Professor Levy

September 14, 2012 11:54 PM
The past year had been both a blessing and a curse. Erika loved her babies. She really did. Every time they smiled at her or held her finger, she just melted. Unfortunately, that was only half the time. Spencer was especially fussy and didn’t want to sleep ever. In the rare moments when she did, were the moments that Parker didn’t. Adding in to the fact that both Torra and she worked, they had been absolutely exhausted. Erika had never in her life missed a day of work, but this year she had called in absent more than her share. Thankfully, Kiva had understood. She had a few familial changes of her own.

Now that they were a little over a year, they were finally on a sleep schedule, which meant that, at least during the night, she could get some rest. During the day was another matter. Both babies were on the go. She worried more about Parker than Spencer, because he was already walking without the help of furniture and he tried to get into everything! She knew Spencer wouldn’t be far behind. Whatever Parker did, Spencer did. Though, the same wasn’t true for Parker. Already, Spencer could hold a conversation. Granted, half of it was gibberish, but there was no doubt she was going to be a talker. Parker had yet to try. Her mother had told her not to worry cause some babies took longer than others, so she tried not to worry too much.

Aside from that, with the babies having a set routine, she was able to focus her attention into teaching. Sitting behind her desk, she straightened the pile of papers she intended to pass out, which included the syllabus and their first assignment. Soon enough, students began filing into the classroom. Before class officially began, she gestured for one of the students in the front to hand out the papers.

After all the handouts had been passed out and everyone was situated, Erika began her lesson. “Welcome to Intermediate Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am Professor Levy for anyone that may not know or may have forgotten.” The last part was said jokingly for her absences last year. Speaking of which, “When I call your name, please say here. Adair, Alice…” She knew most of them by name already, so it was more a formality than anything else. Of course, occasionally, there were transfers.

Once attendance had been taken, Erika went over the rules. Again, mostly formality, but it never hurt to remind them that there was no fooling around. After all, learning defense was a serious business. It could be the difference between life and death. Not that most students thought about that fact, but it was there nonetheless. How many people had lost a perfectly good limb on the account of someone else not following the rules? It was a lesson that she had learned on account of a dimwitted partner. Though, she couldn’t say nothing good came from it. She got to see her babies more than she would have if she were still in the Auror field.

“If you’ll take a look at your syllabus, you will see that we will be focusing on the mind for the next couple of weeks. Many of you many not think that the mind is an important part of defense, because of how much emphasis is places on spell casting and deflection. Yet, the mind is probably the most valuable and most vulnerable asset we have in defense. For example, many of you may have heard of the Unforgivable Curse – the Imperius Curse. Just a quick side note for anyone who doesn’t. There are three Unforgivable Curses – the Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Killing Curse. We won’t go into details today on all three, but needless to say, they are so named, because they are Unforgivable. No one in here should even be attempting these spells. They are a severely punishable offense. Got it?” She gave them all a stern look.

“That said, we are going to touch on the theory of the Imperius Curse. The Imperius Curse is a spell that causes the victim to be completely controlled by the castor. If a person’s mind is weak and susceptible, they are more likely to fall under this curse. But it is possible to resist, if one’s mind and will are strong. What we are going to focus on the different mindsets as well as the basics on what to do and not do to prevent yourself from becoming susceptible. A mindset by definition is a mental attitude or disposition that determines how a person responds or interprets situations. Everyone in here has a fixed mindset, which is the behavior to which you are born with and the most difficult to overcome. What we want to develop is the growth mindset, which are the qualities that we choose to develop.”

With a flick of her wrist, the following appeared on the board:

Negative mindset

Energy is focused on what is wrong in one’s life. Reasons are given for why the individual will never succeed – too sickly, too sad, no energy, don’t have anything, etc. Thus, the individual gives up before they can succeed creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.

Has an attitude of ‘I can’t.’

Positive mindset

Energy is focused on what is right in one’s life. The individual is focused on being grateful for what they have. The individual sets goals and strives to meet their goals.

Has an attitude of ‘I can.’


