The Lorax

I always tell people that during this endeavor, if all else fails, at least I can serve as a positive role model for some kids who need it really badly. As long as I can set an example and inspire, I'll be making some sort of positive difference.

But I never realized how much the role would reverse- how much I would be inspired, motivated, and taught by those I was trying to serve. How much I would be knocked off my feet, forced to sit down and learn some absolutely motivating, life-changing lessons from my students- the ones that I was trying to teach.

Last Friday morning, as I was reading the daily announcements to my homeroom, I came across one that asked for students interested in volunteering to read a Dr. Seuss book to children at the nearby elementary school. A hand shot up from a student who I least expected.

"Where do I go if I wanna do this?" asked Matthew.

"Just head on over to the library when you get the chance," I told him. Later that day, he came to my class with an application for the reading program, a copy of The Lorax, and most importantly, a big smile on his face.

On Tuesday I got an email from the librarian with more details about the reading program. Thank you for all the student responses, it read. We've had over 60 students get applications, and the number is still growing. Soon we will choose the 25 strongest readers.

I have to say that my heart sank after reading that. Matthew struggles with reading. A lot. His comprehension is on the lower end in my language arts class of over 18 students. Fluency is something he continues to work on, and he just recently "graduated" from speech services. 25 of the strongest 60. He, or we, didn't stand a chance.

I can flat out say that Matthew is one of my favorites. Though he's only a sixth grader, he stands at about 5'8 and growing and weighs about 200 pounds. He's literally a giant teddy bear. He comes in after school for tutoring, and during breaks we throw the football around and rough house. Sometimes I think he's more of a kid brother to me than a student. But the most striking thing about him is how hard he works, and how positive he stays even when he struggles through school and things don't click for him, which, sadly, happens a lot.

I responded to the librarian's email right away. I realize that it will take a lot of work and practice, I wrote, but I can't tell you how important this is to him and myself. It will be a huge boost for him and will also give us a chance to work on his fluency. Please consider giving him a chance to do this.

Only a few minutes later, she called back...and completely agreed! I explained to her that we would practice every day, and we had an advantage since he came to my class on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for tutoring. We could get a whole lot of reading and practice in and he'd be ready for the reading in a month. It's just Dr. Seuss after all, I thought.

After school that day, Matthew came in for tutoring as usual. After a couple of the other students left, we took out the book.

"In order to read this book, you're going to have to be perfect," I told him.

He nodded.

"You're going to have to read every word correctly,"

He nodded.

"You're going to have to pronounce every word very clearly."

He nodded. "I can do that. I just graduated from speech," he explained proudly.

"It's gonna be really tough. A whole lot of work. You think you can do this?" I asked.

Without hesitation, he nodded.

Just then, the janitor walked in with a football. "I found it in da locker room," he explained. "Washed it out. Here ya go." He tossed it to me. It was a great ball. The leather was nice and smooth and had the perfect grip. It was a junior size, so you could really air it out. It fit perfectly in my hand and I realized that this was the one- I had been in search of a ball just like this to bring on trips to the beach.

Matthew grabbed it out of my hands and held it up over me. "Give me that," I told him. He put it higher so I couldn't reach it. I extended my arm as high as I could and tried to knock it out of his hands, but it was too far off. He laughed and gave it to me.

"I'll tell you what," I told him, spinning the perfect pigskin in my palms. "If you work hard and are able to read this book to perfection by March, it's yours."

Without hesitation, he stuck out his hand and we shook on it. It was on.

"Let's figure out how big the book is so we can pace out our practice sessions," I said.

We opened the book to see what we were up against. For some reason, even though I've read The Lorax before, I thought it was a small, simple read. In the back of my mind, I figured if Matthew could practice it enough, he could pretty much memorize the thing by the time he had to read it to the children.

But this thing was thick. Since when was the Lorax a novel? There were no page numbers, so I started to count the pages. I kept turning pages and counting...turning and counting...and turning and counting.

"...25, 26, 27..." A lump began to rise in my throat. Some of these pages had a lot of text. How are we going to do this? Matthew could tell something was up and he looked at me for encouragement. I kept turning and counting "...41, 42, 43, 44."

I paused for a few seconds. I knew I had to play it cool. "Alright. We have 44 pages that we need to master. We have about 3 weeks to do it. Two tutoring sessions each week. That's six total. So about seven pages a session. To master."

