Professor's Meeting Y38 S2

[Katherine Alicastell]

The first semester had come to a close under less than ideal circumstances, and Katherine wanted to ensure that this semester, everyone was on the same page going forward. Smooth out any wrinkles, as it were. The professors were all human, yes. Prone to incidents, or falling into routine and complacency. But, Katherine still held certain expectations that weren't quite being met by everyone under her employ. The headmistress had distributed notes to the other staff members to alert them to this semester's mandatory meeting, with the expectation to see everyone present. Those who weren't, well, she was certain they'd have a good excuse when she came knocking on their office doors.

The common room remained much the same as it tended to be. There were no snacks laid out - this wasn't some student's club event, after all, though they had access to their regular amenities if they wished prior to the start of the meeting. Katherine herself was in the midst of brewing tea by the counter as she waited for everyone to arrive, occasionally casting a glance toward the clock on the wall. There was still a few minutes, at least. Enough time for people to get settled. She didn't expect the meeting to last long enough for anyone to get too comfortable, but there were some important points that needed to be brought to everyone's attention.​

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

To say Angel felt frazzled being back at work would be an understatement. He had thought having a month off to help Josephine with Amanita would be plenty of time to get used to things, but mostly it had succeeded in draining any excess energy he could have had before school started.

Now, a husk of a man, Angel wandered into the common room, letting out a grunt of success when he saw they hadn't started yet and dropping into the closest chair so he could close his eyes for however many minutes he had to spare.

 

[Lena Williams]

Lena was glad to be on time for the professors' meeting, clutching her mug of tea tightly in case Maris was around anywhere. She saw the headmistress, giving a small wave hesitantly as she took a seat next to one of the herbology professors, who didn't necessarily seem open to conversation. She appreciated that there were quite a few younger folks on staff and tended to congregate with them, but seeing as Lydia and Yvonne had yet to appear, she figured striking up a conversation with the man couldn't hurt. "Are you ready for the semester?" Lena asked, feeling a tad embarrassed by how simple her question was. She couldn't have come up with something more creative? @Professor Angel Castillo

 

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

Although her maternity leave was on the horizon, Kahurangi had stubbornly resolved that she was going to continue with all of her duties at Hogwarts for as long as was humanly possible. Unfortunately, that meant continuing to live in a castle with a frankly inhumane number of stairs. She had developed a habit over the last few months of leaving much earlier than she thought she needed to, in order to get where she was going on time. And when Katherine called a staff meeting, Kahurangi knew this in particular was a time not to be late. So she had left her office well in advance, taking plenty of rests along the way, and to her relief she managed to reach the staff room plenty early. She gave her colleages a weak smile in greeting before collapsing into a chair to catch her breath, trying to collect herself and recover from the stairs before the meeting began.

 

[Manu Romeijnsen]

While Manu was usually a very social person, he couldn't help being a bit nervous and timid as he walked into the professor's common room for the first time. He'd find himself amongst people who had most likely been teaching at the school for ages by now and could therefore probably smell that he was very new to teaching at a school himself. He had to start somewhere though and having been a tutor for a time did give him some experience already. Manu nodded at his new colleagues when he entered the room, very relieved to see that he was still on time, and settled himself in one of the nearby chairs.

 

[Quinn Mercury]

Quinn had quickly made her way up to the professor's meeting, hoping that she'd be on time or a little bit early. Once she had made it into the professor's common room, she let out a quiet sigh of relief when she noticed that the meeting hadn't started yet and that she wasn't late. Even though Quinn hadn't been a professor here at Hogwarts for that long, the New Yorker was a wee bit nervous to interact with her colleagues. Quinn smiled at her colleagues as well as giving them a small wave, before making her way to a chair and got herself comfortable.

 

[Professor Elijah Watson]

Elijah was not the kind of person to delay somewhere, so he went to the professor's meeting in time to catch time and not delay its start, because it would not be quite rude when he would be late. Entering the room, Elijah greeted the director and colleagues, then sat down in one of the available chairs. Waiting for the meeting to begin. He wondered what awaited them during the meetings.

