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It's a beautiful and unnaturally warm second fall day in October. There are no rain clouds in sight, the sky is a clear blue and the temperatures are steadily going upwards and the weather people have promised over 15 degrees as you make your way out onto the grounds on this Tuesday morning after breakfast for Divination class in the Barn and Pastures. An unorthodox choice of location one might think for divination readings, but it really isn't since creatures play an essential part in many divination methods, if you think about it!
Stepping into the huge barn a little before 9 am, if you are on time and don't want to upset Professor Vance you're immediately hit straight in the face by the strong smell of various creatures and the sounds high and low that they make. You pass many magical creature stalls and pens on your way to the middle of the barn where Professor Vance is leaning casually against one of the pen doors.
In front of her in a half circle colourful mats and stone tables have been placed out for the students leisure. As the students approach Professor Vance straightens up and smiles invitingly as she gestures to the mats. "Good morning, please take a seat! No more than two to a mat. Class will begin in a few minutes."
Mini activity / question 2 catchup! and very start of main activity XD
YesJess! | Captain Goggles | Mama Badger | Eva's Soul Sister | An OG™ | It's all in the Numbers
So Skylar had spotted two flight patterns, hovering and a gliding pattern... but surely there had to be more. And then all of a sudden, why hadn't she seen it before? But as she was glancing around at her fellow classmates she spotted it: The V formation. Had that just appeared out of nowhere or was it something she just noticed?
Professor Vance started talking about the patterns though and Skylar just swallowed. Retrace her steps? Well, this was awkward because she rather didn't WANT to retrace those steps. Unless, she needed to backtrack to figure out her mistakes to move forward? Which might explain the V formation she spotted, because trusting her friends ... yes, she needed to do this. Those friends who stood by her, she needed to trust their input in order to forge ahead.
And just then, she saw it... the birds changed flight and started going all over the place in direction. Was that? Actually, this made sense, because despite everything, being surprised by where her life took her and just let nature take its course was going to be the best route now. Just like that, she had her four flight patterns and they were discussing augureys? Specifically, Augureys and their ability to predict the weather/rain.
"Perhaps, they could be useful in helping to determine one's next big life decision? Like, where you should go could emulate the flight pattern? Are you just gliding through life, hovering. Are you living in the past? Do you rely on your friends to get you by? Or are you just truly living in the present, taking each day as the gift that it is and just letting the days bring you surprises?"
And it was time to use Susie to put Ornithomancy to use. First things first, she needed to form the words 'yes' and 'no' on the ground with the plastic letters.
SPOILER!!: Notes
- Hovering: you should back track and retrace your steps
- Glide: A clear path ahead
- V Formation: you should value and trust your friends
- Zig-Zag: you should let yourself be surprised by the direction your lives takes
__________________
___________________You should take your littlefinger and just point it in the mirror. ________________________________________Baby, maybe you're the problem✯
Slytherindor ♛ The Crazytastic Besties ♛ Shan Watson ♛
They'd be working with Romeo, huh? Vi immediately thought of the Shakespearean tragedy and couldn't help but smirk when she played the line in her head. She just had to share it with someone. So she turned to Ace and whispered, "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
But anyway... She should focus on the task at hand instead of on the guy sitting next to her and the looming conversation that was preoccupying her mind at the moment. Ahem. Focus Vi. Focus.
She started the task by grabbing a large handful of bird feed in her left fist and picking up the plastic letters with her right hand and then making her way over to where Romeo sat perched. "Hello," she greeted the majestic bird and then took the plastic letters to form the words YES and NO on the ground. Once the letters were formed, she took the bird feed from her right hand and then placed a good portion of it on top of the formed words. She didn't want to skimp out the bird. Then Vi sat, criss cross apple sauce style, and paused thinking of a question. She started off with a rather lame one. "Will I be brave enough to say how I really feel?" she asked Romeo and then glanced up at the augrey, waiting for an answer.
The augrey looked to her, looked to the letter (Olivia was certain Romeo was just looking at the feed itself and eying which clump looked better for him), and then flapped his wings an landed on the "YES" letter. Merlin. Now she would really have to say how she felt which was something she didn't want to do. She grumbled to herself. "Should have put a larger clump of food on the NO." Though in her heart, she knew she needed to say it. Vi just didn't want to face reality. Nope. Not yet.
In the meantime, perhaps she should ask another question?
Ability is nothing without Opportunity | | Creativity is Intelligence having FUN
Text Cut: Prof Vance
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nordic Witch
SPOILER!!: Student Replies
Her question sparked raised hands and Olivia was first to share her thoughts. Where the lioness was going with the metaphorical storm Laurel wasn't entirely sure but the other things she said were valid. Nodding kindly she said. "Birds are very receptive to all changes in the weather and danger like you said Olivia so if you for example walk in a forest and all the chattering birds go super quiet then you can expect looming danger or even an upcoming storm ahead in your immediate future." It paid to be observant of birds and all creatures really.
