The Virtues of Doing One's Homework on Elective Hall

Tally Adams

January 04, 2006 6:46 PM

Another day...another class by Tally Adams

Tally walked through the school with her winter clothes piled on her thin body. When was the school going to fix this darn weather fiasco? She was FREEZING! Okay, so she didn't mind it so much when there was a roaring fire or something to keep her warm, but when she was stuck walking the halls or sitting in certain classrooms, Tally wanted nothing more than the weather to be right again.

Astronomy was one of those classes where she preferred the weather to return to normal. Especially since she could see her breath. She sat huddled into her cloak, hat covering her ears and gloves keeping her hands warm. Occassionally a set of shivers would run the length of her body until she got it under control again.

She flipped through her textbook until she came upon the appropriate chapter and sat there listening to the Professor (who she still wasn't quite sure if she liked or not) explain how far behind they were. Like it was their fault, Tally thought miserably, huddling lower into her chair.

At the question, Tally lowered her eyes to her desk. She knew the answer was Jupitor, what idiot didn't? But she was in a grouchy mood for the weather and didn't necessarily want to talk. Thankfully, Dalila answered the question and Tally was allowed to remain quiet for another few minutes.\n\n

6 Tally Adams Another day...another class 41 Tally Adams 0 5

Professor Dione

January 06, 2006 1:19 AM

My, don't I feel loved... by Professor Dione

Her student’s reaction was very much expected. After the “parchment war” from last lesson, it was obvious that she had a certain boldness that seemed to be a common trait in her house. Though it was certainly a bit annoying, it didn’t rouse any anger, at least none that she would reveal outwardly. It would be giving the student what they wanted and would only make the situation worse. She merely narrowed her eyes and flashed a sardonic grin at the snippy little first year as she copied the numbers onto the board.

“Correct. Though I must remind you that as punishment for causing last lesson’s distraction, you were told to learn a few facts on each of the planets for next class. For this lesson, it is mandatory for you to answer these questions, Miss Tallow. It was, in fact, the penalty you decided, was it not? Perhaps your memory isn’t as impressive as you think it is…”

After touching her wand to the board, she turned back to the class and continued her lecture on the jovian planets. As she spoke, the wand skittered across the board’s surface and copied down a shortened version of the lesson for notes.

“Moving on. Jupiter is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of water, methane, ammonia and “rock”, very similar to the composition of the primordial Solar Nebula from which the solar system was formed. The interior of the gaseous planets is mostly theory since spacecraft can only go so far down into the atmosphere, but Jupiter’s core is most likely of a rocky material about the same size as ten to fifteen Earth masses. The colored bands that you see on Jupiter are caused by chemical and temperature differences between latitudes; the vivid colors in Jupiter’s clouds are most likely due to chemical reactions of trace elements in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The colors link with the cloud’s altitude, blue being the lowest, then browns and whites, with reds being the highest. The Great Red Spot, discovered in the seventeenth century, is a high-pressure region about 12,000 by 25,000 kilometers, large enough to hold two Earths. Jupiter, like Saturn, has rings, but are small and very faint. They are probably composed of dust formed from micrometeor impacts on the four inner moons: Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, and Thebe. Together, there are sixty-three known satellites, though many more have been discovered but not yet confirmed or named, as Miss Tallow has mentioned. The four largest are the ones we will focus on. The Galilean moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto; they are named after their discoverer, Galileo Galilei who used a telescope to watch the movement of these satellites and discovered a center of motion not centered on the Earth. With this information, he proved that the Earth was not the center of the universe and that Copernicus’s heliocentric theory, the model we still use today, was the more viable.”

With barely a moment’s pause, she moved onto the next planet. If she wanted to get through all the information on the planets, there was little time to waste. “Now, who can tell us about the sixth planet?” Though she didn’t specify a particular student, it was all too clear who she wanted to answer. She would accept other students’ answers, of course, but due to Miss Tallow’s previous decision on punishment and her recent cheek, she wasn’t going to let her off easily.
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0 Professor Dione My, don't I feel loved... 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Anne Wright

January 07, 2006 11:31 AM

The Virtues of Doing One's Homework by Anne Wright

Anne liked Astronomy. It involved books more than it involved practical applications, she was able to memorize instead of demonstrate, and Professor Dione's discipline had won her approval early on. It showed professionality and strength of character, in her estimation, and no matter that there were very few people on this planet overly concerned with her opinion.

