Tarquin Fox-Reynolds
March 09, 2024 10:10 PM
Passion Projects by Tarquin Fox-Reynolds
“Good morning.” Tarquin addressed the third and final study hall group, with what was by now becoming a familiar speech. It was convenient when the lesson could double—or rather triple—up and apply to all the grade bands.“We’re going to be making a start on the passion projects for the fair today. You will have time during study hall to work on this, though not every study hall. Coming round is a schedule with the allotted times. You will notice there are also intermittent deadlines throughout, such as deciding your project, showing a plan to a supervisor and so on, in order to make sure you stay on track. If you want to work with someone from a different grade band, that’s fine, but you will have to make your own times to do so, and are expected to have enough of an idea and enough independent tasks to do that you can continue your part of the project during the assigned study halls.
“Your passion project can be either theoretical or practical, though ideally it should be something that works well in display format. For example, if you’re more inclined towards essays and wordy explanations, think about how you can present some of your key points in an interesting, visual way, so that someone coming past your display can get the main ideas in just a few minutes.
“Coming round is a selection of ideas. You may use any of these directly, or just use them as examples and jumping off points to find your own ideas. On the back of the handout are some prompt questions to get you thinking.” He waved his wand, sending another stack of parchments around the room. On the front were a diverse list of topics, divided into ‘theory’ ‘practical’ and ‘either’ and covering everything from ‘Shared tropes in magical and non-magical middle school books’ to ‘creating a miniature working model broomstick.’ The back had questions such as ‘What are your main interests? What spells/magical areas do you already know that go with this?’ and ‘What’s a spell/area of magic that you want to know more about?’
“You should pitch at least two ideas. Firstly, in case one of your ideas isn’t really viable, though in that case we will work with you to try and find a related project that suits your grade level better. Second, you will be assigned a relevant staff member to supervise, and this will need to be balanced fairly amongst the staff.
“Today, you are encouraged to brainstorm as many ideas as possible. Talk to your neighbours or to me if you don’t know what’s possible. Any questions?”
OOC: These sessions are divided into beginners/intermediates/advanced, but each group would get the exact same session, so anyone can reply to this. Just be sure to only reply to someone from your grade band.
Subthreads: So I like snakes... [Liesl] by Hansel Hexenmeister with Liesl Brockert
This is so exciting! [Beginner] by Dora Xavier with Libby Brockert
Mine are snacks, board games and loopholes! (Lyla/Robyn) by Samara Crosby with Robyn Lundstrom
Together? (Fifth year Tepps) by Piper Wilson with Cole Pierce, Leviosa Scurlock
Nope (Intermediate) by Olaf Brockert
*sighs* (Advanced) by Amethyst Brockert
No Good Reason (Advanced) by Christopher Brockert with Verdillia Scurlock
Music!!! (Beginner) by Jason Brockert
The truth is out there (Beginner) by Mathias Melcher
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Tarquin Fox-Reynolds
Passion Projects
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Piper Wilson
April 07, 2024 3:44 PM
Together? (Fifth year Tepps) by Piper Wilson
Piper was super excited about the Fair this year. The last one had been super cool with the alumni coming and talking about their careers and interests. Some of her relatives had come, including Uncle Seth doing some mini-topiaries. However, the last one did not have student run booths whereas this time they did and it was another chance to get involved in a school activity.Which was something that Piper enjoyed. Not that she would join an activity that she wasn’t interested in, such as Quidditch for example, just for the sake of being involved. Nor would the Teppenpaw join too many activities as she had heard about how that had had a negative effect on her cousin Chaslyn. Back when she’d been Piper’s age, she’d been in every club and activity that Sonora had to offer aside from Quidditch. It had nearly caused her to have a nervous breakdown. So, therefore, the fifth year knew better than to over extend herself.
Of course, there was a huge difference and that was that Piper was able to choose to do activities whereas Chaslyn had been expected to. Aunt Jillian expected her daughters to be involved and accomplished . Which meant they had to do everything offered at school and continue to build the skills that they’d had lessons in prior to coming to Sonora. Which was a lot. Chaslyn’s sister Amity had been not having it-Amity claimed to have burned out by the age of seven- but Chaslyn wanted to do the impossible and please her mother.
Honestly, even though Piper personally enjoyed participating in school activities, at least ones that looked fun and/or interesting to her such as Performing Arts club or being part of the Ball planning committee, she still really felt bad for her cousins. It wasn’t like with Charlotte’s grandmother who nobody talked to anymore, Aunt Jillian was still around, still looking at Amity like she was garbage for “underachieving” and standing up for herself and still fighting with Amity’s husband Phillip, who wouldn’t put up with her nonsense. Piper was glad that she was able to choose to do what she wanted or to do nothing at all. Mom absolutely hated how Aunt Jillian had pushed Amity and Chaslyn and had vowed never to do that to her own children.