Zoryn spoke next and Laurel turned her head to the other lioness with a smile even though she felt that the girl hadn't exactly put much thought into her answer. "Roosters sing every morning yes Zoryn but you shouldn't see it as an annoyance but rather as a free alarm clock that you don't have to set. Very useful if you think about it." No need to worry about batteries or if the spell had depleted its energy a rooster always cried at the dawn of a new day.
Dahlia was next and she provided a thought worthy question that deserved a response. Letting her eyes rest on the young badger Laurel said with a beam. "Interesting that you brought that up Dahlia. Birds do have their own language of communication and they use their cries to call out and warn the rest of their flock when a predator is near so that they can get way quickly. If humans could understand and speak the language of birds then yes the cries might help us too except that birds and humans don't share many common predators."
Emmeline followed after Dahlia bringing up the song of the pheonix. Smiling over at the lioness she nodded "Yes the pheonix song fits Emmeline. The people a pheonix chooses to sing for is given increasing strength, courage, hope and love like how the late great headmasterDumbledore's pheonix; Fawkes did for Harry Potter in his duel against Voldermort back in the day." Many years had passed since.
Little Maddie Kemp surprised Laurel by literally taking her up on her words by dashing forwards to say hello to the four augureys in their stall. Slightly distracted by the girls action Laurel heard only some parts of her answer which she responded to with a kind look in the girl's direction. "You right Maddie birds are similar to humans in the respect that they can cry for different reasons. The pheonix tears for example has healing properties, the cry of a rooster can wake someone up, or like our augureys do foretell rain. The cry's meaning changes with circumstance just like for us humans."
Turning her gaze to Vivian she nodded happily "Yes definitely Vivian if the birds sees the person or other creature that enters their territory as a threat they need to protect themselves from their cries will both mean to back off and as a warning to the rest of their flock." Birds were very flock orientated and they defended that.
Letting her eyes dart over the student faces Laurel came to stop on Hattie as the girl offered up her question to the mix. Beaming she nodded in response. "Yes Hattie, owls or any species of birds can use their cries to let others of their species know that they are there especially if they want to find a mate for instance." To just bring up one example.
Gaze shifting to Shay she responded with a kind smile pursing her lips. "Yes Shay the birds flight patterns can foretell general weather and temperature changes that humans aren't as nature attuned to as humans are like storms, earthquackes, rain and danger like predators and so on."
Laurel turned to Rhea last who had waited the longest to share her thoughts on the subject. Beaming at the eagle she said "Yes that's true Rhea all bird mothers communicate with their babies with certain individual calls and they would sense if they had an unwanted cuckoo in tthe nest. And canaries have been known to be used by mine workers as danger alarms one might call them since they stop singing if danger is close."
Rhea was the last to offer up an answer and since none of the other students seemed eager to contribute more to discussion she felt it time to move on. Leaning a hand into the augurey's stall she let Julia hop on to her arm before she turned to face and speak to the students as she stroked the augurey over the feather. "Now then let's move on to our main practical portion since I think you've all by now have gotten some idea of what Ornithomancy is and I think you are more than ready to do some readings. What you'll need for this Ornithomancy reading is the help of an augurey, bird feed, plastic alphabet letters and a thought up yes/no question."
Here Laurel paused to with a few flicks of her wand make the needed materials appear on the floor in front of her feet and to allow the information to sink in. The alphabet letters were now visible in an open chest and dead flies, fairies and insects were lying in several baskets that gave off heavy smells. With the augurey still sitting on her arm laurel gestured for the students to come closer. "To perform the reading you need to form the words yes and no with the plastic letters on the ground and then put generous amounts of bird feed over the letters. When you've done that you need to think up a good yes or no question for tomorrow that you want the answer to then you voice it out loud mine would be 'Will I get a letter with tomorrow mornings post owls from Imogen Greyvson' then you have to release the augurey and watch which pile of bird feeding it goes for first because that will give you the answer to your question. You might need to coax the augurey into action, but they should be hungry since Prof Wayland hasn't fed them yet today." As she talked the letters formed themselves into words at her feet and flies and insects and fairys landed on top of the words and the augurey known as Julia flew down from Professor Vances arm and began to peck with intensity at the feeding over the no word.
A flash of disappointment crossed over Prof Vance's face as she said "How unfortunate maybe I'll hear back another day. Anway hop to it everyone Julia, Artreyu, Susie and Romeo are here to aid you with your readings. You've got 45 minutes to get your readings done!"
OOC: Main activity time! You've got until Wednesday September 20th at around 7pm to complete the activity before i wrap up the lesson. Each house has their own augurey at their disposal that the students of that house would take turns with.
As Laurel explained above you need to perform these steps to be able get full activity credit for the ornithomancy reading in as many or as few posts as you want.
