The Elements of Friendship, Thursday, Period 1

[locointhecoco]

Pinkie had the class meet her in the Danger Shop, which thankfully had much more pony-hoof friendly controls than her keyboard in her office did. She'd programmed the room to look just like Sugarcube Corner, the sweet shop she lived and worked at back in Ponyville. On the counter was a wide array of (thankfully real) baked goods and sweets, with a big bowl of punch on the end. On the table by the door was a pile of party hats in a wide variety of moddale shapes, sizes, and colors, with a sign over them reading "WEAR ME". Pinkie herself was decked out in one of her favorite party outfits, waiting for all of her new students to gather.

"Hi!" she said, when she thought everyone was probably all here. "I'm Pinkie Pie, and this is the Elements of Friendship! Where I'll be teaching you all the important lessons my friends and I have learned about the magical power of friendship and how to maintain it even when things aren't going so well. We're all going to be the bestest of friends in this class, so each week, I'll ask you guys to pair up to solve a problem with the power of your friendship! Doesn't that sound like fun?"

It might. The fact that the problem might well be escaping a giant rampaging hydra would possibly make it even more fun. Or less, depending on the student.

"But this week, we maybe don't even all know each other yet. And if we don't know each other, how can we be friends? Well, that means we have to meet each other, and there's no better way to meet each other than. . . ."

Introductions, right? It had to be introductions. It was the first week, introductions were obligatory. Where was that drumroll coming from?

"A PARTY!" Pinkie flung her hooves into the air, and balloons rained down from the ceiling. "So put on a party hat and grab a cupcake and tell us all your name and the name of your moster bestest friends in the entire world." Yep, introductions were obligatory. "Then we can get down and get funky!"

[ooc: And we're live. Shake that groove thang!]

Tropes and Scope, Class 1 [third period]

[bookworm-beauty.livejournal.com]

The students would find that the room was set up like a normal classroom today, with desks facing the front of the room. Belle had plans for this to eventually change, but for her very first day of teaching, she thought it would probably be fine. (Not that she'd gone over her lesson plans and classroom setup and over it and over it again to make sure she wasn't missing a crucial detail. It was her first time teaching, after all. She was allowed a bit of nervousness.)

When it seemed as though all the students had arrived, Belle curled up on top of her desk, tucking her feet under herself and smiling beatifically at the class. "Hello! Welcome to Tropes and Scope. This class is going to, hopefully, help you to not only appreciate literature -- and I don't just mean books -- but also see its connections throughout everything in our lives. Have you ever noticed how many fictional characters seem to echo one another? How many fairytales seem to teach the same lesson? How many damsels are in eerily similar forms of distress? This isn't a coincidence. We're going to spend a lot of time talking about these ideas -- archetypes, tropes, commonalities across human storytelling."

Belle took a breath, and added, "But not today. For today, I'd like you to just introduce yourselves -- your name, where you're from, and what kinds of stories you like the best. I can go first." She straightened up a little, because introductions and first impressions were everything. "My name is Belle. I don't want anyone to try and use 'Professor' -- just Belle is fine. I'm from France," never mind her total middle-American accent -- "and I love adventures. Anything with action, and drama, and intrigue." She gave a happy sigh, before looking around and picking a student at random. "And now you."

Sensitivity Training, Thursday, September 1st

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

To say Guy wasn't pleased with his latest class subject was possibly the tiniest bit of an understatement. He liked teaching gym class, damn it. It never involved pointless talk about how getting beamed by a dodgeball made you feel as a person. But he'd soldier on and plot his revenge on Kyle.Maybe some lava blood....

"Obviously this is sensitivity training," he said once the classroom was filled. "Now, we're not going to have a drum circle or anything to discuss the oppression we all feel, okay? Let's just call this 'How to not be a jerk' instead."

Trust him, he was an expert on this.

"We'll get into that touchie feelie crap later on, so you won't need and tissues today. It's your first day, so let's go easy. Tell everyone your name, where you're from and what you wanna learn here."

Not that he needed the class ideas or anything. Not at all. Really.