--- title: Viral Teacher Handshakes VIDEO description: North Carolina's Barry White, Jr. came up with elaborate customized secret handshakes for every one of his fifth-grade students. canonical: https://time.com/4658070/viral-handshake-teacher/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-02T18:21:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:44.552Z og:title: This Heroic Teacher Has a Secret Handshake for Each Student og:description: Barry White, Jr. made up customized handshakes for each of his fifth graders. og:url: https://time.com/4658070/viral-handshake-teacher/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Heroic Teacher Has a Secret Handshake for Each Student twitter:description: Barry White, Jr. made up customized handshakes for each of his fifth graders. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch This Viral Teacher Do a Different Secret Handshake With Every Student > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=bec1537f-992f-47a2-a905-923ce2482758&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 2, 2017 6:21 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 2, 2017 6:21 PM UTC There’s a new elementary school champion: he has a [customized secret handshake](http://time.com/4476393/laurie-hernandez-dancing-with-the-stars-video/?iid=sr-link1) routine for every one of his students. ([_Parent Trap_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5FQko7eyaF4c), eat your heart out.) The special routine of high-energy fifth grade teacher Barry White, Jr. is going viral this week, as social media has picked up on the video of him greeting his students at the start of the day. The long line of kids snakes down the hall at Ashley Park PreK-8 School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and White, Jr. manages to do a distinct choreographed handshake with each. Whether it’s fist bumps, shimmies, spins, [dabs](http://time.com/4484632/jackson-hole-livestream-sheriff-dab/?iid=sr-link1), or a combination of all the above, every shake has its own style—and the kids clearly love it. He also runs the school’s step team and coaches boys’ basketball, which might in part explain his talent at the handshakes. “It’s muscle memory at this point,” [he told ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/teacher-personalized-handshakes-students/story?id=45190825). “I do it so much with them.” It started with just a few students, he said, but then he “saw how much it meant to them.” He was inspired to make this a part of classroom life thanks to Lebron James, he said; he noticed James has a different greeting for each member of the Cavaliers. Watch him greet his students, below: And here’s him working on the step and basketball teams: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4658070/viral-handshake-teacher/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4658070/viral-handshake-teacher/"},"headline":"Watch This Viral Teacher Do a Different Secret Handshake With Every Student","datePublished":"2017-02-02T18:21:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:44.552Z","description":"Barry White, Jr. made up customized handshakes for each of his fifth graders.","url":"https://time.com/4658070/viral-handshake-teacher/","keywords":["Newsfeed","School","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4658070/viral-handshake-teacher/","name":"Watch This Viral Teacher Do a Different Secret Handshake With Every Student"}}]}] ```