Small Talk: Elementary To My Heart

[Meredith Quill]

The Small Talk topic is for:

• Introductions
• Off-topic chatter
• Having virtual tea with forum buddies

This is NOT a topic for actual show discussion. When you want to talk about the show:

1. Figure out the nature of the topic you want to talk about
2. Look for an existing topic that matches or fits
3. If there is NOT an existing topic that fits, CREATE ONE!

Examples of topics that populate show forums include (but by no means are limited to):

• Character topics
• Spoiler topics
• Comparison topics
• Speculation topics
• In the Media topics
• Favourite X topics
• ...you get the idea

Happy trails beyond Small Talk!

[kwnyc]

Philadelphians! Grab a hoagie at Wawa, a birch beer and hang out here.

[BAForever]

Lower elem teacher here. Love this show!  Looking at the plots, some of the writers have to either be educators or have family in education. Haven't we all had a principal like Ava?

[Crashcourse]

49 minutes ago, BAForever said:

Haven't we all had a principal like Ava?

Thankfully, no I haven't. 🙏 😅

[JeanJean]

16 hours ago, BAForever said:

Lower elem teacher here. Love this show!  Looking at the plots, some of the writers have to either be educators or have family in education. Haven't we all had a principal like Ava?

Quinta Brunson's mom is a teacher.

[Neiman]

I could tell the creator had an inside scoop into education. I’ve worked in elementary, middle, and high schools and can recognize some familiar characters in the show. Every time the principal says something and smiles into the camera, I laugh, but in real life it made my skin crawl when I came across people like that.

[dmmetler]

I'm a former inner city music teacher in Memphis. Except that the slang is different, almost everything in this show could happen in my school. Good, bad, and ugly. 

[Black Knight]

I just read Sidik Fofana's Stories From the Tenants Downstairs. Fofana is a public school teacher in NYC, and his experiences clearly informed his debut fiction novel. It's a series of interconnected stories, but fans of the show would really enjoy the chapter Ms. Dallas, which is told from the POV of a paraprofessional (aide assigned to help a specific kid) working in a Harlem public school. It's dark but also pretty funny, especially in a couple of scenes that are deliciously farcical. It is, unsurprisingly given the author's background working in public schools, the longest chapter in the book. Here's a taste:

"Spin the globe and land your finger on any classroom in the world and this right here will still be the worst. But the good news is, it's already fifteen minutes in and that door ain't cracked open since Najee run to the bathroom. Maybe they won't visit. Maybe they went to all the good classes. Maybe the lady stamped her clipboard and renewed our school already.

No sooner do that dream finish getting dreamt do the hinge squeak open and there go the principal, the AP, and the superintendent lady coming in like pallbearers."

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

So, for Philadelphia area people, or anyone else interested, tomorrow (12/21) is the legendary Jim Gardner’s last ever broadcast with Action News at 6pm. He’s been a Philly institution since 1976, and so many of us have grown up hearing the news from Jim. It’s the end of an era, and he is as beloved in real life as Quinta portrays him on Abbott Elementary. He will be deeply missed. 

[MicheleinPhilly]

15 hours ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

So, for Philadelphia area people, or anyone else interested, tomorrow (12/21) is the legendary Jim Gardner’s last ever broadcast with Action News at 6pm. He’s been a Philly institution since 1976, and so many of us have grown up hearing the news from Jim. It’s the end of an era, and he is as beloved in real life as Quinta portrays him on Abbott Elementary. He will be deeply missed. 

I am fully prepared to cry like a baby at 6:30 tonight! 

[Night Cheese]

Of all the things that I love about Abbott Elementary, the fact that Quinta and the show pay homage to Jim Gardner, a true Philly legend in his own right, is probably top 5--maybe top 3. Growing up, Action News on 6ABC was my parents' news station of choice. Some of my earliest school-age memories were of Jim Gardner and the 6pm broadcast on the TV in our kitchen while I did my homework and my mom cooked dinner. Even now, after I've lived on the west coast for close to a decade, I could probably identify Jim's voice in my sleep. I hope he enjoys a well-deserved retirement.

[MicheleinPhilly]

@ZuluQueenOfDwarves and @Night Cheese

And in true Philly fashion, people are going to begin tailgating in the Target parking lot across the street from the station at 4 p.m. today. 🤣🤣

I love this city. 

[Night Cheese]

33 minutes ago, MicheleinPhilly said:

@ZuluQueenOfDwarves and @Night Cheese

And in true Philly fashion, people are going to begin tailgating in the Target parking lot across the street from the station at 4 p.m. today. 🤣🤣

I love this city. 

