Fandom High School

The essay topic for next week is "Travel". So one hundred words on travel, please: the positive and negative effects it can have on lifestyle.

I need a teaching assistant for the seminar next Monday because the Mun will be offline for half the day on an aeroplane so if any of my regular students would like the opportunity to earn a little extra credit, please state your case here.

The professor is distracted -- he seems to have lost something.

Oh, look, we need a topic and an essay for next week.

He looks round. He listens intently. Not a croak to be heard.

Umm ... give me a hundred words on something that you've lost recently. Something you miss.

I'm sure some of you -- most of you -- will have heard the news. Dean Bristow has asked classes to set aside some time to talk about it, but since we don't meet until Monday, perhaps you should write about your feelings instead.

So the essay topic this week is all about issues arising from these recent events. Some of you will know Ms Pryde well, some will have a passing acquaintance with her, some of you -- myself included -- will hardly have met her. Nonetheless, each of us will have some thoughts to share about how matters such as these have their effect on our lifestyle.

One hundred words, please, by the end of the weekend.

Oh, look, sorry this is a bit late, I've been sort of busy with something else.

There are croaks from behind him. Yes, I know. I'll be back in a moment.

This week's essay -- next week's topic -- is Love. Not sex, we did that a couple of weeks ago. Love.

I know it's parent's weekend, and that a lot of you are entertaining visitors over the next couple of days. If you can bring them to my room [[when I post about it]] tomorrow or on Sunday, and demonstrate that you understand the topic, then that'll be fine in lieu of an essay. But if your family aren't in town, then I'll need an essay from you sometime before the end of the weekend.

More croaks. Okay, I'm coming.

Love. By the end of the weekend. An essay ... or a practical. Make it good.

Slartibartfast is teaching his new friends, the frogs, to play cricket. Not much of a match in prospect with only nine players, but he's doing his best to hone their skills. He's introduced them to bowling and batting, having fashioned a wicket from toothpicks and bats from lolly (popsicle) sticks, and (after extensive trials) using dried peas as balls. He's particularly proud of two frogs in particular -- Croakers has incredible natural talent with the bat, and Hoppers has a reverse swing which is coming on very nicely, once the pea is a few overs old.

He takes a moment before the start of play on Thursday morning to write a note, which he pins to his classroom door.

Essay topic this week is "Sport". Please provide a hundred words on sport, on the positive and negative effects it can have on lifestyle. Essays in the tray here by Saturday evening, please.
The lifestyle course is open to new registrants -- if you want to join in our seminar on Monday, just drop an essay in the tray with the others.

He returns to the table, where the frogs are just emerging from the home-made pavillion ready for warm-up. He makes a mental note to fashion some whites for them -- playing naked isn't ... well, it isn't cricket.

The professor can't quite recall how he got home last night ... he has vague memories involving his class, something about coffee, his student-landlady helping him down the front steps of the school, and then ... nothing. No recollection at all.

Ow. Ouch. Oh dear.

He stands up and walks gingerly over to the window. The curtains shriek at him as they scrape along the frictionless rail, and the unbearably bright light of day sears into his eyes.

My word. Goodness me.

He hauls himself onto his construction platform and takes the short ride to school with his eyes firmly shut and his head in his hands. He arrives back at his classroom/kitchen and surveys the rows of empty bottles. He takes a piece of paper and, wincing at the noise the pen makes as it glides across the surface, he writes:

Next week's topic is hangovers illness, frailty, and disability. One hundred words, as usual, on the topic, in the tray here by Saturday evening.

He thinks for a moment, and writes some more.

Please be quiet. Please.

He pins the note on the outside of the door, and then goes to find something in one of the cupboards. He runs a glass of water, and sits down at the table.

*plink* *plink* *fizz*

The noise is terrible.

Ow, ouch, never again...

Okay, this week I am going to set an essay, after I forgot my cunning ploy of refraining from doing so didn't spark huge and entertaining arguments in class last time round.

This week, we're going to be exploring alcohol. In particular, the ways in which alcohol can enhance -- or, alternatively, detract from -- one's lifestyle.

Please put your essays -- one hundred words, as before -- into the tray here by Saturday evening, and we'll study the topic in greater depth on Monday as before.

I'm intending to do some serious research into this matter on Friday afternoon, so please keep an eye out for me in town.

Edit: Thanks to a number of people dropping out or leaving school, I've got vacancies on this course. If you want to sign up, just leave me an essay like the other students. You'll be expected to join in the seminar on Mondays. Participation, marks and grades will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Lifestyle Seminar, here today. Well, after a fashion.