However, the cold was not looked on with the same fondness. It was with a great deal of shivering and muttering that she made her way into the tower classroom, her hands aching with cold, her face completely numb, and, she felt sure, her robes frozen into a solid sheet of forest-green ice. Anne had never believed that people's teeth really did chatter when they were cold, but hers were doing so now. She could no longer quite remember why she had been disappointed to discover that Care of Magical Creatures had been moved indoors. It never got this cold at home. Never.

Slipping into her accustomed seat, Anne took out her supplies and readied herself to take notes. Her enthusiasm faded a little when Professor Dione didn't seem to be in the best of moods, but she quickly shrugged it off. The class cancellations had probably not been a big hit among the teachers, and they were behind. She hated being behind almost as much as she hated losing. Her hand was half-raised to offer information about Jupiter when first a Teppenpaw and then the Crotalus who had gotten in trouble last lesson beat her to it. A look towards the Crotalus made Anne think she was one of Gwen's ex-friends. The Professor's eyes lingered on Miss Tallow when she asked if anyone knew anything about Saturn, but Anne still raised her hand.

"The sixth planet from the sun is Saturn," she said, slightly annoyed by the precise, recitational tone of her voice. "It's listed as one of the so-called 'Gas Giants'. As the name implies, Saturn is made largely of gases. It's particularly famous for the rings surrounding it." She decided not to add that she had said all she could remember off the top of her head. Shutting up would make the point clearly enough. \n\n

16 Anne Wright The Virtues of Doing One's Homework 59 Anne Wright 0 5

Professor Dione

January 13, 2006 12:12 AM

Ah, the joy that sarcasm brings by Professor Dione

The psychology of the human mind was fascinating. Something particularly interesting in that field was the information on learning curves and memory. As a student, it was important to study various ways to make her studying more beneficial. As a professor, it became even more crucial since her teaching method would affect her students’ progress. Stimulants increased the level of brain chemicals that allow for more rapid learning, though it must have sugar and not artificial sweeteners that would cancel out the caffeine’s effects. Depressants do the exact opposite by blocking the firing of brain nerve cells. More importantly, however, was the studying of the emotional factors of learning. Adding humor or even anger would increase the amount of learning due to the increased activity due to emotional stimulation. In Miss Tallow’s case, it seemed to work very well; she had rattled off fairly complex facts on each of the planets with only a pause to glare at her. Still, there were limits to this factor; too much would turn the students to focus on the emotion and not the material, something Dione would have to avoid.

“Excellent. I had only wished for you to focus on the jovian planets, but it looks like you’ve went a step further. You’ve shown improvement from your pre-test, and even your pre-test was above average.”

Back to the lesson…Even Dione, an enthusiast of everything outside the Earth’s atmosphere, realized how lackluster her lesson was. It was difficult to add much flair to the already-overused lessons on the solar system. Either they were dumbed down to an elementary school level or overcomplicated with specifics. She had tried to walk the line, but she felt places where she had slipped.

“Saturn is the second jovian planet and sixth from the Sun, the second largest in our solar system. It is the least dense of the planets with its gravity being less than that of water. Its structure is very similar to that of Jupiter with 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of water, methane, ammonia and “rock” as is its core. Saturn also has bands of color, though not as prominent and are much wider at the equator. Saturn has seven rings in total: three that can be seen from Earth and four additional fainter ones. The rings are made of small particles of water ice and rock each in an independent orbit. Though the rings are 250,000 kilometers wide or more, they are less than one kilometer thick. Some of the moons, the “shepherding satellites” Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora, are important in keeping the rings in place. In all, Saturn has 34 named satellites.”

