S02.E11: Read-a-Thon

[DearEvette]

Quote

The competition heats up between Melissa and Janine as their classrooms go head-to-head in a read-a-thon sponsored by a local pizza shop. Both teachers encourage their students to hit the books hard but face some unexpected obstacles on their path to pizza glory. Meanwhile, Jacob and Gregory join forces and attempt to get their student-podcasting club off the ground.

Airdate: 01/04/23

[MicheleinPhilly]

My little, nerdy, Book-it loving self CAN'T WAIT! 🤗

[Annber03]

OMG, that ending...:p. 

"What kind of pauses?"
"What's an Ira Glass?" 

That, along with Jacob's "Instead I tried to push my agenda on a bunch of impressionable kids. I Rogan-d." XD. And of course Ava has a podcast of her own. Of course. 

I also loved Gregory chiming in with the sound effects. 

As for the main story, aw, that talk Melissa had with her student at the end. She really is good with the kids. It was interesting to see her and Janine getting so competitive as they were. 

Also, damn, all the childhood flashbacks in this episode. Boxcar Children, Berenstein Bears, and of course there's a shout out to "Reading Rainbow" :D. I half expected a reference to the Scholastic Book Club at some point :p. 

I also liked how they brought back Barbara's thing of confusing famous people's names. 

[Crashcourse]

The kids were definitely the stars of this episode.  Otherwise, I thought it was...boring.   

I did like Barbara confusing names, yet again. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Crashcourse

[peridot]

I laughed at the continuing awkwardness of the club grind.  I couldn't believe those kids mentioned it in their podcast!

I loved the scene where Janine jumped at Melissa and ran away very fast.  I don't know why, but I cracked up when the camera showed her at the end of the hall.

I felt bad for the young girl who had trouble reading.  Why would her parents deny there was a problem?  I hope Melissa doesn't get in trouble for giving Mya the book.

[Ms Blue Jay]

What was the book Melissa gave to the kid?

[BloggerAloud]

17 minutes ago, peridot said:

I felt bad for the young girl who had trouble reading.  Why would her parents deny there was a problem?  I hope Melissa doesn't get in trouble for giving Mya the book.

A lot of parents view any problems in their kids as a perceived failure on their part, at least subconsciously.

[hiisa]

Good night sweet potato can Janine catch a win? Ever? 

I loved Melissas talk with Mya and I loved the end with the podcast but I thought this wasn't a great episode. 

But seriously. Can Janine not catch a win? She worked hard encouraging her kids to read and provided them a great place to do it in their reading wonderland and yet Melissa is the winner.  I especially didn't like it since I thought Melissa and Barb have been kind of mean these last few episodes. I'm glad that Janine is learning to not get her self worth as a teacher from them. And that scene where she flexed on Melissa and ran away was HYSTERICAL! Not enough to save the episode for me, though. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by hiisa

[Ms Blue Jay]

 

[JakeyJokes]

As a lifelong pro wrestling fan, I did love the idea of Melissa parading around a gaudy championship belt. 

3 hours ago, peridot said:

felt bad for the young girl who had trouble reading.  Why would her parents deny there was a problem?  I hope Melissa doesn't get in trouble for giving Mya the book.

With their last name and accents, I think we can infer that they are Nigerian immigrants, and there is a stereotype, right or wrong, about them being very demanding of their children, especially academically (i.e., Wendy “I have four degrees” Osefo’s parents on Real Housewives of Potomac). I think the show was going there without trying to be too ham-fisted about it. 
 

My brain focused too much on why Melissa would love The King’s Speech that I didn’t even get the Colin Powell joke right away.

[EtheltoTillie]

I was getting really annoyed with this episode but it was totally redeemed by the podcast recording session at the end and Melissa’s giving the book to the little girl. And even Ava offered rich insight. 

[BAForever]

Melissa wins in the end- funny. Didn't love the second plot of podcasts, but I don't listen to any. I know it's a thing, but I'd rather read and have a short work commute. Did get the Joe Rogan diss.

[Empress1]

9 hours ago, BloggerAloud said:

A lot of parents view any problems in their kids as a perceived failure on their part, at least subconsciously.

They also didn’t want to believe anything was “wrong with” their kid. I think most parents want to believe their kids are thriving, happy and well-behaved. My friends and family in education all have stories about them reporting a kid’s bad behavior to parents, in some cases very serious bad behavior, and the parents being like “he would never!” even when presented with video evidence.

Ava wanting the tea on the kids’ social lives was hilarious and very in-character.

[peachmangosteen]

I have been pretty disappointed in this season, but I thought this was the best ep in awhile. I hope the show is on an upswing!