I understand that there was a bit of a hoo-hah with some unexpected visitors this weekend. Shocking cock-up, the mice are furious. Anyway, I'm assuming (ahem) that this is the reason why so many essays were late, and so many more are non-existent.

I'm having an essay amnesty because of this, so I'm not going to give students a hard time if they haven't done one. Also, because there's such a lot of cleaning up to do, I'm letting this seminar stay open for tomorrow too, on a drop-in basis. Please feel free to come in and talk about sex with your fellow students talk with your fellow students about sex and I'll try to chip in if I'm here.

[OOC - Class will stay open for about the next 30 real-life hours, until I have to set up for cookery. I'm "slow-timing" it, for mundane reasons]

If someone wants to talk about ways in which sex can be used to defeat the zombie hordes, please feel free -- but don't expect any extra credit.

[Remember that there are still five or six vacancies in this class -- go here to sign up.]

We need a topic for next week. As you know, the structure established for the class means that you write a hundred-word essay on the week's topic, being sure to submit it by Saturday evening ... and then we come together as a group on Monday to discuss our findings.

I try to chose topics which, once mastered, will help the students to cope better with their lifestyle. I try to choose topics which will promote careful research and lively debate. Most of all, I try to choose topics which will be of interest to the students who are signed up.

This week's topic is sex. I'm a little baffled by the interest that this topic engenders, but it does seem to be curiously popular and lots of sentient beings claim it plays a central role in any measure of how well their lifestyle is going. For these reasons it's sensible to make it a part of this course.

So one hundred words on this week's topic, please, in a comment below. Please try to explain just how issues surrounding this topic affect your lifestyle -- both positively and negatively.

A brief description of the position regarding ages of consent in your usual home may be helpful, but it won't be included in the word count.

*studies handful -- slim handful -- of essays*

Well, Rory and Kefka had to withdraw from this class. It's a pity, but I quite understand. It's better to decide that, and tell me, than simply to drop out.

I've had written work in from Draco, Deirdre, Lily, Wallace and Hamlet. A couple of those were past the due time, but at least I've got them now.

Nothing from the rest of you.

*attempts to look stern*
*fails completely*

Lifestyle seminar for this week is now open -- if you'd like to come in and start discussing your work, I'll be interested in the thoughts that emerge.

Those of you who didn't bother to do me an essay, I hope you have some very sound reasons. Somehow I don't feel as if "a werewolf ate it" is going to be sufficient. I may be dropping some of you and announcing some vacancies on this course tomorrow.

I'll let principalconnor have a list of those of you who aren't meeting the participation limits for the course.


[OOC (21:30 in the UK, 16:30 east coast, 13:30 west coast) - sorry, students, Mun is going to bed unwell until tomorrow. Talk amongst yourselves and I'll catch up later]

I'm afrad that I've had neither written work nor seminar attendance from neptune_wallace, rory__gilmore and _fleurdelacour.
To have missed one or the other, on the first week, is bad enough -- but to miss both is a problem.

I hope that they intend to repair that omission in the next couple of hours -- the course is already oversubscribed, and I'm being pressured to accept more students.

No doubt if there are sound reasons of which I'm unaware, someone will mention it.

Edit: Wallace has turned up, Rory has withdrawn. Fleur?

I'll be setting up for the Lifestyle Seminar here in a couple of hours. My students -- do feel free to drop in at some point during the course of the day, I'll post again when I'm organised.

I'm still missing essays from neptune_wallace, rory__gilmore, _fleurdelacour and comewillingly. Please leave them in the tray here before you turn up at the seminar -- we need to bring everyone's ideas into the discussion, I'm sure you agree that that's fair. I was hoping for some really inventive and original work, bit I'm afraid a couple of pieces have been a bit uninspiring so far.

OOC - This post isn't the seminar (that'll be a new post), but it's an ideal opportunity to explain why a fellow student is going to miss class, or to provide wooly excuses as to why you haven't written anything for the assignment. Or, indeed, to bitch about the other students you'll be sharing class with.

OOC - or to bitch about me.

Trescothick is out. 82 for 1.

My Lifestyle seminars are now fully booked. I ended up with thirteen students rather than twelve, but I'm sure that'll be fine.

My students are these: caroline_todd, _steele_, lauraholt, neptune_wallace, pure_blooddraco, rory__gilmore, _fleurdelacour, rosefern_todd, ___lily_evans_, comewillingly, magitekboy, deirdreofamber and ihatedenmark.

It looks like our first topic is going to be cheese.

Could all the students write a hundred words on ways in which their lifestyle has been affected by cheese, or how they could use cheese to improve their lives, and leave their work here?

They'll form the basis of discussion when we hold the seminar itself on Monday.