The Double-Life of Super-Teacher!

Sometimes I forget that my roommate lives a double life. You’d easily forget, too, after witnessing the two different sides of her.

When you become an adult, with an adult job, this sort of stuff begins to happen. You unknowingly take on another persona, one that filtered and edited - one that is suitable for work and your colleagues.

By day, Ashley Collins is dressed in a button down collared shirt, black dress pants and carrying a tote bag filled with corrected book reports, math tests and lesson plans. By night, she’s in jeans and high heels, stealing the microphone from an unsuspecting stranger at the Karaoke bar, belting out “Love Stinks,” while chasing her tequila shot with her fourth Miller Lite bottle.

Watching Ms. Collins transform is like watching one of those scenes from a Superman movie where Clark Kent, dressed in normal, every day, clothes, jumps into a telephone booth and then emerges as a cape wearing superhero! At the end of the day though, Collins is not a superhero, she's just my best friend and happens to be an Elemantary School teacher. That's what makes it all the more entertaining.

“You have to take that down from Facebook,” Collins says. It’s 6 am and she’s pouring herself a cup of coffee while rubbing her eyes. Collins is getting ready to start her day and at the same time realizing that I just posted this past weekends escapades online. “Let me just see it one more time before I make you delete it” Ashley says. "My kids keep trying to find me on Facebook, so if they somehow end up finding that - I just can't let them see that!" As she walks over to my computer, I silently thank god for digital cameras and how they are now able to capture such masterpieces.

The video my roommate is referring to, was the one taken the weekend prior, following several Scorpian Bowls at a Chinese Food restaurant. Collins said she could tie a cherry stem with her tongue, and demanded I document it on video. Excellent idea, Ms. Collins.





“My kids are so watching a movie today, because ‘Ms. Collins does NOT feel good.’” Collins says. We both have a good laugh and then reality sets in that she is actually on her way out the door to go mold and shape the minds of young elementary students. And just like Collins, who is 24 years old, quite a few of my other friends have taken on the role of the new teacher, as well.

“It’s ironic, you know” Dana Henderson says. Henderson teaches 3rd grade at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Connecticut. "This past Sunday I was getting a tattoo with my best friend and today I’m telling kids not to run and to use their indoor voices. I’m always asking [my kids] if they are ‘making smart choices’ and then on Friday I was taking pictures of my co-workers making out with strangers at the bar!” Henderson concludes, "It definitely is a double life. Do what I say, not as I do - type of thing. But hey, just because we are teachers does not mean we have to become duds."

Henderson is right. It's just way more funny to reflect back on previous teachers and remember that they too were actual people, with actual lives, and were probably out doing the same stuff that my friends and I are doing now. My third grade teacher, Ms. Eagen was my hero. She was beautiful, she was smart and she always complimented my outfits. Ms. Eagen was also only 26 years old, and only recently did I find out that she asked my father out on a date during one of their parent-teacher conferences.

"What can I say, your father is a stud" Roger DaSilva, yes, my dad, tells me. "You were in 3rd grade, I wasn't going to tell you your teacher had the hots for me."

Imagine if I had found that out back then? That would be like one of Ms. Collins students finding out that she listens to Insane Clown Posse - it just would not be right.

Jessica Moody, a fellow classmate turned Sex Ed. teacher at Medford High School, had quite a bit to say about the topic. “Last week after the Beanpot, I went in to work in the morning and was so hungover that I locked myself in my office and napped on the floor. It’s a little different because my kids are 17, so I think that they kind of have some idea, but I don’t think they know how bad it is. What’s worse is telling the kids to not get drunk and do shit that we did when we were their age yet the entire department left work early last week and went to Hooters for one of our co-workers birthdays.”

Moody also goes on to say that it’s not just teachers that lead this “double life,” it’s really everybody. I suppose it’s just funnier when your dealing with it first hand. I’m sure that teachers go to work hungover everday, and I probably watched quite a few movies with no explanation as to why when I was in elementary school too, but sometimes I just feel as though my roommate's weekend life should be a Saturday Night Live skit.

Being a teacher has always been a dream of Collins and she thoroughly enjoys her job. What becomes comedic is seeing her fill out report cards on a Monday and then dance on stage at "The Burren Pub" on Saturday night. At least the phrase, "If only your kids could see you now..." will never get old.