Professor Tallec
June 27, 2015 6:35 AM
Time to spread your wings! [Beginner Lesson] by Professor Tallec
Richard was in a little bit of a daze as he sipped at his teacup. Ever since Pye borrowed his Kneazle, Cindy, for a lesson, Richard realized that Alfie Pye was exactly the type of friend he had been seeking. Dates were fun, but sometimes he just wished he had a buddy to grab a drink with. After tracking down the illusive Pye, Richard had finally managed to get him to agree to get a drink with him…sometime… when they both weren’t swamped with work. As Richard petted Cindy, he wondered just when the two of them would have time to get off Sonora grounds for that drink. “Perhaps the next three-day weekend,” he thought to himself as the beginner class made their way to their seats.“Hello, and welcome,” Richard’s deep voice resonated throughout the classroom as he stood up, carefully moving the snoozing Cindy off his lap and onto his desk. “Today we will be discussing the importance of keeping a good notebook,” he said as he waved his wand towards the stack of notebooks on his desk. The dark bound books then distributed themselves, one to each student, as he began the lecture.
“Notebooks are an essential part not only in researching magical creatures, but also in caring for them. If any of you hope to have a career with magical creatures, or to get an O in this class, you must practice taking good note taking and maintaining a well organized notebook.” He knew that this probably wouldn’t be the most entertaining lesson for a bunch of pre-teens, but it was essential that they have a strong foundation for intermediates, and hopefully Advanced COMC. Turning to the board, Richard then began to write down the expectations for the notebook. “You should have your name, house, and any contact information on the inside cover in case it gets lost,” he said as he referenced his own worn out notebook from when he was in the field. At this point writing a good notebook was second nature to the young professor, however that made it a little difficult to explain the entire procedure to someone else- let alone an entire class. “For each lesson in which we observe a creature- and that includes today,” he clarified, “I want an Observation section, where you chronicle any and all notes. As well as a short Discussion section that explains the significance of your results, as well as explain any inferences or patterns you notice in your observations,” he said setting down the chalk.
“Remember, your Discussion section shouldn’t be more than a paragraph,” he said with a smile. “The most important part of this class is to observe and try and understand the creatures, so don’t worry too much about the notebooks. Although, I will be doing a notebook check once a week to make sure you are keeping up to date,” he warned with a grin, despite the fact that he didn’t plan on grading their notebooks that hard since they were still beginners.
“Alright,” the dark haired professor said smiling at the group, “The rest of today is going to be pretty easy, but I want you to use it as a chance to practice good note taking skills,” he said as he pulled out a cardboard box from under the desk. He then waved his wand to close all the windows and doors, making the room slightly darker than before. “We are going to be observing Flitterbies,” Richard said as he opened the box releasing a glowing mass of the moth like creatures. They immediately began to hum lightly as they flew to all corners of the room. Richard smiled, he had always thought the creatures had an underappreciated beauty.
“As most of you can tell by now, Flitterby moths have a characteristic hum when in flight,” he stated while he pulled out another box from his desk. “These stones are enchanted to give off a little heat, and will attract the moths so you can get a closer look at them,” he explained, waving his wand to disperse the warm stones to the students.
“Now, I would like you all to take notes on what you observe about Flitterby behavior and appearance, as well as a hypothesis in your Discussion section as to why they are attracted to heat. I would also like a detailed drawing of one from each of you, and don’t just copy the picture from your book,” Richard added in case there were any students hoping to get off easy. “You don’t have to be a great artist, just do your best to get the important features down. But for the most part, have fun and feel free to chat while you work,” he said, trying to reassure the students that it was just supposed to be a relaxing assignment to get them back into the groove of school. Now that his instructions were over, he took the time to relax into his chair, enjoying the orange glow that filled the classroom.
OOC: Creative, realistic posts are worth more points. If Richard is needed, please tag Professor Tallec in the subject line. Posting rules apply. Please add house after name.
Permission given by Professor Pye to address him as such.
Subthreads: Being warm is nice? by Jemima Wolseithcrafte, Teppenpaw with Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw
Just what I was hoping for by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari with Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
Doing what I must. by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus
Mine don't work that well. (Tag Caelia) by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus with Caelia Lucan, Crotalus
And fly? by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Fabian Brockert,Pecari
Not the best observer by Micah Breckinridge, Crotalus with Gia Donovan, Pecari
Phototaxis vs Thermotaxis by Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren
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Professor Tallec
Time to spread your wings! [Beginner Lesson]
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Professor Tallec
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Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari
June 30, 2015 11:40 PM
Just what I was hoping for by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari
Ingrid wanted to like Care of Magical Creatures. On paper, it was going to be her favourite subject after flying. Care of Magical Creatures was where she would learn about dragons - a creature that had always fascinated her, and which she wanted to work with if being a pro-Quidditch player didn’t pan out. Or alongside…. Ingrid wasn’t really one to dwell on the option of failure when it came to Quidditch but she definitely had daydreams that saw her being a dragon handler. Pro careers were short. Maybe she’d get into dragons after that, instead of the usual options of coaching… Standing around telling everyone else how to have fun instead of being a proper part of it had never seemed like the most appealing thing. There were plenty of other magical creatures that were cool too, like Abraxans - the giant winged horses - and phoenixes. The trouble was, none of these things were likely to come up in a beginners class. Instead, they had things like butterflies.And, because you couldn’t handle butterflies, there wasn’t anything to do except stare at them and write notes in a notebook. She took hers unenthusiastically. It was not the fun, hands on experience she had envisaged. She scrawled her name, year and house on the front page, skipping over the contact details part, as she assuming that her house pretty much covered that, as anyone who found her notebook would just owl it back to her or give it to her when they saw her in class.
