May 13—When the school year began, first grade teacher Jonathon Brannon had one question for his Matheson Park Elementary School class:

“Are you guys kindergarteners?”

The reason for the question? Only 14% of Brannon’s students were reading at a first-grade level. An educator for the past 30 years, he knew he had his work cut out for him.

But neither Brannon or his students were afraid of the work. So, together, they began working on improving their reading.

“Each month, when we took our monthly assessments, we looked at the results and we looked for the red areas,” Brannon explained, “and took a pick at which areas to focus on.”

The first thing the class worked on was their phonemic awareness, which is the practice of being able to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes — the smallest units of sound that differentiate meaning in words. From there, they focused on their vocabulary.

Students worked with word wall activities, participated in guided reading groups, and wrote and presented book reports to their classmates. Little by little, the reading scores were going up, and the students were becoming more and more confident.

The class had adopted the metaphor of a rocket ship, according to Brannon. “We’re blasting off, we’re not stopping and we haven’t stopped,” he said. “We kept going.”

In December, when his class took their monthly assessment, its reading proficiency level had jumped from 14% to 43% — a massive improvement in a short amount of time and one that Brannon said is a testament to his class’ drive and determination.

Even with the giant leap in the reading scores, Brannon and his students are continuing to put in the work every day, and with the end-of-year assessments on the horizon, they expect to raise their reading scores even higher.

But before that, Brannon’s class received the surprise of a lifetime on Monday as, one by one, they filed into the school library.

A look of excitement could be seen on each of their faces as they took their seats at some nearby tables. The school’s principal, Jacqueline Lovato, walked in shortly after and thanked the students for all of their work this school year.

Then, in walked two very special guests — New Mexico United community relations manager and former player David Estrada and current player, midfielder/defender Harry Swartz.

The audible gasps from the students could be heard as the pair walked into the library. It wasn’t long before Estrada and Swartz were both bombarded with questions like, “Do you play soccer?” and “Dan you play soccer with us?” eliciting smiles from them both.

“As players, we love doing this. It really does brighten up our day,” Swartz said. “Seeing the smiles on the kids face, it makes everything worth it.”

Lovato thanked the guests for joining them and Brannon for all the work he did for the students . She then turned it over to Estrada, who told the students he had a surprise for them. He reached into his pocket, pulled out an envelope and handed it to Lovato.

Walking around the tables , Lovato asked them if they knew what was inside the envelope One student yelled out, “tickets!”

That student was right as Lovato pulled out a stack of ticket for the June 8 New Mexico United game at Isotopes Park against Hartford Athletic FC, a “School’s Out Night.”

The tickets were a reward for the classes’ huge improvement in their reading scores. APS students and staff will participate in pregame and halftime activities, and APS will have a reading table at the game, where there will be free books.

When Brannon saw the excitement on his student’s faces when they received their tickets, “I almost started crying,” he said. “It just reminded me how much they were able to do.”

After the ticket surprise, Brannon invited Swartz and Estrada to join them outside, as they launched a “New Mexico United” rocket they had made. Painted in United’s colors, black and yellow , the rocket was ready for launch.

As the group walked to the launch site near the playground, Lovato reflected on how much of an impact Brannon had made on his students. “He’s only been with us this year and he had made tremendous gains with our kiddos. We’re lucky to have him.”

When the group arrived at the launch site, Brannon invited Swartz to help him press the launch button. The students waiting with anticipation and started the countdown — five, four, three, two, one.

Liftoff and with a puff of white smoke, the rocket shot high into the sky.

In many ways, that rocket was symbolic of Brannon’s class and the trajectory the students are on.

“We were blasting off for second grade and a lot of them have gone beyond that and they haven’t quite landed yet,” Brannon said with a smile.