Teachers work so hard to grab students and get all eyes to the front of the room.
"I can see when I start to lose them," said Madeline Whitacre, teacher, at Jesus Moroles Expressive Arts Vanguard Academy.
Most teachers break something off the wall to get the class back. But Whitacre takes a different approach.
She lets her 8th graders walk out, leave class, and pick up a book.
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"You know, school is stressful, just reading, just for like, at least like 10 minutes just helps us calm ourselves down," said Alessandra Davila, a student in the class.
Some days it's the student's choice, others it's a novel they're reading together, class pet and all, but every day, they come here, find a spot, and get lost in a story.
"This is our fifth novel together as a class. And each time they get more and more excited," said Whitacre.
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It didn't come naturally.
"I will read but mostly because it was like, forced upon me," said Davila.
"I don't know what it is. But like I just like reading all of a sudden," said Ayden Baesa, a student in Whitacre's class.
You could hear the birds chirp, and from what we saw, it's no surprise that STAAR scores are up.
It's not just one class either. Their principal started reading breaks for ALL students on campus,
"If you can't read, you can't learn about math, you can't learn about science, you can't learn about anything," said Marissa Tavallaee, Principal.
She has gone into her own pocket and paid for more novels, so the kids can write in and keep the novels, and call them their own.
"I enjoy reading. And so I read more often than I used to," said Baesa.
Lesson planning for Madelyn Whitacre may involve reading 8th-grade books all the time to pick the next novel.
What better payoff can you get than this?
"She feels like she's not really a teacher but more of like a friend to us," said Baesa.
Teachers on campus have gotten into the act too, starting a book club, where they too read together outside of school time.