Shoot.

Matthew didn't even flinch. He only got more excited. "I can come in in the morning- when you're here before school- and read to you. And lunch! I'll practice it."

Suddenly I was the one being schooled.

"You got yourself a deal," I told him. And just like that he stuck out his hand and we shook on it.

At that moment I realized exactly what motivation was. I thought about all the times I'd given up on something that I was perfectly capable of doing. Here was a kid who struggled so much with his reading. Yet he didn't even flinch in the face of a huge challenge that was about to put his greatest weaknesses to the test on the grand stage. He saw the same doubts, obstacles, and chances for failure that I saw, and rather than backing down, he charged. Rather than turning back, he simply smiled, stuck out his hand, and shook on it, teaching me a lesson that I would never forget.

I swear- if the rest of the world was even half as driven as this kid- anything would be possible. Matthew would tell you that it still is.

Four-Day Weekend

A cloudless sky at the backyard beach

The summer camp park across the street

This is literally my neighborhood!

Kailua Beach

These are a few of the photos I took during this past four day weekend. I have to say it was probably the best weekend I've had here. As I said before, though they canceled school on Friday due to an impending storm, it never materialized, and the weather was perfect. All four days were very sunny, and I haven't seen so many consecutive nice days out here since back in the early fall. Saturday we ended up going to Waimea Bay for a while and then going into town for the evening, which was a blast. Sunday was all about the beach, and I laid out at Crozier Beach down the street pretty much all day.

On Monday, the final day, we went to the Winward side to Kailua Beach. It's definitely one of my favorite parts of the island, and I haven't been there since back in September. There's this little island about a quarter mile offshore that I paddled out to on my boogie board. I brought my snorkel out with the intent to do a little diving, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent break at the corner of the island. I was able to do some boogie boarding for the first time since the summer.

One of the highlights of the weekend was finally using the amazing field that is right across the street. It's part of a Salvation Army summer camp, but there's not a single person there right now, so on Friday we went and played football on the large grass field. There's a perfect basketball court there as well, so I shot hoops a couple times. I think I'll keep using the facilities until I get kicked off, or I'll try to talk to someone who works there about it. It's right across the street from the ocean and the mountains dominate the backdrop- literally a field of dreams.

Today was actually my first full day of teaching since I've break and I felt so refreshed. I hope it stays this way well into the quarter. Every class is going really well so far. It's good to be back.

The Perfect Storm

It all started with an email I received at school on my first day back on Wednesday. The email was warning all teachers that a huge cold front would hit the island on Friday, bringing extremely high winds. The next day, the superintendent decided to shut down all schools in Hawaii on Friday in preparation for the storm.

What a storm it was! It left me with a little bit of a sunburn, tired legs, and one of the best days I've had out on the island so far. As it turns out, this monster storm never actually materialized, and although there were some pretty strong winds on and off all day, the sun was shining and we were left with a free day to enjoy ourselves.

I slept in a little, woke up to blue skies, and took a walk down to the beach with a couple of the roommates to check out the surf. The waves are huge right now and the winds were causing some pretty cool side currents. As it became clearer that the storm wouldn't hit and it was actually just a nice Hawaiian day, the house decided that we wanted to have an active day. There's a pretty awesome park right across the street that's part of a Salvation Army summer camp. We went out there and played football in the sunshine for a couple hours. Then we walked back to the beach and went for a nice swim. The waves were so strong that they were getting past the reef and breaking on the shore, so we did a little bit of body surfing. We turned it into a little competition, our version of The Eddy, in which the person who was able to ride the wave farthest in won. I had a couple successes, but Greg defeated me on the biggest wave of all.

After our swim, we went back to the house, dried off, and returned to the park (it also has a full basketball court). I'm not too sure if it's open to the public, but we spent pretty much all day there today and no one said anything. We played a couple games of two on two and then came home to unwind.

Because I thought the power was going to go out, I had purchased a lot of things to grill on our barbecue. We ended up grilling up a ton of stuff for dinner and turned it into a pretty nice feast. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and snacking on leftovers.

My roommate Amanda described today as this: "I got to sleep in, which I love. I got to play football, which I also love. I got to shoot hoops, which I love. I got to swim in the ocean, which I love to do. I got to take a nap, which I love. I got to eat all sorts of different meats and drink good beer, which I love. It was a good day."

All in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday.