02x20 - Educator of the Year

[bunniefuu]

- Hey.

- Hey.

- Ugh! Disgusting.

- JANINE: Alright.

Wow, we're just not biting

our tongues anymore?

- This is vintage.

- Okay, no.

There's a green bubble

on the group chat.

I have an iPhone,

but I left the group chat

after Mr. Johnson started

that soup thread.

Uh, it's me, okay?

I-I got a new phone. A droid.

Wait, there's a group chat?

Look, it's not easy being green, okay?

Android discrimination is one

of the last acceptable forms

of hate in this country.

There was a pothole on 50th Street.

I tried to warn you about it.

Yeah, well, I hit it

because I couldn't read

your stupid text.

I just don't have time for this.

Go back to the blue bubble!

Life is hard enough as it is.

Now I got two classes

worth of grades to finish

and a tire to replace.

You know what?

I would like to see

your phone survive that.

- Let me in the group chat.

- No.

I tried, but they say

you "ha ha" every text

That's not fair, and that's not true.

Breaking news, y'all.

You let another camera crew

onto school property?

- Seriously?

- We're from Channel Six.

- Rolling.

- Action news.

The Chief Education Officer

for the Philadelphia

Board of Education is here,

Elizabeth Washington, with a

special announcement. [CHUCKLES]

Every year,

the Philadelphia school district

shines a light on an educator

that represents

what it means to be

an exceptional educator.

And this year, the award goes to

Gregory Eddie.

Oh! Oh!

Oh!

This Gregory Eddie? Me?

Yeah, you, with your

fine, silly ass. Ah!

[MAKER'S "HOLD'EM" PLAYING]

Could we get some B-roll

ahead of the interview

- with our Mr. Eddie?

- Of course.

We have everything you need for a

motivational yet emotional package.

Sad kids, mad kids,

happy kids, new kids.

Ignore that kid.

I didn't like that.

Oh!

Congratulations, Gregory.

Thanks, I guess. This is weird, right?

How can I be Educator of the Year

if I haven't even been a full-time

teacher for the whole year?

Well, typically, the award

has been about optics.

And by awarding you, it might

encourage other young Black men

to become elementary school teachers.

Besides, it makes them look good.

It's not merit-based at all,

but who wants to live in a meritocracy?

[LAUGHS]

GREGORY: I don't get it.

I'm also very uncomfortable

with the extra attention.

I'm uncomfortable in general, but

Alright. You guys are k*lling it, truly.

So, what is the capital of Alaska?

- Tasia.

- Juneau.

That's right Juneau,

which is also a very funny movie.

[CHUCKLES] Alright, let's

move on to the Aloha state.

[STUDENTS GASP]

Ohh, I hate geography.

Deshaun, please.

Shut up!

STUDENTS: Ooh!

JANINE: That's Deshaun.

Deshaun's been having

difficulties all year,

but lately, it's been getting worse.

I tried talking to him,

incentivizing him with rewards,

but nothing's really worked. Yet.

So, I'm gonna be using

my not-so-secret secret w*apon,

a parent meeting.

[SIGHS]

Come on. Enjoy your recess.

And please don't eat any dirt.

I just added new fertilizer.

[SIGHS]

Oh, I'm just going to the bathroom.

You don't need to follow me.

Good. Yeah.

Barbara, this came for you.

I have to go to court?

Oh, wait. This is

a cease-and-desist for me.

Coleman Camping Supplies seems to think

that they're the only Colemans

that can sell camping supplies.

I got lanterns, too.

You didn't complete

your continuing education requirements.

Every five years, every schoolteacher

must take continuing education classes,

as mandated by the school district,

which means that after all these years,

I must prove to them

that I can still teach.

It is preposterous.

I'm sure I completed them all.

Well, the school district

says otherwise,

'cause you're one course short.

You'll have to complete it,

or you will lose your teaching license

and you'll be out on the streets.

Why can't you be more like Gregory?

Have more educator-of-the-year energy.

Hey, Ava? Sorry.

