Friendship is Fun and Games! Wednesday, period 1

[locointhecoco]

"Hihihi, Everypony!" Pinkie greeted once everyone seemed to be settled in and class was due to start. She paused after, her eyes sneaking sideways, then deflated just a little as she remembered she was teaching this class all by herself while her Fandom bestie was off, she didn't know, being grumpy somewhere or something.

It was very sad.

Nothing kept a good Pinkie down for long, though, and she bounced right back up with a big grin for her new batch of students. "I'm Pinkie Pie, and I'm here to teach you all about friendship through the magic of fun and games! Before we get started: yes, I am a pony. Yes, I also talk. And dance and sing and throw the bestest ever parties! No, we don't have any humans where I'm from, most folks on this island still look super weird to me and what is up with no one controlling the weather? I tell ya what, winter might not always get wrapped up on time in Ponyville, but it sure as heck doesn't hang around for an extra month! And the pegasus weather schedulers always make sure we get a proper spring and not too much rain. You humans have got to look into your system!"

She paused again, eyes sneaking sideways. This would be when Derek usually would reign her in.

Alas.

"Anyhoo! I digress! You're all here for fun and games and we need to get started already!" She sprung up on her hindlegs and flung her front hooves into the air, showering the classroom with confetti and streamers.

And, yes, glitter.

"Today's the first day, and Fandom tradition says that means we're gonna do introductions! But Pinkie tradition says we should have something sweet to go with them, so we're going to play the candy introduction game. Doesn't that sound like fun?!"

It'd better. Don't make her make you do fun drills, people. Pinkie took her fun times very seriously.

"Ooo, and if anypony wants to be a TA, I have a spot open!"

These United States [Wednesday, May 7, 2014]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Some people might view taking kids from a school in Maryland to the National Mall on the first day of a class about the United States a giant cop-out.

Josh prefered to think of it as "playing to his strengths."

"Hey guys," he said, adjusting his sunglasses. "Welcome to Washington, DC. This is the capital--with an 'a'--of the United States of America. The Capital--capital C, spelled with an 'o'--is that big domey thing down at the end of this, the National Mall. If you were expecting a shopping center, well, tough. We could easily spend seven weeks just exploring the buildings along this stretch of grass, but that would be super dull, even on Segways."

Which he'd totally provided from them. They were going to cover a lot of ground in the next class period.

"We're going to start here at the Lincoln Memorial," he said, "and do a ride by of everything. I encourage you to come back some time this summer to go into some of the museums: they could take an entire day by themselves and I just want to give you a flavor of the city."

Beach & Ocean Appreciation, Wednesday, Period 3

[jaegerbombdad]

The students should have received an e-mail or other missive requesting they meet at the beach today, since in Herc's opinion there wasn't much point in teaching a class on the beach from inside a classroom. He had, however, set up a canopy to protect them from the sun, since sunburn was not conducive to beach appreciation. Max could be found under a corner of the canopy, sacked out on a sailcloth dog bed and chewing on a toy shaped like a fish. No, Herc didn't half spoil that dog, why did you ask?

"Good morning!" Herc said to his assembled students. "Since you're here, I assume you caught on to the word 'beach' in this class's title. We're a small group, but that's all right. I'm Herc Hansen, I'll be your teacher, and that's Max. Be nice to Max, and don't feed him too many treats. He needs to watch his weight. Now, where I come from, there's been some...problems, and while the Atlantic is actually still quite nice, the Pacific, not so much, and we didn't appreciate what we had until it was all messed up. So let's appreciate! You'll actually learn some things in this class, don't get me wrong, but a big part of it will be just enjoying the beach and taking the time to experience it. Now, you're welcome to wear your swimsuits to this class, or whatever beach-appropriate clothes you want, as long as all the necessary bits are covered, yeah? If you need sunblock, I've got a couple of tubes of it to give out, so please take one if you don't have any, but I'm afraid it won't do you much good today, because you need to apply it at least fifteen minutes before you go outside for it to be completely effective. So, take it with you, and use it from here on out. To cover your entire body you'll want to use about an ounce, which is approximately enough to fill a shot glass, and if you're going to be outside for longer than this class, you'll want to reapply your sunscreen every two hours. Otherwise you're exposing yourself to UV radiation, which could lead to a sunburn in the short term and skin cancer somewhere down the road, which is even less fun.

"So, on that bright note, let's move on to introductions, since I'm afraid I don't know most of you yet. I'd like everyone to give me their name, age, and what they like best about the beach or the ocean. After that, we're going to build sandcastles. I have a variety of moddable buckets and whatnot to work with, and you can work together if you like. I find it's more fun when it's an interactive thing, yeah? And if you've not built a sandcastle before, I or I'm sure one of your fellow students will be happy to help you. So, introductions, starting with, eh, you," he decided, pointing to one of the students at random.

Choose Your Own Adventure, Thursday afternoon

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi was so looking forward to this, you don't even know.

So as people filed into the classroom, she pointed them to the various arts & crafts tables, printer, laminator, and huge Maryland I.D. billboard that she'd put together and printed out with a camera in front of it.

"Welcome to Choose Your Own Adventure!" She beamed. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Toni Soprano." She flicked up a Canadian I.D. "At least according to this piece of plastic. According to this one, I'm Ninotchka Alexandrovich." It had a really convincing Russian sickle on it, too. "Now, for some of the things we're doing this semester, you're going to need a legit-looking piece of plastic of your own. So pick a birthday -- one that's before 1993, that'll help -- and if you don't know what that means, ask your neighbor." She paused. "Or me, after you do a couple tries."

"After, I'm going to the Horseshoe Casino here in Baltimore. If you don't know what a casino is or Baltimore is, you can ask when we're on the bus." She grinned, then added, "And you don't have to come with me! Or any of us! That's where the 'choice' thing comes in. But wouldn't it be a shame to make all these, and not see if they work?"