Oh, dear. on Sandbox

Professor Wright

December 26, 2018 4:22 AM

Sample Class by Professor Wright

On paper, Beginners should have been the easiest class to teach. The spells they learned were, well, beginner-level, introductory, basic, elementary. In theory, any teacher in the school could have covered for Gray – most of the spells were little different than they had been in Beginners Charms classes for the past twenty or thirty years. The theory might have taken an hour to read up on, but it was purposefully simple, what the first and second years were taught – anyone with a reasonable facility for reading English could understand as much as the Beginners needed to. Simple, Beginners was. Easy. On paper.

In practice, of course – well, it wasn’t always the most difficult course. That was often the Intermediates, the largest class and the least mentally stable. For the first few weeks of the year, however, the first years gave their Intermediate colleagues a good run for their money, and he had to somehow keep them from setting the school on fire while also imparting some kind of useful information to the second years. There were times when, struggling to teach small people the difference between a swish and a flick while also providing a minimum of supervision to the second years without losing his mind and demanding to know what exactly was so difficult, when Gray had the dazed thought that there was a certain heroism to dealing with this age group – at least for the first few weeks.

Those few weeks stretched unpleasantly before him now, as a brand new set of students took their seats.

“Hello, everyone,” he greeted them. “Is everyone ready to make objects fly?”

This was an important day in the lives of young wizards, and he hoped that getting them off to an exciting start would give them a positive impression of the class. He almost thought they might even be more inclined to learn the theory afterwards, especially if they had trouble with the spell - it might motivate them to find out why they were having trouble. Maybe. That part was probably a pipe dream.

“Second years, you should by now be able to levitate basic, lightweight items, so today, you’re going to take another step forward,” he informed them brightly, making the effort to smile – a neat trick about wearing glasses was that it was much easier to smile even if one didn’t really mean it when one’s eyes were obscured at all times. “You’ll be working with these cushions – they weight about a pound each – and you will make them go back and forth in the air after you levitate them, all this with the spell you already know. It’s a feat of concentration, which is why you’re using cushions.” Even if they dropped the cushions directly over their own heads, they shouldn’t be injured enough to require the medic, an individual Gray still felt slightly awkward around because she was the one other staff member who knew what his private space here looked like.

“First years – today is your welcome to the world of breaking physics,” he said. “You will notice on your desks that you each have a new feather quill.” That these were comparatively cheap ones he wouldn’t personally write with was a fact he found unnecessary to add – for one thing it was irrelevant, and for another thing, well, his budget for class props, particularly those which could be presented to students as mementoes of their successes once they demonstrated the skill to him. Besides, it was the rare first year who was going to write much of any substance anyway, particularly voluntarily. “Your task for this lesson is to perform the swish and flick with the incantation Wingardium Leviosa. Done correctly, this will make the feathers rise about five feet in the air and hover for you. Let’s try it all together a few times. Swish and flick,” he demonstrated slowly, getting them to practise along with him silently, scanning for anyone who was going so wrong that they would be a danger to themselves or others. “The best way to work on improving the movement is to practise it for real. You’ll be able to see how accurately you’re doing it by how well your feather floats. Though I will also be coming around to give feedback.

“As always, you may take several tries to get the hang of it – this is true for both years – and don’t get discouraged if you don’t master it today. Just the same, I will be watching to make sure you’re working,” he added, lest anyone get any ideas.

OOC: Welcome to Beginner Charms! This lesson is set early in the term and would probably be your character’s first. Beginners is a mixed class with first and second years. If you need ideas on how to reply to class posts, you can read some examples via any of the class pages.

The minimum word count for a response is 200 words. Try to give us a clear idea of your character, who they are, how they feel about being in this class, as well as addressing the class content (how are they doing with the spell?). In order to make your post easy to reply to, you may want to have them start a conversation with their neighbour (“Are you getting the hang of this yet?”). Remember, you can write only for your own character.

If anyone else has posted in this class, you can either reply to them, or reply to this original class post to start a different conversation with someone else. If you have any questions, post them here, email us, or stop in on chatzy to ask for advice.

Subthreads:

Trying not to take someone's eye out by Malikhi Hill

Oh, dear. by Isabeau Laurent with Jane Doe

16 Professor Wright Sample Class 113 Professor Wright 1 5

Malikhi Hill

December 26, 2018 8:17 AM

Trying not to take someone's eye out by Malikhi Hill

Out of character (OOC) note - Malikhi is a second year, which is why he already has opinions on all his teachers and classes, along with some experience with this spell. For new first years, this would be their first day.

In character:

Malikhi felt positive when he walked into his Charms class. Of the subjects that he was taking, he enjoyed Charms and DADA the most as they taught him useful and practical things and he got to use his wand a lot which he felt was a very important part of being a wizard. Potions was alright but he wasn't very good at following instructions or being precise so he didn't always manage to produce anything of any quality. Herbology was boring - it was just about plants! He disliked Transfiguration. It was often way too hard.