1. Fetch bird generous amounts of birds feeding and the plastic letters 2. Use the plastic letters to form the words YES and NO on the ground 3. Pile bird feeding over the formed words 4. Think up a good Yes/No question that your student wants the answer to and then say it out loud. 5. Release the 'house' augurey and if needed coax it into eating the food available and interpret what that means for your students asked question.
Have fun with this! Be creative! If you have any questions then don't hestiate to vm/pm or ask me in the lesson thread..
Hmm so can bird be used other than the Wizarding World's most underpaid meteorologist? His experience earlier was a solid clue that they can have other uses, but just as he was about to speak up, the Slytherin Prefect verbalized his thoughts. Mmhm yes that, Mama Nature's security alarm system yo.
And now they have to deal with Augureys. Listen he can believe in Ornithomancy just fine, but he found in a bit hard to believe that a bird who is practically a stranger to him knows him well enough to predict or advise him in his life's most thought-provoking questions. If this was St Nick his red owl telling yes or no he would readily believe him, but Romeo?....
.... he had to snicker when Vi murmured the Shakespearean line to him "Make you kinda wonder if we should or should not believe him when he answers heart-related questions...."
He collected the plastic letters and the bird feed from their places and waited his turn. He wasnt even sure what to ask the Augurey that wouldnt result with him making fun of whatever it ended up choosing. Also what if he piled up the birdfeed on whatever answer he preferred to hear?.....
.... Which is what he did when it was his turn to ask Romeo a question. The YES pile had more feed and the Gryffindor Ace had the most perfect question to ask the sorry looking bird. He winked at Vi before strutting his most Shakespearean type pose, arms held out as if he was about to launch into a soliloquy and asked "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
It is a legit question after all....
__________________
++Tenacius ++🐦++ Salander++🐦++ Deo ++🐦++ Vickers ++🐦++ Huxley ++🐦+ Aquila++ Yeah thats what crazy is, when its broken you say theres nothing to fix++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++And you pray that everything will be okay, while you're making all the same mistakes
Puff by day, snake by night | Mj's bestie | Always UP to Something...
He hadn't even found anything good in the pasture when it was time to gather back. Eddie took his sweet time to get back with the group, which meant he didn't hear the next questions and he was there finally to hear what the activity was and all the third year could do was scratch his head. So they had to put the bird feed on the yes or no to get the bird to answer the question, how was that Divination Honestly, all they had to do was put it on one for the bird to head to what they wanted, right?
So he watched the other's go get the birds and do their thing before he walked over to his yes or no. So if he placed food on both the bird would land on the right answer. He still didn't believe it so he grabbed the food and walked over to the yes or no questions. placing just a little tiny bit on the no he filled the yes so that the bird would certainly go towards it.
They were going to actually get close to the augureys and talk to them and stuff! Emmeline thought that this was definitely the best Divination lesson EVER, mhm. She was usually kinda skeptical about Divination; she knew that there were real Seers and stuff, and she thought that Professor Vance probably was one, but Emmeline herself definitely was NOT. Plus, she'd gotten through a lot of Divination assignments allll last year by partially making up predictions on her homework and stuff. She always honestly tried to use the methods they learned in class, but she figured the reason that they didn't work so well for her was 'cause she wasn't a Seer. But THIS method was different, 'cause it relied on the creatures' ability to predict stuff, not her own abilities. Sooo the second year was super hopeful that maybe it would actually work.
She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet a little bit as she joined the line of Gryffindors waiting to work with Romeo. She hoped that he would let her pet him, though she wasn't going to try that 'till towards the end of the lesson. Just in case he got upset and wanted to fly off. When it was FINALLY her turn, the second year spelled out "yes" and "no" with the plastic letters, and sprinkled LOADS of bird food on allll of the letters. She tried to do it super evenly and stuff, in case Romeo was hungry. Then she turned to the augurey in front of her and said, "Hiiiii Romeo! I hope you're having a reallllly good day! Sooo my question is: will I ever get to raise a baby niffler in my WHOLE LIFE?" This was a really important question for the twelve-year-old and she sort of held her breath as Romeo flew off his perch -- and started eating off the "yes" letters!! Emmeline beamed at the augurey, muttered a quick: "Thanks, Romeo!" and sped off to go to the end of the line again. Once she was back in line at the veeeerrry end, the second year did a super short little dance. That she immediately stopped when she noticed that she was doing it and looked around furtively at her classmates. Nobody saw that, right?