8 hours ago, hiisa said:

But seriously. Can Janine not catch a win? She worked hard encouraging her kids to read and provided them a great place to do it in their reading wonderland and yet Melissa is the winner.  I especially didn't like it since I thought Melissa and Barb have been kind of mean these last few episodes. I'm glad that Janine is learning to not get her self worth as a teacher from them. And that scene where she flexed on Melissa and ran away was HYSTERICAL! Not enough to save the episode for me, though. 

I completely agree with this though. I don't know why Quinta is so determined to keep Janine down like this.

[SHD]

Ava's favorite club was shut down because they let a horse in? LOL

The kids were mentioning some podcaster and I guess I'm too out of the loop because I had no idea who they were talking about. Ira Glass, him I know!

[sugarbaker design]

45 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't know why Quinta is so determined to keep Janine down like this.

Because everyone loves an underdog!

Ava Vu!

Where can I subscribe to the Below Deck Energy podcast?

[tennisgurl]

13 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I also liked how they brought back Barbara's thing of confusing famous people's names. 

That Colin Powell sure can act! 

That elementary school reading competition really takes me back. Reading Rainbow, Bernstein Bears, the inevitable pizza party, I was definitely the kid who wanted to lead the class in books. Janine and Melissa certainly bring out the competitive sides of each other, things tend to get real fast when they start going at it with each other. 

Its sad that Maya's parents didn't want to get Maya any extra help for her reading issues, but its certainly realistic to some parents, who see kids getting extra help as the kids being labeled as "falling behind" or "troubled" or see it as a judgement on them as parents. Melissa helping her at the end was really sweet, she really does have a knack with the kids and I liked seeing a bit of her past and how her own teacher as a kid helped her. Oh Maya, Sister Bear was right there. 

Ouch, Jacob had to know that when Ava is the voice of reason, you've messed up. Of course Ava has her own podcast network, and of course Spotify had to remove a few of them. 

Gregory using sound effects during podcast club was hilarious, as was him insisting on being Mr. Gregory or Mr. Eddie depending on what was happening and how much he wanted to be involved. 

Yeah Janine, what DID happen in that club...

[possibilities]

13 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

What was the book Melissa gave to the kid?

I don't think they showed the title. I wonder if it's just something they made up for the show.

[krankydoodle]

14 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Berenstein Bears

Berenstain Bears 😄, which always seems wrong to me.

Not my favorite episode, but this had a lot of funny moments that have already been mentioned + Barbara hating on Ms. Frizzle and Jacob's horrified expression when the kids accused him of censoring them.

[dmmetler]

Realistically, current policies require trying a couple of levels of interventions before testing, so Melissa would need to support and document Mya in class, and probably do a small group before testing beyond what is done for everyone. While I appreciate where they're going, the conference where a teacher proposes testing would not be the first time the parents have heard of concerns. 

 

Split grade classes in my district were still the same size, or sometimes smaller, so counting the same number of kids makes sense, and since books get a lot longer when you move from picture books to chapter books, Melissa's 3rd graders don't get an advantage unless they're being allowed to count books below their current reading level.

 

I wish they'd brought back Courtney. Gifted kids can game the system on something like this. My kindergartner once had the highest point total for the whole school on AR because the librarian wouldn't let kindergartners go outside the little kid section, and the class library was at a similar level. So, my kid who read mostly science books from the adult section of the public library for fun, racked up a ton of points because in an hour library period or free reading period in the classroom, they really could read 25 or more kindergarten/1st grade level books and test on them. It wasn't until the librarian looked at the point totals that they realized that, yeah, maybe we should let the kid read Wizard of Oz and the Chronicles of Narnia...

 

 

[MicheleinPhilly]

"I'm like a tall Simone Biles."

DEAD.

[DearEvette]

I love that we are reminded of Gregory's utter disdain of pizza.

I also love how many grammar school book titles got dropped throughout the episode in dialogue. It was like a scholastic book version of celebrity cameos.

Melissa brought out the 'Youse' when she was giving her class their pep talk. She was fired up!  But I loved her ending convo with Maya.

Not Barbara with Miss Frizzle beef.  LOL.

 

12 hours ago, hiisa said:

But seriously. Can Janine not catch a win? She worked hard encouraging her kids to read and provided them a great place to do it in their reading wonderland and yet Melissa is the winner. 

Yeah, this kinda pissed me off.  I hate the constant Janine-as-loser they go with.  But I figure they needed to get her on that podcast.  So that ultimately was why.  But I wish they had done it cleanly and not another Lucy pulling the ball away from Charlie Brown.