I have something pressing.

Can I get your permission to move up

a parent-teacher meeting

from next week to today?

- I'm having

- Sounds lovely.

I have an announcement to make.

Go bananas.

Okay.

Alright.

Now, remember to keep sounding

out those vocab words,

and you did really good

on that last quiz, okay?

And cut! That was beautiful.

Actually, Brayden, I'll give the notes.

So, can we just try another one

where you give him a high five?

I didn't do that for the cameras.

Oh, I know that's clear.

[LAUGHS]

But this one's gonna be delightful.

Delightful.

You can sit down, man.

Um, do you guys think you have enough?

Like, are we done here?

[SIGHS DEEPLY]

You're not what I would call

a natural, but yeah.

So, I think we are done filming, guys.

Great. Awesome. You can head out.

Right this way.

So Oh, my bad. You're the doc crew.

You're the one with the bird

tattoo, not the snake.

You can stay.

But y'all can dip like guacamole.

Come on, now. There it is.

Okay.

The door is right down this hallway.

I'm gonna

Okay. And we'll see you at the ceremony.

Ceremony? What?

Well, there's a ceremony, of course.

There's food, drinks, spoken-word poem,

children's choir

- From Abbott?

- Oh, God, I hope not.

Oh, bonus

We have one of your fellow teachers

who's gonna present

the award to you herself.

Mm. Who are you talking about?

Ms. Schemmenti to deliver, uh,

a speech about your outsized

accomplishments,

which I'm sure

Um, could we get

another teacher to do it?

Like, literally anybody else?

Or maybe I could even

present it to myself.

[INTERCOM BEEPS] AVA: Attention, Abbott!

- After school in the gym - Oh. Shh!

We'll be having the

Educator of the Year ceremony

for the slim, the sensual,

the strange Gregory Eddie.

He'll receive said award

from everyone's favorite

neighborhood Italian,

Melissa Schemmenti.

Gaba gootz!

Ladies free before 3:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Bone Town. Oww, oww!

- What the hell's going on?

- Melissa, I'm sorry. I had no idea.

Okay, why me?

So, we like to have

a diverse, kaleidoscopic POV

to bridge the gap between

culture and education.

What this white lady is saying

is they want a white lady to do it

because y'all been acting up this year.

Yes! Thank you so much. That's right.

Trust me, you don't want to get

on the district's bad side.

- Ms. Schemmenti!

- Ms. Schemmenti!

- Ms. Schemmenti!

- Ms. Schemmenti!

- Ms. Schemmenti!

- Ms. Schemmenti!

Hey, Mr. Educator of the Yeeeear!

- [CHUCKLES] Don't do that.

- [CHUCKLES]

Uh, how's it going with Deshaun today?

Oh, it's

it's going.

Yeah, let's just say I'm happy

I'm talking to his mom today.

So, you ready to get

the keys to the city yet?

I hate to break up

this little love-fest,

but I don't have much time.

- What love?

- There's no love here.

Gregory, intro!

Bye.

So, apparently, I'm supposed to say

some nice things about you,

so why don't you just tell me

some of the things

you think you accomplished

over the year,

and I'll whip it up into an intro?

Okay, have a seat.

Alright. Uh, okay.

I feel like we've made progress

on identifying shapes,

although a lot of them got

hexagons and polygons confused.

And then one of them thought a

polygon was the Pentagon, and

Okay, just give me something,

anything you thought

you were good at go.

I-I don't I don't really know.

I feel like I'm below average

at teaching language arts,

which, like,

what does that say about me?

How about I say you are punctual?

And all the kids love you.

To be completely honest,

I don't know that they do.

But some of them like me.

[BREATHES SHARPLY] How about this?

I'm just gonna do, like,

a regift speech.

I'll just repurpose

some of the compliments

I've gotten over the years.

Okay? [SCHOOL BELL RINGS]

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS IN DISTANCE]

Jacob, I'm going to ask you something,

and I only want

a "yes" or a "no" response.

- Can you help me

- Oh, my God!

