Teaching... Ainsley had never seen her life taking this direction, but somehow it had all just fallen into place naturally. After stepping back from Ollivanders, she had taken a year for herself. Rest, therapy, reassessing the life she wanted to live. The things she loved and was passionate about, the things she knew she couldn't stand anymore. Working with kids, studying magic, explaining things to others... it had all come together into a clear path, and when Ainsley had seen a Charms job available, she hadn't hesitated before running it by her therapist.
From there the process to get here had taken plenty of work though, and she reminded herself of her coping strategies for overwhelm as the room filled up with her first class of first years. She waited until the room was full before sending up a shower of bright sparks from her wand to get their attention, pleased at the novelty of having the ability to actually make a room full of eleven year olds be quiet. She pocketed her wand and beamed at them encouragingly.
"Welcome to Charms! I'm going to be your new teacher, Professor Lynch." Professor Lynch. Even the words sounded strange and exciting. "Today is mostly going to be foundations, and we'll do some quick introductions as well, and then next week we'll be getting into spellwork. Isn't that exciting?" She smiled, remembering how eager she had been for any chance to use her wand in first year. "Charms is all about channeling your inner magic using your wand as a focus, in order to achieve practical tasks. As a result, it's important to understand your wand when doing work like this."
"Now, coincidentally - I used to be a wandcrafter." She added, with a cheerful smile. "It's not unlikely that your older housemates are using wands I made. So I thought we could make the get to know you session a little more interesting. We're going to go around the room, and I'd like everyone to stand up, tell us all your name, your house, one interesting fact about you, and one fact about your wand. It could be the wood, the core, maybe something about the shape, and I'll explain a little bit about what that may mean for your relationship with your wand when casting spells."
She raised her own wand, showing it for the class to see. "I'll start us off. My name is Ainsley Lynch, I was a Hufflepuff when I went to Hogwarts, a fact about me is that I was also Queen of Flowers in the Wild Patch, and I actually have two wands. My main one is the wand I bought when I was eleven, it was my very first experience learning that magic was real. This wand is made from Pine and Fwooper Feather, which creates a unique limitation. Fwoopers are a bird you'll learn all about when you're older if you take Care of Magical Creatures, but for now all you need to know is that they are loud, and it causes problems. Silencing Charms are often used to keep them tame, but as a result Fwooper feather core wands often refuse to cast that spell outright, which has certainly proven true for me. They're also rumoured to drive the wielder mad, but I'll let you all make up your minds on what you think of me in that regard." She said cheerfully, before setting her wand back down on the desk.
"Alright, now it's your turn - we'll go around the room one by one. Your name, your house, a fact about you and anything about your wand that you'd like me to give you some more detail about." She said cheerfully, and as the class went around introducing themselves she was sure to follow up every wand's description with some of her own insights. Once the introductions were finished, she picked up her own wand and waved it at the blackboard behind her, a list of spells appearing on the surface.
"This is your reading list for first year - you'll find all of these spells in your textbooks. Each week we'll do a deep dive into at least one of these spells, I'll let you know which one to read up on in advance. Next week will be Lumos," Ainsley flicked her wand alight in a quick demonstration, "so please make sure you've read that chapter before our next class." Setting her wand down again, Ainsley gave the class a cheerful smile. "But for now, I've kept you for long enough. Go enjoy the rest of the day, and I'll see you next week for our first practical lesson."
Post lesson for full marks, no minimum word count. For bonus points, RP your character introducing themself as described above.
READING LIST
From there the process to get here had taken plenty of work though, and she reminded herself of her coping strategies for overwhelm as the room filled up with her first class of first years. She waited until the room was full before sending up a shower of bright sparks from her wand to get their attention, pleased at the novelty of having the ability to actually make a room full of eleven year olds be quiet. She pocketed her wand and beamed at them encouragingly.
"Welcome to Charms! I'm going to be your new teacher, Professor Lynch." Professor Lynch. Even the words sounded strange and exciting. "Today is mostly going to be foundations, and we'll do some quick introductions as well, and then next week we'll be getting into spellwork. Isn't that exciting?" She smiled, remembering how eager she had been for any chance to use her wand in first year. "Charms is all about channeling your inner magic using your wand as a focus, in order to achieve practical tasks. As a result, it's important to understand your wand when doing work like this."
"Now, coincidentally - I used to be a wandcrafter." She added, with a cheerful smile. "It's not unlikely that your older housemates are using wands I made. So I thought we could make the get to know you session a little more interesting. We're going to go around the room, and I'd like everyone to stand up, tell us all your name, your house, one interesting fact about you, and one fact about your wand. It could be the wood, the core, maybe something about the shape, and I'll explain a little bit about what that may mean for your relationship with your wand when casting spells."
She raised her own wand, showing it for the class to see. "I'll start us off. My name is Ainsley Lynch, I was a Hufflepuff when I went to Hogwarts, a fact about me is that I was also Queen of Flowers in the Wild Patch, and I actually have two wands. My main one is the wand I bought when I was eleven, it was my very first experience learning that magic was real. This wand is made from Pine and Fwooper Feather, which creates a unique limitation. Fwoopers are a bird you'll learn all about when you're older if you take Care of Magical Creatures, but for now all you need to know is that they are loud, and it causes problems. Silencing Charms are often used to keep them tame, but as a result Fwooper feather core wands often refuse to cast that spell outright, which has certainly proven true for me. They're also rumoured to drive the wielder mad, but I'll let you all make up your minds on what you think of me in that regard." She said cheerfully, before setting her wand back down on the desk.
"Alright, now it's your turn - we'll go around the room one by one. Your name, your house, a fact about you and anything about your wand that you'd like me to give you some more detail about." She said cheerfully, and as the class went around introducing themselves she was sure to follow up every wand's description with some of her own insights. Once the introductions were finished, she picked up her own wand and waved it at the blackboard behind her, a list of spells appearing on the surface.
"This is your reading list for first year - you'll find all of these spells in your textbooks. Each week we'll do a deep dive into at least one of these spells, I'll let you know which one to read up on in advance. Next week will be Lumos," Ainsley flicked her wand alight in a quick demonstration, "so please make sure you've read that chapter before our next class." Setting her wand down again, Ainsley gave the class a cheerful smile. "But for now, I've kept you for long enough. Go enjoy the rest of the day, and I'll see you next week for our first practical lesson."
Post lesson for full marks, no minimum word count. For bonus points, RP your character introducing themself as described above.
READING LIST
- Lumos
- Wingardium Leviosa
- Finite
- Accio
- Depulso
- Expelliarmus