fandomhigh | Communication - Thursday, Period 5 (Week 8)

Entry tags:

communication

Communication - Thursday, Period 5 (Week 8)

When the students arrived for class, Thursday was at the front of the class waiting for them. Gladys, a golem, was standing at the back of the classroom, presumably minding her own business. "Good morning," Thursday greeted. "Some of you know me, some of you don't. My name is Thursday Next and I'm the librarian here at Fandom High. Mr Silent Bob has had to leave Fandom on personal business," she assumed, "and instead of giving you substitutes each week, I'll be your Communication teacher for the rest of this semester.

I understand most of the classes so far have been on either verbal communication or body language. Now that you have an understanding of the basics, we'll be branching out over the next few weeks.

This week let's look at a written form of communication. Letters have been the standard form of written communication for most of human history. They're an excellent way of saying what you want to say in a clear and concise way without having to say it to a person's face.

Give it a try. I would like you all to choose one of the faculty members here at Fandom High and write them a letter. It doesn't have to be someone you know, but I assume you at least know of the faculty. Your letter could contain nonsense, but ideally there will be some form of meaningful communication. Tell them a little bit about yourself or ask them some questions. They might even answer you. Please keep in mind that Gladys will be delivering these letters at the end of the class, so think about what you're writing."

***

Once class was over, Thursday spoke to them all again. "Next week, we'll be working on public speaking - delivering speeches as a means of communicating to the masses. For homework, choose a topic and start to work on your speech. I'll be in the library tomorrow and throughout the week if you need to talk to me."

[OOC: Long version short: write a teacher a letter! I'll deliver those that are actually written to the respective teacher's voicemail box after class is done.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Collapsey style!

Chris Halliwell

John Sheppard

Jeff Murdock

Cedric Diggory

Naminé

Anemone

Jack Burton

Summer Roberts

Hoshi Sato

Cassandra Cain.

Meg Manning

Carmela Rodriguez

Sam Winchester

Rodney McKay

Inara Serra

Demyx

Cindy Mackenzie.

This is a communication class after all.

Chris tried to decide what faculty member he should write a letter to and what he should write to them about.

Naminé tried not to panic at the idea of giving a speech. In front of the class. Not panicking.

Oh, no. Public speaking? More like Public Humiliation.

Jack facepalmed...with his hand that was no longer a pumpkin.

Summer was trying to decide who to write to. She even wrote down a few ideas. There may have been some doodling as well.

Write a letter? Public speaking? Anemone whimpered a bit and tried to slide down in her seat. Hiding seemed like a good option right about now.

Public speaking next week, huh? Carmela might be bouncing a little in her seat at that news.

She's still grinning as she absently taps her pen against the paper, trying to think of who to write to.

John sat quietly, holding back the desire to comment about having a Thursday afternoon class taught by someone named Thursday.

Inara took some notes and then tried to decide to which faculty member she should write.

Write a letter to one of the faculty members (http://fandomhigh.net/directory/index.php?type=01&fandom=all). It's going to get delivered to them. Bring on the funny!

Cedric chose Ares.

Ares,

Sir, while I'm sure you have many a fine attribute, and no, that is not be complimenting you, it's an observation, I must inform you of one thing: you have the hips of a fifteen year old girl.

Apologies for breaking the new to you.

Sincerely,

Cedric Diggory

Naminé considered, and then opted to write a letter to Mr. Noblet.

Dear Mr. Noblet,

This is Naminé, from your Debating class. How are you? I hope that you are well. I would hate it if class were to be cancelled this week, as class is always so very fascinating and entertaining. I cannot wait to discover what new and interesting arguments we will learn.

Also, I feel I should warn you that Valentine is currently a chicken, and thus will not be attending class. Or, more accurately, he will be attending class, as I am bird-sitting him while he is afflicted, but he will not be participating, as he only appears capable of peeping, eating, and napping, none of which are useful debate strategies. Of course, should he revert some time in the next twenty-four hours, I will see to it that he attends class, and this entire paragraph will be moot. I will keep you informed.

Yours,
Naminé

Her letter didn't take nearly as long as she had thought it might, so hopefully Ms. Next wouldn't mind her writing another one.

Dear Mr. Rogers,

This is Naminé, your Art TA. How are you? I hope that you are well.

In my Communications class, we were given an assignment, to write letters to members of the faculty. I think perhaps writing is easier for me than speaking to someone face-to-face; it allows the pretense of staying an observer, for one. It's a bit like drawing, but choosing words seems so much more difficult than choosing colors. They need to bridge and gap across one another in ways that shades don't. Using red doesn't require that you find a certain shade of yellow the way that using a subject requires a verb.

I realized that I've never said thank you, not properly. For all of your kindness, especially this summer when I was still jumping at shadows and unsure of my own existence. I think I am real, or at least real enough that it doesn't matter if I'm real or not, should that make sense. I've even discovered that I have a heart, as improbable and crazy as that may be. You were right that this island is a very good place to be.

I shall see you in class next week, and I hope that when I do, you don't think me too odd for writing this.

Yours,
Naminé

And while she was at it, no harm in sending a third.

Dear Mr. Leonhart,

This is Naminé, from your Interdisciplinary Studies class (first term, summer). How are you? I hope that you are well.

I am sorry that I called you "Leon" a number of times this summer. You are oddly similar to someone that I know - well, more accurately, to someone whom I share a mutual friend with - who called himself "Leon", and that habit seems to be a hard one to break. I shall endeavour in the future to not call you "Leon."

