Secret Identity/ second chance
"Hey, Ms. Stanley, what'd you do this weekend?" Kurt started class with this outburst while I was trying to get the whole group settled and working.
"Heard you went to a party Mr Kinsey gave for the faculty Friday night," Steve joined in before I had time for any reply.
"Heard you danced all night long and drank a bunch of the others under the table," their compatriot Matt added.
"Nothing so exciting," I commented dryly. "Now will you all please get quiet and do the bell work assignment which you know is due in 5 minutes."
"Those three will do absolutely anything to pull the class off task and waste time. What are they doing in an 11th grade honors class?" These things I mused to myself as I took attendance and entered it into the computer, then began to circulate, trying to be sure they were all attempting the grammar challenge on the overhead projector. If they paid attention as we went over it, they'd get more out of today's reading of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
What I did this weekend..... if those guys only knew.... if any of them had any idea what their apparently average, middle-aged English teacher did on the weekends. They would NEVER believe!!!!
Kaylee Kralle --lead singer for a nightclub dance band, and sometimes actress, at those dinner theater jobs with one or two name stars that do summer stock in the Poconos or other resort areas ...... the band has our own jet and we book gigs all over the US and Canada, we do more weddings and expensive private parties than concerts of any kind ......... in the summer, we take jobs on cruise ships and abroad.... but every fall I return to my ordinary existence as high school English teacher and Beta Club sponsor. I plan lessons and grade papers as we jet to weekend gigs. Then during the week I strive to teach them to love literature and appreciate the nuances of grammar and language use. The classroom is my stage and they my usually less-than- appreciative audience.
I smile at their effort to insinuate their idea of excitement into what they presume to be my average, boring, middle aged life.
"Come-on, Guys, as soon as we finish going over this grammar worksheet, we are going to read a story of a little man with a grand imagination, one sufficient to save him from the boredom of every mundane situation. We are going to talk about "stream of consciousness" style of writing. Then I think we will each write a little Mitty-type episode of our own. Maybe I'll write one too and we can share what we've written."
"Heard you went to a party Mr Kinsey gave for the faculty Friday night," Steve joined in before I had time for any reply.
"Heard you danced all night long and drank a bunch of the others under the table," their compatriot Matt added.
"Nothing so exciting," I commented dryly. "Now will you all please get quiet and do the bell work assignment which you know is due in 5 minutes."
"Those three will do absolutely anything to pull the class off task and waste time. What are they doing in an 11th grade honors class?" These things I mused to myself as I took attendance and entered it into the computer, then began to circulate, trying to be sure they were all attempting the grammar challenge on the overhead projector. If they paid attention as we went over it, they'd get more out of today's reading of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
What I did this weekend..... if those guys only knew.... if any of them had any idea what their apparently average, middle-aged English teacher did on the weekends. They would NEVER believe!!!!
Kaylee Kralle --lead singer for a nightclub dance band, and sometimes actress, at those dinner theater jobs with one or two name stars that do summer stock in the Poconos or other resort areas ...... the band has our own jet and we book gigs all over the US and Canada, we do more weddings and expensive private parties than concerts of any kind ......... in the summer, we take jobs on cruise ships and abroad.... but every fall I return to my ordinary existence as high school English teacher and Beta Club sponsor. I plan lessons and grade papers as we jet to weekend gigs. Then during the week I strive to teach them to love literature and appreciate the nuances of grammar and language use. The classroom is my stage and they my usually less-than- appreciative audience.
I smile at their effort to insinuate their idea of excitement into what they presume to be my average, boring, middle aged life.
"Come-on, Guys, as soon as we finish going over this grammar worksheet, we are going to read a story of a little man with a grand imagination, one sufficient to save him from the boredom of every mundane situation. We are going to talk about "stream of consciousness" style of writing. Then I think we will each write a little Mitty-type episode of our own. Maybe I'll write one too and we can share what we've written."
posted by sundaycynce at 6:41 PM
2 Comments:
Good story - loved the "stream of consciousness" reference at the end, as a wink to the whole story.
N.
Excellent story and I can relate to it very well!
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