Lord, build me a fence. Yes. What is it?

Calm down.

I need help signing into

a continuing education class.

Okay, well, let's take a look-see.

Looks like a lot

of goofy acronyms so far.

Mm. A complete waste of time.

NAP Nodding and Praising.

I only praise the Lord.

MUD Meeting Under Duress.

Mm, I came up out of the mud.

FART Facilitating A Reading Tyke.

Seems like they wanted to do that.

And look, most of the seats are taken.

Uh, okay, got one.

[KEY CLACKS] Boom! IGAL

Intergenerational Active Listening.

What'd you say?

IGAL for My Gal.

Put it in your cal, pal.

[KEYS CLACKING]

Oh! Yurrr!

There he is, Educator of the Year!

Ashley. What are you doing here?

I thought you were

at another school now.

I was. [CHUCKLES]

And then another one after that,

and then another one after that.

And then they gave me

Teacher's Aide of the Year!

Look at us.

Two young g*ns, k*lling awards season.

Pew pew! [BLOWS]

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS IN DISTANCE]

La la la la la la la ♪

This feels like a bit much.

STUDENTS: La la la la la la la ♪

That was my first school ID.

I forgot to smile.

STUDENTS: La la la la la la la ♪

Your award put the spotlight on Abbott,

so we have to make the most

of it before the news moves on

to a cannibal celebrity or some

new Frisbee dog champion.

Now, get onstage and tell me

if these lasers blind you.

MELISSA: Hey, Pink Floyd,

since you gave me nothing

to work with for your intro

I thought maybe I'd just go with

the quickest dinner grace I know,

but I thank you instead of Jesus.

- Uh, Melissa.

- What's up?

How do you feel about all this?

Yeah, you know,

it's all bit showy and goofy,

but I do like that giant

gift certificate to Bone Town.

I like that sort of thing.

You know, food.

ANDREW: The wind beneath our

STUDENTS: Wings!

Gregory Eddie, a Black man with a plan.

Ain't that fly?

Some may go low, but he won't go get

High!

Er learning with a hue

and sense of humor.

Take him down?

Nah, son.

His name ain't Nas, but he's

God's son!

Did you ever knowwww that

you're my herrrrrooooooooooo? ♪

[SIGHS]

Oh, hi.

Ms. O'Neill, please come in.

- Cassandra.

- Alright.

Nice to meet you, Ms. Cassandra.

Just Cassandra works fine.

Alright. Please have a seat.

[DOOR CLOSES]

First of all, thank you

so much for coming in.

I know it's difficult to do

in the middle of a work day.

Oh, it's fine.

I just had someone pick up

the rest of my shift

on short notice, but I'm here.

I respect that, so

I'll get right into it.

So, you know, I've been

dealing with some issues

with your son Deshaun

since the beginning of the year,

minor issues,

and I've been managing them,

but as the year has gone on,

it's just gotten progressively worse.

Worse? How?

Well, it started off with,

like, small things,

like him calling out the answers

without raising his hand.

But, you know,

now it's started to escalate

to him throwing books and

The right answers or the wrong answers?

Well, right or wrong, it's just

disruptive to the other students.

Mm-hmm, I see.

And look, I know we both want

what's best for Deshaun.

So what do you want from me?

[CHUCKLES] Well, I thought

Thought what, exactly?

This wasn't my first option, by the way.

As I've said, his behavior

has been getting progressively worse,

and I've been trying to make sure

he's having a successful time at school.

And nobody's stopping you

from doing that.

He's kind of stopping me, actually.

He's 7. You can't control a 7-year-old?

Cassandra, it's not about control.

You know, we're setting him up

to be the best student he can be,

and you know, we're a team in this.

We're not a team.

And I don't see how he could

be the best student

that he could be

with a teacher like you.

Um, excuse me? [CELLPHONE VIBRATES]

[SIGHS] And now my boss is calling.

I took time out of my day,

away from my job,

to come down here to hear

you complain about my son,

and you're not even doing your job.