And it was the right decision, since Piper and Gabriel were happy, psychologically healthy-though it was entirely possible that the Teppenpaw’s older brother had Asperger’s syndrome-and had good relationships with their parents while Amity hated her mother and Chaslyn had had to be deprogrammed. Chaslyn still had trouble just sitting around doing nothing but at least she wasn’t going to do the same thing to her own kids either.
Still, it was different when you chose to do something. Piper chose all the activities that she did, because she enjoyed them. Amity and Chaslyn had gotten to try lots of activities but never were truly given the chance to enjoy them. Amity now considered everything that most people thought of as hobbies as work, unless the hobby was reading fiction-Amity being the one Aladren that Piper knew that did not read nonfiction, though to be fair, the only other Aladrens she knew that well were her mom and brother, she had never really spent much time looking at Gwendolyn’s or Lazarus’ reading habits being that seemed like a weird and unnecessary bit of prying that was like ‘why is that any of your business and also you’re weird for wanting to know that’. Then again, maybe Piper was thinking too much like a Teppenpaw, and knowing each other’s reading habits might be a high priority among Aladrens. Actually, considering what Charlotte had said about some of the ones in her year, though not Quillan, the younger Teppenpaw had nothing but nice things to say about him, that was likely. Of course, it could just be how they bonded with each other rather than passing judgment on each other, maybe that was the Teppenpaw in her again but she couldn’t imagine Gabriel being like that and obviously, Amity wasn’t either, though now she sort of understand why her cousin’s friends were Crotali and Pecaris-or listening to wireless programs.
Besides, when you had to be perfect at everything you did, or even just be involved in a competitive activity where you had to win, it sort of took out some of the enjoyment. And this wasn’t because she was a Teppenpaw who believed in friendly cooperation. Even most of the Aladrens and Pecaris that she knew weren’t especially competitive. Things were also not as much fun when you had to worry about someone else’s expectations, especially ones that were so high that they were unreasonable.
So Piper was lucky. She did not have to do school activities, she chose to. And this was the case with the Fair. While the idea of a research project was definitely totally more Aladren than Teppenpaw-which was fine, obviously she had nothing against Aladrens, she just apparently thought very differently than some of them did. Actually, she didn’t even really think much like her brother really. Or her mom or Amity or Uncle Tim, all of whom were people that Piper was quite fond of-she still wanted to do a project with her friends and bond over it.
Although she was a little worried that Cole might want to work with Christopher and/or Yaniel or that Levi would want to work with Xarryn instead. Like, Piper didn’t begrudge them these other friendships. In Cole’s case, the two Crotali seemed like the type of people who really needed friends. Both had always seemed a bit shy. As for Levi and Xarryn….well…
Then again, the fourth year didn’t exactly seem like the sort who enjoyed research projects or was even interested in tolerating doing one for the sake of bonding with someone. Even Levi. That might be what Aladrens did when they…were very good friends, but it really didn’t seem like Levi and Xarryn and that was fine too.
Which, it didn’t hurt that that would make Levi available to be part of a group with the rest of the fifth year Teppenpaws. Also, Piper would be fine with any of those boys joining them.
And it looked like today in Study Hall, they were going to be working on Fair projects. Of course, she didn’t know whether or not everyone had to, as Piper was pretty sure the general policy was that the only mandatory event at Sonora was the Challenges and that participation in anything else was optional. Oh and everyone had to sleep out in tents during the Bonfire, unless they had a medical issue like Valerie Malone did. Piper actually felt bad for her distant cousin since that meant sitting out on a lot of fun.
Anyway, she hoped that working on the projects was optional, since some people did not want to participate in the Fair and should not be forced to. There were people who were quiet and shy and might be worried about their passions being judged. Or there were people like Amity, who didn’t want to put forth the effort even without the threat of one or both parents and their wants and ideas and expectations hanging over them. Neither of these sorts should be forced to participate. Nor should any other.
However, she wanted to. And she wanted to do so with her friends. Once Mr. Fox-Reynolds finished talking, Piper turned to the other Teppenpaws in her year and asked. “Hey, I was thinking. The last big school event thing we had was the Challenges and we didn’t get to pick who we worked with. It was fun but now I want to do an event with my best friends. So, I was wondering if we wanted to do a project together for the Fair this time?”
