#the teacher chronicles

[this-is-lit]

The Teacher Chronicles

by Abi Black

Meet Jane Austen and her three friends — Megan Thyme, Daisy Rhyme, and Alexandria Lions — dedicated educators. Jane, passionate about teaching and journalism, faces a crisis when Adrian Darcy threatens to dismantle the school's thriving journalism program. Determined to save it, Jane enlists her friends' support, but each are grappling with personal challenges of their own. As pressures mount and friendships are tested, these four women must navigate love, loss, and the complexities of their careers. With resilience and unwavering friendship, they discover that sometimes the greatest lessons are learned outside the classroom.

The Teacher Chronicles by Abi Black is the story of Jane, Daisy, Alex, and Megan, four teachers who experience turmoil on the job and in their personal lives over several months during the school year. The narrative is an ensemble cast, but Jane Austen, whose storyline loosely mimics her namesake’s, is the A-plot.

Black’s tale is an idealized fantasy version of teaching and follows the camaraderie of four friends during adversity caused by the school board and their own misunderstandings. Chronicles is a bubblegum pop, twee narrative that would make an excellent adaptation for an original Hallmark movie. The women have stereotypical relationship drama, there are a lot of tears, and storylines are wrapped up tidily with the promise of happily-ever-afters. Jane, Daisy, Alex, and Megan are interchangeable as characters who haven’t matured much past high-school mindsets and give the impression of listening to your friend vent about their problems and realizing they are the problem. Much of the interpersonal conflicts in this tale could be easily solved with basic communication, and bigger conflicts are solved more so with deus ex machinas and less so with the characters taking the initiative to fix their own problems. Emotional beats fall flat with characters telling their feelings instead of showing, and several plot points that would have benefited from detail to engage the reader and convince them of relationship building are glossed over with time jumps. The women’s love interests don’t exist much past providing plot points and are solid examples of “women writing men,” and there are one too many sage older mentors who only exist to pop in with kernels of wisdom. The reader must keep in mind at all times that this story is meant to be a fantasied telling to suspend their disbelief.

Readers who love soapy dramas with happy endings and aren’t looking to put too much thought into a quick book may find this novel good for a light read during a commute or a waiting room. Readers who love Austen, are real-life educators, or are used to a bit more substance even with their fun reads may want to give this a pass.

I received an ACR from Reedsy Discovery

[gothamite-rambler]

Carrie: Damian, there's... There's a woman at the window holding a sign with your name on it.

Damian: What?

He turns to see his mother at the window. Her nose pressed against the glass. She spots Damien and holds up a small white sign and waves with her other hand that is holding a small bag. He groans and buries his head in hands.

Damian: Oh my Lord, no, no she's visiting!

Talia knocks on the window and points at it to be open. They're on the first floor. A kid walks over and opens it.

Talia: Dami! Damien! Over here, baby!

Carrie: She's calling you.

Damian: I'm not here.

Carrie: He says he's not here!

Talia: Tell him I was just bringing him a snack. Also where is your teacher?

Kid at window: Bathroom break.

Talia: Unprofessional. I'll have a word with her.

Damian: She's entering the classroom through the window?

Carrie: Yeah.

A few seconds pass and Damian smells his mother's usual perfume.

Damian: She's next to me?

Carrie: Yes.

Carrie waves at Talia.

Carrie: I'm his friend.

Talia claps eagerly and then hugs Damien, spinning him around.

Talia: Look at you, having friends!

Damian: Mother.

Talia: Don't let your father know I dropped by. I only wanted to bring you a healthy snack.

Damian: Mother.

Talia: Has he been giving you your vitamins?

Damian: Mother, you are embarrassing me!

Talia: Oh... Sorry.

Talia drops Damian to the ground as some kids snicker. He groans, red faced. The teacher in question walks in, sees Talia and frowns.

Teacher: I told you to stop entering my classroom through the window!

Talia shrugs, leaves Damian's bento box styled lunch and leaves calmly as the teacher points at the entrance of the door.

Talia: Don't get cocky, lady. You're messing with the wrong woman.

Teacher: I've been stabbed with a pencil lady, you don't scare me. Get to stepping.

Talia rolls her eyes and leaves.

Carrie: Your mom is...

Damian: Yeah, I'm aware.

[wall-maria-around-ba-sing-se]

“I hate Tatsu, he’s the worst character in Xenoblade X”: boring, cliché, 50/50 chance the person saying this simply picked it up off the internet. he’s not even that bad, really

“I hate Bozé, he’s the worst character in Xenoblade X”: sublime, informed, 100% chance the person saying this has not only played the game but likely has also beaten it and completed all of the affinity quests

[queerstudiesnatural]

my school is having children tell the principal when they feel like adults are being unfair or mean or disrespectful to them or to other kids, and i think that's awesome. like for example this man who looks after them during lunch time allegedly went through the teacher's desk to look at their homework and then proceeded to comment on how some kids did really badly, and compared kids and made mean comments about their school abilities. and they're being listened to and the man is being questioned and might get sanctioned. i think giving kids this voice and this ability to tell other adults they trust when they feel like they're being treated unfairly is so important. children in schools are in such a vulnerable position, with so many different adults who have some kind of power over them, so to have this allotted time to share how they feel about the adults around them can make a huge difference.

