Professor Olivers
January 07, 2015 10:00 PM
Flying Lessons by Professor Olivers
With her clipboard in hand, Florence watched as her younger students filed onto the Quidditch pitch. For some, this might be their first flying lesson ever; for others, it would be a nice way to practice before Quidditch tryouts. Florence hoped that the first-years would decide to join the sport and revive the teams in Crotalus and Teppenpaw particularly. It would be nice to have four houses competing for the Quidditch Cup again instead of just two. The class was geared towards first-years, but any second-years who hadn’t mastered flying with at least an E their first year were welcome. Flying was usually a pretty easy class, so she didn’t expect many of the second-years to join in.As Florence waited patiently, watching as the second-hand on her watch tick a minute past the designated time, she wondered when she had become more lenient with the first-years. She was a retired actress a couple years past fifty with no children, a deceased husband, and a boyfriend in Chicago. Her life had taken an odd turn once she had decided to teach at Sonora, but it had been a turn for the better. She still liked those punctual students much better and the seventh-years no doubt knew her as a strict professor, but at least for these flying lessons she didn’t have the heart to lock the first-years out of the Quidditch pitch. It was a big change from the stickler she’d been before.
She had come in as a Charms professor, but Florence had grown comfortable on the grassy pitch. It was a nice day for flying: warm and slightly cloudy. It almost made her want to get on a broom and fly around herself. After a couple of minutes passed, she cleared her throat and smiled at her students. “Over here, everyone,” she said, directing them over to the pile of school brooms. If they had a broom from home, they were allowed to use them during Quidditch matches, but for this flying lesson she wanted everyone to use a school broom.
“Good morning. Welcome to Flying Lessons. I am Professor Olivers, but you can call me Coach Olivers if you prefer. I am the Charms professor here at Sonora, but I am also the current stand-in Quidditch coach. Flying lessons are required for all first-years, but for those who already know how to fly there are other options. However, for this class period all students must be on a broom. Every lesson will begin with roll call and then the more experienced flyers can break off to either play informal scrimmages, toss a Quaffle around, or fly laps around the pitch. As long as you do not disturb the lesson or hurt yourselves or each other, you are free to do what you like within reason. I will not bring out a Snitch or the Bludgers, so don’t ask.
“Before I let you go, I’m going to take roll first. Please answer when I call your name.” She made her way through the list briskly before letting the experienced flyers go to the other end of the pitch with a school broom. They had to be close enough for Florence to keep an eye on them, but far enough that they wouldn’t disturb the beginners. Once the group had split, Florence turned her attention to the new flyers.
“Everyone, please grab a broom to begin with and put it down on the ground next to you.” She waited until the students each had a broom and directed them to put it on the side of their dominant hand. “Now, hold your wand hand out—that’s your dominant hand—and say, Up!” The broom she had by her side leaped into her hand. “The trick is to be firm when commanding your broom. Don’t be shy; be confident.” Confidence was the key to acting, her former occupation and passion. She had been a stage actress for twenty-three years, and some of what she had learned during that time bled into her teaching strategy. “Once your broom is in your hand, mount it either astride or side-saddle. Let me know if you want to ride side-saddle and I will adjust your brooms. Then simply kick off—not too hard—and let the broom take you a couple feet off the ground and no higher.”
OOC:
Welcome to Flying! By posting in this class, you will earn points for your house. There is a minimum of 200 words per post or three paragraphs, but the longer and more creative a post is, the more points you will receive. Points are awarded for how well you write, not how well your character does in a lesson. Keep your posts realistic, relevant to the lesson as much as possible, and creative!
If you have any questions, tag Professor Olivers on the OOC board or check the FAQ.
Florence will be present and will stop any situation before it gets out of hand. Make sure you don’t write for other characters without their permission. However, if your character wants to ride side-saddle, you can safely assume Prof. Olivers adjusted their brooms. Otherwise, have fun with your posts!
Subthreads: No lesson necessary. by John Spencer with Barnaby Pye
Learning to fly! by Anna Clarissa Cooper-Flemming with Lauren Song, Teppenpaw, Anna Clarissa
Neither one thing nor the other by Jemima Wolseithcrafte, Teppenpaw with Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw
I fly something old by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Sutton Nicolls, Pecari
Never again. by Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren
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Professor Olivers
Flying Lessons
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Professor Olivers
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Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw
January 13, 2015 10:27 AM
I fly something old by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw
Ginger arrived at the pitch a bit early for her first flying class. She had allowed time for getting lost but hadn't needed it. Saul had found one of his old map drawings of the school for her, from back when he called himself Saul the Guide and handed them out to new Pecaris. Despite the years since he graduated, it still seemed to be mostly accurate. Plus, well, the Pitch was kind of hard to miss anyway.While she waited for the teacher to begin, she chatted casually with her classmates, then she fell quiet as Olivers checked her watch and started talking. Ginger shifted from one foot to the other, physically unable to stand still, but attentive. She was pleased to hear that she would be free to fly freely rather than being stuck ground-side with the kids just learning, but was not at all disappointed by the restriction from bludgers and snitches. Quiddtch was something she knew about, but it wasn't something she obsessed over or anything. Her family only even owned a handful of brooms and most of them were at least as old as she was.
