“Miss I Wish you a Bed of Roses”

Exactly the kind of wish to put a smile on the face of a tired teacher. A comment among hundreds over the years that I got teaching 7th to 12 graders at Pierce College, the American College of Greece.

This month olivesandislands offers no outward travel blog, just the hint of an inward journey of my teaching memories as I look back on 35 years of teaching in Greece:, gymnasio (grades 7, 8, 9), lykeio (10, 11, 12) as well as freshman composition at Deree College, following 5 years of teaching in NYC. How did so many years go by here? There must be some mistake. It’s a lifetime of performing in the classroom, the joy of meeting countless wonderful and brilliant kids (and of course the ones not so wonderful), and of dealing with all the school rules and regulations and activities. Besides my classroom memories in my newly published book “Miss I Wish you a Bed of Roses:” Teaching Secondary School English in Greece, there are ideas for teaching language and literature — poetry, songs, films — as well as professional development. And an added feature are poems by the author sprinkled throughout the book…

There’s a lot of teacher stuff (of course) but you don’t have to be a teacher to enjoy the book. Weren’t we all students once?

The preface below explains how I got into writing my book.

PREFACE

On a winter day in the early 90’s, the bell had rung in my American Literature class of 11^th graders. I was gathering my books together when Nick, a quiet boy with dark wavy hair and large round silver glasses, came up to my desk holding a piece of paper.

He hesitated, then said “Miss can I show you something?”

“Of course Nick.” I didn’t have a clue about what he was offering me.

 I hope you like it.”                                         

“Oh I’m sure I will.”

And he put this drawing on my desk.

My eyes widened and I smiled.

“I love it! But Julius Caesar! Should I worry about my fate too?” I asked.

He laughed.  “Oh no, of course not Miss. I didn’t mean that.”

“I like the robe with the scarf,” I said.

“Miss, that’s your trademark. You always wear a scarf.”

“I do?” He nodded. “Of course.”

I tried for a week not to wear one but I felt lost and just partly dressed as if something was missing — it just wasn’t me.

In developing your teaching style, a big part is how you dress. How you appear before a class goes along with figuring out exactly who you are. I was always trying to appear more confident of myself (and taller!) and in my mind, the scarf accessory seemed to give me that. Heels, platform shoes, skirts, pants, I tried a lot of different looks, but the scarf was a detail that I kept all my teaching career.

What exactly was my style of teaching? I never considered myself an authoritarian teacher even though in my caricature it seems I’m a Roman tyrant, a symbol of power and authority with the literature and with the classes in TOEFL  (Test of English as a Foreign Language). But wait, look at that smile in the cartoon, I might be a tyrant, but at least a friendly one.

This was early in my secondary school teaching.  I had another 25 years to make my own way in the classroom, to define my ideas, and my own style and techniques.

Ancient Rome might have had SPQR (Senatus PopulusQue Romanus) but Pierce and the American College of Greece had Non ministrari sed ministrare (Not to be served but to serve). The motto figured in my teaching career and on my never ending journey to “serve” the students, not only to find who I was, but to try and bring out the best in them, to discover what worked, to reach for what seemed to be that oh so unreachable star.

***

In my 35 years teaching at the American College of Greece in Athens, I discovered that teenagers are the same nearly everywhere, with doubts, longing to fit in and be accepted, wanting to experiment, expressing desires and dreams for the future.

Even though Pierce, the secondary school of the American College of Greece, was a terrific school and I was lucky to be teaching there, there were plenty of problems as there are in every school. This memoir grew out of my keeping a teaching diary for many of my years at school. A diary kept me sane, let me pour out my problems and frustrations. So even before I retired, I toyed with the idea of doing something with all those notebooks!

But it wasn’t until I came across one day the book Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, that I was sure of writing my own memoir of my experiences. McCourt who became famous for his story of his poverty ridden childhood Angela’s Ashes, had spent 30 years teaching high school in the New York City school system from 1958 to 1987 and immortalized his experience in Teacher Man.  Even though his students were so different from mine, still so many of his classroom experiences in the book resonated with me

Along my 35 year teaching journey, the book tells how I got into teaching in Athens Greece. Part I (chapters 1-3) tells about Pierce, the nature of classes and students, those that consider school “dangerous,” those that consider it safe and secure.

In Part II (chapters 4-10) I offer ideas for teaching literature — hands on activities in using poetry, songs and films. Part III (chapters 11-16) tells about school activities and routines, colleagues and conferences, as well as a chapter on university teaching of freshman English composition.

And there’s more: Appendix 1 through 4 give more student comments and classroom ideas, as well as an essay on my private lesson experience.

I hope you enjoy following my teaching journey, along that long and winding road.

****

Below in the “Preview,” besides the Preface, you can see Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2.

Available in both print and ebook — you can order below if this sounds like a book for you!

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Sherri Moshman Paganos is a writer and former educator, inspired by her life in Athens, where she and her husband are happily retired and enjoying their travels in Greece and abroad. You can check out her writing — fiction, non-fiction, poetry and articles here.