closed!"

"Oh really?" I said, being purposefully skeptical. "Then you'll have to prove it to me."

"Are we gonna play basketball, Miss Olewiler? Please? I mean, if we finish early and stuff can we play a little?" he pleaded.

"Pull out your homework, Javier. And as you're doing that, I wanna tell you something."

To be honest, I'd never seen him come alive with anything, but putting together some clues and intuition, I'd decided I was going to make him my "project" and he wasn't getting off the hook--though he had no idea.

"Javier," I said, looking him dead in the eyes, "this basketball is yours."

I let the words hang for a few seconds...."It's for you, but you can't have it right now. If you can prove to me that you will try your best, put forth effort in class, and start picking up the pace for learning, then you'll take this basketball home with you in 3 weeks. I'm not saying your work has to be perfect. I'm saying you're going to try your best and be willing to learn. You don't have to enjoy it, but I know you can do better than what you're showing your teachers right now."

His eyes didn't move, even after I stopped talking.

"And as soon as you finish your homework page, we're going outside."

I wasn't sure what was going through his ten-year-old brain at that moment, but whatever it was, it was enough to cause him to sit up straighter, pull out his math homework, and begin working without me having to give directions or review how to add. True, it took a few good solid minutes to finish the page, but only one out of about 30 questions was incorrect.

We played "Math-Ball" for about fifteen minutes. "Three times two plus four," I said as I bounced it to him.

"Uh....wait...wait....hold on.....ten!"

"Ten times nine."

"Uh-ninety!"

"Four times three plus one."

"Thirteen!"

.....

"Now Javier, I'm going to put your basketball right here under my desk until tomorrow, ok? We'll pull it out again and use it for subtraction and division."

"Okay! Bye Miss Olewiler! See you tomorrow!"

.....

Now I know I'm not the greatest teacher in the world...but sometimes, you have those moments when you've been fighting and fighting, and you finally crack the glass. And it's in those moments when everything's worth the fight. We're definitely not done--we have three weeks of intense cramming before testing--but I am determined that Javier will earn that basketball, and I'm going to remind him of it as often as I need to.

Hey....eight bucks is worth a kid passing fourth grade.