Tropes and Scope [Class 9, Period 3]

[bookworm-beauty.livejournal.com]

Today, class met in a normal classroom, though Belle had brought a great deal of children's building materials, as well as art supplies, scrap paper and bits of metal and pipe cleaners, and random bits of cloth.

"Speculative fiction," she began, smiling at the class once they'd assembled, "is often called science fiction or realistic fantasy these days. It deals in the question of 'What if?' What if our legs were backwards? What if there was no need to sleep? What if we conquered space travel, and could visit the stars?" Careful, Belle, your old timeyness is showing. "Science fiction, in particular, focuses on invention. Isaac Asimov said there are three types of science fiction -- gadget, adventure, and social. In a 'gadget' story, the focus is on an invention itself, and how it shapes the world. An 'adventure' story uses the invention as a dramatic prop -- a means to propel the action. And a 'social' story focuses on how the presence of the invention affects people's lives."

She selected a jar of Play-Doh, pulling it out to play with. "Your task today is to invent something that you think could change this world, and then share how you could make a gadget, adventure, or social story revolve around it. For example, if I wanted to make a robot that could fold all my laundry for me, I could write a story just about the robot itself, about how the robot folds all my laundry incorrectly and sends me on a quest for dresses, or what people do with the time that they'd use folding their clothes before and the impact that spare time might have on society." She grinned, then made an ushering motion. "Get to work, now."

The Elements of Friendship, Thursday, Period 1

[locointhecoco]

Pinkie was wearing her costume from Monday. Possibly still. Because the only thing better than taking a class taught by a talking pink pony was taking a class taught by a talking pink pony dressed like a chicken.

"Hi everypony!" Oh dear, and she was more hyper than usual somehow, too. Someone had been gorging on Halloween treats all week. "Welcome back! It's so good to see you all! Are you excited? Are you? Are you? Are you?"

For the love of Pete, someone say they were excited.

"Well, today I'd like you to meet some very good friends of mine! Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" She stepped aside to reveal three little ponies, all about a third of the size of Pinkie, herself. There was an orange pegasus pony with bright pink hair, a white unicorn pony with pink and blue hair, and a yellow earth pony with red hair and a giant bow. "Except they're not really my friends because my friends have to be in their own school back in Ponyville but these little ponies are just like my friends back home! It's like magic!"

How the hell Pinkie learned to program the Danger Shop well enough to make duplicates of the Cutie Mark Crusaders was anybody's guess.

"Now, these little ponies are still only itty bitty teeny weeny little ponies, so they still need some looking after. So that's your job today! Good luck!" Pinkie grinned. "You're gonna neeeeeeeeed it!"

[ooc: Giddy-up!]

Sensitivity Training, Thursday, November 3rd

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

There was an informative video set up for the students today. Because half of forcing people to learn sensitivity seemed to involve watching poorly made videos.

Go to any workplace training seminar, you'll see.

"We're gonna look at age discrimination today," Guy told the class. Because it was important to not assume crap about old people or else they might kick your ass. So might kids though. So, moral of the story was totally to just be nice to everyone out of crippling fear of an imminent beat down.

"Take notes about what you see and discuss it as a class," he added, putting the movie on. "What do you think about different age groups outside of class, blah blah blah. You guys know the drill here."

He was possibly holding out too much hope there, though. Blame Kyle for that.

"If you've got any questions, go to the TA's--or just me. Might be safer to just ask me."