Professor Fawcett
April 14, 2011 12:39 AM
Lesson Two for Intermediates (3rd-5th Years) by Professor Fawcett
The first classes after midterm were, to John, in some ways more difficult than the first ones after summer vacations. He had occasionally wondered how common that sentiment was, but since he'd deemed a survey inappropriate for several reasons, he had instead taken to alternating which day he went easier on them and which it would be business as usual for.This year, it was the intermediates' turn to have a full workload in the first lesson after midterm. He felt a bit bad about that since they had wrapped up antidotes just before the holidays, but trusted that his students would be able to handle it. Some with more assistance from him and-or their classmates than others, but handle it they would just the same.
"Good day, class," he said when it was time to begin. "And welcome back to your schedules." Since it might be especially impolitic at the moment to speak of the holidays being enjoyable, he instead said, "I hope you are all ready to resume learning. I have your antidotes exams here with your research papers." John had been pleased by the number who'd used sources well to support their positions, though he still wasn't quite sure how to take Mr. Bradley citing one of John's own books in his paper on the relevance of antidotes in modern society, especially since the underlying assumption of the work seemed to have been that all humans were, when they had the resources, murderous sociopaths. "I'll hand those out while you set up today. If you have any questions about your grades, immediately or once you've had more time to read through my comments, you may, of course, drop by my office or see me after class."
He leaned back against his desk. "For our time today, I'd like you to first try to come up with a list of multiple potions that serve more or less the same purpose, then discuss between yourselves why those variations might exist. Once you've done that, write a conclusion statement and then attempt to brew two. Afterward, consider your statement again and, if you feel the need to change or make alterations to it, rewrite it beneath your original statement. You may begin." As the class began grouping up or flipping through textbooks, John took the stacks of graded exams and papers and began handing them back to their owners.
OOC: Standard posting rules apply. Have fun!
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Professor Fawcett
Lesson Two for Intermediates (3rd-5th Years)
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Professor Fawcett
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Jose Hernandez, Pecari
April 21, 2011 12:53 PM
Sometimes I really like this class. This is not one of them. by Jose Hernandez, Pecari
Over the past few years, Jose had discovered that he was one of the people how found coming back after midterm much harder than coming back after summer. Maybe it was that summer was longer, or maybe it was that he actually worked during the summer (if you could call what he got paid for 'work'), or maybe it was just that midterm was the only time of the year when he got to see the whole of his family - both the Pierces and the Hernandezes - but midterm always seemed harder to come back from.As a newly minted prefect, he'd contemplated staying at Sonora over break, to prove how responsible he was, but his abuela would have been sad if he didn't come home for Christmas, and it was best not to upset Gramma Hernandez. Now, as he found out potions was getting right back into the swing of things without any consideration for how hard plain English was for Jose at the moment, he almost wished he'd stayed at school.
Maybe it would be different if he and the Pierces were actually fluent in Spanish. It would certainly be different if the Hernandezes were actually fluent in English. But the language of choice over the mixed Pierce-Hernandez holiday was Spanglish, and that was hard to come back from. Listening was unaffected, of course; his ability to understand English hadn't lessened any so his comprehension of what Professor Fawcett expected of them was perfectly fine, but the words coming out of his own mouth didn't always conform to Sonora's standard language, which wasn't going to go well for group discussion.
Fortunately, he didn't know how to say most potions-specific vocabulary in Spanish, so at least there was that. Still, he wondered if maybe it would be wisest to partner up with Dulce Garcia, just in case. But then, assuming 'talk amongst yourselves' meant actual groups rather than partners, even that wasn't good enough.
He started noting down a few ideas onto his list of similar potions, before trying to find said group, mostly because he hoped that doing so would give him time to phrase his thoughts into what he could make sure was English before subjecting them to anyone else. The paper he got back while he did this was marked about where he'd expected it to be - good but not perfect - so he put it away after only a quick glance over the comments.
By that time, he figured he probably ought to find people for his discussion before there weren't any people left, so he turned to the nearest person who didn't look like they were already embroiled in a deep potions debate, and asked, "Hey, want to work together?" Jose was absurdly pleased with himself that every one of those words was in his native language.
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Jose Hernandez, Pecari
Sometimes I really like this class. This is not one of them.
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Jose Hernandez, Pecari
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Jethro Smythe
April 21, 2011 2:11 PM
I don't ever like this class by Jethro Smythe
Sometimes Jethro felt he was really good at potions, because all he had to do was do exactly as the instructions in the book told him to do, and then learn this by heart so he could do it again in the exam. Then sometimes Jethro felt he was terrible at potions, because it involved knowing what different igredients did, and why variations existed, and what would happen if you mixed this potion with that. These were the bits he struggled with, and his fifth year seemed increasingly composed of the more difficult aspects of options. Today was no exception; the fact that there was no page number given was evidence of it not being a straight book-to-cauldron brewing class. It was easier to pay attention to Fawcett because he rarely strayed from the topic of the lesson, so Jethro understood that the class was about potions with similar uses, and he thought he had the general idea about comparing them, making them, and comparing them again.He would have been ready to begin had he not been distracted when his antidotes project was returned, though, and the shining red A at the top drew his attention. It had been a partner effort which would explain him not having failed it, and after reading over the comments Professor Fawcett had made, Jethro got the impression he had only just scraped the A, but it was better than the Ps he'd gotten for his previous several pieces of work submitted. He was still certain he would fail the examination at the end of the year, but he might manage to improve in his classwork, which was something, and therefore better than nothing.