"Here!" she called out when Professor Olivers got to 'Pierce, Ginger,' making sure to wave her hand back and forth in case the lady was looking for a red-head. Ginger's hair was very definitely black, which a number of people found counter-intuitive to matching her with her first name. She did look like a Pierce, though, far more than many of the Californians did, so if the lady was familiar with any of her Eastern relatives, she might be identified that way. She had the same dark hair, blue eyes, and pale skin coloring that the Eastern Branches all shared. Well, she would have been pale skinned if she'd spent as much time indoors as they did. Right now though, coming off a sunny California summer, she was quite nicely tanned.
When the role call was finished, she collected a school broom, noting with interest that it was the same make as her cousin Jose's broom that she'd learned to fly on. Old it might be, but comfortable and familiar, which were two quality that could not be underestimated in a broom. She mounted and kicked off with ease, and decided she'd began with a couple easy laps of the pitch, just to get into the swing of flying again. As they had been pretty well surrounded by muggles for most of the summer, it had been a few months since she'd last flown on one.
Seeing another student not far off, she waved grandly, hoping to entice the other first year to join her. Laps were much more fun with somebody else to fly them with.
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Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw
I fly something old
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Sutton Nicolls, Pecari
January 18, 2015 7:29 PM
I fly on a board by Sutton Nicolls, Pecari
Flying lessons was something that Sutton was looking forward to, because she assumed there would be no homework, quizzes, or tests. It wasn’t that she was unintelligent, because she wasn’t. She was actually fairly smart. Maybe not Aladren smart, but she could certainly do better than average grades. However, she didn’t apply herself. It was something that her grade school teachers had said at every parent/teacher conference. Her only concern was passing so that she could play sports, especially hockey.One of her favorite things in hockey was the way the wind whipped across her face as she flew across the ice. And in skateboarding, there were air tricks. It was amazing flying through the air if only for a moment. But now, in flying, she had the chance to be up in the air continuously. That was another reason that she was looking forward to this class. So much so, that she had arrived slightly early to the class. Normally, she made it to a class right on time, sometimes late, and almost never early. But she had made an exception.
Shifting from foot to foot, not really knowing what else to do with herself, she waited for class to begin. Once it did, she got excited for a minute until the professor announced that she was going to do roll call. How boring! She took great interest in a string hanging off of her jeans and tugged at it. It didn’t come off and all she succeeded in doing was making it longer. When her name was called, she said here, but they still had nearly half the alphabet to get through. In the meantime, she continued playing with the piece of string.
Finally, roll call was over and the lesson had begun. She wasn’t an experienced flyer even though her parents were both magical, but due to the area they lived in, having a broom was impractical. Not to mention that practicing without the use of invisibility charms was near impossible. But she did know about the idea of flying and about Quidditch, which made the idea of flying seem less intimidating since the existence had always been a given.
Following instruction, Sutton put her hand over the broom and commanded, “Up!” Easily, the broom came to her hand, which was due to her high level of confidence in sports. She felt completely at ease as she swung her leg over the broom. It was a little uncomfortable, but so was anything that was unfamiliar. When she had first held a hockey stick, it had felt strange, but she had become more comfortable with it and having her own had felt even better, because it had fit her. This one was a little bigger than one she would have chosen for herself, so it took more effort to adjust to where she was going.
As she was beginning to get more familiar with this broom, she saw another girl wave at her. She waved back, nearly taking her broom down, but righted herself quickly enough and flew over to where the girl was. “Hey there! This flying thing is pretty cool, right? Have you flown before? You look like a natural. I’m Sutton, by the way. What’s your name?” She had a bad habit of talking to quickly when she was excited and this was definitely exciting. Hopefully, she hadn’t overwhelmed the girl.
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Sutton Nicolls, Pecari
I fly on a board
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Sutton Nicolls, Pecari
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Ginger
January 23, 2015 8:43 PM
I've not seen a flying board before by Ginger
Ginger realized with no small amount of chagrin that she had drifted near to the beginner lesson and had addressed, not an experienced flier who might want to fly laps with her as she had hoped, but one of the newbies who had to stay with the professor. Not good. Coach Olivers had clearly instructed the experienced fliers like Ginger not to interfere with the lesson.She tried - belatedly - to try to cover her look of panic, and eased her broom closer to the other students, hoping Coach Olivers hadn't noticed the interloper join the beginner lesson. Maybe if Ginger pretended she'd been here all along and was just doing what all the other newbie fliers were doing, she wouldn't get in trouble?
Besides, it wouldn't be terrible to stick around and give advice, right? That's helping, not interfering, isn't it? And it would be more useful than just flying laps, too.
"I don't fly often," she admitted humbly, pleased by the compliment to her ability, "But I was taught by two of my cousins who were both Pecari Quidditch Captains in their day." She smiled warmly at the other girl who seemed really nice, if nearly as fast a talker as Ginger was when she got excited. "I'm Ginger, by the way," she added in introduction.
"You seem to be doing pretty well," she continued, basing the assessment on a comparison to the other beginners, some of whom hadn't gotten their brooms UP off the ground yet. The other girl was definitely still shaky in her flight, especially compared to Ginger, but some practice ought to sort that out before long. "Is this your first time on a broom?"
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Ginger
I've not seen a flying board before
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