He plopped down into his seat and eagerly pulled out his parchment and quill for notes, as well as his wand. He didn't mind Professor Wright as much as he did when he'd first met him at orientation. Malikhi had found him boring then but his lessons were generally alright and Charms was one of his favourite subjects - it just seemed to make sense to the boy that he'd like the teacher associated with the subject he favoured.

He grinned widely when Professor Wright started talking about the Levitation Charm. He'd always been fascinated by it since asking his mother how she made all her kitchen things fly when she was cooking. He had made an okay start at it in his first year, though he was still a long way off where he wanted to be - able to hover buckets of slime before letting them fall on top of an unsuspecting victim.

Today he would be working with a cushion. That was starting to approach the right weight, and much more encouraging than the feathers he’d had to do as a first year. When Professor Wright had finished his lecture, Malikhi immediately got stuck into the task at hand, picking up his wand with a determined look at his face.

He gave an intense stare at his cushion before moving his wand and declaring 'Wingardium Leviosa!'. However, he'd moved his arm too much and accidentally elbowed his neighbour, disturbing them. He gave them a sheepish grin.

"Sorry about that..."

20 Malikhi Hill Trying not to take someone's eye out 1423 Malikhi Hill 0 5

Isabeau Laurent

December 26, 2018 10:42 PM

Oh, dear. by Isabeau Laurent

This was it, finally a chance to prove she could do something other than make trouble. She'd practiced the swish and flick movement, went over the incantation in her mind, and all in all felt confident..... sort of. It was hard to feel confident in a class full of other students she was sure knew more than she.

Her feather was waiting.

Shakily, Isabeau pointed her wand at her feather quill and cleared her throat. She hoped she sounded more sure of herself than she felt. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Nothing. Not even a twitch! She deflated, glancing around to be sure no one had seen her failure. Not that she was the only one to not have it, and Professor Wright had assured them it was fine if it took them a few tries, she couldn't help but be disappointed.

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to clear her mind. Her brother, Bastien, always said it worked well for him- and she did feel calmer. She opened her eyes and looked at the quill.

Okay, she thought to herself. You can do this, and if you can't, that's okay. You're not going to overreact and be upset, you're just going to try again. You have this.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Her eyes widened and she shrieked quietly when the feather leaped into the air, before falling back to her desk. Oh, dear.

25 Isabeau Laurent Oh, dear. 1438 Isabeau Laurent 0 5

Jane Doe

December 27, 2018 5:09 AM

It doesn't seem too bad by Jane Doe

Out of character (OOC) note - great job, Isabeau. This is a really strong post and is exactly what we’re looking for. It tackles the class content well, and is realistic for your character’s age and experience. I am using ‘Jane Doe’ to reply. She is our stock sandbox character.

In Character:

Jane took a seat in Charms. Charms seemed such a funny class name to the first year, who had expected to attend a Muggle high school and study subjects like biology and English. Not that she was complaining. Magic being real was definitely cool.

The teacher’s introduction was pretty brief. Is everyone ready to make objects fly? Jane assumed that was rhetorical, to some degree. Her answer, which she did not fancy sharing with the group, was a solid ‘I guess so?’ She was a witch. That meant she could totally do this - she had been born ready, as some gritty action hero might put it. And making things fly seemed… logical-ish, in that it was something she expected witches (like herself!) to do, based on the impressions she had gleaned from film and television. Which she suspected were pretty inaccurate but hey, finding a way to feel comfortable and right about this whole thing had to be a good tactic, right?

She stared at the words on the board for a bit, trying to get her head around them. Spells did not seem like they came in English, which was a bit of a problem. She practised the word over a few times. Then she tried to wave her wand like the professor had said. Swish and flick. She brandished it. She was not sure she could characterise the movements she was making into distinct categories. It all felt rather like… waving a stick around.

“Wingardium leviosa?” she tried, flailing her wand about a bit. She could hear the questioning tone in her own voice and was pretty sure that wasn’t a good thing. She also did not feel very swishy or flicky. Unsurprisingly, the feather stayed on the desk.

She tried the elements separately a few more times, and felt like she was finally getting somewhere, and might try to put them together again. She was about to do this when the feather on the table next to her moved, causing her neighbour to give a small shriek of alarm.

“I think that means you did it right,” Jane smiled, feeling sympathetic amusement at the girl’s reaction - she knew that the feathers floating was what they were expecting to happen, but she had to admit she would probably be a bit shocked when she finally managed it. “Well done. I’m still trying to get my head around the words and the movements. Does this look swish and flicky to you?” she asked, waving her wand in what could more accurately be described as a violent jabbing motion, and expecting she knew what her neighbour’s answer was going to be… “I’m Jane, by the way,” she added.

13 Jane Doe It doesn't seem too bad 0 Jane Doe 0 5