New shoes

Slice of Life, teaching 3 Minutes

During exam week, as semester one wound down and semester two loomed on the horizon, I bought myself some new shoes. Fluevogs were on sale and I decided to splurge, telling myself that the black and white pair were practically every day shoes. Mostly, I just thought they were awesome.

The Fluevogs, just waiting for me to buy them.

Days later, I wore the shoes for the first day of second semester. Right away, before period one even started, one of my new grade 9 students told me that she loved my shoes. Over the course of the morning, students and teachers complimented my shoes. I don’t think of myself as wildly fashionable, so I quite enjoyed the attention.

After the lunch bell rang, I spent a few quiet minutes in the classroom, straightening the desks and generally tidying. I know that each new semester brings both excitement and nerves, and I suspected I might have a few drop-ins. Sure enough, one of my regulars showed up to run down his classes so far.

I can’t get over how much I enjoy this young man. We spent two years in a row in English class together, and there were times when I wasn’t sure we were both going to make it. Somehow, by the time the second class had ended, we’d muddled through some actual reading and several pieces of writing that involved more than a few hastily scribbled sentences. We had even discovered that he is secretly an incredible teacher – and got him a peer tutoring placement in some ESL classes. Now, in grade 11, he is thriving (still challenging – but thriving).

He knows that I keep a blog – “are you famous yet, Miss?” – and thinks it’s ridiculous that I read so much – “do you even sleep?” He tells me he’s a “baller” and once spent a significant amount of class time explaining why Kobe is better than Michael Jordan. And yes, I tricked him into writing an opinion essay on this. He also likes to mock my “secret crush” on Jason Reynolds. I regularly book talk Long Way Down, the Ghost trilogy and Miles Morales. All the kids know I love his writing, but when I showed a video of Reynolds talking about how he didn’t read much in high school, this student was shocked. Reynolds is a Black man with impressive dreadlocks; I am a middle-aged white teacher with what this student called “the same haircut as all the other teachers” (ouch. And for the record, he is wrong.)

He took my crush pretty seriously. For weeks he came back to it. “But you’re married,” he said. “Does your husband know?” Yes, yes he does. “But for real, if he asked you out, would you go out with him?” I suggested that it was unlikely that I would ever meet Reynolds, much less have dinner with him. “But what if you did?” this student worried. I said that I would go on an author date with him, an English teacher date – we would talk about writing and books. “That would be the most boring date ever,” he said and though I insisted that this would, in fact, be interesting for me, he was unconvinced.

But on this day we were talking about his new classes, not about books or writing. Then, after a minute of boasting that he was going to change a class because it was “way too much work” (“It’s day one,” I said, “you have no idea if it’s too much work.”), he suddenly stopped and said, “Miss, those are some fancy shoes.”

I was startled, then started to thank him, but he interrupted me. “Miss, if Jason Reynolds saw you in those shoes, he would definitely ask you on a date.” He paused. “Yeah, those are your Jason Reynolds date shoes, for sure.”

Though I expect that I will never, in fact, wear these shoes on a date with one of my favourite authors, I’m pretty sure I will call them “Jason Reynolds date shoes” for as long as I wear them. I mean, they are pretty cute.

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Published by Amanda Potts

I'm a high school English teacher in Ottawa, Ontario. I read, write, walk & take a LOT of pictures. Sometimes my kids let me write about them. I use this space to think and write about teaching and living.

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25 thoughts on “New shoes”

  1. Amanda, your title intrigued me because I am a lover of shoes. I never heard of the brand you mentioned but researched the brand. Wow! The black and white shoes are amazing. I hope they are comfortable. I like the idea of calling them Jason Reynold’s date shoes. I met Jason years ago when we were both on the plane heading to NCTE. My friend and I spent a considerable amount of time talking to him. He is very impressive in person and I am sure your students would love hearing him speak.

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    1. I’m jealous that you got to talk to him! WOW!! As for the shoes, they are a Canadian brand and are, frankly, stupid expensive. But they’re handmade & very very comfortable & gorgeous and I convinced myself that I could buy the “last pair” which happened to be in my size and were on sale from the sale… Totally worth it!

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      1. I have talked to Jason at every NCTE I’ve been to because he is a friend of Kwame Alexander who is also my friend. They are both fabulous speakers and authors. I have not seen my usual friends at NCTE since the last convention in 2019. I would like to go to a convention that is nearby and buy a pair of expensive, comfortable schools. I am always on the lookout for shoes. Thanks for sharing your shoe info.

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  2. I am now on a mission to find out where you could see Jason Reynolds in person so you can wear your shoes in his presence. LOL. I love this story and the relationship you have cultivated with that child. I think you are Slice of Life famous, and your haircut doesn’t match any teacher in my school. 🙂

    I had no choice but to eavesdrop on a Kobe v. Jordan debate in the airport this past summer. People are very passionate about this subject! LOL

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    1. Oh wow – if you find that moment for me, I will be there! I would like nothing better than to tell him how many of my students have discovered reading via his novels. And thank you for the affirmations, especially about my hair which is definitely not like *every* other teacher in the school… hahaha

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  6. I was captivated the whole way through this story and love how you wove the shoes into the narrative along with the funny sidebars (like the one about your haircut) – is that what you’d call the craft move? a sidebar? an aside? I’m not sure, but it’s definitely your voice that I can hear through this piece!

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    1. I had to write this on my phone because I’d left my computer at school after Grade 8 night, and I had promised myself I would write. I wonder if using the phone led to more sidebars? (Also, my hair is NOT boring. That child. Sheesh.)

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  7. First of all, cute shoes! Second, I love this kid, too LOL. And at the risk of sounding like I’m bragging, I did get to meet Jason Reynolds at NCTE a couple years ago, and I will forever cherish that picture – he is AMAZING; I completely understand this crush!! 😉

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  9. Sitting in traffic on the 417 on a Friday afternoon, and this made me laugh out loudI hope you know how magic it is that you built enough of a relationship with this student that this happened.

    You have to share this with Diana, because I’m going to assume the shoe purchase may have been partially inspired by her.

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  10. I think you need to share this with Jason Reynolds. I love that this student remembered your crush in this moment and connected to your cute new shoes. The power of connections. I recently listened to Jenn Serravallo’s latest podcast with Zaretta Hammond. I think you’d like it.

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  11. Oh my gosh – what a fun story! I was SUPPOSED to meet Jason Reynolds – he came to our school for an all-school assembly after all the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes read GHOST – but I was at a PD session with some colleagues. UGH!!!!! Thank you for this story – and yes – the shoes are adorable! I’m glad this post wasn’t about how they hurt! 🙂

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