Public Speaking, June 12th, Period 4

[veryverypopular.livejournal.com]

There were no cookies this week.

And Glinda looked kind of upset.

"Since none of you gave me speech topics, I am very much looking forward to today," she said, not sounding at all like Minsc, shush impressed. "Since your rough drafts are due as of right now."

She clapped her hands. "Pair up among yourselves and read through them! Make sure you give honest critiques! Anyone goofing off can expect to speak to me in my office! Make it happen!"

[OCD up shortly is now up. Oh yes, you are all on Glinda's bad side. Ping me in the OOC thread if you're willing to have your character serve a detention with her. Also, SP after noon EST to be expected please, as my parents are visiting for the day.]

Practical Etiquette [Thursday, Period Three]

[notahostage]

Wendy stood at the front of the classroom today, looking ever so slightly lost.

"Okay, Miss Bennet doesn't seem to be in today, so yeah, I figure that we can make up a list of modern etiquette ideas, so that we can compare with what you've been learning, or something."

Wendy picked up a sharpie and went over to the large sheet of butcher paper she'd tacked up to the wall. "I'll start us off with a few examples and you guys can take it from there."

If you're going to protest nude, leave the bail money where your roommate can easily find it.

Don't plagiarise from the people you are illegally sub-letting your dad's building to.

Turning people into puppets is not okay!

Nor is trying to take over the word with super-intelligent gorillas.

Or trying to drown a boatload of Titanic enthusiasts in the icy waters of the North Atlantic via a cursed tuba.

Artist != drug addict, so don't accuse.

Wendy's examples indicated absolutely nothing about the kind life she led, really.

[OOC: Wait for OCD up]

Slacking - Fifth Meeting [Friday, Period 1]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

As if there had been no interruption the previous week, Max had his feet up on his desk and was leaned back in his chair with his sunglasses on. It was a tremendous relief to have whatever had been going on behind him since he was pretty sure that not teaching class wouldn't fly for too long. Besides, while Fiona wasn't bad, she didn't have nearly his depth of experience when it came to the subject, and Max tended to think that the most qualified available person should teach a subject.

And who was more qualified than himself when it came to slacking?

Once everyone had arrived he sat up abruptly and looked around. "Good to see you all survived my absence last week. As well as whatever weirdness was going on."

"Slacking is, as I hope you've come to realize, one of those subjects which is best learned through experience. No lecture can really impart the knowledge you need to do it effectively." The fact that Max was just plain awful at giving lectures (or staying awake for them, for that matter) had nothing to do with it. Really.

"With that in mind, today's assignment is actually fairly easy. You will get in troups of two or three and come up with a goal. You need to come up with something that you really do want to accomplish, and it needs to be something that will take some effort. This could be cleaning your room, or cleaning your instructor's room, or it could be taking a vacation somewhere nice. The important parts are that it's something you care about and it's something that requires work to do. So find yourselves partners or groups and come up with your goal. Once you come to me and tell me who's in your group and what you want to accomplish you're free to go."

Max paused just long enough that it might seem he was done talking before he spoke up again. "Oh, and while you're planning you should keep one important thing in mind. Whatever your goal, I'll take on the role of supervisor for it. You'll have to use the things we've discussed and practiced here in class in order to accomplish your goal. And pass." He grinned broadly. "Now get to it."

[I'm out of pocket for most of the weekend, but I'll try to answer questions if anyone has any. It's important that everyone work out their team and their goal by next week's class meeting. More on that in the OCD.]

Rangering!, Friday, Period Five [ 06/12 ].

[berserkerminsc.livejournal.com]

"Good afternoon, class!" Today, they would find themselves being greeted by their brusque teacher in the usual Danger Shop clearing, although the woods seemed a bit thicker, the rocky bits rockier, and there was the sound of a waterfall and a river off in the distance, which spilled out into the sea. It was all very pretty.

"Today we are working on two very important ranger skills! Tracking, and plant finding!" He started to hand out some papers, which were probably pretty helpful and full of information, but Minsc would not be offended if anyone made paper planes or blew their noses in them...because they had a lot of information on them and reading was hard. "Being able to recognize signs of creatures in the area recently might be a big difference between a successful raid or being eaten by a bear! And knowing the difference between a plant that can a heal and a plant that can give you explosive stomach pains is very good, too! You'd be surprised how similar they make some of those! So please look over the material, ask any questions if you've got them, and I'd like you to pair up, go into the woods, and start tracking! Try to find the lair of a creature or monster hidden in these woods, and then try to locate at least three bad plants and three good plants! When you are done, you may work on your sparring or target practise. Now go!"


[[ OCD on the way has been eaten by a grue! ]]

TeeVee for Beginners, Friday Period Two

[chosehumanity]

"Humanity has always tried to keep in contact," Mitchell started. He wasn't going to say anything about last week, mostly because he was very happy to be far away from last week. "At least within the tribe. Sharing stories isn't really about fiction, it's about sharing a world, about finding a connection. And there's very little that connects us more than the events that go on all around us."

He was back in the classroom with the couches, but he'd kept the bigger flatscreen TV for this one. "Newspapers started around the 19th century," he said, "In the early 20th century, radio absorbed that task. And as with most things that happen on the radio, eventually, it winds up on TV, although it loaned elements of film newsreels as well. While all the other formats were still barely a blink in a broadcaster's eye, TV news rose up in the late 1940s and became an essential part of the media as we know it. You saw CNN last week: that's the result of sixty years of broadcast news."

"But let's go back in time a bit," he said, gesturing at the TV. "1953. Queen Elizabeth the Second was coronated. It was broadcast by the BBC and meant a breakthrough for news on television: over twenty million people tuned in to watch her Majesty receive her crown. There had never been that many viewers of one program in the UK before. A record amount of TV sets was sold that month, and now the British, too, longed for a regular newscast. It wouldn't be until 1954 until the British had news, but by then the BBC had already acquired a reputation that would last them for decades."

"It took them a time to tussle about the format. You can essentially break the history of TV news down to a couple of blocks of inventions and changes. It's sufficient to say that there was a lot of experimenting in the early days; today, everything is much more streamlined. News is widespread now - the dangers lie in who's controlling it, in the spin of it. What they don't say can mean more than what they do, the items they decide to run and those they don't."

He smiled at the class. "I want you all to present something newsworthy out of your life," he said, "Like a news broadcast. And then I want the rest of you lot to discuss what their spin is."

[[ and ocd is up! ETA: so I fubar'ed on the first link in the Teevee section; it can actually be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGLN1kREJ2Q Ahem. ]]

Announcements, Friday afternoon

[bigdamnprincipal]

Right after classes ended, the PA system shrieked to life.

"Good afternoon, everyone. This is a notice that the following students need to report for detention tomorrow morning with Ms. Davis:

Claudia Kishi
Leda
Peyton Sawyer

"Thank you, and have a safe weekend."