Basic Questing! Wednesday, Period Four

[toteshammered.livejournal.com]

"Greetings, one and all!" Thor, clad in cape, helmet, and all, greeted the class once they'd all arrived and gotten themselves seated. "I am Thor, Son of Odin, and I welcome you to Basic Questing! This course will involve a mixture of classroom discussion and practical exercises that will hopefully result in you being prepared to undertake the type of journey that bards write songs about!"

Thor began to pace the length of the classroom as he continued speaking. "There are many types of quests, of course. Some cultures have their young set out with a task that, upon completion, will prove to their elders that they are worthy of being considered an adult. Sometimes a quester seeks to return a stolen object or person to their rightful home. Other times they simply seek the glory of a good fight! These are all, of course, excellent reasons for undertaking a quest."

"As is customary on the first day of class, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves. Name, year, why you're taking this class, and one object you would deem essential on your own heroic journey," he pointed at a random student and gestured for them to begin.

Once the introductions had concluded, Thor addressed the class as a whole once more. "I am looking for someone to take on the position of Teaching Assistant. If you're interested, please speak to me after class."

Friendship is Teamwork!!!, Wednesday, Period 1

[locointhecoco]

First class of the semester and you all know what that means, right? Riiiiiiiight?

Really? We're gonna play this game? Fine, we're playing this game. And you're all getting such a disappointed look for not being able to respond to narrative.

Come on, people, the fourth wall is right there. Pinkie does not understand your inability to break it when it would be most amusing. And somewhere… Deadpool was wondering just why he wanted to punch punk-ass teenage werewolves.

Anywho. The classroom was pretty much your basic classroom, though someone had helpfully written "TEAMWORK" in large, friendly, somewhat shaky letters across the front board. (What? Writing English with hooves on a board was hard, okay?) Pinkie and Derek were at the front of the class, Pinkie's left front leg tied to Derek's only right leg. Pinkie looked thrilled by this. Derek looked like he was having his teeth pulled. So, par for the course.

"Hi hi hi, everypony!" Pinkie greeted, and attempted to bounce -- only to nearly faceplant when Derek decidedly did not bounce with her. "Welcome to Friendship is Teamwork!!! If we haven't met yet, I'm Pinkie Pie, and this is my bestest ever team teacher Derek! And we're teaching this 'cause we're just such a good team!"

Yes. That was it. That was the reason that made total sense.

Derek sighed like the big ol' drama llama he was. "Welcome to the class," he said, not sounding particularly welcoming. But he was contributing to a ~*~team~*~. One that did not involve Scott McCall.

Nyeah.

"It's the first day, so same as you've done in your other classes," he said, making sure to keep his foot planted on the ground. "Name, grade, and something you think you contribute to a team."

See, if he got this done quick enough, he might not be attacked with glitter.

"And then after you all can just chat amongst yourselves with a little getting to know you party!" Pinkie flung her free hoof into the air, releasing a veritable glow cloud of sparkles.

Or not.

Diplomacy, Relationships & Tactics: the Art of War [Wednesday]

[atreideslioness]

Another semester, another batch of bright and shining students. Ghanima sat on her desk, hiding her smile behind her tea as they filed in; mentally cataloging the new and familiar faces.

The moment the bell rang, her eyes snapped from the door to the children seated around the room. "Good afternoon and welcome," she said in a clear voice that carried effortlessly. "This is the Art of War, and I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. You may address me as Miss Atreides, Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or some variation thereof. If you are in the wrong class, please feel free to leave at this time. For those of you whom I have had in class before," she smiled suddenly, looking far less severe. "Welcome back."

"The Art of War." Scooping up her two piles of handouts off her desk, Ghanima began wandering up and down the rows of chairs as she talked. "A Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. It is divided into 13 chapters, or P'ien, and the collection is referred to as being one Ch'üan, or chronicle."

"The book is not only popular among military theorists, but also among political leaders and those in business management. The book addresses strategy in a broad fashion, despite the title, touching upon public administration and planning. The text outlines theories of battle but also advocates diplomacy and cultivating relationships with other nations as essential to the health of the state."

"Sun Tzu himself is a bit of a mystery, and historians debate whether or not he was a real historical figure. Which, really, is par for the course with anyone truly interesting." Ghanima smiled at the class brilliantly. "If you're larger than life, they'll never believe you were real."

"For our first lesson," Ghanima moved to the front of the room, picking up her chalk to write quickly;

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

"Know thy enemy, know thyself. We'll cover it more in-depth later, but for today I would like you to go around the room and introduce yourselves. Give us your name, class, and some random fact about yourself. Pay attention to what your classmates have to say, you never know when such information could come in handy."

Breaking Things 101, Wednesday, Period 3

[electrocynic]

The Danger Shop was a warehouse, with all manners of moddable breakable things lining the shelves about as far as the eye could see. And by the door, Electroclash, cradling a crystal vase in her hands.

"Welcome to Breaking Things 101," she announced, once the students had all shown up. Or she assumed they all had, anyway. She didn't care. "First things first, before we get to the necessary evil of introductions, I want the lot of you to go around –" She indicated to the warehouse at large. "– and find an object, any object. Then come back. Chop chop."

Library, Wednesday

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh came in with a mission today. It was a new semester, with new students and teachers and at least one person seemed to be afraid of libraries and librarians. That wouldn't do at all! Libraries were magic places full of wonder and delight, not fear!

Today, she was brainstorming plans to get people involved with the library more. Maybe a book club? Tours? Homework help?

She also had a platter of cookies on the circulation desk with a small sign that read, Welcome to the library! Have a cookie! First-timers? Have two! Some of the children's books kept trying to steal the cookies when her back was turned, but she was old hand at listening for the soft, whispery noises that meant the books were up to something.

Literature 101- Thursday- 4th period

[puppyinacup.livejournal.com]

The students would be reporting to a regular classroom today, which was probably a good thing because no one wanted to see Jess try and work the Danger Shop.

If you wanted proof of this, the proof was that she was totally in front of the class dressed like Mark Twain. She'd worked really hard on her costume, too, even if she probably looked a little more like COlonel Sanders. She even spoke in an old-timey man's voice when she began, "Hello, students! And welcome to Literature 101. I'm Samuel Clements, AKA Mark Twain, and I'm here to introduce you to a wonderful journey of books and classic stories!"

Jess paused for dramatic effect, and it didn't actually matter if she was bombing with the students or not. She did, however, pull off her white wig and give the students a big smile. "Just kidding!" she said, like anyone had to be told that. "I'm Miss Day, and welcome to class. While we're here for the next semester, we're going to go over a few classic books a couple weeks at a time. If you've already read something, that's totally fine. It just means you can help us out more in discussions!"

Yes, Jess was that teacher.

She picked up a stack of books on her desk and started passing them out to each student. "Our first book is going to be Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. You might remember him from earlier." Oh god, Jess. "Now, you only have a couple classes a week here, so there's no excuse not to have this book read by this time next week, and then we're going to have a discussion. Oh, and I should probably warn you, the language in this book is a little rough at parts, because it deals with slavery and some people have issues. So if you think you might have a hard time with it, I have another version of it that you can read. Now. Since this is our first class, I want you to go around and give me your name and tell me what kind of things you like to read."