The noise as the butterflies - or moths, apparently, was there even a difference? - were released caught her attention, and she stared up at them swirling and humming above her. Ok, she had to admit it was kind of a cool sight, though she didn’t see herself getting an hour’s worth of entertainment out of it. In fact, after the initial moment of surprise had passed, she was done with the whole thing. She noted down that they hummed. She tapped her quill impatiently…. At least Professor Tallec’s lecture had included the words ‘don’t worry too much about the notebooks.’ It was advice she planned on taking to heart….
When one of the creatures landed she drew out a two dimensional butterfly, trying to vaguely copy the shape of its wings. She didn’t have any colouring pencils with her, so just labelled the wings ‘orange and glowy.’
“Do you think they have some kind of fire related power?” she asked her neighbour, almost hopefully, as she watched the gentle orange pulsation of the creature’s wings. It would make sense with it needing heat, and would make it far more interesting.
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Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari
Just what I was hoping for
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Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari
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Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
July 05, 2015 11:15 AM
I think it's more interesting than it sounds. by Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
Note taking was something that Emmy-Lou had begun to think she was actually quite good at and she took care in keeping her work organised and neat. Having an artistic side to her, Emmy-Lou had decided to decorate her notebook for Care of Magical Creatures with colourful paper and patterns. She also had a variety of different coloured inks to write with so that her notes would be visually appealing and perhaps help them to stay in her mind. She hoped Professor Tallec wouldn’t mind. It wasn’t as though she’d done a bad job; in fact, she was quite pleased with the appearance of her book. And Professor Tallec seemed like a nice guy… and nobody had ever said students weren’t allowed to add a little brightness to their notes.Generally the prospect of having a relaxed lesson was a good one but when it came to Care of Magical Creatures, Emmy-Lou wasn’t quite so sure. Wasn’t every Care of Magical Creatures lesson relaxed? More so than the more academic subjects like Transfiguration which was the main class in which Emmy-Lou thought she would struggle to uphold her Aladren status. Care of Magical Creatures was meant to be fun and exciting and not very difficult.
Flutterby moths didn’t seem particularly exciting. But just because they weren’t fluffy and cute or potentially dangerous, that didn’t mean that Emmy-Lou found no interest in the lesson topic of the day. It was a bit of a challenge because she really didn’t know why they were attracted to heat. Surely for the same reason that humans were? But then again, why were humans attracted to heat?
The first year moved her warm stone closer to her and waited for a moth to come head towards it so she could get a good look at it. Emmy-Lou didn’t possess any particular talent for drawing but she took care as she sketched out the glowing creature into her notebook so she didn’t mess up her plans to keep it neat. She thought that maybe she should label her drawing but she realized she didn’t know enough about Flutterbies yet to be able to do so.
Emmy-Lou grinned when the girl beside her suggested that these cool creatures had fiery powers. “I don’t know.” She spoke honestly, wishing she could have at least some wisdom on the subject. Usually she was quite a knowledgeable person but it had never crossed Emmy’s mind that there was enough to a moth that it could actually be studied further than its appearance. “But maybe. That would be cool if they do…” She added a little more to her drawing as she spoke before looking to her companion. “I should think there has to be some connection between their glowiness and the fact that they like heat.” She was fairly sure that she’d made up the word ‘glowiness’ but continued on all the same. “Do you think it’s possible to touch one?” Emmy-Lou thought the moths would likely fly away quickly if she attempted and didn’t want that to happen so ignored the impulse she had to reach out and touch the one in front of her. “Only I’d be interested to know if they are actually hot themselves,” she explained further. Then she frowned because saying her thoughts aloud had made them sound stupid to her. Moths weren’t hot. Yet the Flutterby was a magical creature and therefore an exception when compared with ordinary moths. After all, what kind of butterflies glowed anyway? As she argued with the thoughts in her mind, Emmy-Lou resolved not to take back what she had said because she didn’t really think a Pecari could accuse an Aladren of being stupid if she did turn out to be wrong.
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Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
I think it's more interesting than it sounds.
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Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
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Ingrid
July 10, 2015 5:15 AM
Testing some theories by Ingrid
“If they did,” Ingrid expanded, on her idea of fire-breathing butterflies, “That would almost nearly be like studying a teeny tiny dragon..” she said wistfully. She smiled at the other girl, glad she hadn’t snobbishly dismissed her idea.
“I’m Ingrid, by the way,” she added, deciding that as they were halfway through a conversation about whether their object of study could breathe fire, it was one of those situations where you didn’t have to be super formal about things.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to, at least not with regular ones,” she explained, when the other girl asked about touching them. “I used to try to catch them with my hands and Jemima would tell me to be careful, cos their wings have some kind of powder on and if you touch them can’t fly afterwards or they die or something,” she was slightly fuzzy on what the details had been but knew that touching plus wings equalled bad,. “Which is a shame cos that’s a really interesting point…. Maybe if you just put your hand out close it’ll- oh,” as she had tried the idea, the flitterby had hastily taken off. “I was hoping I would be able to feel it from there and that it might feel threatened enough to show me its awesome fire powers. Maybe it just does the glowy thing,” she sighed.
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Ingrid
Testing some theories
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Ingrid
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