Kyle got the letters, arranging them on the ground first before getting the bird seed. As he did it, he thought of what to ask. Then, he got a very good idea. He asked aloud: "Will I get a kneazle of my own next summer?" Okay, that wasn't any time soon, so maybe it wouldn't work. But he had to try. He released Susie and watched the bird carefully. It wasn't going anywhere. Maybe it hadn't noticed the food yet. He went and stood between the YES and NO and clicked his tongue a bit. Well, it worked for cats and kneazles, alright? He didn't know much about augureys. Then he picked up a bit of feed and threw it toward the bird. That seemed to get its attention. It started pecking its way over to the words. His heart fell when the bird seemed to be headed toward the NO on the ground. Oh well. Maybe the summer after, right? But then Susie changed directions! She wound up pecking at the word YES on the ground and Kyle just lit up with joy. YES! He was going to get a kneazle!
Vanessa the Snot Girl l Rachels Rule | rock,tumble,&roll ❆ adorable coffee bean
Harriet was really hoping that the main activity was going to be more interesting that the bird watching. She really had no enjoyed that so much. Hopefully she wouldn't get too bored now. Because she wanted to at least give the activity a good go. The birds the professor was talking about did seem more interesting though. So she had come good hopes for this activity. For now anyway. She might change her mind when she actually started it. Ooh. Each house was getting assigned a bird. Well, she just hoped that the hufflepuff one was a good one.
She carefully got up, and collected her bird seed and the plastic letters. She still didn't really get the whole point of this. But she was going to try anyway. She patiently waited her turn, and then stepped up to the bird. She bent down and placed the yes and no letters on the floor, before then putting the bird seed on them.
Hopefully the bird wouldn't just eat everything. She stood up, and then began to think of a really good question.
__________________
It's the end of the show. Of the historemix. We switched up the flow. And we changed the prefix
But we want to say. Before we drop the curtain. Nothing is for sure. Nothing is for certain
YesJess! | Captain Goggles | Mama Badger | Eva's Soul Sister | An OG™ | It's all in the Numbers
Okay, plastic letters carefully placed on the ground. Skylar now sprinkled some bird feed over the letters, which by sprinkled, the fifth year more like DUMPED a whole cupful over each word in such a way that the words were no longer even faintly visible. But hey they would be, once Susie answered her question, right? Unless Susie was just super hungry and ate everything. Like how would an augurey bird know the answers to her questions anyway? And what if it didn't eat anything?
Honestly, this Divination method seemed rather far fetched; some methods actually seemed to have some rhyme and rhythm, but Ornithomancy? It just didn't make much sense really. Like how did the augurey know which pile to even eat from?
Okay, enough cynic, time to think of a yes/no question and ask it aloud. First thought came to her was about her relationship, but honestly, she wasn't sure that she wanted that information public. So instead she settled on a different question, which was still just as important.
"Will I do well on my OWL examinations?"
Releasing Susie, she waited. And waited, watching the hesitation and then finally, the augurey went and pecked at the 'yes' pile. And then it switched to the 'no' pile. And then back to the 'yes' ... and it did this three more times, until finally, Skylar had enough of flipping her head back and forth between the two piles and coaxed the bird back into its cage.
So what did that mean? She was going to well on some, but not all!? Or could the bird just not decide? Maybe her question wasn't cut or dry? Maybe the bird just wanted to taste from both piles? Was she too vague? Not vague enough?
__________________
___________________You should take your littlefinger and just point it in the mirror. ________________________________________Baby, maybe you're the problem✯
Vanessa the Snot Girl l Rachels Rule | rock,tumble,&roll ❆ adorable coffee bean
Okay.
So she needed to think of a really good question. Hattie was trying to think of a good one. That wasn't ambiguous. So that the bird would be able to answer it good. She wasn't really sure though. What kind of questions did they did to ask? Could they be silly? Oh. She really needed a good one.
She decided to just go with a similar one that the Professor had done. And so the hufflepuff spoke. "Will I get a candy package from my mother tomorrow?" She asked, before releasing the bird. She hoped that it was going to be a good question.
And then she watched the bird fly down. It looked between the two answers, before going to peck at the yes answer. "Yaaaay!" She mused with a beam. She was getting candy tomorrow and that was just great! Hattie was actually very happy indeed with how that had turned out! yay!"
__________________
It's the end of the show. Of the historemix. We switched up the flow. And we changed the prefix
But we want to say. Before we drop the curtain. Nothing is for sure. Nothing is for certain
YesJess! | Captain Goggles | Mama Badger | Eva's Soul Sister | An OG™ | It's all in the Numbers
She needed a solid question, less vague.... Because she was after all, planning to take twelve OWLs and perhaps she would do well on 10 or 11 of them, but the bird pecked at both because she wasn't specific enough. Like if she asked, will i do well on my Divination Examination? it would have been more specific. Less wiggle room.
That was when she heard it; the familiar voice that despite everything, Skylar would recognize from a mile away. And lately, it felt as though it WAS a mile away, maybe more. But hearing the voice, Skylar had no choice but to ask the question that she was really burning deep to know more about. If the bird was indecisive about this, then she would truly know Ornithomancy was a farce.