I thought the Jacob podcast storyline was interesting.  Yet another way to highlight how a white teacher in a predominantly black school has to understand the culture of the students.  To him, podcasts are of the Ira Glass variety and to them they are of the Joe Budden variety.  It becomes both an age thing and a race/culture thing that constantly needs to be navigated.

5 hours ago, Empress1 said:

I think most parents want to believe their kids are thriving, happy and well-behaved. My friends and family in education all have stories about them reporting a kid’s bad behavior to parents, in some cases very serious bad behavior, and the parents being like “he would never!” even when presented with video evidence.

So true.  Even with college aged kids.  My God , some of the conversations I had with parents when I worked in advising were ... yikes.  Luckily my own kids was just the opposite.  My oldest kid when he was in the 7th-8th grade basically spoke to us in grunts and hand gestures.  He had no time for us.  But we'd go to parent-teacher conferences and the teachers would be like 'Oh he is such a polite young man. So intelligent.  So insightful in his comments. I wish I had ten more like him."  My husband and I would look at each other and be like... what wondrous stranger are they talking about?  LOL

I kinda call foul on the parents telling their kids they saw Janine and Gregory in the club.  Unless those two students have younger siblings in Janine and/or Gregory's classes, most parents  are not gonna know or pay attention to other teachers. They know the teachers of their kids. It would be one thing if Janine or Gregory had been at Abbott  a long time and parents knew them from their longevity, but Janine had only been there, what, three years?  And Gregory two.  Gregory might stand out because he is male, black, young and handsome so a rarity in a school.. but unless you know someone really, really well, it takes a bit to place a name to a face when they are completely out of your normal context.  I remember there was a librarian I'd see behind the desk of the public library where I would frequent regularly.  But then I saw him, I think it was in a restaurant and while the face looked familiar I could not for the life of me remember where I knew him from.  Until the next time I saw him in the library and then it clicked.  And in J&G's case it was a crowded dark club.  So I take piece of gossip that as complete plot convenience.

[notagain]

This episode has brought back memories of Book-it, Accelerated Reader, and personal pan pizza.   Also my membership to Scholastics book club and my eventually upgrade in middle/high school to Blackexpressions book club. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by notagain

[KarenX]

5 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Where can I subscribe to the Below Deck Energy podcast?

Small Deck Energy

ah-hahahaha! And the horse hahaha! I love Ava. And she didn’t do anything Clearly Illegal Bad Principal. It was perfect.

[sugarbaker design]

Just now, KarenX said:

Small Deck Energy

ah-hahahaha! And the horse hahaha! I love Ava. And she didn’t do anything Clearly Illegal Bad Principal. It was perfect.

Of course, that is so much funnier!

[Crashcourse]

I still think that they need to slow the pace down on this show, I still can't understand some of the quips (especially Ava's), and the camera work is too quick at times.  Honestly, I just watch this show now for the kids.  I think they're wonderful actors.

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

Melissa brought out the 'Youse' when she was giving her class their pep talk.

I noticed that too, and I immediately remembered a day camp counselor I had as a child who told us she was “rill proud a’ youse.” Very Philly.

@Crashcourse The kids are so great. Cute and funny but not overly precocious the way child actors tend to be.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Empress1

[Enigma X]

I liked this episode. We had a "Read-a-thon" called something else at my school.

I have no complaints about this ep, and Mya is so cute.

[Blakeston]

Jacob certainly shouldn't have run roughshod over the podcasters, but a certain level of censorship was necessary. A school-sponsored podcast shouldn't feature gossip about the personal lives of the teachers (or the students).

I was glad that the episode didn't end with Melissa convincing the girl's parents to change their minds. Realistically, there are going to be some parents who won't see reason. Melissa did the best thing she could do under the circumstances, which was to encourage the girl and give her that book.

[pasdetrois]

I loved Miss Barbara's "Bible Club!". She's got her priorities. I wish we could hear more from her.

Like others, my favorite characters are these adorable kids.

Does anyone remember in the olden days there were color-coded reading groups? I think the colors represented reading proficiency, and of course schools would not do this today.

[lovinbob]

So do we think something happened with Janine and Maurice? 

I missed the Colin Powell reference. I need to go back and rewatch. I did love Barbara's dislike of Miss Frizzle. Random and fun.

Oh boy, how I would love if LeVar Burton made an appearance or several! Maybe they could also somehow incorporate Troy from Community

[possibilities]

I liked that Melissa took it to heart and verified the actual tallies after Janine accused her of cheating.

Janine went to the club with a parent from the school. So I think it's entirely possible that she talked to other parents, and the kids overheard it. I don't think the parents would explicitly tell the kids "we saw two of your teachers grinding at the club!" but they might gossip parent to parent, and the kids over hear it.