Placing his marked work aside, Jethro was preparing to remind himself of the assignment when Jose Hernandez asked if he wanted to work together. "Yes please," Jethro replied, sounding somehow more eager than he really meant to. He liked Jose, and he liked working with him because he didn't seem to get impatient with the way Jethro had a tendency to be useless, which did a lot to improve Jethro's work. He wasn't denying that he was slower than most of his classmates, but if people gave him time to find the right answer he was more likely to find it than if they stopped waiting right after the first few minutes.
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Jethro Smythe
I don't ever like this class
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Jethro Smythe
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Jose Hernandez
May 03, 2011 11:34 PM
That is terribly unfortunate by Jose Hernandez
"Great," Jose said when Jethro agreed to partner him.Jose liked working with Jethro. Jethro was a good guy, and Jose never felt like he was pressured to work extra hard so they could pull off an O on the day's assignment. (He was perfectly happy with Es, and if he sometimes got an A instead, it wasn't the end of the world.) In potions especially, because of his vegan handicap, Jose usually either didn't partner at all or paired up with Jethro who didn't seem to mind (or possibly notice; it was hard to tell sometimes) that they weren't doing exactly the same potion as everyone else.
Fortunately for today's assignment, one of Jethro's potions strengths was that he could actually follow the instructions printed out in the book. That was a very good thing since they were going to need to make two potions by the end of the class period.
He almost had to laugh, though, at the assignment to list out different potions that had similar effects. Jose could pretty much go down the entire syllabus and name a vegan alternative to every listed potion with animal products in it. "Well, the obvious answer for why two potions might exist that do basically the same thing is that the original might have animal products in it, and a vegan wants to use it, so they alter it a bit so it doesn't. I want to say we could make a potion and a vegan alternative, but that almost feels like cheating since that's what I do every lesson anyway."
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Jose Hernandez
That is terribly unfortunate
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Jose Hernandez
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Jethro
May 06, 2011 5:35 AM
I seem to be that sort of person by Jethro
Jose interpreted the assignment in the way he usually interpreted potions assignments: by acknowledging that sometimes the same potion could be used without animal parts. For a long time Jethro hadn't understood why someone would want to make the same potion by not using animal parts - unless they were adverse to touching rats' tails like his cousin Cecily and her friends had been, according to Cynthia - but by now he understood that Jose didn't eat meat or cheese or anything from an animal, either. He must just really like animals, Jethro thought, and not the taste of them. He didn't really understand why Jose didn't want to eat eggs or honey or other things that meant an animal was still alive afterwards, but he wasn't curious enough to ask. he simply accepted that Jose didn't put animal ingredients into his potions, and Jethro had no opposition to this."I don't think it's cheating," Jethro replied. "It would be two potions with the same effects but different composition," he repeated the assignment (but not word for word, which really demonstrated that he'd actually understood the work this time. perhaps he was making progress after all). "I think it might be a short discussion about why the variations exist, though," he admitted this one short-coming of Jose's plan. "We might not get a very good grade just for saying that they are different because you don't want to cook animal parts." Jethro himself didn't really mind about getting a bad grade, but he thought Jose probably deserved a better grade. "We could try something else just to be certain," he suggested, though he had no idea what else they could try. He didn't want to make Jose do all the work - that wouldn't be fair - so he said, "I could start looking in the textbook, if you like."
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Jethro
I seem to be that sort of person
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Jethro
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Jose
May 09, 2011 9:19 PM
It's really not too bad by Jose
Jose nodded in agreement that only mentioning the vegan alternatives in their write-up would probably result in a less than favorable grade. As he wanted to continue in this subject next year, that was something he ought to avoid as much as possible. Finding a few more examples and reasons for variations should hardly be difficult given that he'd come up with one immediately without even thinking very hard about it, so he didn't think filling out the rest of essay should be too hard."Yeah," he agreed to Jethro's offer to look through the textbook. "You do that, I'll start trying to find which potions we can do." He'd need a vegan one for himself, and something with clear and precise instructions for Jethro. And the two potions had to do pretty much the same thing. Fortunately, he had brought his Vegan Potions book, so he had quite a few to pick from. It would probably be easier to pick Jethro's first and see if had a matching one.
Out of practicality, it seemed best to go with 'vegan alternative' as their brewed potion comparison. Jethro didn't think it was cheating and Jose couldn't brew anything but vegan potions, so there wasn't a lot of other choice.
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Jose
It's really not too bad
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Jose
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