Viola Swamp Miss Nelson Views
Miss Nelson is a grade-school teacher whose students constantly take advantage of her nice nature. After an especially rowdy day in Miss Nelson's class, her students discover that she is not coming to school the next day. Now we can really act up, yells one of the students (Allard, 8). However, before they get the chance to make mischief, a substitute, Miss Viola Swamp, shows up. Swamp is a strict disciplinarian and gives the students significantly more school work than Miss Nelson ever did. The contrast between the two teachers is so great that the students actively go looking for Miss Nelson and make unlikely conjectures about what may have happened to her. After many days of tyranny under Miss Swamp, Miss Nelson returns to class and the children rejoice. At the end of the book, it is implied that Miss Viola Swamp was Miss Nelson in disguise.
After Miss Nelson informs the class that she will be absent for a week, the class fears that they will again have Miss Viola Swamp as their substitute. Their fears are momentarily relieved when Mr. Blandsworth, the school principal, substitutes. However, Mr. Blandsworth gives extremely boring lectures and so the students plan a scheme to disguise themselves as Miss Nelson in an attempt to lead Mr. Blandsworth into thinking that his services as a substitute teacher are no longer necessary. This works in the morning, however after Miss Nelson finds out about the scheme, the real Miss Viola Swamp substitutes for her class the next day. Once order is reestablished by Miss Swamp, Miss Nelson returns to class.
The Horace B Smedley School football team, the Smedley Tornadoes, hadn't won a game all year. They hadn't scored even a single point (Allard, 6-7). When Miss Nelson overhears some of her students complain about the team at Lulu's ice cream parlor, she and Mr. Blandsworth say HMMM . The next day Blandsworth dresses up as a witch saying he's Miss Viola Swamp, but everybody doesn't fall for it and Blandsworth says Oh Rats! How can they tell? But then Coach Swamp comes back and tortures the team. Coach Swamp applies her trademark discipline to the team and they start getting better. At the end of the story, the Tornadoes beat the opposing team seventy-seven to three. But then at the very end it is revealed that Miss Nelson's sister actually was Coach Swamp in disguise (or, alternatively, her sister was posing as miss Nelson while Miss Nelson posed as Coach Swamp).
Like the title character she plays, Emily is very much sweet Miss Nelson by nature. But she shared a great story with me about the time she spent in a really tough London class where the only way she was going to keep control was to be the strict, limit-setting Miss Viola Swamp (Miss Nelson's secret alter ego). Amazingly, it's just what the kids needed and wanted. You can read all about my interview with Emily here -- AND get all the details for this season opener at the DCT!
Viola Swamp Miss Nelson Images
