A boy in my class loves wrestling. He came back from a trip to the library with a book about wrestlers (the WWE ones not the Olympic ones). We looked at it together.
At the end of the book was a Web site. "Look," I said. "Here is a place you can go on the computer and find out more information."
His friend said to him, "You can't do that at school."
"Maybe we can go sometime," I said.
The boys looked at each other and repeated, "He said maybe. He said maybe. He said maybe."
Later, the boy said to me, "You are an awesome teacher. You said maybe."
Just saying maybe makes me awesome? Well, I'm sure that's not true. But it is interesting that he thinks so.
Before he took the book back, we wrote down the Web address. And we did go and visit for a few minutes. He got to go there one day when in the computer center (and he had completed his work there).
I keep that Web address under my keyboard. He asked to see it the other day, just to make sure we still had it. "Don't lose it," he said.
I think I will always keep it. Just to remind me that saying yes can be so powerful.
(By the way, did I mention that this boy is one of my most challenging ones in class? We struggle sometimes but I think that even on difficult days the relationship is growing. The power of yes can impact all kinds of things in the classroom.)