“Uranus is next being the seventh planet from the sun and the third largest. First off, I would like to note that it is pronounced ‘Yoor a nus,’ not any other somewhat vulgar pronunciations that it might be confused with. Uranus is an interesting planet since there is some confusion over which of the planet’s poles is its north pole. The problem is that either the axis is inclined a bit over 90 degrees and orbiting in a clockwise motion or a bit less than 90 degrees and going counter-clockwise, also known as retrograde motion. Uranus is mainly composed of rock and various ices with 15% hydrogen and a bit of helium and does not have the rocky core that Jupiter and Saturn have. Uranus also has color bands, though extremely faint. Uranus’ has eleven known rings with its brightest known as the Epsilon ring. This planet’s rings were the first to be discovered after Saturn’s, and revealed that rings are common and not just a feature of Saturn alone. Uranus has 21 named moons and six unnamed ones.”

Allowing a pause for the students to catch up on note-taking, she asked another question, hoping to break the monotony of her speed-through lecture. “Now, Miss Tallow has already given us some information on Neptune and Pluto, but can anyone else add to that?”
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0 Professor Dione Ah, the joy that sarcasm brings 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Professor Dione

January 13, 2006 12:49 AM

We can't have that by Professor Dione

In her rush to complete her lesson, she had overlooked Zach’s discomfort or the fact that his multiple layers made him look like he had gained three times his body weight. However, the thunderous sneeze got her attention. She turned her head to find the source of the sound only to see the student shivering, doing his best to keep warm. Blasted weather problems…though this one was not nearly as destructive as the previous two, it brought a longer-lasting nuisance to the students and faculty. She had not even thought of sicknesses that would be brought about by students unprepared for the weather.

She turned completely and walked to his desk, her voice the usual cold, biting tone, but her eyes showing a hint of…concern? “Mr. Dill, I expect everyone to take notes. I wouldn’t want you to fall behind.” After a second’s pause, she removed her cloak and gloves and placed them on his desk. “Here. Use these until the end of class. Afterwards, I want you to go to the infirmary immediately. If you happen to have a cold, I want it dealt with before it gets worse. Also, I want you to send an owl to your family asking that they send you some sort of winter coat.” \n\n

0 Professor Dione We can't have that 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Zack Dill

January 13, 2006 1:55 PM

just what I was thinking by Zack Dill

Zack looked up miserably when he noticed the arrival of Professor Dione at his desk, though he otherwise made no move to show he noticed her presense. His one hand was still busy trying to find a tissue and the other was still politely making sure nobody had to see his snot. He flinched a little at the reprimand for not taking notes, but he didn't feel really guilty about it because even without class notes he knew he wasn't in any danger of falling behind. Still, disappointing her made him feel wretched.

Not quite as wretched as the cold was making him, though.

Finally, the tissue. He brought it up to his nose, wiped, blew, then cleaned his hand with it as well. As he was shoving it into his pocket, his eyes widened as gloves and a cloak were laid down on his desk. Zack looked up at her with bright blue eyes that hopefully conveyed just how grateful he was (ie, very, very grateful - had she given him the moon, he couldn't have been any more appreciative), because the "Th-thank y-you," that he was able to stutter out didn't sound much more than freezing.

He pulled on the coat, not caring that it was way way way too big for him or a woman's coat. The fact that the fingers of the gloves were half again the length of his own fingers was immaterial. He could, awkwardly, hold a pen now and the acres of warm coat were fantastic because they could drape over his head, wrap all around him, and still be able to cover his legs. It was wonderful. Just like a blanket with arms (too long arms, but arms).

With some degree of difficulty - the floppy fingers made turning pages almost impossible - he got his notebook open to a blank page. His handwriting also suffered. It was bad enough that he couldn't even get most of the more intricate Sindarin letters to come out legibily at all. He had to resort to using English spelled out in Basic letters (Basic being, for all intents and purposes, English with a different alphabet - one of the greatest proofs that Star Wars, at least, is nothing more than Hollywood). But that was fine. He was behind on today's notes, and he could write faster if he didn't have to translate, too.