“Everyone has days when they are up or down. We all have traits that fall into a positive or negative mindset. Maybe you feel that you can do well at Potions, but feel hopeless about Charms. Maybe certain things make you feel nervous. Or maybe other things like teasing can trigger a negative mindset. What we want to focus on is learning to control what causes a negative mindset and working towards a positive mindset. When we are in a negative mindset, we are susceptible to poor performance and consequently, poor defense. That said, I want everyone to answer the provided questionnaire to help determine your fixed mindset and ways we can work on our growth mindset.”

Page 1 - Mindset Questionaire

1) You do well on a test, because:
a) I’m smart.
b) I was lucky.

2) You do poorly on a test.
a) I’ll do better next time.
b) I’m a failure.

3) You join your friends, who have suddenly stopped talking, you think:
a) Nothing of it.
b) They were talking about you.

4) Your boyfriend/girlfriend dumps you:
a) There are other fish in the sea.
b) Your life is over.

5) Being myself guarantees people will:
a) Like me.
b) Dislike me.


“If you answered mostly a’s, then you have a positive mindset and if you answered mostly b’s, then you have a negative mindset. Knowing where your mindset lies, you can work towards improving or overcoming initial barriers that cause us to fail. All right, I want everyone to break up into groups of two. Using the next page of this packet, I want you to think of how you would react in the following scenarios and what might be a better way to react. Please discuss this part with each other. If you have any questions, please raise your hand and I’ll be around. For those who finish early, you can start on tomorrow’s assignment, which is listed on the third page.”

Page 2 – Scenarios

1) You are walking down the hall when some kids corner you. They start calling you names and teasing you. Eventually, one pulls out a wand and attempts to hex you with the Jelly Legs Jinx. What is your initial reaction? What is a good way to handle the situation?

2) You are walking through the Labyrinth Gardens and come across a creature you have never seen before. It looks rather dangerous. How would you feel about the situation? How would you handle the situation? Are there any ways to handle the situation that would be more appropriate?

Page 3 – Overcoming Obstacles – Using Expelliarmus with a positive mindset

With a partner, practice the Disarming Charm (or other previously learned spells) while trying to remain positive. ‘I can disarm my opponent’ or ‘I will not be disarmed.’ Does the spell feel easier to perform in the positive mindset? Were more positive results shown?

Subthreads:
0 Professor Levy Intermediate Level: Lesson I 0 Professor Levy 1 5

Derry Four, Teppenpaw

September 15, 2012 10:21 PM
Derry could not say that DADA was his favoritest class at Sonora, but he did not dislike it, and he did better at it than he did in Potions so it wasn't his least favorite class either. He was really kind of looking forward to the end of the year so he could stop writing essays for Professor Fawcett. Whether or not he'd be dropping DADA as well was something he was still trying to figure out. He supposed it probably came down to what he ended up getting on his CATS. He'd heard a rumor that you needed an E to continue with it, but he wasn't sure if that was true or not. Either way, it was supposed to get tougher in RATS level and he wasn't sure he wanted to keep with it if he didn't manage an E at CATS level.

He thought he could probably get Es in Charms and Divinations, and probably CoMC and maybe (if he was really lucky that day) Transfigurations. Potions, though, was almost a lost cause, and DADA was about on par with Transfig.

He arrived in class in a good mood and waved at Thad who was already sitting in the front row as he moved to his usual seat in the middle of the room. Thad didn't seem to notice, but Derry wasn't too surprised by that. Thad probably had other things on his mind, like trying to figure out complex Defense theories that didn't come up in class until sixth year that he'd read about over the summer in preparation for joining the intermediate class.

Sitting down with his friends, Derry whispered greetings to them (he always felt weird talking at a normal volume in Defense class, which was kind of weird, but the place somehow reminded him of a library or something; he had no idea why, he didn't have this problem in Fawcett's class and that guy really did cover his walls in books). He got his wand out, but didn't bother with his books or quill until he knew they weren't about to leap into battle or something. After he answered to his name in the roll, and getting handed a syllabus and a packet of other papers, he decided he should probably get out the book and quill.

In listening to the descriptions of the two attitudes, he could see that the positive one was quite obviously the better and decided he probably had that, since he was sure he had never felt much negativity about anything. Well, maybe his parents' divorce had been kind of negative, but who wanted that to happen?

