by: Karin Gillespie
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Release Date: September 8, 2015
Publisher: Henery Press
The unspooling of Toni Lee Wells’ Tiffany and Wild Turkey lifestyle begins with a trip to the Luckett County Jail drunk tank. An earlier wrist injury sidelined her pro tennis career, and now she’s trading her tennis whites for wild nights roaming the streets of Rose Hill, Georgia.
Her wealthy family finally gets fed up with her shenanigans. They cut off her monthly allowance but also make her a sweetheart deal: Get a job, keep it for a year, and you’ll receive an early inheritance. Act the fool or get fired, and you’ll lose it for good.
Toni Lee signs up for a fast-track Teacher Corps program. She hopes for an easy teaching gig, but what she gets is an assignment to Harriet Hall, a high school that churns out more thugs than scholars.
What’s a spoiled Southern belle to do when confronted with a bunch of street smart students who are determined to make her life as difficult as possible? Luckily, Carl, a handsome colleague, is willing to help her negotiate the rough teaching waters and keep her bed warm at night. But when Toni Lee gets involved with some dark dealings in the school system, she fears she might lose her new beau as well as her inheritance.
Related subjects include: chick lit, women’s fiction, humor, humorous fiction, Southern humor, Southern living, friendship
My Very Worst Day Teaching
I taught at an inner-city high school for ten years, and I used to say that a good day was when none of my students threw a chair at me. Most people thought I was joking, but over the years I’ve had all kinds of objects heaved at me: desks, scissors and insults. Lots and lots of insults.
My students often came to me from youth detention centers and many had severe behavior disorders. During the decade I taught, I experienced my share of harrowing incidents but the worst came in my last year.
I had a student named Olivia and most times she was manageable, but every now and then she would lose her temper and become completely uncontrollable. Everyone was aware of her tantrums and more than once a security guard hauled her off the premises as she screamed, bit and kicked.
One day Olivia came to class after finding out she was pregnant. I don’t know if it was the hormones or her unfortunate news, but Olivia was in a terrible snit, cursing, screaming, and threatening physical harm to me and her fellow students.
I pushed the panic button, waiting for someone to come and get Olivia. Fifteen minutes past and no one arrived. Olivia’s behavior continued to escalate and I feared she was going to cause serious injury to herself or someone in the classroom. I pushed the button and again and the office secretary said, “We’re working on it.”
Another ten minutes passed. Olivia was in my face, spewing obscenities, her fists balled, her face a mask of malevolence. Finally two assistant principals and a security guard appeared, and Olivia was removed from my classroom.
Later one of the assistant principals apologized for the delay and said, “We know how violent Olivia can be and we didn’t want to come until we could locate a security guard.”
Both of the assistant principals were women so I can understand why they didn’t want to deal with her but they didn’t mind letting me weather her tantrum without any assistance. I’m 5 foot 2 inches tall and at the time, I weighed 115 pounds. In other words, I was no physical match for a teenager fueled on anger and adrenaline.
A few months earlier a student stabbed one of my colleagues at a local middle school. She lapsed into a coma and later died. That, coupled with the Olivia incident, woke me up. I knew my job could be crazy at times, but now I understood that it could actually kill me. I was the single mother of a young child and decided I could no longer take that risk.
I accepted a much lower paying job as an editor of a parenting magazine and not long afterwards I sold a series of novels to Simon and Schuster. I’ve been writing ever since and Girl Meets Class, my sixth novel, is based on my experiences teaching at an inner-city school. Although it deals with serious subject matters, it’s actually a lighthearted novel and my main character Toni Lee Wells gains much from tenure in the inner city classroom.
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This sounds like a good book. I can't really answer the question about who my favorite teacher was because I didn't like school, so I didn't care for the teachers either.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the book does sound good. I've seen a lot of good reviews for it. Really? There wasn't at least one teacher that you liked. Or now that you're out of school realized that you liked?
DeleteI have to say I liked Mr. Brewer. I think I might have been in the 6th or 7th grade. But was sitting in the second desk on the first row, next to his desk. The person who sat in front of me wasn't at school that day. I accidentally kicked the desk over and came about six inches for hitting his precious fish tank. The whole class got quite and you had some people going oooooohhh. He didn't kill me. Thus, he was my favorite teacher for awhile.
Mrs. Horn, because she was also left handed and taught me the correct way to place my paper so there was no smearing! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat's seriously important! My daughter is left handed and she had teachers trying to make her write with her right hand. Now, if only we can get her to write so we understand what she's writing.....
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