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Piper Wilson
Together? (Fifth year Tepps)
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0
5
Cole Pierce
April 15, 2024 9:52 PM
Could do that by Cole Pierce
Cole wanted to be a part of a Fair project. It had sounded interesting when the Headmaster brought up at the Returning Feast, but he didn't have an idea then for what to do, and he didn't have one now. He didn't really have a specific passion. He liked Quidditch, sure, but he wouldn't say it was his passion or anything. And he still liked building with Legos (though he was starting to wonder if he was reaching an age where he shouldn't be advertising that so much) but again, it was fun but it wasn't he thought about often except when he was bored and the thought occurred to him that he could get out his Legos. And there were dozens of other things he liked and had fun doing but none of them were any bigger or more important than the others, nothing that stood out as a passion.If there was only one thing he could pick that would encapsulate what he wanted to do more than anything else it was Be A Good Friend, which was, admittedly, very Teppish and kind of corny, and he didn't think he could make a Fair project about it.
Luckily, today's study hall seemed to understand that some of them needed ideas and he took one of the sheets getting passed around and ran his eyes down the lists of topics, again, nothing especially jumping out at him, though a few looked interesting. He flipped it to the other side and was reading through some of the brainstorming questions when Piper spoke up and suggested they should all do something together.
Cole nodded readily. "Sure! I don't have any solid plans yet on what I want to do, but I definitely want to be involved! I'd love to work with you guys!"
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Cole Pierce
Could do that
1546
0
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Piper Wilson
April 16, 2024 5:20 PM
Yay by Piper Wilson
Piper smiled when Cole agreed to work on a project. She had been pretty sure that her friends would be interested as none of them ever seemed to truly shy away from school involvement. Not that it wouldn’t be okay if they did as she knew that there were a lot of very good reasons for people not to do a Fair project from shyness and not wanting to put something very personal out there like things one was passionate about-not that Piper quite understood how that worked, as how could you keep a passion secret when passions were loud and hard to suppress. They leaked out of you-to things like feeling the need to spend more time on studying for CATS or RATS-which could still happen,that Lenny or Levi or both would decide it was too much to do both-or just plain not wanting to.Unfortunately, Cole brought up another good reason someone might have for not wanting to participate in the Fair, which was that they might not have ideas. It was sad, but Piper was not entirely sure she really had one either. If she had to say, the thing involving this Fair that she had the most passion was working with her friends. Which was great but how was it that she did not have a specific passion besides that?
It was actually a terrifying realization. Piper had never truly found something specific and all encompassing that she loved. Like how her brother Gabriel had trivia, and her cousin Kira had fairy tales and mythology and Charlotte’s aunt, Peyton, had cooking and baking. If someone asked her what she cared about, she would have said her friends and family and if someone asked what she enjoyed she’d have said that she liked to spend time with them or otherwise get involved in school activities.
Which didn’t actually sound like she had no direction or life purpose really, which was what Piper had been worried about. She hated the idea of lacking passion. The Teppenpaw didn’t have a problem with that in others, but she would feel bad if she herself did.
The problem was though that Piper could not do a project for the Fair on spending time with friends and family or school involvement. Which was another reason to do the project with her friends, because if she didn’t have a passion in the same sort of way as her brother or Kira, maybe one of them did. Lenny in particular seemed chalk full of passion and if Cole didn’t have ideas, maybe he (or Levi) did.
At least Cole wanted to work with them, she had worried that he might choose to work with Yaniel or Christopher and she really did want to do a project with just the four of them. Of course, if one the Crotali (or Xarryn) wanted to join them, Piper would accept that and make them feel welcome but she really did sort of want this to be a special thing with just the fifth year Teppenpaws.
She nodded. “I know what you mean, Cole. I can’t really think of anything specific to do. I was hoping one of you would.” Piper added.
OOC: Lenny and Levi, you can join in whenever you want, I just needed to get another post done
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Piper Wilson
Yay
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0
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Leviosa Scurlock
April 28, 2024 4:35 AM
We definitely should by Leviosa Scurlock
Levi was excited for the Passion Projects. How could she not be, with a name like that? It was going to be about all the things they loved the most!She entered the library, feeling optimistic, and took a seat near her best friends. The lesson got off to a good start, with Piper asking them if they wanted to be a group.
“I’d love that!” she beamed. A lot of the other events hadn’t been very friend-centric, like the challenges or the ball. Even when they’d hung out a lot during the bonfire, they couldn’t spend it totally together, so this one being a chance for them to do something together was really special.
Except they then quickly hit the wall of what exactly they were interested in. Three out of four of them were in the performing arts club, but that didn’t include Cole. They all had interests, and they loved hanging out and were great, supportive friends, but there wasn’t an obvious thread beyond their shared house.
“Uh… history of Teppenpaw? Friendship? Self-improvement?” she rattled the things that connected them off, then turned to the prompt questions Mr. Fox-Reynolds had given them. “What area of magic are you good at and what do you want to know more about?” she read out.
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Leviosa Scurlock
We definitely should
1545
0
5
