Teacher Appreciation Week: El Paso educator Tom Wilson reflects on career
“It’s all a dream we dreamed, one after noon long ago.” That sums up what I’ve experienced since December when I left a full-time teaching position after 33 years in the classroom and began substitute teaching in January in the Canutillo ISD, where I taught 15 years ago and tutoring at Bowie High School ,where I taught 10 years ago.
It has been alternately a Rip Van Winkle homecoming and a weird dream, not bad but odd.
I’ve really enjoyed the homecoming aspect of it: seeing friends and former colleagues after 10 and 15 years (and thinking “wow, they’ve aged” and realizing they think the same about you); walking the halls of Canutillo and Bowie High Schools and entering the classrooms where I taught, feeling the vibes and overwhelming déjà vu while trying not to seem overly excited; raving about “I remember when . . . “ to anyone who will listen and being met with blank stares.
All of this I relish in a Walt Whitmanesque way — even the day I subbed for a kindergarten class and barely got out alive. The kids were all right, this viejo was just a little slow.
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In all the classes I’ve subbed, at every grade level, I hand out copies of the American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet and teach them how to spell their names in sign language. I promise them a Snickers if they can sign their name by the end of class. Most of them do.
In a second grade class, where I subbed recently, they each came to the front of the room and proudly signed their names. Everyone applauded!
The high school kids aren’t nearly as enthusiastic, but a Snickers is a Snickers, so again, most of them do. I then proceed to tell them a half-true story about a former student, who approached me once in Walmart, tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was “Coach” Wilson (my alter ego). I paused and responded, “maybe”, at which point he begins signing his name for me in the middle of Walmart. He then tells me that’s the only thing he remembers about my class. So it goes . . . (some parts of this story really happened).
The tutoring at Bowie has been a little more problematic. I had a wonderful, albeit brief, stint there from 2013-2015 and it really left an impression on me. I even wrote a column in this paper back then about how I would like to set up an exchange program between Bowie and my high school alma mater, Hickman High School in Columbia Missouri. I still would Bowie de mi corazon.
Tom Wilson a retired teacher of 33 years is currently a substitute teacher in the Canutillo ISD.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Teacher Appreciation Week inspires reflection by educator Tom Wilson
