Lawrence Marsh
December 16, 2021 2:21 PM
Blind leading the blind (Intermediate) by Lawrence Marsh
The tips of his fingers traced the bumps on his desk. The solid wood had grooves from the trees, nicks and scratches from previous teachers, rings from tea mugs. He closed his eyes and felt the table through his fingers. Focusing on the touch. Slowly his sleepiness seemed to dim. Not go away, but dim. His normal tasks as the head magizoologist at the school kept him on a pretty odd schedule, but recently he’d been having… remembrances when he did get to sleep, making it more difficult. He swirled across the wood with his index finger. He couldn’t return to the same state he’d been in at the asylum. Back before he’d been given this new life. Perhaps he’d have to talk to Katey soon for something to help. She might have something. He flattened his hand against the table, feeling the wood splay beneath it. It felt grounding. He opened his eyes just as the first of his students walked in and put on his smile and lifted his tea cup to his lips.After all of them had been seated, Lawrence rose from behind his desk, putting the tea cup down.
“Hello class. I know today is bright and sunny, but we begin our lessons today on the opposite side of the spectrum and so…” Lawrence raised his wand and swept the curtains closed, plunging the normally bright and sun filled classroom into dim light.
“Now, as you know, sometimes your DADA class and our class overlap a bit, and this week is one of those lessons. Though I usually try to have a creature or two from our lessons as we begin, today I am going to instead make you all the creatures. Don’t take me wrong, I don’t mean that to be mean, I mean it to be fun. We are studying nocturnal creatures this week, and to begin with we must, ourselves, understand aspects of the nocturnal creatures. Now, who can tell me what nocturnal means?”
Lawrence called on someone closer to his desk to answer.
“Correct, it means something that is active at night or in some cases, in low light so dusk or dawn. Can someone give me an everyday animal that is nocturnal?”
Lawrence called on three different hands with three different answers.
“All correct and great examples. The best example is probably owls. Now wizards use owls to assist with communication, but they normally are nocturnal by nature, meaning they…”
“Correct, they are active at night.”
“Now, one of the difficulties that nocturnal animals have is getting around. So today, in teams of two, you will create a method of getting from point a to point b in the dark. I will create a small obstacle course and at the end of the class one of the team members will have to move through it in even less light than we are currently experiencing.”
“If you need help you can open your books to page 147 for some examples of nocturnal creatures and adaptations they may have.”
“Also, before I forget, your homework. For those not in their final year of Intermediate levels, I want you to pick a nocturnal creature to write a 2-5 page report on. For those who did this lesson with me last year, I am looking for a new creature,” Lawrence looked pointedly at a few of the students. “For those of you who are about to take their exams, I’d like you to write an essay on the way the phases of the moon affect the adaptations of all nocturnal animals. This should be 3-5 pages. These essays will be due in three weeks time. If any of you want me to review your essay for feedback before the due date, please have it in to me in the next two weeks.
If there are no questions, go forth and find your way!”
Lawrence reached back for his tea cup on his desk and missed it, knocking it over and spilling some of the tea on the table.
OOC: OOC: Nocturnal Animals - https://obdk.com/blogs/owls-wolves-and-bears-oh-blog/dec-30-nocturnal-animals
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Lawrence Marsh
Blind leading the blind (Intermediate)
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Billy Cobb
December 19, 2021 6:01 AM
Let's do this! by Billy Cobb
Billy had found a seat next to one of the windows, it was a beautiful day outside and he wanted to be able to at least see and appreciate it. At least his current class was Creatures. That one was usually interesting and fun, but it'd be better if it was outside. So at the very least he could sit in a spot that kinda let him pretend he was outside while doing the class stuff. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Professor Marsh agreed with that line of thought today.His heart sunk as the window curtains closed and blocked off his view of the outside. Dangnabit. Maybe they needed the dark for some really neat critter today though. Hmm... sort of. The obstacle course in the dark sounded like fun! Step one as usual though was to find a partner. That was simple enough, he asked around the room until someone agreed to work with him. Step two, figure out how to navigate an obstacle course in the dark.
"Alright, got any great ideas?" He asked his partner, "Some critters use big and special eyes to collect as much light as possible. Bats use sound and such. What can we do along them lines?'
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Billy Cobb
Let's do this!
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