 

[Cyndi Kingsley]

Professor Kingsley stepped into the room with a bottle of water already in hand. She'd just completed cleaning her office, a task that had taken her far longer than she cared to admit. She was happy with the results however. Smiling at Kahurangi, Professor Kingsley then looked around for an empty seat. She was early enough that there were still plenty of comfortable ones. Taking one of them, the woman wondered what they'd be discussing today.

 

[Professor Mallory Grayveson]

Mallory was always excited to be back at school. She really did enjoy her job here. After straightening out a few things in her office, she was surprised that she received a summons for a meeting from the headmaster. Tying back her hair, Mallory hurried to the meeting. She wasn't the first there, but thankfully she didn't appear to be late. She found an empty seat next to one of the new Professors, smiling shyly at him before looking around.

 

[Professor Eleonora Stark]

Eleanor was delighted that now teach children. Therefore, they could not miss their first meeting, because after that they probably judged their nature to be punctual. She sometimes used to be late, but what was related to her work was never delayed, because Nora was important for her work and what her employer thinks about her. In quick steps she had gone to the castle to gain time for the meeting. Upon entering the room, she noticed that most of the professors had already met and greeted the principal and smiled at colleagues, Nora then took place, which was still free.

 

[Lydia Drage]

Lydia slipped into the common room, wondering what the meeting was going to be about. Professor Alicastell had asked them not to be late. While Lydia was a punctual person, she knew she could always be delayed by a moving set of stairs or rowdy students. Luckily, the trip down from the first floor was absolutely uneventful. She smiled at her colleagues and stood in the back of the room. Lydia didn’t feel like sitting, having been hunched over lesson plans all day.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne stepped into the common room she had not expected to see the room nearly packed already. She wasn't sure what this meeting was about but she did appreciate the novelty of getting to see all of her colleagues in one place. Especially when she was cooped up away in the divination tower all the time. She smiled and waved to everyone before slinking off to the side of the room to stand by Lydia with her hands neatly folded behind her back.

 

[Maris Wormwood]

Maris had her work cut out for the second the majority of the school stepped back onto Hogwarts grounds. Sometimes she wondered if the students made it their goal to be as destructive as possible in as little time as possible but she didn't want to make herself paranoid.

She'd put her messy student counter-measures on hold for the time being however, stepping into the staff common room and surveying the gathered group there, eventually moving to stand over near the younger Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, though not before stopping to examine a spot on the mantle that could have been a shadow or possibly a coffee ring she'd need to oust later.

 

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

Elvera made her way to the professors common room. it was a staff meeting. she was wondering what special was going to be included this semester other than the usual things. she had been to man of these meetings over the years and even hosted a couple back in the day. She entered the room and headed towards where Cyndi and Kahurangi were standing. "Hello, as she found a spot leaning against the wall.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Aeon could only barely tolerate being in the same room as his mother for an extended period of time, which certainly made working for her particularly grating. For a staff meeting, he supposed he could suffer through it for at least a few minutes, though he did have to wonder if not attending would lead to any real repercussions. What was she going to do, fire him? Icing on the cake, really. The man entered the room and seated himself on a chair nearest the door, inched as far forward as he could humanly get, prepared to make his exit at a moment's notice.​

 

[Professor Matt Alcott-Ward]

Matt was usually late to... well, everything. But he knew that he shouldn't be late for this. The look he'd get from Katherine would probably take a few years off his lifespan. So he made sure to hurry and was glad he arrived at the meeting before it had started properly, even if most of his colleagues already seemed to be there. He saw a few new faces and gave them a friendly smile, though he sat down next to Kahurangi. He greeted her quietly, aware that the meeting could be starting any moment.

 

[Professor Grace Holland]

Grace had been working at Hogwarts for quite a while now, and she really liked her work here. She remembered starting as a nineteen-year-old, fresh after her short career of playing Quidditch professionally. She no longer was the youngest face in the room, and she had seen many professor come and go over the years. Grace smiled at a few of the professors she saw, but took a seat by herself. She would have to write Violette after this meeting, she hoped her sister was settling in at Beauxbatons. She missed seeing her around at Hogwarts, but was also glad some of the pressure seemed to be off her.