"Okay, here goes..." fresh bird seed placed on the two piles and another question in mind, the she-snake glanced at the familiar blond head and then back to her piles. "Will Hattie and I ever ..." Sky trailed over, her voice breaking. Inhale, exhale. "Will... Will Hattie and I ever speak again?"
Releasing Susie, the augurey hovered a moment, but then started toward the no pile, but didn't eat anything from that side, instead pecking lightly at the yes pile. Oh, she could just cry, but instead, Skylar just collapsed onto the ground, trying to think now of just how to 'right things' with her bestest friend.
__________________
___________________You should take your littlefinger and just point it in the mirror. ________________________________________Baby, maybe you're the problem✯
Seeing that no one needed a team partner, the head girl walked out of the barn with her binoculars and notebook. She found a steep hill to lean on which was good for her back and which had a good view of the lake. Leaning up against it, she peered into her binoculars to see what she might see...
"Ooh, an owl!" she exclaimed, spotting a snowy owl almost immediately as it soared over their heads and over across the lake. Looking at it through the binoculars, she spotted a package bound in brown paper and red string clutched in the bird's talons. Clearly it was a school owl and it was a delivering a package to someone's loved one. Wondering nosily who sent it and to whom, Kitty jolted a note down.
There were several geese floating on the lake, but since they weren't flying she only made a minor note on them - just noting their presence. Swallows skimmed over the lake as they hunted for bugs. "Skimiiiing," she muttered, jolting down another note.
An insect flew towards her face. "Ugh, get away from me! Shoo!" She swatted it aside before realizing it was a bee. Thankfully it flew away, deciding she wasn't worth the trouble. She wondered vaguely what Professor Vance would think about studying bees for Divination. Better write down a note...
Once her page was full, Kitty stood and joined the other students coming back to the barn.
Hiss!Roar!Growl!Caw! | Hermione's Double | The Little Three | Alecate
Maddie was still a complete and total amateur at this sort of thing, but it helped that it sounded like a super fun assignment. She really liked the birds, even if Hufflepuff did get the bird with the hardest name to pronounce. Artreyu. Hmm...that sounded about right, or at least it did when she said to herself. Maddie skipped on over to the bird seed and plastic letters and collected what she'd need for the assignment. Once she had them, she knelt close to the ground and spread out the letters until they formed Y-E-S and N-O. Next, she sprinkled the bird seed all across the letters.
"No eating this just yet, Artreyu," she said. "I've got to ask you a question, and then when you're ready, you can eat the bird seed of your choice." She had no idea if the bird could understand her, but apparently it understood yes or no type questions, so it was possible. Now, what should she ask the bird. She thought long and hard about what she'd like to do tomorrow, and finally, she had just the right question. "Oh, I know! I know!" she said.
The students surprised Amelia this time; their answers to Professor Vance's second question had been fairly well thought-out for their various age groups and all answers were appropriate. She jotted some of the more impressive answers down on the separate piece of parchment that she would be using to add more detail to her observations form after the lesson. She had to admit to herself that she was pleasantly surprised by Professor Vance's performance today.
Amelia had significant doubts about the subject of Divination, but she tried not to allow those doubts to surface in her observations. She was here to observe the quality of the teaching staff, not to give her opinions about the subjects themselves. Her self-restraint was soon severely tested as Professor Vance gave the students another activity to do. Amelia was not sure that she understood the connection between augureys predicting weather with their songs and augureys predicting anything simply by choosing which set of food-covered letters to land on. The woman stood and moved nearer to the four lines of students; she was standing off to the side but could still hear the students' questions and see the birds' responses quite clearly. She would not be recording any of these questions because of the clearly, errr, personal nature of them, but she was interested in seeing how the students completed the activity and interacted with their assigned augureys.
All of the students were able to follow the instructions correctly, and all of them seemed to take the augureys' "readings" as absolute truth. Amelia frowned at the lack of critical thinking being displayed here, but then, it was Professor Vance's job to teach these Divination methods as though they were true. The professor was obviously succeeding in that department.
At least the lesson would likely be concluded at the end of this activity. The smells, which were certainly made worse by the augurey food, were really getting to her. Amelia withdrew a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed delicately at her nose as she continued to watch the students asking their augureys questions.
SPOILER!!: BoG observation form
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
BOARD OF GOVERNORS OBSERVATION
Observer: Who is observing the lesson?
Amelia Raventhorne
Professor: Who is teaching the lesson?
Professor Laurel Vance
Subject: What subject does this lesson fall under?
Divination
Topic: What is the concept students will learn about over the course of this lesson?
Ornithomancy
Objective: What are the 1 or 2 student learning objectives/goals that will be measurered in this lesson?
Student learning goals and objectives are never stated explicitly by the professor but instead must be derived from the lesson's contents.