Well, normally he could. Today, even with Professor Dione's gloves, his hands were still half-frozen so he was forced to use sentence fragments rather than proper grammer to get it all down with any degree of completeness. Not that anybody looking at his notes could tell what the heck they said. Only the quick sketch of Jupiter, the Great Red Spot, and her faint rings, with points of interest labelled in Basic, gave any indication of even which subject the notes were about.\n\n

1 Zack Dill just what I was thinking 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Mia

January 13, 2006 2:51 PM

Here, despite the cold... by Mia

When Mia got to the Astronomy room, she was glad to have worn her turtle neck sweater that day because it was absolutely freezing in there! Last time, she was sick before getting to the room. Now she was afraid the room would get her sick. Mia crossed her arms tightly and went to a random seat. She slowly got out her book on Professor Dione's orders and some paper and what to write with. Yeah, she had looked at the other planets and read about them a little, but none of the details stuck in her mind. She had other things on her mind that to her, had priority over facts about the planets. Of course she knew the order of the planets but that was about all she could remember. Mia planned to take some good notes. At least she would try to.

When Dione asked about the fifth planet from the sun, Mia ran that sentence she learned in elementary school through her head as fast as she could to remember which planet it was. Just as she remembered, another student answered. From there, the conversation went too fast for Mia’s mind to follow. It was just too cold for her. With shivering hands, she let her hair out of its pony tail to cover her ears and neck, but it didn’t help much. She also decided to take the silver charm bracelet off. The silver was cold against her skin. She stuffed her left hand in her pocket with the bracelet, but the other one had to stay out to take notes.

'Boy, this is just not my class.' she thought to herself as the discussion continued. Somewhere along the line it had switched to Saturn.

It seemed like after only seconds, Professor Dione was asking about the last two planets. Mia decided to just keep her eyes on the professor and the board and take notes as they were written. She could always memorize the facts another time.\n\n

0 Mia Here, despite the cold... 0 Mia 0 5

Lily

January 14, 2006 3:48 PM

Pluto and Goofy by Lily

Lily sneered. She didn't appreciate being humiliated in front of the class. She was cold and she was irritable in general and didn't want everyone's focus on her. Any teacher who believed in embarassing students was not a good teacher in her book.

She looked the teacher squarely in the eyes and lied. "It's about Pluto. Kaylie was thanking me for telling her about how Pluto is not made out of gas like the jovian planets. Instead it is made out of ice. It's the farthest from the sun, however, for about 20 years out of its orbit, it switches places with Neptunes. It has one moon, named Charon which it is tidally locked to. Pluto was named after the Roman god of the Underworld and was discovered in 1930. It was the last planet to be discovered." Lily settled back in her chair, smirking. It was a good thing she'd done a report on Pluto two years ago at her Muggle school and still remembered some stuff.

Kaylie looked at her confused."Lily, um, that's not at all what it says."

Lily groaned and smacked her forehead. Didn't her second cousin recognize a cover-up when she saw one?\n\n

11 Lily Pluto and Goofy 45 Lily 0 5

Professor Dione

January 18, 2006 11:36 PM

Enough distractions! On with the lesson! by Professor Dione

Dione’s eyes reflected all that need to be said; the statement was not necessary. The irritated expression silently screamed ‘Do you really think I’m that stupid?’ She would have furthered her interrogation of the girls, but the one who had made the futile attempt to lie at least knew her information on Pluto, so perhaps a little mercy could be allowed. For now. Any more waste of time and parchment would be readily punished without such leniency.

Picking up the note by a corner, she touched the bottom edge with the tip of her wand, lighting the paper with a quick burst of flame. The paper fizzled away until it was nothing but ash and bits of smoldering remains fluttering in the air. The slight bit of warmth produced by the fire was almost instantly quelled by the chill of the room…or maybe it was just the cold look in the professor’s eyes as she looked down at the girls.

“I do not spend hours of my time researching information on the planets for these lectures to refresh my memory or for my entertainment. I do so to present information that you might learn it. Unfortunately, it requires some work from the student. Mainly, to pay attention and read over the chapters. I hope that isn’t too strenuous of a workload for you.”

