Voyage as a teacher!

Surprised that quite a number of my students wanted to read my blog, I decided to trace my days as a teacher.
I shall start with my motivation to become a teacher followed by some special incidents. At the outset I would like to reiterate that I haven't forgotten any of you, so if I have not mentioned you, its because probably you were one of the good, quiet ones, who did not leave a very strong stamp on my mind. I do not have to excuse myself once again, you all know that my memory for names is quite feeble. So on this note, I launch myself.
It was in 1982 that the principal of my college and also our English professor, told me "Veena, I think you ought to be an English teacher." I shook my head in denial, thinking "Me? On the other side of the bench? No way!". For, I was always dreaming in class, drawing cartoons of my teachers, singing in my head and laughing my guts out at times at their idiosyncrasies. I would never, ever subject myself to that kind of scoffing, would I?
Years rolled by, I forgot that conversation completely, till my 36th year. I was a student of French then. That was when I met Mag and Flo! It was the same year that I was having major problems trying to cope with a riotous son, who just refused to look at his books, made paper boats out of his notebooks, was always an "outstanding" student (he stood outside the class)...So when Mag and Flo told me that I should try teaching French at the Alliance, my thoughts went back to my college days. And I also thought that maybe, just maybe, I could entice my son towards his books by following the teaching methodology of the Alliance. But with little hope in my heart of getting selected, I went for the interview (you see, I was still a student). The interview seemed like a cakewalk. And that set the ball rolling...I was chosen! After my training, despite discouraging comments from many friends who told me that actual teaching at the Alliance was impossible, I started my observation. During the observation, one had to teach at least for 10 hours!
And voila, my turn came! Now I have to tell you about this first brush with teaching! The professor (that's what the teachers are called) whom I was observing , was a beautiful, gorgeous, sexy looking spinster, while I was much older, married, and nowhere as good looking as her. Plus she had good experience as a teacher. You can imagine what I was up against!
Now there were two boys in this class who just didn't want anyone replacing this lady! So I had to make sure that everyone hung around in class. So the first class was all about preparing a nice salad, followed by a game and in between a bit of teaching. Well, all went well till I came to the actual teaching part. When I started writing down the grammar rules, I heard a huge yawn, and everyone split into loud laughter. It was those two boys ! Since I was expecting some sort of mischief, instead of getting flummoxed, I joined in the laughter with the others! Both the boys didn't expect this at all. They were waiting for me to flare up! ha ha ha. I can never forget the look on their faces!
The next day, the boys told me that I was to warn them in advance if I was to take the class, so that they could remain absent. Imagine their surprise, when the following week I told them that it was my turn again and that they could disappear! Well, they did disappear but came back after an hour or so!
From then on, I knew I could carry it off. The boys later came and told me that they had been trying to pull my leg.
Later I started with my first teaching assignment, with a batch of 36!....
(to be continued)