Intermediates: CATS review on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

January 30, 2024 9:40 PM

Intermediates: CATS review by Nathan Xavier

The Intermediates class was his last lesson of the day. Sometimes that was good. Sometimes, especially in December, it meant the greenhouse had warmed up over the course of the day and it was probably the warmest spot in the whole school grounds. Other days, like today, it was just dark and overcast all day and he relied less on the sun and more on his own warming charms to keep the place comfortable and the plants alive.

And the kids had to trudge through the miserable cold to get here so they generally weren't in a good mood, and everyone just wanted the day to be over so they could snuggle up in a blanket by a fire with a warm cup of hot chocolate and a book, and lose their page because they fell asleep and dropped it. (At least, this was how Nathan liked to end his cold winter days, and he imagined most folks had at least something not too dissimilar that they wanted to get to rather than spending two hours in a dimly lit greenhouse going over CATS review.) And in these shortest days of the year it was full dark outside when the class let out.

"Good afternoon, class," he greeted them, trying to drum up some enthusiasm, for himself if not for them, once they had all arrived and he'd handed out their most recent homework assignment with the grade marked in red ink and his comments written in green, to be festive for the season.

"Your syllabus says today's topic is CATS review," he reminded them. He tried to spread those lessons out over the course of the year instead of piling it all up at the end. "And we're going to do that," he added, hopefully before he accidentally lifted anybody's hopes that they'd get some new material today. "But I'm tired and cold and I imagine many of you are at least cold, so we're going to do something a little different today. So everyone stand up and jump in place for a moment to get your body warmed up." He himself bounced around a little in a variant on the Teppenpaw jig to get his own blood flowing.

Once he felt a little more awake from moving around, he gestured over to one side of the greenhouse. "Everyone go stand over there," he instructed. Once they had done so, he explained what they were going to do. "Alright, here are the rules. I'm going to make a statement about something you studied in beginners. If it's true, I want you to wave both of your hands over your heads. If it's false, I want you to shake your heads and stomp your feet. Feel free to shout True! or False!, too, if you like. Everyone clear? Okay. A canopy is the root system of a rainforest."

He was pleased to see a lot of shaking heads and stomping feet for that one, but he'd started easy. "Good. That was false. The canopy is the top layer of the rainforest."

Following that, he made each subsequent statement a little harder than the one before it. Once he started stumping a significant portion of the students by either saying something that was mostly true but had one small point wrong, or by bringing up very obscure facts that had only been mentioned once in the entirety of their two year beginner curriculums, he decided to change things up.

"Alright, now we're going to do something else. I'm going to start a sentence, and then point at someone, who needs to finish it correctly. Then they get to start saying a herbology fact - nothing too hard for this part - and pick someone else to finish it. So something like this. A plant with red flowers is . . ." and he pointed at a student who looked like they had an answer.

OOC: Kind of going for an interactive discussion thing that shouldn't be too hard to pass around, but if you have your character give a deliberately wrong answer (deliberate on the part of the author, that is), I grant permission to have Nathan step in and give your student a chance to fix their answer, and then if it's still wrong, either tag the professor or give a hook for another student to step in and answer instead.

Subthreads:

That doesn't sound good... by Quillan Arcadius with Charlotte O'Malley

1 Nathan Xavier Intermediates: CATS review 28 1 5

Quillan Arcadius

February 02, 2024 10:38 PM

That doesn't sound good... by Quillan Arcadius

On the outside, Quillan was the polite, composed Aladren he was supposed to be—ready for another lesson, keen to study. On the inside though, a small boulder of dread was forming in his stomach as he dragged himself to the greenhouse. It had little to do with the weather, although it didn’t enhance his mood. He was a Quidditch player though, and used to being out in this, and far worse, and so the cosy shelter of the greenhouse seemed like solace from the elements. It was what was waiting inside that was dragging him down.

CATS review. That sounded like a lesson spent hunched over books, or worse yet, filling out a quiz. At least with the latter, it would be meant to be kept private, so he would be able to disguise his struggles with getting his thoughts down on paper. If they were reading… He could either turn pages at the same rate as his neighbour, while taking nothing in, or single himself out by asking for a library pass and hoping that no one else came with him, and that he could find a quiet, private space to let his books read to him.

He took a seat towards the back, keeping a carefully neutral expression on his face. He joined in as instructed with the warm up, wondering whether this would be the only part of the lesson he completed as instructed. And then something unexpected happened. Professor Xavier got them up and moving, answering questions with their bodies.

Quillan joined in, at first waiting for the other shoe to drop—waiting for the moment when they were all warmed up and were sent back to their desks. But it didn’t happen. The questions kept coming, spoken out loud, and Quillan waved and stomped in response. His responses started to diverge from some of his classmates, but he still felt confident in them. Time and time again, he was proved right. He was acing a review class! A real one, at school!

His heart sank when Professor Xavier said ‘alright now’ in a tone that implied they would change activities. But then the next one was just as wonderful. His hand shot up enthusiastically, and Professor Xavier called on him.