1. Students should understand what ornthomancy is by the end of the lesson.
2. Students should be able to analyze flight patterns and to conduct readings using augureys.
Launch: How does the professor get the lesson started? What technique(s) did he/she use to engage students?
She began by asking a general question regarding divination methods that involve creatures. Students had some good answers, but also some rather disturbing ones. Professor Vance was able to turn each answer into a learning opportunity for her students.
Instruction: How do diverse students engage with ideas/texts to develop their own understanding; what guiding questions does the professor ask; how is the professor promoting question generation/discussion; what activities are the students performing? In short, outline the lesson as you observe it.
Began lesson by asking students about creature-related divination methods in general. Many students had inappropriate or generally poor answers, but the professor turned their answers into learning opportunities for the class.
Students were given omnioculars and taken out into the pasture. They were instructed to observe and record at least 4 bird flight patterns and use their textbooks to label the flight patterns accordingly. Most students did not seem to struggle with this activity and stayed on task.
Lesson continued with a lecture on ornithomancy and a question from the professor about what else a bird's sounds or flight patterns could be used for (as opposed to augureys being used as weather forecasters). There were no ridiculous answers this time, and I thought that all of the students' answers were well thought-out and age appropriate.
Professor Vance then outlined the main activity for today's lesson. Students were given plastic letters, augurey feed, and were assigned to one of the four augureys by House. Students were instructed to use the plastic letters to spell out the words "yes" and "no" and then to sprinkle food on top of them. They were then to ask the augurey a yes/no question and see which set of letters the augurey landed on. This meets Hogwarts Divination curriculum standards for ornithomancy, though I believe that the birds are simply drawn to the letters with the most food on them. Students asked a variety of ridiculous questions and all seemed to accept the augurey's "answers" without questioning the validity of such a method.
Closure: How does the professor bring closure to the lesson?
[text]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Glows: What are 1-3 areas that the professor did well as observed in this lesson?
1. She handled students' more outlandish answers to her guiding questions with grace and sophistication.
2. Professor Vance gave an excellent overview of ornithomancy in her lecture, hitting all of the main points of the branch of magic.
3. Professor Vance walked amongst her students and assisted them while they were working on their activities. She was very engaged with the students for the entire lesson.
Grows: What are 1-3 areas that the professor can improve on in the future?
1. Perhaps Professor Vance could adopt a slightly more strict manner in her lessons so as to discourage students' ridiculous behavior before it happens.
2. While there will always be small items for teachers to improve on, I felt that Professor Vance conducted a very well-organized, quality Divination lesson overall.
[text]
Emmeline was thrilled! In fact, she felt like dancing right here in the barn 'cause Romeo had said that she'd get a baby niffler! YESSSS!! She couldn't wait to tell Cami!! Cami would believe in all this Divination stuff, right? Anyway, it was clearly Fate that she should get a baby niffler, and the second year was sure that nobody could argue with that.
She BEAMED at Romeo when it was finalllllly her turn to ask another question. The Gryffindor set up the plastic letters and spread his food as evenly as she could over all 5 letters; she didn't want to cheat by putting more food on one set than on the other, nope. Sooo now she just had to ask her question. 'Cept this one was way harder to ask than the last one had been, especially since the last question's answer had been so AWESOME and made her realllllly happy! This wasn't a happy question. Still, Emmeline took a deep breath and asked quietly, "Will James be mad at me forever?" Then she bit her lip and could barely breathe as Romeo took flight again, and landed on the "NO". The twelve-year-old let out a loooooong sigh of relief, muttered her thanks to the awesome augurey, and more slowly headed to the back of the line again.
Yeah I broke that mirror, so what? ll NOT backward ll Official Gryfferin ll Lemon's favourite
First thing she thought about as she approached Julia? The Professor had said they were hungry. There was a good chance the bird would reach for either answer by the mere fact there was food being presented. What if it just liked the right better? Or didn't care where it got its meal from as long as it was fed? This sounded like the recipe for skewed results if you asked her.
Jessa got the words, placing a pile on each while she tried her best to forget how silly she felt doing this.
While she did acknowledge that some creatures like the demiguise had the gift of foresight--it was immediate foresight and followed the thought that nothing was fixed and the future had far too many outcomes to truly be predictable.
Knowing this, how could she expect the Augurey to know?
With a sigh, she approached. "Will the potion I'm working on, be ready to go by tomorrow?" Even humoured it with an easy question...one that was more likely to go one way than the other. The Ravenclaw stared at the bird for what felt like an eternity but was actually only a few seconds before it reached for the 'no' pile.
No. No?
Jessa wrinkled her nose, watching the bird enjoy a meal while it gave her the 'bad news'. Honestly, the bird likely didn't know what it was talking about. This potion had been weeks in the making and she was sure she'd finally gotten the right measurements of everything she intended to use. It'd work, she didn't need this bird's negativity in her life--not when she was so looking forward to.