That is so perfectly Philly. 🤣

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

I bawled my eyes out. Philly won’t be the same without you, Jim. Enjoy retirement!

[MicheleinPhilly]

12 hours ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

I bawled my eyes out. Philly won’t be the same without you, Jim. Enjoy retirement!

My eyes are so puffy, I look like I've been punched. 😭

[xaxat]

My cousin just retired from teaching in the Philadelphia school district. She is a real life version of Ms. Barbara. This show is so Philly and so public school teacher. It is so good!

[lovinbob]

I love this show so much! Hi everyone.

Apropos of nothing, I was just watching an old clip of The View. I would love it if Joy Behar could come on to play Melissa's mother. Lisa Ann Walter gives off Joy vibes at times (in a good way!).

[Enigma X]

I just found out I have a (third) cousin who is a writer for the show. We are planning for our family reunion we hold every two years, and a cousin and I were talking about what we are watching now. Another cousin overheard and said, "You know, we have a cousin who is a writer for the show. So-and-so's daughter." I speak to her mom periodically. 

[luckyroll3]

22 hours ago, Enigma X said:

I just found out I have a (third) cousin who is a writer for the show. We are planning for our family reunion we hold every two years, and a cousin and I were talking about what we are watching now. Another cousin overheard and said, "You know, we have a cousin who is a writer for the show. So-and-so's daughter." I speak to her mom periodically. 

How cool! That reminds me of the time one of my interns was talking about how the previous Thanksgiving, her cousin Marti wouldn't shut up about storylines on Unreal and was annoying everyone. I interrupted the conversation and said, "Are you talking about Marty Noxon?!?!?!" And she looked at my like I was a stalker and asked how I knew her cousin's name, and I was like "Marti of Buffy and Angel, right? That Marti? What Buffy fan doesn't know who she is?" And all the interns just laughed at me! 

[zoey1996]

@mansonlamps I was sleepy/tired all the time, couldn’t get through a day without a nap, and I snored something fierce. After other things were ruled out, like thyroid, my doctor suggested having a sleep study. I was waking up a lot, 17 times or so an hour, and would never get into REM sleep.

So yes, tell your doctor(s) about your sleep schedule experience and ask what might help.

[mrsbagnet]

Vince Staples (Maurice) has a new show on Netflix that starts tomorrow called The Vince Staples Show. The trailer looks interesting.

 

Edited February 14 by mrsbagnet

[Crashcourse]

Good for him for moving on from Janine.  LOL  

[MicheleinPhilly]

@libgirl2 One of my courses in school was staffing a virtual reference desk with the other students. So we had a certain number of questions we were expected to answer each week. These were real questions that came in from across the globe and we would have to document our work on how we arrived at the answer. 

Some of those questions were obvious ploys by students trying to get out of writing papers. We'd present them with sources and then they would come back with "But I need you to tell me WHY the theme of this book is X and how it compares to the theme of Y in this book?!?!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

But in-person reference desk work is like a crash course in perfecting your poker face. 🙂

[libgirl2]

27 minutes ago, MicheleinPhilly said:

@libgirl2 One of my courses in school was staffing a virtual reference desk with the other students. So we had a certain number of questions we were expected to answer each week. These were real questions that came in from across the globe and we would have to document our work on how we arrived at the answer. 

Some of those questions were obvious ploys by students trying to get out of writing papers. We'd present them with sources and then they would come back with "But I need you to tell me WHY the theme of this book is X and how it compares to the theme of Y in this book?!?!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

But in-person reference desk work is like a crash course in perfecting your poker face. 🙂

Oh yes, students wanting us to do their research to a "T". We had one patron, who would come  up to the desk and if the assignment was "for example a bike has 2 pedals, which helps it move, what helps other things move?" She would come in and ask for books on bikes. She never came up with anything different from the assignment. I think she was in ESL and was just not getting it. 

We often used the "you need to speak to  your instructor if you aren't sure about this" with her and others. 

Then there is tax time. We used to wear buttons, tax forms yes (we had them to give out), tax advice no. People would ask us what forms they should use. I'm not an accountant!! 

Edited March 21 by libgirl2

[MicheleinPhilly]

I work in a law firm and we get this every day.

"If Statute X says Y and our client yada, yada, yada, what can they get away with...?" 

"Here's Statute X. You went to Harvard Law School, you need to figure that out. We're not lawyers." 🙄