“Figwort!” he answered, having used it in a Potion that morning. That one had been easy, and he almost regretted going for it, but hopefully the class was small enough that it would loop back to him when they got to tougher questions. He wanted it to. He wanted to be tested. “The common name for Atropa Belladonna is…” he asked, looking for a classmate. Although they hadn’t got very hands on with anything poisonous in beginners, they’d had them drilled in pretty thoroughly as things to avoid.

13 Quillan Arcadius That doesn't sound good... 1570 0 5

Charlotte O'Malley

February 04, 2024 4:56 PM

It sounds like we don't need to be here right now (Fifth year) by Charlotte O'Malley

The biggest drawback to having classes with the fifth years was that CATS reviews were on their syllabus two years before Charlotte and the other third years truly needed to worry about them.. She was sure that it was nice for Ian, Aunt Valerie’s son who was studying to be a Healer and probably started CATS review the year before he entered Sonora as he took this very seriously.

However, Charlotte had no such career plans. So to her…CATS review was unnecessary at this point in her life. So, unless Professor Xavier was also planning on it being a review for everyone’s exams, like the ones for his class, then well, she’d honestly rather not be here since it was cold and she didn’t especially want to be outside. Normally, she was not one of those people who complained or got heated about most things but right now, all she wanted was to curl up in a little ball under a fuzzy blanket with hot chocolate and a book. Not going out in the cold to review for something that she wasn’t taking for another two years.Honestly, she probably would not remember what they did today except for the fact that it would probably be repeated in some form next year and the following ones. Professors really did have a way of making CATS (and RATS) seem like a life or death situation-especially if you were like Ian and wanted to be a Healer and already thought doing so was life or death.

Charlotte, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. She had parents who would love and support her no matter what and right now the main thing she wanted to be was a mom. The third year wanted what her parents had now in terms of romance, and to have a decent sized family with her soulmate. Although, maybe she’d prefer to space her children a little closer together than hers. There might only be a few minutes between her brothers, but there was a big difference between them and her and a big difference between her and Cassidy and of course, an even bigger one between her brothers and their little sister.

However, Charlotte loved babies and small children like her sister and taking care of them. She helped as much as possible with Cassidy and could not wait to be old enough to take care of Uncle Jake and Aunt Ginger’s brood on her own. Maybe Aunt Peyton and Uncle Connor would have babies soon too. And Arabella was pregnant which was exciting Though Arabella didn’t seem to be enjoying it much. Charlotte hoped she was okay.

So unlike Ian, she didn’t really need to do as well on CATS or RATS even though of course, she wanted to do well on them especially since the former at least was somewhat about basic competency as a witch so yes, that was important but not so important that she needed to deal with it now especially as being competent at magic was not an issue for her.

Also, unlike Ian, Charlotte did not have a need to save her parents. Dad had escaped from his biggest issues a while ago, long before they were born. He no longer had to see his biological mother or her other spawn. (Other spawn being the nicest possible way for her to put it, Uncle Seth used much more colorful language.) Now he tried to help others like him. Meanwhile Aunt Valerie was still sick even if it wasn’t as much as when she was younger before she got on the potion that helped her somewhat. Ian wanted to cure her. Charlotte didn’t feel the need to have such ambitions.

And today was a cold miserable day so any ambitions she did have were not something she cared about. Oh she wanted marriage and children but as for the need to do well enough on her CATS-two years from now-to be competent and continue classes she was interested in, it was not exactly a priority at the moment. Honestly, with the weather, Professor Xavier should have just…made this class optional for the third and fourth years. Charlotte actually did feel that the Aladrens and Crotali in her year would have shown up anyway.

Still, Professor Xavier had not done that and she didn’t want to get in trouble so here she was. She took a back seat next to Quillan. It was nice to have that opportunity since his other friends were definitely front row people. She might have been stereotyping them a bit but Alexander and Desmond most definitely were all about the front row.Charlotte wasn’t all that picky herself, she just liked sitting by Quillan wherever that happened to be. Especially since Piper had her other friends and the younger Teppenpaw didn’t want to be the little cousin who tagged along. Piper was like her favorite cousin, but at Sonora they traveled in different circles.So, if she couldn’t sit with Quillan-because all his other friends took up those places-then Misty was her next choice, at least since Ursula wasn’t in her classes this year. Honestly, she was going to tell the second year to enjoy her second year since it was the last time she was going to not be forced to go out in the cold to study for a test she wasn’t taking for a few years.

Charlotte greeted Quillan and then the class got started. Apparently, Professor Xavier was going to get them warmed up and moving. Personally she’d rather warm up with a nice hug, okay, preferably from her friend but she’d take one from anyone. Maybe not Olaf or Desmond since she imagined that was like hugging a cactus.

Still, she got into it some albeit not as much as Quillan seemed to, and did all right. Then Profesor Xavier mixed it up,having them complete sentences.Quillan got one right and then asked a question. “Deadly Nightshade” Charlotte replied correctly and tried to think of a question. “The properties of a mandrake are…” She looked at one of the fifth years, since they were the ones who needed this, but anyone could really answer.

11 Charlotte O'Malley It sounds like we don't need to be here right now (Fifth year) 1573 0 5