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Imma say all the words inside my head____________________________________
______________________________I'm fired up and tired of the way that things are said.
Little Fox | ½ of Lauralie | Ravenclaw with a Hufflepuff heart and a Gryffindor soul | #HouseNATARIANA
This was stupid.
There was no way that a bird pecking at some seed could tell you how the future would turn out.
But, as class activities went, it wasn't exactly difficult. The smells of the barn weren't pleasant but, after being exposed to them for as long as they had been, they were bearable.
Rhea collected the plastic letters and a generous amount of bird seed and, when it came to her turn to work with the bird, stood in front of the augurey. She positioned the letters, which spelt 'YES' and 'NO', equal distances away from the bird. It was important to minimalize the risk of one set of letters being somehow more appealing than the other. She then poured equal amounts of bird seed on each answer and took a step backwards. Hopefully Julia wasn't too full or something.
Now she just needed a question.
She started off with a simple one. "Will I return to Hogwarts next year?" Julia hopped down from her perch and, without hesitation, started pecking at the 'YES' pile. Of course, that didn't necessarily mean that Rhea had passed her OWLs - it could mean that she would be repeating the year - but, for now, she let out a relieved sigh. At least she wouldn't have to drop out. You know, if Divination and augurey predications held any truth to them.
dream until your • dreams come true ~ Human pygmy puff
It was time for the main activity and Shayla was all ears. When she heard what they would need to complete the assignment she had an idea of what they may be doing. As Professor Vance explained things further and demonstrated what to do, Shay paid close attention. She was listening and watching, but at the same time formulating her question to ask.
When the class was given the ok, Shay went up to get bird feed and some plastic letters. Nearing the chest of letters, Shay stopped short. What was that smell? When she saw what was responsible for the.......aroma, the Gryffindor was not particularly pleased. Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Shay took her supplies and headed over to the Gryffindor augurey.
When it was her turn, Shay approached Romeo and said her hellos. "Hey there Romeo. I'm Shay. So you're going to help me out with my assignment, yeah?" While Shay continued talking, she went down on one knee to place her letters on the ground. The plastic letters were arranged and formed into the words yes and no. She made sure not to place the words too close together. Finally, she poured a good amount of bird feed onto each letter. Shay tried her best to distribute the food evenly. She didn't want to influence Romeo in any way. Of course there would be more bird feed on the yes side because......three letters vs. two.
Once she was finished, Shay looked at Romeo and said, "Will I do well on my NEWT's?" Then she turned Romeo loose and waited. "Ok Romeo, do your thing." The augurey was a little slow to get to work. Maybe he wasn't quite as hungry anymore, since Shay was not the first student to work with him. At last though, Romeo decided to move. He took his sweet time, but finally approached the 'yes' blocks. The bird ate bird feed until he had his fill. When there was no seed left, he moved on to the 'no' blocks and began to eat their bird feed. Well what was that supposed to mean? Shay was pretty sure that that was not how the activity was supposed to go. Since Romeo had approached the 'yes' blocks first, the seventh year decided to go with that answer. She would do well on her NEWT's........but that belated 'no' was going to nag her. Was she going to do poorly on some subjects? Refusing to let Romeo's response get into her head, she decided to give him another chance. She had to come up with another question. This time things would go according to plan.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Salt!
Puff by day, snake by night | Mj's bestie | Always UP to Something...
So he made sure to place more food on the yes than the no and then went to get the bird, what was its name again, Sally? Whoever it was he had to get it, oh and say a question. He looked at the BOG for a moment to make sure she wasn't too close to him. Merlin knew he didn't need his mother on him about things he asked in class. Moving over just a bit more he looked at the bird.
"Will I be a dark lord one day?"
Turning he let the bird go, but of course, the bird had eaten so much from the other people asking she seemed to want to fly around and not go to the yes or no. "Come on, just land on one of them so I can be done." He stared at the dumb thing for what felt like forever. Not that he cared what it really landed on Eddie didn't believe in any of this stuff, but he wanted to complete the lesson and go back to his dorm.
Finally, the bird flew near the yes and no, he knew it would land on the yes because he put more food there. It was going to land, it was going to, "Hey, hey get away" There were other birds going after his bird feed on the yes and his bird landed on the no!
"That isn't a right reading, those other birds screwed it up!"
Hiss!Roar!Growl!Caw! | Hermione's Double | The Little Three | Alecate
Maddie bounced in place just a little as the PERFECT question came to mind. She'd laid out her plastic letters and sprinkled bird seed over them. Now all she needed to do was ask her question, release the Hufflepuff bird, and then hope he agreed with her on this yes or now question. "So you ready to do this, uhhh..." What was his name again? Artreyu? Something like that. She was still wishing they'd ended up with one of the birds with an easier name to say. "...Artreyu?" she finished, but the name came out as more of a question. "Artie? Can I call you that?" she asked the bird. "Artie?" She paused. She hadn't been pecked or had any bird seed angrily thrown at her, so she guessed that answer was yes.