I remember color coded reading groups. I also had one year where they coded math groups into "apples and hawks".

[joanne3482]

1 hour ago, lovinbob said:

I missed the Colin Powell reference. I need to go back and rewatch.

She said she likes The King's Speech and who knew Colin Powell was that good of an actor. 

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

Janine went to the club with a parent from the school. So I think it's entirely possible that she talked to other parents, and the kids overheard it. I don't think the parents would explicitly tell the kids "we saw two of your teachers grinding at the club!" but they might gossip parent to parent, and the kids over hear it.

Erica is her student’s aunt, and was dropping her nephew off as a favor. Probably still how the gossip pipeline started, but Janine knew her from high school or college and they reconnected. 

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, lovinbob said:

I did love Barbara's dislike of Miss Frizzle. Random and fun.

Oh boy, how I would love if LeVar Burton made an appearance or several! Maybe they could also somehow incorporate Troy from Community

I loved the way they compared Janine to Miss Frizzle :D. I can totally see it. 

And I'm glad I wasn't the only one who immediately thought of Troy during the "Reading Rainbow" mention :p. 

[Blakeston]

I thought this episode was a great use of Ava. She wasn't overused, she was funny without being over-the-top obnoxious, and I actually believed that she would dispense that good advice to Jacob.

[mojito]

13 hours ago, pasdetrois said:

Does anyone remember in the olden days there were color-coded reading groups? I think the colors represented reading proficiency, and of course schools would not do this today.

I remember there was this reading content printed on heavy stock coated paper, and they were filed in a box with colored tabs. The SRA. I thought that the higher up you got, the more boring the content got. 

I'm beginning to grow a little annoyed with Gregory' passivity. I wish he'd express his opinion more. Those widened eyes are getting a little tiresome.

[Bookish Jen]

Being a massive reader and lover of books (hence, my user name), I was all about this episode. I have fond memories of getting into reading in elementary school, getting my first library card, and books like Curious George, the Berenstain Bears, and The Box Car Children. One of the highlights of my education was getting my books from Scholastic.

But first, I was totally bummed Janine's class did not win the Read-a-Thon. She was so encouraging of her students and I loved her little reading forts. But damn, can't Janine ever be victorious? I know Quinta doesn't want her character to be a "Mary Sue" but let Janine have her winning moments.

And though, Melissa can be sarcastic and snarky, I loved how tender, patient, and empathetic she was with Maya, and Maya's reading struggles. I adore how Abbott Elementary emphasizes how teachers truly care about their students, especially in an age where teachers, and education (especially public schools) are so bashed.

[amarante]

Bianca Jagger rode a horse into Studio 54 in 1977 - I imagine that is a callback to that.

I thought this was a sweet episode because of Melissa's interaction with Mya. It showed why Melissa is such an effective teacher even though her outward persona is so different than Barbara's who is much more a stereotype of the elementary school teacher.

[kathyk24]

On 1/5/2023 at 1:05 AM, hiisa said:

Good night sweet potato can Janine catch a win? Ever? 

I loved Melissas talk with Mya and I loved the end with the podcast but I thought this wasn't a great episode. 

But seriously. Can Janine not catch a win? She worked hard encouraging her kids to read and provided them a great place to do it in their reading wonderland and yet Melissa is the winner.  I especially didn't like it since I thought Melissa and Barb have been kind of mean these last few episodes. I'm glad that Janine is learning to not get her self worth as a teacher from them. And that scene where she flexed on Melissa and ran away was HYSTERICAL! Not enough to save the episode for me, though. 

I hated Melissa she knew Maya didn't read all of those books and she cheated to win. I agree Janine deserved to win. Barbara mocking Janine when Melissa won was gross.

[amarante]

1 hour ago, kathyk24 said:

I hated Melissa she knew Maya didn't read all of those books and she cheated to win. I agree Janine deserved to win. Barbara mocking Janine when Melissa won was gross.

I don’t think she counted those books. She won when she found the loophole which allowed her to use total books from both years  were in the same classroom. 

[kathyk24]

4 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

Being a massive reader and lover of books (hence, my user name), I was all about this episode. I have fond memories of getting into reading in elementary school, getting my first library card, and books like Curious George, the Berenstain Bears, and The Box Car Children. One of the highlights of my education was getting my books from Scholastic.

But first, I was totally bummed Janine's class did not win the Read-a-Thon. She was so encouraging of her students and I loved her little reading forts. But damn, can't Janine ever be victorious? I know Quinta doesn't want her character to be a "Mary Sue" but let Janine have her winning moments.