Not wanting to waste any more time with distractions, she continued her lesson once more. “Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, and fourth largest by diameter. Neptune’s composition is similar to Uranus’ with various ices and rock with 15% hydrogen and a little helium. Though very similar to Uranus in construction, Neptune most likely has a rocky core about as big as an Earth mass. Neptune, out of all the planets in the solar system, has the fastest winds, reaching 2000 kilometers per hour. Neptune used to have what was called the Great Dark Spot, not to be confused with Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, though observations of Neptune since 1994 show that it has disappeared due to Neptune’s rapid-changing atmosphere. There is also a small white cloud that zips around Neptune every sixteen hours known as “the Scooter.” It’s guessed that it’s a plume rising from lower in the atmosphere, though it’s still uncertain. Neptune has rings as well, though very dark. Neptune has thirteen known moons.”

“Pluto is the farthest from the Sun for the most part, and is easily the smallest. There are actually seven moons in our solar system that are larger than this planet. Its composition is unknown, but it is most likely a mixture of 70% rock and 30% water ice. Pluto’s orbit is strange in that at times, it’s closer to the Sun than Neptune and rotates in the opposite direction from most of the other planets. The surface temperatures vary between -235 and -210 C. Its atmosphere contains mostly nitrogen with some carbon monoxide and methane. Most of the time, its atmosphere is frozen in ice, except when Pluto reaches the point in its orbit where it’s closest to the sun, or its perihelion. Because of Pluto’s lack of gravity, some of its atmosphere escapes the planet itself and interacts with Charon, its only satellite. Though Charon is named for the mythological ferryman of the River Acheron, it is also named after Charon’s discoverer’s wife, Charlene. This is why it’s sometimes pronounced ‘Shahr-en’ instead of ‘Kair-en.’ Some consider Pluto/Charon to be a double planet instead of a planet and a moon.”

“Now, just last year, a new planet was discovered in the Kuiper Belt father away from the Sun than Pluto. This planet, temporarily called 2003 UB313 or by its codename Xena, takes over 560 years to make its orbit around the sun compared to Pluto’s 250 year orbit. It is most likely that this planet is similar to Pluto with a surface covered in frozen methane and a rock and ice interior. However, while Pluto’s surface is moderately red, this planet appears gray. So far, there has only been one satellite discovered: S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1, or Gabrielle. It’s estimated that Gabrielle is made primarily of frozen water and is about eight times smaller in diameter than Xena. This planet and its moon will eventually get official names once they find mythological names that fit the planet that haven’t already been used for something else. It’s a shame Proserpina was already used for an asteroid. That would have been perfect for a planet orbiting after Pluto. Once they have a more sure description of what the planet should look like, I’ll be purchasing a model to add to the rest. But until then, this will do.”

Realizing her lecture had turned to unnecessary chat, she stopped there, closed her books and organized her notes. “Due to the recent weather problems, and the lack of time to prepare, I will not be giving a final this term. Instead, I will have to base grades on participation. You are dismissed. Oh, and Mr. Dill, if you would just leave my cloak and gloves on my desk, please. And I expect you to go to the infirmary. I will check later to make sure.”\n\n

0 Professor Dione Enough distractions! On with the lesson! 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Arthur

March 07, 2012 10:32 PM

There's usually a few ways to put things by Arthur

Arthur hesitated at Jane’s unorthodox response to his congratulations, not quite sure what to do for a moment. That was not on script, and while he was the last one to have a right to really complain about that, he still didn’t know what to do with it, where to go now that he’d been called out on using the usual lines too well.

“Well,” he responded after thinking about it for a moment, “you’re very bright, and if my understanding of the situation is correct, you are beginning from a position of strength.”

Now he had to see if he’d seemed to know too much, or if he’d offended her. Ordinary human emotions, as he had spent most of thirteen years learning, were simply not things he was capable of understanding in a normal way; perhaps Jane really was very fond of Smythe. He knew for a fact that much stranger things had happened even in the recent history of their family, however incomprehensible it might seem to him. What was comprehensible to him might not be to her, either; Teppenpaws were supposed to be kind, and that was something he couldn’t understand, either.