She looked down at the piled bird seed once again then drew in a deep breath. "Okay, Artie...I have a question for you. Will I...be able to EAT A DOUGHNUT tomorrow?" she asked. See--the perfect question, just as she'd thought. Maddie released Artie and immediately began pointing to the bird seed she'd piled up. Come and GET IT, ARTIE!!!! The bird kind of eyed the seed, and for a moment, Maddie was almost sure it wasn't interested in eating. How anti-climatic. She sighed, but just as she did so, the bird pounced on the N-O food and began chowing down. "No? The answer is no?" she asked. "But...why?!" What was so wrong with wanting a doughnut!?
Dem Carters | even 🕊🕊 have pride | | Expecto PAWtronum 🐈 | U-NA-GI
Blink blink.
Okay. They had to use an augurey, which already had a supposed prediction method of its own with the whole rain thing, to give them answers to a yes or no question. Honestly, it was a bit like using a magic eight ball. How was the bird supposed to know? And what if it didn't eat any of the seed? Which was a huge possibility in his case, since he was towards the back of the Gryffindor line.
Ronan retrieved the plastic letters and some bird seed, then the bird and moved over to free area. He arranged the letters to read 'yes' and 'no', spread bird seed over them and began thinking of a question. He didn't want to go too personal, since there were people around to overhear. Finally, he thought of one that was really clever, or at least he thought so. "Romeo, is it going to rain tomorrow?" Get it? Because augureys' cries predict rain? Tee-hee.
Anyway, he watched as the bird sat there just looking at the piles of seed, not looking interested at all. Hmmmm, just as he thought. It was getting full. Oh, well. "Not hungry anymore, huh. Well, back to your cage you go." He collected the bird and the letters, choosing to leave the seed for any owls or other birds that may come through and returned them to their proper places.
How much longer did they have left in this lesson?
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Salt!
Maisie swallowed. The augureys looked scary. She tied her hair back in a low ponytail. It was the only time she tied it back, when she needed it out of the way. Usually when she was afraid of it getting in something, like Potions, or ink. This time, she was afraid of getting it tangled up in the bird’s claws.
When it was her turn, Maisie, being young and having romantic ideas of what fairies should be, took a pile of fairies to feed her bird. She arranged her letters, blue like her house, in two immaculately separate, perfectly aligned words (Maisie had issues with neatness). She hesitated, then poured a big helping of fairies over each word, leaving the tip of the ‘Y’ and the diagonal of the ‘N’ clear for her to see. “Will my mum find out about the Floo Powder?” She asked, shooting a worried glance at the Professor.
Julia, the augurey, blinked at her. She sniffed at the fairies from a distance, then turned her head away and went off to someone else’s letters.
Oh, Maisie thought. “I guess that means it’s uncertain, or unclear?”
Thoughts tumbled over themselves in her mind as Laurel walked amongst the students as they got started on their ornithomancy readings. What verdict was the attending BoG madam going to give her lesson? Was she going to be praised or critiqued? Divination she knew many didn't believe in or even see as worthy of being taught.
Setting aside her thoughts Laurel focused her attention on what questions she heard the student's utter as they had their reading time with one of the four augureys. The questions ranged from matters of the heart to how they'd do on examinations. There were as many different questions asked as there were students. It was interesting to hear. And it surprised Laurel that none of the student's grumbled loudly to her over having to handle dead insects and faeries for the bird feeding. Many usually did otherwise. The Augurey's though were really liked it seemed even if the students approached them quite differently.
Giving her watch a glance Laurel realized that unfortunately it was high time for class to end. "Thank you all for a great lesson in the barn this morning! I can tell that most of you have gained a better understanding of what Ornithomancy is and how observing birds can help us in the everyday to foretell the future. The augureys you can visit anytime and I'll tell Professor Wayland about what you've all practiced in case some of you want to try to do a new Ornithomancy reading at another time. Your homework assignment will be posted up in the Common Room's later today so keep an eye out for that. Class dismissed! You are all free to head to your next classes." Turning away from the students Laurel began the process of cleaning up after the class since she too needed to go back up to the castle soon.
OOC: Class is dismissed! Thank you all so much for participating in this lesson! I hope you all had as much fun in it as I had. I will leave the thread open for another 24 hours for you to make character departures and/or finish your main activities. I hope I see you all in class next time!
Divination Lesson 1 - Ornithomancy 
x12 
x8
Yeah thats what crazy is, when its broken you say theres nothing to fix++++++++++++++++++++
I hope you all had as much fun in it as I had. I will leave the thread open for another 24 hours for you to make character departures and/or finish your main activities. I hope I see you all in class next time! 
