| Kelpie
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: BUE - Left Coast
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Text Cut: ketchup Text Cut: Airey & Dustin Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie  The man couldn't help but frown at the boy's question. "I am afraid Professor Burbage has passed away, young man," he replied. Poor thing must have gone into shock at the news and just blocked it out because how in Merlin's beard could he not know? It was even in the Daily Prophet.
And then...interplanetary gas happened...
...............RAVENCLAWS!
Airey sort of just stood there and stared at this young boy for a good several looooooong moments. Had he really just asked what the professor thought he had just asked? Pausing again with his mouth just hanging open in shock, Airey eventually came back to his senses and BURST into a fit of laughter. "HAHAHA. No no, nothing of the sort," he said, patting the boy firmly on the back. "Just glad to be here and eager to get going."
Dustin simply stared blankly at the new professor. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the new information. "Oh..." he muttered, emotionless. "That's sad."
Dustin only raised an eyebrow when Suit!Guy started laughing. What was so funny? It was an honest question, and honestly, Dustin figured he was just trying to cover up some residual toots. It was then and there that Dustin decided he liked this guy. "Ooooooookaaayyyyy!..." Dustin said, suspicious of the man's truthfulness. "Well, I look forward to your class! My mom says I'm from Saturn."
He turned and walked away toward where Aidan was sitting, animatedly sniffing the air. Text Cut: lesson/singing Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie Hmm...he should probably get things started, yes?
With a quick flick of his wand towards the doors, the Astronomy professor charmed them shut and then stood up on the elevated platform that the projector was on. Could everyone see him? Yes? Good.
"Hello and welcome to Astronomy! I am Airey Flamsteed and will be your professor this term." And hopefully future terms assuming the post wasn't cursed. "You may call me Professor Flamsteed or Professor Airey, whichever you prefer. Just a bit about me before we begin, and you should probably start taking notes. You will find a pull out desk surface on the right of your seat." He waited a moment to allow them all to do just that. "I was once a Hogwarts student myself, a Gryffindor in fact, and before coming to Hogwarts I worked at the mission operations directorate of NASA in Houston, Texas in America. I enjoy suits, science fiction, and... " He paused for a moment to add emphasis on what he was about to say next. There WAS a reason to his madness. We promise. "...singing." Pausing again, Airey jumped off the platform and began to walk around the circular area to make. "I know that standard procedure is to go over the definition of what astronomy is, but I trust you all to have already read about that in your textbook and if you have not, well, then please do so after class." He didn't want to waste any time on trivial things like that. Unless students were getting this noble subject mixed up with that rubbish that was Astrology. THEN there would be issues and THEN they would go over definitions.
But! Back to singing.
"Singing has been a favorite past time of mine since I was a Hogwarts student. Singing sad songs often has a way of healing. Happy songs help you channel your positive energies. Best of all is that anyone can sing, perhaps not well, but anyone can do it and there is a song for every situation." And he jumped back up on to the platform. "There are even songs that relate to Astronomy. Both directly and somewhat indirectly. Take for example the muggle childhood classic Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He paused to clear his throat before singing the first two verses. "Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. " Applause, yes?
"We see from these lyrics several connections to astronomy. The more obvious connection is the use of star. It is also connected in that it shows man's curiosity of the cosmos and even gives a little bit of scientific explanation as to when most stars are visible in the sky. Most because there was a very VERY big star, our sun, that is most visible during the day because the Earth is rotating around it. When our part of Earth faces it, the sun's blue light - the same light that makes the sky blue, mind you - is so bright that it makes all other stars appear to vanish. BUT ANYWAY! I want you all to take a moment to think about what songs you know that you think have a connection to astronomy. Muggle and wizarding music, it doesn't matter. No connection is too small! Please only share one song please. No need to go into too much detail as to why it connects to astronomy. You may sing a few verses as well if you wish. " In fact, he highly encouraged it. "Oh, and if you could please say your name before you answer I would appreciate it."
And for those students who were probably rolling their eyes at this exercise, the was a point to be made! A very valid point in fact. Yep.
Dustin sat down and took note of the desks. They were all for right-handed people, and he was a Southpaw. Doing the only thing he could think of, he contorted his body so he was able to aptly reach the writing surface with his left hand. It was uncomfortable, but it would do. Besides, the strange positioning would get his adrenaline pumping, and that would be good for remembering things!
He quietly provided some applause and smiles as the Professor sang and jumped around and whatnot (boy, would he like to try that sometime!) and became even more excited when they were given the option to sing something! Only there was one problem. He didn't know any songs. He decided instead that he would try to make one up on the spot. He raised his hand, and once called on, offered his own work. "Hi, Professor Flamsteed. I'm Dustin Ashby, and I'll be singing for you an original composition." He took a deep breath and started in. His song didn't have any real tune to it, and it was quite obvious that he was making it up as he went along. "My very eager mother just served us nachos!
They were really tasty
and had chicken on themmmmmmmm
At first I wasn't hungry
but then she made me eat them
and I was so fulllllll
Then after nachos, she made me look at a book
This book had pictures in it
And they looked like designer quaffles.
But then I read and saw
that they were called planets
And lalalalalalalalala (He lost track of his thoughts and couldn't think of any 'lyrics')
You may think this soooooooooooong
was just about my nachos,
but in fact it taught me
the order of the planetssssss
My very eager mother just served us nachos
Mercury Venus Earth (that's us!)
Mars Jupiter Saturn
Uranus and NEPTUUUUUUUUNNNEEEEE
The end!" He felt very accomplished, having exerted his obvious Ravenclaw creativity, and sat back down. "This song relates to Astronomy because it's how I remember the order of the planets in the solar system."
Pluto? What the heck was a Pluto?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie Oh, hold on there. When had this man arrived?! Had he seen him jump on a student's desk? Oops? Hopefully the man had a sense of humor. Although, he had been expecting someone else to be observing him today. A Mr. Sherman - who he had been surprised had opted to come all the way up to the Astronomy Tower given his, erm, age and all.
Airey gave the man a quick nod and awkward smiling before turning his attention back to the students. Yes. He should be moving things along.
"Very good all of you and thank you for being brave and singing." Most of them anyway and it hadn't been a requirement to sing. They had humored him though, which he appreciated. Awesome points to them all! "However, none of managed to mention the song that inspired this lesson." Shame really. There had been house points up as a reward for anyone that did."Are any of you familiar with the song Catch a Falling Star performed by Perry Como?" With a quick tap of his wand on the projector, lyrics written in bold white text appeared on the domed ceiling over the night sky for students to read. "As you may have been able to infer from all this, the theme of this term is stars and today we will be focusing on something rather special. A star that isn't really a star but has been mislabeled as one by humans. Often called shooting stars or falling stars like in the song, there is a proper name for this phenomena. Can anyone tell me what that is?"
Dustin was startled to see another adult in the classroom, at first. But remembering the last DADA lesson when the other adult had been, in fact, Suit!Guy, he wasn't so weirded out. Must be a thing around here.
Dustin had NO clue what the proper term for shooting and falling stars was, but who said he couldn't be creative?
He stared up at the projection screen, thinking of what they might be called. Once he had decided, he raised his hand again and offered his ideas: "Well, they kind of make me think of the game Hot Potato, because they're probably hot and I wouldn't want to touch one, but I don't think they're actually potatoes or anything. But maybe you could call them....uhh...Hot Falling Rocks? I mean that's basically what they are, right?" |