[hazellevessque]

IT CAME!! IT FINALLY CAME!!

…the big one

[heronchildlove]

What if... a modern AU where James is Lucie's much older brother, like, he is in college and she is still in pre-school or kindergarten, and one day both his parents are busy so James needs to take lil Lucie to school...

Only to be met with Matthew, the most handsome and most adorable TA ever, greeting kids and parents for this class and making James completely flustered when he says "Oh, so you must be the awesome older brother Luce is always talking about, it's so great to finally meet you, Jamie!" to the point he completely forgets anything else in the world while he listens to Matthew talk about Lucie and what a hoot she is in class just because he doesn't want to stop listening to his voice and then James is very, very late for class that day.

And he starts taking Lucie to school on his way to college muuuch more often after that.

[onceuponaoneshotfanfic]

Everyone tell me how cute my Narnia poster is

[akkivee]

saburo is such a hater no matter where he is LMAO

[therealkaidertrash21]

i just finished my essay about kaider being a good ship, that is almost 600 words long, which is 3x longer than what I'm trained to do in FCE training. And it's super formal because I low-key used it as a way to exercise what I learned for FCE.

should I post it?

[babyseraphim]

obligatory photos of today’s work fit. less practical for wrangling kiddos, but they were an older bunch, so i thought it’d be an easier day. it ended up being a lesson in conflict resolution, none of the kids got along and were being so damn mean to each other all day

which sucks, because how do you tell a kid to be nicer when you're trying not to laugh at how insanely creative their insults are

[keykeykillag]

…it’s Ms. Kiera 🍏👩🏾‍🏫

[vaugarde]

poor delia tbh. she’s such a pleasant and interesting character but the only three topics people usually bring up with her is “ha ha shes fucking professor oak”, “ha ha shes fucking mr mime”, or “she fucking hates her son and wants him to leave forever” and like theyre all jokes but people say them so much that some genuinely believe theres a level of canon there

[romance-rambles]

you know what. YOU KNOW WHAT.

i need to see ehlonna&alkaid&clarence content. i need clarence struggling with two kids on his own. feeling the same guilt that he feels with amelia, and it—it never quite goes away. how can it ever go away?

ehlonna is dead—she died with a smile. she died still trusting him. if alkaid betrays him? well, frankly, clarence can't blame him. he's the reason ehlonna is dead.

but he needs to go on. he has to, for godheim's sake. for his savior's sake. he can't care about someone's disapproval. he gave that right up long ago

and in alkaid's first bad ending? do you think he consoles himself by reminding himself that alkaid would die anyway?

he's a mage—he has no future. he's a mage—he betrayed clarence first. he's a mage—he should never have been trusted.

he's alkaid—one of the two mages clarence trusts. one of the two mages he saw grow up. in a better world, they could've had a happier childhood. he could've given them a happier childhood.

because no matter how many he loses people, he still cares so deeply about everyone he meets.

and the worst part is—even in the end, neither of them hated him. even in the bad ends, i doubt alkaid ever hated him—because while alkaid is very particular in regards to mc, i also think the amount of trust alkaid has in clarence would never translate to pure hatred. a part of him will always care for the man who took him in.

and on the flipside, i need godheim-adjacent aus. need clarence being made fun of for not knowing how to handle two kids—then immediately offered all the wisdom lars' parents can offer him.

need baby alkaid and ehlonna trying to surprise him for his birthday but they just, do not know when it is. so they guess and pick the date they met—then clarence tells them later when his birthday is.

need someone to unintentionally pick on the kids, only to earn clarence's ire. how dare you. those are his kids, you can't hurt—oh wait what was the first part?

need clarence leaving for some important business, leaving them in lars' family's care, but he's definitely checking in on them as often as he can. what if they get hurt. what if they feel uncomfortable. what if. what if what if what if—

essentially all the childcare manhwa tropes!! but with these three!!

[queerstudiesnatural]

so i ask my students at the end of every music class if one of them wants to play us something on the piano or sing something they've been working on. and today was my last day before the summer holidays so i insisted a bit more than usual because they won't get another chance before september. and at the very end of the class one of my first graders raised his hand and he said he knew a song. i was kind of expecting like a simple do re mi kind of tune since he's only 6, but he got up and played a full piece with two hands that he knew entirely by heart. we all looked at him like 😯. like omg i didn't even know he played piano, and the kid waits until the very last day to be like oh btw i'm a musical genius

[quemirabobo]

I swear this motherfuckers want to choke on the fucking boot

[flickeringflame216]

i am so genuinely interested in sociology despite it having nothing to do with my major but my soc professor unfortunately sucks