It was my first year teaching and I’m not sure if it was my first class ever but when calling the roll, I came across a student named Jorge. I asked him if he wanted to be called George or XOR:xeh (Horhey)? He shyly smiled and said, “Whichever.” I told him that he would have to choose or I would call him, “Whichever.”
I called him, “Whichever” for the rest of the year and while he was still in the middle school when he was in the eighth grade. I have so many memories from the 12 years I taught but this one is from one of my favorite students. I used to sit at the student table in the front of the room in my roller chair before I was wheelchair-bound.
The students were completing independent work when I overheard a conversation that, “Whichever” was having with another student at the table I was sitting at. He was telling them about pedicures. I remember that I stopped what I was doing and looked at him questioningly. He asked me if I had ever gotten a pedicure to which I told him that I had not.
I remember shaking my head and telling both students to get back to work. A few weeks later, “Whichever” came into class beaming. As he sat down, he told me that he just had gotten a pedicure. He took off his left sock and shoe and showed me his toes. As I looked at them, he began to wiggle them!
I remember laughing pretty hard and shaking my head. He came back to the school years later, after he had graduated from high school and after I had become the Reading Specialist. My first office as the Reading Specialist was on the second floor and had a bathroom inside of it.
When I was teaching Read Natually (I taught a small class of six and a couple kids were absent) I ducked into the restroom while my students were working. I heard someone knocking at the door and then I heard voices but I couldn’t tell what they were saying as I washed my hands.
When I came out of the restroom, I saw that there was no one in the classroom other than my students. I asked them who was at the door and they said it was a man. I asked them if he told them who he was and they shrugged and told me that he said something like, “Whatever.” I didn’t know who they were talking about because, “Whichever” had graduated from middle school a good seven years before that.
Later that day, “Whichever” came back to my room to see me! He was all grown up! Every time a male student came back to see me when he was in high school, he would say, “Hi Miss!” to which I would respond copying a very deep voice, “Hi [whatever their name was]” and they would laugh as I told them that they did NOT sound like that when they were in seventh grade!
I’m not sure what made me think of this student this morning but I told Sean about it and he kind of laughed and looked amused that I was THAT kind of teacher. I DO miss that even though it’s summer now!