'Don't take a big, honking bite,' cautions middle school math teacher Maura McDaid.

The teachers bring wine and snacks, including a block of spicy wasabi cream cheese.

So when NPR decided to bring some Philly teachers together to talk about Abbott, she gladly agreed to organize a watch party. She watches the show every week and live-tweets the whole thing. One minute she sees herself in Jacob, the corny history teacher, and the next in Janine, the show's plucky protagonist who will stop at nothing to get her students what they need. Wyglendowski is an Abbott super fan and constantly compares herself to its characters. The show helps teachers process the absurd realities of their jobs 'I can't believe they're actually talking about this on TV and I have to laugh because if you don't laugh you will cry.' 'I find it cathartic,' Wyglendowski explains. But she and other local teachers tell NPR they like the show because it's a comedy, and there's truth in every joke. She knows Philly teachers who don't watch Abbott because it hits too close to home.

'If anything, I feel like it's not exaggerated.' Wyglendowski dismisses some of the often-heard critiques that Abbott exaggerates conditions in Philadelphia schools, and if conditions really are that bad maybe we shouldn't be laughing. The average Philly school is also more than 70 years old - most don't have central air conditioning and were built using lead and asbestos, conditions that have resulted in short and long-term building closures. Philadelphia is the poorest of the country's 10 largest cities, and its school district has long suffered from chronic underfunding. The rug episode is just one example of how Abbott Elementary draws inspiration from the very real conditions in Philadelphia's public schools. 'I'm like, I might be naive, but I just don't think that this is good enough.' That's something Wyglendowski can relate to. In the show, some of Janine's colleagues tell her to let it go, but she refuses. She says that rug moment, and what followed - the student's teacher, Janine, learns there's no money for a replacement - encapsulates the realities of working in an under-resourced district like Philadelphia. The show, which is nearing the end of its second season, is set in a fictional Philadelphia public school, not unlike the one Wyglendowski has worked at for the last five years. 'It shows the crazy stuff you don't think about when you're like, 'Oh, I'll be a teacher someday.'' 'That was brilliant,' says Wyglendowski, a special education teacher in North Philadelphia. Nicole Wyglendowski has been hooked on the show ever since. In the pilot episode of the award-winning sitcom Abbott Elementary, a student pees on a classroom rug.

Lies At Her Door by A.A. Abbott