Miss Shields is a character in Bob Clark's A Christmas Story. She is played by Tedde Moore.
History[]
A Christmas Story: Randy's Wrap Up[]
In the sixth scene of the film, Ralphie and the rest of the class all put fake hillbilly teeth in their mouths as a prank. Miss Shields enters the classroom asking the students to take their seats. As she writes on the chalkboard, she says "Good morning, class" and the students all yell "Good morning, Miss Shields" with muffled voices due to the use of the fake teeth. Miss Shields merely gives the students a "shame on you" grin and holds out her hand to collect all the fake teeth from the students, to which she stores in a drawer in her desk filled with various other pranks. She then continues her lesson on Silas Marner.
A Christmas Story: Tongue-Tied[]
In the seventh scene of the film, the class returns from recess, but Miss Shields notices that Flick is missing. She asks where he is, but no one responds, until one student points out the window to show that Flick is still outside. Miss Shields is horrified to see Flick still outside stuck by his tongue to the flagpole. She then rushes out to save Flick. She comforts Flick, while the fire department and police arrive on the scene to remove Flick from the pole. She and Flick (who's tongue is now wrapped in a bandage) then return to class. Miss Shields, to some extent, knows what happened and who the possible suspects are. However, Flick refused to say who dared him to stick his tongue to the flagpole. Miss Sheilds lectures the whole class, however knowing who dared Flick. She says that the guilt is far worse than the possible punishment, showing that she is strict but fair with her students. Miss Shields then assigns the class a theme on "What I want for Christmas" due the next day, which Ralphie takes in stride to make her sympathetic with his cause.
A Christmas Story: An A+ Masterpiece[]
In the twelfth scene of the film, Ralphie turns in his Christmas theme, confident that he's handing in an A+ level homework assiignment. He then has a daydream of Miss Shields as a frustrated British teacher, reading theme after theme and finding each one as a bitter disappointment and marking them all as F's. She then gets to Ralphie's theme and is touched by his 'sheer poetry', and gives him an A+, even writing 'A+++++...' on the chalkboard and walls. Which causes the classroom to cheer. Miss Shields then snaps Ralphie out of his daydream and instructs him to take his seat.
A Christmas Story: A Cute Fruit Bribe[]
In the seventeenth scene of the film, "A Cute Fruit Bribe", Ralphie Parker tries to bribe Miss Shields for good grades by bringing her a giant fruit basket. Miss Shields said "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year" and "You can take your seat now". She didn't fall for Ralphie's bribery.
A Christmas Story: C+ Nightmare[]
In the twentieth scene of the film, "C+ Nightmare", Miss Shields gives everyone their graded themes. She remarks that she was pleased with the class's efforts, as overall they did well on the assignment, but she was disappointed with the margins. Ralphie is excited to get his theme back but is dismayed to see it only got a "C+". Ralphie imagines Miss Shields as an evil witch, taunting him with "C+!" To Ralphie's further dismay, he notices that Miss Shields has written "P. S. You'll shoot your eye out!" on his theme, and he then imagines Miss Sheilds as the evil witch, with his mother as a jester, both of them tauntingly chanting "You'll shoot your eye out!" at him and laughing.
Personality[]
Miss Shields is patient, proper, and slightly strict. She resembles the common stereotype of any teacher from the time period.