S01.E12: Ava vs. Superintendent

[Natalie68]

On 4/9/2022 at 12:26 PM, Empress1 said:

A teacher at my high school left his first wife for another teacher. It was apparently quite the scandal when it all went down. His kids went to the school; it was humiliating for them and strained the relationship with their dad for a while.

My 5th grade teacher was dating a high school sophomore.  Brought her to class parties.  Then after I graduated from hs, our principal was caught making out with his son's girlfriend in a closet (found by the gym teacher) at the prom.  The principal got a new job, higher level, in a school about 40 minutes away.  Small town life.  Couldn't make this stuff up.

I love this show!  Cracks me up.  I think Ava might be my favorite!

[mrsbagnet]

4 hours ago, Natalie68 said:

My 5th grade teacher was dating a high school sophomore.  Brought her to class parties.  Then after I graduated from hs, our principal was caught making out with his son's girlfriend in a closet (found by the gym teacher) at the prom.  The principal got a new job, higher level, in a school about 40 minutes away.  Small town life.  Couldn't make this stuff up.

Are you from Peyton Place? 😄

[Empress1]

On 4/9/2022 at 4:26 PM, rollacoaster said:

Both teachers were allowed to stay and keep on teaching?

Yes. By the time I got to high school they were married to each other. The scandal was before my time but everybody knew; every year people would talk about it. They’d arrange to chaperone overnight trips so they could hook up. They weren’t young, either - they both had teenage kids when it went down. They remained married until she passed away (I believe she had cancer).

I can see why they’d be allowed to keep teaching. Their prior marriages imploded messily but that’s not the school’s business. They were in different departments so there was no power imbalance. Messy personally, but not against the rules professionally.

[Natalie68]

On 4/29/2022 at 3:19 PM, mrsbagnet said:

Are you from Peyton Place? 😄

Little CA coastal town.  TONS of scandals.

[lovinbob]

On 4/9/2022 at 11:30 PM, katalizt said:

 

In my school the music teacher had a class set and they were disinfected between classes. They could be disassembled to make cleaning easier.

My parents got me my own recorder though so I wouldn't have to share.

I can imagine Janine collecting them so that the kids don't lose them, or so that they don't become a distraction in other classes.

[Moose135]

On 4/9/2022 at 9:17 AM, peachmangosteen said:

Considering when I was in school there were various teacher-teacher relationships, I'm gonna go with no.

When I was in high school (mid-70s) two teachers were dating and eventually married.

On 4/9/2022 at 8:32 PM, kathyk24 said:

 I would have been in trouble for not listening to my teacher. Janine teaches young kids I'm sure some of them like her.

We thought it was funny - like when the dog doesn't listen to me, and GF has to break out the 'mom voice' on him.

[LisaM]

This episode made me laugh out loud numerous times. Loved how Ava made her impassioned speech before the Board. 

[dmmetler]

As a music teacher, I'd have the kids put their recorders in cases and give them all to the teacher in a tote bag. It's a lot easier for the classroom teacher to stick a bag in a closet than it is to find storage for 500 recorders in the music room (not an exaggeration) So Janine collecting them makes sense to me. 
 

And yes, recorder is used because

a)cheap, and you can put an instrument in every child's hands-it's a rich school that has a class set of mallet percussion or deskbells, and Abbott isn't a rich school. In my district, they were coded as "Grade 3 workbook"-and then we kept them and had the same kid use the same recorder through 6th grade.

b) that reading music is something that is much easier to teach using instruments than singing

And 

C)it provides a transition to band for those kids who want to do it in upper elementary/middle school. 

I'd love to see more about Abbot's special skills (music, art, PE, Library, sometimes computer, etc)-because if teachers are struggling for resources in the classroom. Special skills really, really is. 

[Blakeston]

I definitely took the "That's why I need to borrow your birth certificate Ava exclamation mark" line to mean that the principal was asking someone named Ava for her birth certificate. 

I don't think Janine is supposed to be disliked by her students. We know she almost always got very good reviews from her students online. They just (rightly) see her as a pushover, so if she tells them to put away their recorders, they're not going to listen.

[Annber03]

Loved Barbara's "Boyz II Men/Backstreet Boys" (or did she say "Blackstreet"?) comment, and Janine's reaction to that XD. 

Add me to the list of those who had to learn to play the recorder in elementary school. Fun times :p. 

I continue to love Barbara and Jacob's friendship, and I like that Jacob was the voice of reason to try and get Barbara and Melissa on the same page in regards to their debate over how to deal with the money issue. I love how Barbara ultimately handled things with that church lady :). So very true to her character, it was perfect. Also love how Ava came through as she did in the end with her speech. So cool to see them finally getting a win as they did. 

And yay, Gregory :D! LOL at the HR bit. 

On 4/29/2022 at 12:33 PM, Natalie68 said:

My 5th grade teacher was dating a high school sophomore.  Brought her to class parties.  Then after I graduated from hs, our principal was caught making out with his son's girlfriend in a closet (found by the gym teacher) at the prom.  The principal got a new job, higher level, in a school about 40 minutes away.  Small town life.  Couldn't make this stuff up.