He was not cruel, he was reasonably sure of that, but Arthur did not suppose he was especially kind, either. He felt he was sort of blank on that issue. He found it easy enough to like his brother, but then, deep down, he did have some respect for Arnold. No matter what happened to Arnold, how often or how forcefully he was knocked down, he always got back up again and never seemed to notice anything had happened. Arthur was fairly sure that if he were Arnold, he would not have handled it so well. People he was truly indifferent toward, though, much less the ones he actively disrespected as well as lacking respect for…How should he like them, much less go to pains for them? He did not understand it.

Unless, of course, he was looking at it from the wrong perspective, and Smythe had all sorts of skills and virtues he chose not to share with the general population but had revealed to Jane, but Arthur did not think so. He suspected Jane’s life was going to be about as miserable as…as his was likely to be, actually.

Really, though, they should have offered classes in how to decipher feelings alongside the ones about deciphering the future. Those were as mysterious as anything else most of the time.

0 Arthur There's usually a few ways to put things 0 Arthur 0 5

Professor Chambers

August 02, 2013 3:03 PM

Adv. Muggle Studies: Who's hungry? by Professor Chambers

Lydia sighed as she packed up the box full of small appliances she would be having her class use for their next lesson after the break. She had very muchly wanted to travel home for the break, but with her busy schedule and Libby not getting out of school at the time they had anticipated it made traveling back home to England a tad difficult. So she instead went out shopping and turned their apartment into a winter wonderland. She would admit that she may have gone a tad overboard on the decorations and the gifts, but Lydia felt she had a lot to make up for where Libby was concerned. Besides it was their first official holiday together so Lydia wanted it to be extra special. She covered the apartment in strings of colored lights and garland. She found a cool little piece of mistletoe and had hung it up in the entryway of the kitchen. She hung a gaudy wreath on the outside of the front door and found a pre-lit Christmas tree. She bought all kinds of bulbs and candy canes to put on the tree and she and Libby went nuts decorating. By the time they were done it looked like Christmas had puked all over their apartment. Lydia smiled as she watched Libby open all of her gifts and ran around like a small crazy person. The girl was 10 years old after all. During the break Lydia wracked her brain for the perfect lesson for her advance class. The idea came to her while she was making breakfast for herself and Libby Christmas morning. A wide smile crossed her face and as soon as breakfast was over with and Libby was playing with her presents, Lydia got to work putting together her lesson plan.

Since she had already shown the students what some of the smaller Muggle appliances looked like that they could find in the kitchen, Professor Chambers took that idea one step farther. She carried her small box of supplies into her classroom and began setting up everything for their lesson that morning. She cast a glamour around the room to make it appear as though the students were actually standing within a Muggle’s kitchen, complete with mock cabinetry and sink. During their last class session, she had introduced the students to a toaster and electric skillet. She had also shown them a blender and a juicer. They had gotten to practice making juice during that lesson. She decided that for this class session she was going to have a review quiz of sorts. She was going to reintroduce the students to the kitchen appliances, but with one difference: this time they were actually going to use them to make themselves breakfast. She set up the cooking utensils they would need to cook with by each skillet and toaster along with any mixing bowls and measuring items they would need for some of the recipes. She included at each station a chefs hat and an apron for each student. She had brought in three toasters and three skillets and set them up around the mock kitchen. She took all the ingredients they would need to cook with and set up an ingredient station on the desk behind her. The prairie elves had been kind enough to supply her with items from the schools’ kitchen for her lesson. She had bacon, eggs, bread, butter, cheese, syrup, powered sugar, regular sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, milk and salt and pepper. She set up on the other side of the cooking ingredients paper plates, silverware, napkins, cups and beverages.