I'm doing the best I can with your son.

If this is the best that you can do,

you are the worst teacher

that I've ever seen.

You know, and you're right.

Call me Ms. O'Neill.

Down here wasting my damn time.

- Janine?

- Ah.

What's wrong?

[SNIFFLES] Um, Deshaun's mom, uh

she called me a bad teacher,

and it was just

[CLAPS HANDS]

I don't even know why

I'm crying right now.

Look, look.

She doesn't know what

she's talking about, okay?

You're a good teacher, Janine.

[CRYING, SNIFFLING]

Janine?

Who am I going to have

an intergenerational conversation with?

Oh.

- What happened?

- A parent yelled at her.

I'm trying to help, but I

think I'm making it worse.

[INTERCOM BEEPS] AVA: Paging

Educator of the Year, Mr. Eddie.

Your ass is needed at

the award presentation,

so bring that and put them to the gym.

Gregory, you go on

ahead, I can handle this.

If you need me, I'll be in my classroom.

- Thank you.

- Mm-hmm.

Uh, so [BREATHES DEEPLY] she comes in,

and I told her about

her son's acting out

you know I'm trying

to have a conversation,

cool, calmed, where

we figure out what to do

I offered solutions, I was patient,

I told her we are a team, and

[VOICE BREAKS] she just destroyed me.

She called me the worst

teacher she's ever seen.

Janine, do you believe

you're the worst teacher?

I don't know.

I've done everything I can for Deshaun,

and it's not enough, so maybe.

So, what you're gonna do

is pick yourself up,

dust yourself off,

come back here tomorrow,

and do your job.

But I didn't solve the problem.

I am failing him.

I have been called

a bad teacher more times

than I can ever remember. [SNIFFLES]

People have thrown dirt on my name.

Others have given flowers. [SIGHS]

But it's all a garden to me.

Barbara, I've never

seen you fail a child.

- You always find a solution.

- Oh, please.

I do not always have the answer.

In fact, there are

some issues and problems

that are just too difficult for anyone,

even me, to solve in one school year.

But if you come back here

tomorrow ready to do your job,

having not given up on yourself

or that student,

well, that is not failure.

Sometimes, that's

what success looks like.

So, how long do you think

that conversation was?

You know, let's just round it up

to 15 minutes.

Now, I am going to need you

to initial and sign

my IGAL worksheet.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah. See? There you go.

[SNIFFLES] Oh, and if you

see any more weeping millennials

roaming the hallway,

please, send them my way.

Okay. Um, thank you so much.

Thank you, baby.

Hey!

What are you doing in here,

Mr. Educator of the Year?

The ceremony's out this way.

Look, I don't think I can go up

there and accept this award.

What?

They set up the whole gym for you.

I wrote you this great speech.

Well, I landed on

a Jalen Hurts tribute post

that I repurposed, but still.

Honestly, I feel ridiculous.

Like, I don't deserve this award.

[SCOFFS] With everything

that Barbara does for the school,

and you teaching two grades,

and and

And Janine getting yelled at

by a parent,

I feel like I'm the last person

who should get this.

Yeah, you're definitely not the

best teacher in Philadelphia.

Or, you know, this school.

Or your grade. Or even this classroom.

Is there a point?

Like, where are we going?

Gregory, you don't deserve to be

Educator of the Year.

Still waiting for that point.

But I've seen you stick it out

and improve week after week.

You work really hard

to get better, and you care.

So maybe someday, you'll grow

into deserving this award.

But you know what?

They're not gonna give it to you then.

'Cause you can't choose

when people acknowledge you.

This is your moment.

So just, hey, think of it like

you accept the award early.

Okay.

Maybe I'm like "Rookie of the Year."

Yeah.

Well, the thing is, you are

still an important member

of this team, so get in the game.

[BREATHES SHARPLY]

Yeah! Let's go, Slugger!

Finally, I'd like to send

a shout-out to all the schools

I haven't had to soft quit this year.