...good lord D:. I mean, I've heard enough stories like this to where I shouldn't be, and am not, surprised...and yet....

Edited September 20, 2022 by Annber03

[shapeshifter]

On 9/5/2022 at 4:02 PM, dmmetler said:

And yes, recorder is used because

a)cheap, and you can put an instrument in every child's hands-it's a rich school that has a class set of mallet percussion or deskbells, and Abbott isn't a rich school. In my district, they were coded as "Grade 3 workbook"-and then we kept them and had the same kid use the same recorder through 6th grade.

b) that reading music is something that is much easier to teach using instruments than singing

And 

C)it provides a transition to band for those kids who want to do it in upper elementary/middle school. 

And, recorders do not require 

• learning specific embouchure or hand positioning 
• tuning or upkeep such as new strings or pads

I did get a sense that both Janine and the students were keenly aware of her being uncharacteristically and awkwardly in the role of Heartless Killjoy by repeatedly having to ask the students to stop playing f’in’ Amazing Grace, with the Custodian singing a few bars after they stopped, just in case there was any doubt. It wasn’t LOL humor, but a nice grace note.😉🙃

[pasdetrois]

I just binged the first season. What an absolute delight. My brother is a public school teacher - English as Second Language - for elementary age kids at a school in a historically Black neighborhood. This show really resonates for him, and I love the children. We especially appreciate the two male teachers, and Tyler James Williams' voice is to die for. I could listen to Sheryl Lee Ralph read the phone book, but only as Mrs. Howard! All of the actors are note perfect.

Way too many great moments to recount. My religious family members feel comfortable letting little ones watch the show, an increasingly rare occurrence. Huge kudos to Quinta Brunson for pulling this off. Looking forward to Season 2.

Edited September 25, 2022 by pasdetrois

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/24/2022 at 1:21 AM, Red Fields said:

OMG kids still play Flutophones? That is what we called them back in the 1960s when I was in elementary school! We all had our own. They were the pre-instrument that everyone had up til 3rd grade. In fourth grade you got to choose a real instrument and either went to band or orchestra depending on what it was.

That took me back too!  Those were not recorders. Recorders are made of wood.  We had those plastic substitutes called  Flutophones or Tonettes in the 60s. Drove parents crazy. Each kid had his or her own to keep. 

On 9/25/2022 at 10:16 AM, pasdetrois said:

I just binged the first season. What an absolute delight. My brother is a public school teacher - English as Second Language - for elementary age kids at a school in a historically Black neighborhood. This show really resonates for him, and I love the children. We especially appreciate the two male teachers, and Tyler James Williams' voice is to die for. I could listen to Sheryl Lee Ralph read the phone book, but only as Mrs. Howard! All of the actors are note perfect.

Way too many great moments to recount. My religious family members feel comfortable letting little ones watch the show, an increasingly rare occurrence. Huge kudos to Quinta Brunson for pulling this off. Looking forward to Season 2.

I’m just binging now as well and I started season 2 this year. I love it. 

Edited October 29, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

I wanted to add that in our day they didn’t have a separate music teacher for the Tonette. The classroom teacher taught it. In the old days the teachers had to know rudiments of music I guess. The kindergarten teachers played piano!  There were two kindergarten rooms, and each had a piano. There was always at least one teacher in each grade who could play piano for assembly. I’m really going down an ancient history rabbit hole here, but that’s what we actually had in NYC public schools in the old days. I attended from 1960 to 1972. 

[Rai]

I recently caught up on all of the show, and I'm all in. It's been years since I regularly watched any kind of sitcom, tbh. This one's pretty special.

That said, I wanted to really sing the praises of the superintendent since Reggie Hayes was one of my favorites from GIRLFRIENDS, and it's delightful to see him in this role. Frankly, if William Dent did retire from law, being a superintendent and having an affair with a gal from his church wouldn't be out of character for him.  It's very hard for me to believe that Ava could keep her job under any circumstances at this point, but sometimes, suspension of disbelief is crucial to enjoying something that's mainly just fun and fluffy.

I also loved that the garden was still going on. Hopefully Barbara and Jacob have actually learned a little about how to do it correctly!

[dmmetler]

Recprders can be made of plastic. Those were recorders (Probably YRS-20). Tonettes are rounder, and flutophones have a more flared bell. I've spent a LOT of time teaching recorder....

https://www.westmusic.com/recorders/

Specialist teachers (music, art, etc)are more common in school systems which have unions. It's not because of changes in teacher training-I've taught the required music Ed class for eled majors. It's because the contract calls for X minutes of paid planning time, and the kids need to be somewhere-so, let's let someone else handle those pesky standards. . As a music specialist, I've been told by students that "this is my break"-bwcauae their classroom teachers have told them "30 minutes until break" or whatever. I loved that they showed that the teacher goes room to room-that's reality for music teachers in schools like Abbott, and usually it limits you to recorder, voice, and whatever you can stick in a tote bag.