And though, Melissa can be sarcastic and snarky, I loved how tender, patient, and empathetic she was with Maya, and Maya's reading struggles. I adore how Abbott Elementary emphasizes how teachers truly care about their students, especially in an age where teachers, and education (especially public schools) are so bashed.

I also loved to read in elementary school. I agree with the comparison to Janine and Charlie Brown, Janine isn't perfect but I don't understand why she can't succeed now and then. I thought it was interesting to have a girl struggle with reading usually girls aren't diagnosed with learning disabilities. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

I remember doing those reading contests and didn't particularly enjoy them. I was a good reader on my own and those contests often made me feel like reading was a chore.

I guess I'm a big nerd because I listen to all the podcasts Jacob mentioned except The Daily. That one bores me.

I'm at a loss to understand why Quinta gave Joe Budden the shout out. It'll be interesting to hear what Crissle and Kid Fury say about it on their podcast because they have been huge cheerleaders for this show and have had major beef with Budden.

ASMR gives me the creeps but I would listen to an Ava podcast.

Clarence's mom helping the kids start some ish, lol. But it's not as if Janine and Greg weren't in public, so...

[kathyk24]

On 1/7/2023 at 5:03 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

I remember doing those reading contests and didn't particularly enjoy them. I was a good reader on my own and those contests often made me feel like reading was a chore.

I guess I'm a big nerd because I listen to all the podcasts Jacob mentioned except The Daily. That one bores me.

I'm at a loss to understand why Quinta gave Joe Budden the shout out. It'll be interesting to hear what Crissle and Kid Fury say about it on their podcast because they have been huge cheerleaders for this show and have had major beef with Budden.

ASMR gives me the creeps but I would listen to an Ava podcast.

Clarence's mom helping the kids start some ish, lol. But it's not as if Janine and Greg weren't in public, so...

Who is Joe Budden? Teachers are allowed to have a personal life so I do have a problem with a student's parent being nosy. 

[Empress1]

On 1/7/2023 at 12:04 PM, Bookish Jen said:

Being a massive reader and lover of books (hence, my user name), I was all about this episode. I have fond memories of getting into reading in elementary school, getting my first library card, and books like Curious George, the Berenstain Bears, and The Box Car Children. One of the highlights of my education was getting my books from Scholastic.

Scholastic Book Club was MY SHIT. 

On 1/7/2023 at 5:03 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

I guess I'm a big nerd because I listen to all the podcasts Jacob mentioned except The Daily. That one bores me.

I forget all the ones he mentioned but I remember there was some overlap with the ones I listen to. I listen to maybe … 10 podcasts regularly? Something like that.

1 hour ago, kathyk24 said:

Who is Joe Budden?

Former rapper turned personality with a podcast.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Former rapper turned personality with a podcast.

And rather problematic IMO but this isn't the place to get into it.

Quote

I listen to maybe … 10 podcasts regularly?

Podcast nerds represent!

[EtheltoTillie]

Ira Glass--invented the genre--inadvertently, really.  Still the master.  I still listen to TAL.   TAL always has new ideas and themes.  Other podcasts get stale after awhile, like TV series.  The podcast the kids were doing is a different genre, like morning zoo radio.  TAL/Moth is storytelling. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[xaxat]

I thought the whole "podfather" thing was funny because I'm old enough to remember when we had to use something called a "radio" to listen to TAL.

[DearEvette]

57 minutes ago, xaxat said:

I thought the whole "podfather" thing was funny because I'm old enough to remember when we had to use something called a "radio" to listen to TAL.

LOL, right? AM radio was basically podcasts before podcasts were invented.  NPR simply adapted their radio stuff to the new technology that had been created and was to allow anyone to reach an audience,  not just well funded radio programs.

But I could totally see Jacob thinking Ira Glass was the pioneer of podcasting.  I mean, he thinks jumping on top of the desk cosplaying Robin Williams from Dead Poet's Society was a flex. He has a specific cultural perspective that is often at odds with his students' point of reference.

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, xaxat said:

I thought the whole "podfather" thing was funny because I'm old enough to remember when we had to use something called a "radio" to listen to TAL.

Yes we had to listen to the radio, and we had "driveway moments," when you had to sit in the car to listen to the end of the show.  Then they started making the shows available for listening on the internet or on iPods, hence the name podcast.

Ira Glass, though, really is the pioneer of storytelling radio journalism.  And yes, Jacob's reference to that form was at odds with his students' perspective, as they like the Morning Zoo style.   He really was oblivious at the beginning of the episode, but he changed by the end. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by EtheltoTillie