Before the students arrived, Professor Chambers donned herself a chefs hat and apron to cover her nice clothing. She wanted to look the part along while making it fun for the students. As they began entering the room she smiled to each of them and gestured for them to gather around her desk. “Good morning everyone,” she greeted them cheerfully. “I certainly hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and got some rest last night because we’ll be doing something very hands on for class today,” she told them. “I hope that all of you were able to complete the extra credit project I gave you to do over the break. If you recall, you were to find 5 other appliances other than those we discussed in class and tell me, in your own words, what you discovered they did. It was to be a minimum of 500 words. If you completed the project please turn those in now. If not, it doesn’t count against your grade, but it doesn’t help it either.” She waited until all of the completed projects were turned in before she continued. “If you haven’t been able to guess by my swanky attire,” she did a little spin for them to show off the hat and apron, “We are going to be using the appliances today that I introduced you to last class. Today we will be using them to make breakfast,” she explained. “Behind us you will find a mock kitchen with REAL appliances in it. I have three stations set up to cook in so I’m going to ask that for today’s lesson you all pair up. The first six students will choose their recipe (there are three to choose from: bacon, eggs and toast, French toast and bacon/cheese omelets with toast), gather up you ingredients and take them to one of the pre-set cooking stations. Once you have everything you need and you are set up I will give you further instructions.”

Professor Chambers watched the first six students choose their recipe card, gather up their ingredients and head over to a station. Once they were all where they should be she walked over to the first cook station. “Now, I am going to show you how to prepare one of the recipes in question just to give you an idea of what the dish should look when you’re finished cooking it. I’m going to show you how to make French toast,” she told them gathering up a few ingredients for herself from the ingredients table and bringing them back over to the cooking station. She turned on the skillet to 350 degrees and let it warm up while she made the French toast dip. “Okay, now for those of you who have never cooked before this is a fairly simple dish. First, turn on your electric skillet and set it to 350 degrees. There are numbers and an arrow on the dial so that you know where to stop. Next, crack two eggs and separate them from the shells like so into an empty mixing bowl,” she instructed, showing them how to crack and separate the eggs. “Next, pour a teaspoon each of sugar, vanilla and cinnamon into the eggs. Next, add a ¼ of a cup of milk using the measuring cups and spoons I have provided you with. Then, take a whisk,” she held one up for them to see, “and beat the ingredients together until the eggs have been completely blended. About two minutes at most. It should look a yellowy-brown color. Your next step is to take a small amount of butter and drop it into the skillet until it completely melts. While its melting take three pieces of bread from the bread package and one-at-a-time dip them into the mixture until both sides are completely coated. Then place them face down into the skillet and let them cook until they are golden brown on one side. While they are cooking, take a moment to wash the egg mixture off of your hands. Don’t worry, your partner can watch the food while you do so. Then taking a spatula,” she picked up that one next and showed it to them, “You flip the piece of bread over so it can cook on the other side. It takes about 3-5 minutes per side. Once both sides are golden brown, remove them from the skillet with the spatula and place them on a plate. Then you can top them with butter, powdered sugar and syrup,” she told them, handing the plate of finished French toast pieces to one of the students not cooking.

“The recipes on the cards are precise so it should be easy to follow. If for any reason you are having any trouble with it, please do not hesitate to ask me for assistance. I will be standing close by should you need my assistance.” She turned then to the other students who weren’t cooking just yet. “For those of you not cooking at this time, this would be a great time to get a head start on your homework assignment that will be due by the end of the week. I would like for all of you to think of a dish from home that you really enjoy and I would like to see you write up a step-by-step, detailed recipe for the dish in question. Please include a full listing of ingredients for the dish and precise measurements on how much of each one to use.” She turned back to those who were cooking. “Alright everyone, we went over these appliances in the last class so this is a review on how to use them. Be careful and have fun. Remember, I will be close by should you need any assistance. You may begin,” she told them.

OOC: Standard posting rules apply. Posts should be no less than 200 words each. Be creative with your postings and keep in mind that an electric skillet cannot burn you unless you stick your hand directly onto the HOT, metal surface. The same goes for the toaster. Please tag me if you have any questions or require any assistance. Happy posting everyone!

0 Professor Chambers Adv. Muggle Studies: Who's hungry? 0 Professor Chambers 0 5