Turning to the questionnaire he found the questions easier than most tests.
1) B (He could not, after growing up with Thaddeus, describe himself as smart with a clear conscience, even if he had earned the good grade fairly and honestly.)
2) A (Clearly, if he did badly, he hadn't studied as much as he should have, and he'd get Hamlet to tell him what he'd done wrong so he'd do better if the topic came up again on the end of year test or the CATS.)
3) A (Even if they had been talking about him, he was sure it wouldn't have been anything bad, and the previous conversation had just reached its natural conclusion. He trusted his friends.)
4) A (Breaking up with a girlfriend would be awful, but it surely wasn't the end of the world.)
5) A (He had never had a problem with people not liking him so he must be likeable.)

Feeling good about his answers, he turned to his nearest friend and asked, "Ready to work on the scenarios?"

He read over the first one, frowning at the behavior described by the group of people cornering him. "Well, that's not nice at all. It's Protego to shield against a jelly-legs curse, right? That's what we're supposed to use?"
1 Derry Four, Teppenpaw Looking on the bright side 189 Derry Four, Teppenpaw 0 5


Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

September 23, 2012 12:46 AM
So far, unless something ignited a previously unknown passion in Hope, she was not planning to continue with Defense. It wasn't that she didn't like the class but there were others that she liked far better. Charms was the most useful branch of magic there was, she had more talent in Transfiguration than other classes, and she just plain liked COMC and Divinations. Hope supposed that DADA was pretty useful for some as well, if they worked in a dangerous field, but she didn't have any plans to. She was a pureblood girl and therefore, the closest thing she was going to get to adventure was to travel around like Nina was with her new husband.

Which actually sounded like a lot of fun, not that Hope hadn't been to quite a few places, but hearing about her sister's journeys made her wonder what it would be like to travel with one's husband, though unlike Nina, she would prefer to know hers a bit better before they got married. The Teppenpaw knew her sister was a bit anxious about having been married to a total stranger and that she was relieved not to have to go right into having children. Nina seemed to struggle with being a proper pureblood woman more than any of the rest of them.

Maybe that was why Great Grandfather had betrothed the Pecari alumna to someone she didn't know. He hadn't trusted her to make a good match on her own, the way Kaylie and Chelsea had and due to Nina's sorting, he felt that he had to take what he could get. Great Grandfather thought that Pecaris did not possess the traits that were desirable in pureblood ladies. Sara Raines was something of an anomaly.

She found an empty seat next to Derry, took out her notes and began to doodle in the margins, girlish things mostly, while she waited for class to start. Once the lecture began, Hope snapped to attention. Professor Levy was not one to tolerate a lack of focus. It was a critical part of defense and whether she planned to continue the class or not, she appreciated that fact and didn't really want trouble anyway.

Hope scribbled down what was written on the board about the two types of mindsets. Interesting. She tended to think of herself as a more positive person than some she knew but less so than others. The Teppenpaw felt that she was more so than Adam or Addison, but less so than say, Derry. Or their old Transfiguration professor, who seemed overly cheerful at least before she was pregnant.

Her eyes scanned the questionnaire. Hope supposed if she had to pick between the choices on question one, she would have to pick A. The Teppenpaw knew she wasn't the smartest person out there, many in her class were more intelligent than she was but she felt did decent enough in classes. Hope hadn't actually ever failed a test, but if she did, she thought she would study hard to improve and so marked A for that one.

What would she do if her friends stopped talking when she joined them? Hope would just assume they stopped talking to welcome her and it interrupted the flow of the conversation they'd been having or perhaps they had something private that they wanted to keep just between them. She put A for that one as well.

The fourth question caught her eye and her gaze drifted briefly before she replied. Well, Hope was probably going to end up betrothed and it would not be pleasant if the betrothal was broken, but that wasn't what she thought of first. What would she do if she were dating Russell and he broke up with her? The Teppenpaw imagined that she'd be upset but eventually she'd get over it and hope they could remain friends. Plus, if they were dating the most likely scenario for breaking up would be Hope getting betrothed. Which would still be kind of upsetting but she chose A yet again.

Selecting A one last time, Hope looked up as Derry spoke to her. "Well, yes. I mean, I suppose if they put the jelly-legs curse on you, you couldn't run away." She replied. "Of course, it would depend on how well they cast the spell, but if them failing at it or you blocking it didn't make them stop teasing you because they felt embarrassed themselves, then you could also use a Silencing Spell on them."
11 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw It is a lovely place. 186 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5