Yours,
Naminé

She fought down the urge as long as she could, but finally decided to send one last letter. And hoped it wouldn't seem too strange.

Dear Ms. Next,

This is Naminé, one of your new students in Communications. (As I'm certain you haven't had time to learn everyone's names, I should add that I'm the blonde girl who carries a sketchbook and wears rather a lot of white.) How are you? I hope that you are well.

I wrote rather a lot of letters during class today; I hope that's all right. Every time I finished a letter and found myself with time left, I had the itch to write another. I hope Gladys won't mind delivering all of them. If she does I can mail them myself, it's no problem.

When you say that we have to give a public speech in this class - is that mandatory? I can't think of anything interesting I would have to talk about and I'm certain I don't want to bore everyone else with whatever I do come up with and if I could do a different assignment to make up the work that would be very nice indeed, if that would be at all possible?

Yours,
Naminé

Jack chose his Sex Ed teacher.

Dear Miss Lulu,

I found out last night that kissing someone can turn them into a chicken. Was this to be included in the lectures?

Thank you for your time,
Jack Burton

Meg chose Deadpool. She was his minion after all and she thought he'd enjoy a nice letter.

Mr. Deadpool,

Hi! How are you? I hope you aren't too uncomfortable from wearing such a tight Halloween costume yesterday. Do you have a favorite kind of cookie? Christmas is coming up and I'm pretty good at baking stuff so if you've got a favorite let me know. And um...that's it for now. See you next week!

Your student/minion,

Meg Manning

P.S. I've heard some stories about you doing bad things to your minion's boyfriends. Could you do me a favor and leave Dean Winchester alone? He's been nothing but sweet to me, I assure you. Thanks!

Dear Mr. Deadpool,

Who would win in a fight, you or Mr. Leonhart? This was a question on a recent exam I had to take for a class and I'm curious to know if I got the right answer.

Thanks,
Carmela Rodriguez

PS: Hopefully you didn't have too much candy last night. That stuff will rot your teeth, you know.

Anemone looked at her paper blankly, panic flitting across her face. She'd only written one or two letters in her life, and both had been rather mean-spirited. Besides, this letter had to go to a teacher, and she had no idea what to say to any of them.

Eventually she managed to scrawl out a letter to the one teacher she could think of that might not find this completely strange.

Dear Miss Lulu,

We are supposed to write a letter to a teacher, so I thought I should apologize for any trauma my guardians may have caused during Parent Weekend. I don't know which of them visited you, but if it was Dominic or Captain Jurgens, you have my deepest sympathies.

I did not get any lectures about your class, so I must assume that you said nice things about me. I would like to thank you for that, because they are used to people complaining about me. You were probably a nice surprise. You may have saved me from another round of Ethics class, so thank you thank you thank you!

I will see you in class on Monday,

Anemone

John chose to write to Anakin. He went through many drafts.

Professor Skywalker,

Our new Communications professor is making the class write letters to other teachers. I figured you deserved one.

During the summer semester, I was really impressed by your Flight and Flying workshop. The simulator and the shuttle were highlights of my first session in Fandom. Getting to experience flying so many types of air and spacecraft was an eye-opening experience. That said, can I borrow the keys to the Flight Shed sometime?

When I signed up for Ethics I was unaware of three things: 1. That I would be dating your granddaughter. 2. That she was also signed up for Ethics. 3. That you were at all related to her. I share this with you because I want you to know I was actually interested in taking another class and learning from you before any of that other stuff happened. And I still am. I think there's a lot you could teach me and I'm willing to learn. Especially after this morning's class.

Sincerely,
John Sheppard

Inara chose Aly--

Aly,

I would like to thank you very much for all of the assistance you have given me as I learned to adapt to new knowledge about my home universe, and for the guidance you have given me in developing a plan for when I return.

If you are amenable, I would appreciate very much if you would be willing to continue teaching me, perhaps on a more private basis.

In any event, thank you very much for the aid you have given me so far.

Inara Serra

P.S. I also envy you your hair.

Thinking of his class yesterday (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/1579258.html), Rodney began his letter.

Mr. Deadpool,

I just want to tell you that you're crazy in case this has never been pointed out to you before. However, I can't imagine that it hasn't if your behavior during your classes is any indication of what is 'normal' for you.

By the way, is the hot version of you ever coming back?

Sincerely,
Rodney McKay

Sam thought about the assignment for a few minutes, and then started writing.

Dear Dad,

Mrs. Next is having us write letters to faculty members as an assignment for Communications class, so I figured I'd write my letter to you.

I don't really have much to say, except that I hope tomorrow isn't as bad for you as it has been in the past. I know the anniversary is probably the one day we all wish we could skip - it's not just you, you know - but spending the day lost in a bottle somewhere isn't the answer. You have Zoe and Grace, and Dean and me. Don't shut us out tomorrow, okay?

I hope class went well today, and I hope you scared the pants off of at least one person. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun otherwise.

-Sam

She's wandering around the classroom if anyone needs her.

Cassandra waited until Thursday walked nearby and gestured to catch her attention.

The paper in front of her was still blank.

Thursday noticed the gesture and came over. "Yes?"

"I... um..." Cassandra looked a bit embarrassed. "I can't write very well."

"Letters are drawings with set meanings. If you feel you can't communicate effectively with them, you're welcome to draw instead to get your message across."

To show I'm done.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Communication - Thursday, Period 5 (Week 8)

Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Re: Talk During Class

Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Re: Write a Letter

Talk to Thursday

Re: Talk to Thursday

Re: Talk to Thursday

Re: Talk to Thursday

Re: Talk to Thursday

OOC