[CHUCKLES] Not me being

so good at my job

they always tell me I don't have

to come back.

[CHUCKLES] Thank you. [FEEDBACK WHINES]

Wow

so beautiful to see a LatinX aide

share her why with us.

Now, please welcome to the stage

Italian-American teacher

Melissa Schemmenti,

who will introduce our marquee award,

Educator of the Year.

Okay, even for me, this seems

incredibly performative.

You got this, girl! Do it for Italy!

Got it, Ashley. Okay.

I'm here to present Educator of the Year

for some God-forsaken reason.

This trophy gets handed out every year

to some random jabroni,

and this year, it's going to

an underdog.

When he came off the bench last year,

we all wrote him off,

like some 53rd overall

draft pick in the second round.

Yes, we did.

But week after week,

this young man stepped up.

And this year,

he is Abbott's first string.

Hell, he's Offensive Player of the Year.

Educator. Educator of the Year!

We're happy to have him on our team,

and with him, we can go all the way

to the Super Bowl of learning!

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

Ladies and gentlemen,

your Educator of the Year,

Gregory Thompson Eddie!

[SAXOPHONE PLAYING]

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

♪♪

[PLAYING ENDS]

Wow, t-thank you, Melissa, um

I'm actually a Ravens fan.

[AUDIENCE BOOING]

Go to hell.

[DOOR OPENS]

[DOOR CLOSES]

Uh, this is surreal, um

But realistically,

I can't accept this award.

Cameras down.

I'll accept on his behalf.

I can't fully accept this award

because I'm still learning.

Cameras back up.

As teachers, we all are.

But every day

I can come in here and teach,

I'm being held up by some of the most

incredibly deserving teachers

here at Abbott.

[SNAPPING FINGERS]

This profession isn't

about being the best,

it's about doing your best.

Being a constant for your students

on the good days, the bad, the terrible.

It's the showing up that counts.

Uh, so I'd like to dedicate this award

to all the teachers here at Abbott

who show up every day

and give their best.

[CHUCKLES LIGHTLY]

It's an honor to walk through

those doors with you every morning.

Thank you.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

Thank you.

And please, please give a hand

to this wonderful Black man.

[APPLAUSE CONTINUES]

WOMAN: Whoo!

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

How you doing?

Better now.

Today was tough.

Definitely don't feel like

Teacher of the Year.

You know, funny enough, neither do I.

[BOTH CHUCKLE]

Ah. Aide of the Year!

- Mm.

- Yeah.

I know that we've always had

a will-they-won't-they thing going,

but I appreciate how

you've remained professional.

My heart is with Benito.

Who's she talking about? Mnh.

Ah!

- Oh, okay.

- Oh, wow.

Delicious.

Qué Rico, qué Rico, qué Rico.

That award is ugly as hell.

- I mean, an apple?

- You think?

I'm pretty sure they got it

from Dollar Tree.

[CHUCKLES] I bet it cost

[JAMAICAN ACCENT] tree dollars.

- [BOTH LAUGH]

- Shabba!

[AS JANINE] Oh, Gregory,

I am so proud of you.

[AS GREGORY] Thank you, Janine.

I am proud of you.

My heart is full of love

even though my pockets are full of lint.

Oh, Gregory, our love is so pure.

[NORMAL VOICE]

Actually, I'm gonna go home.

We were killin' it!

Alright, you're all logged in

for your first class.

[BREATHES DEEPLY]

Make friends and learn lots.

Alright.

Let's see who's teaching this.

[KEYS CLACK]

Okay.

Hello, everyone.

I'm your teacher, Dr. Johnson.

Welcome to Intergenerational

Active Listening,

also known as iGal. Okurr?

The active listening class

that hits different, no cap.

I'll be your teacher,

but not your friend.

And I'm low-key deadass.

You don't like it, then hop off, bro.

Feel free to chime in

if someone hasn't understood

the assignment.

Ya feel me, stupid?

Stupid?

Did I say that right?

Oh, Lord.

Deadass.

DEA [GRUNTS]