 

[Katherine Alicastell]

Katherine spared Angel a withering glance as he arrived and took his seat, noting the man had decided now was a fantastic opportunity to attempt a nap. After a couple of minutes, she clapped her hands together to gather everyones attention, and perhaps startle those who weren't quite awake, before beginning. "Thank you to everyone for coming. To start off, I would like to formally welcome our new professors. Professor Stark will be taking charge of Care of Magical Creatures for our lower years, while Professor Romeijnsen will be handling potions, also for the lower year group." She stated, giving them both an opportunity to introduce themselves to their colleagues if they wished. "Moving on, I'd like to cover a consistent complaint I've received from the student body. To those of you who are organising field trips to muggle-centric locations, please bear in mind that not all students own, or have brought with them, muggle attire to wear for such occasions. As such, I have allocated a small part of the schools budget to purchasing some muggle apparel over the holiday period. These can be found in the storage closet on the third floor, closest to the hospital wing. Please ensure that you offer these to any students who may need them in order to blend in." They were by no means exciting, plain t-shirts and pants for the most part. Katherine had been quite pleased by the low prices she'd come across at a nearby Kmart.

"On the topic of field trips, I would like to take a moment to discuss some issues - particularly pertaining to last semester's incident in History of Magic. I'm sure we're all aware of it now, yes?" She asked, looking briefly across the professors gathered in case any of them had somehow not heard, despite the gravity of the situation. "To keep our newest professors in the loop, we recently had a situation where two of our first-year students left a professors supervision whilst on a trip to the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington D.C." The headmistress stressed the location as she spoke. This was no small thing. This was two eleven-year olds they had lost on the other side of the globe. "I'm sure we can all understand how serious this is. This cannot, under any circumstances, happen again. Do not take your field trips lightly - they are a privilege few schools have, and its through no small effort that we are able to procure permission for international travel at that. These experiences are beneficial for our students, but not we cannot mistake them as necessary. If a situation like this were to happen again, we may very well have to cease any and all class trips outside of school grounds to guarantee our students safety. You must ensure that you are supervising your class at all times while on a field trip. If you need, speak to me later about organising other members of staff to help chaperone during your lesson period if you feel you cannot do it alone. Trips to larger locations such as the museum may need more than one pair of eyes, and if you are allowing students to split up, it would be best to divide them into appropriate groups that can be reasonably kept track of, rather than allow them to run around willy-nilly on their own. Furthermore, where possible, it would be wise to find local alternatives to these trips. In the event that a student is lost or separated, it may well be difficult enough as it is to find them within this country, much less abroad. It is through sheer luck that the students who ran away last semester were recovered in a timely manner. I dare not think what could have happened otherwise."

The headmistress allowed the seriousness of the matter to linger momentarily before moving on. It was appalling that any of it needed to be said in the first place, but here they were. "Finally, I'd like to talk about the enthusiasm you all show for your subjects. How enthusiastic you are about the content you cover has an impact on how the students absorb the information you give them, and in turn impacts their own enthusiasm. If you do not enjoy your class, you should not be teaching it. Anyone can recite information from a textbook. Teaching is more than that. If you don't care about your subject, how can you expect our students to? Not every subject is going to be exciting, but it is your job to make it engaging." It had been deeply concerning to have students come to her with complaints about how professors in the past seemed uninterested in even being there. A handful of students had trouble adjusting to Hogwarts and wanting to be there. That attitude was only compounded by professors who appeared eager to go home for the day, too. "With that said, the floor is open to any questions, suggestions, concerns, anything you feel the need the bring up." Katherine announced, happy to allow someone else to take the floor. There was a lot that happened in Hogwarts, and not all of it was communicated as well as Katherine would have liked.​

 

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

Kahurangi greeted her colleagues as they filed into the room, giving Matt a warm smile as he sat with her. It was nice to see everyone in one place again, though it did stand out to Kahurangi how many newer Professors she was yet to meet properly. She stopped focusing on her colleagues as Katherine began to speak though, paying attention to everything the Headmistress had to say. Most of it didn't apply to Kahurangi though, and she wondered how many other courses were running field trips. A lot, by the sounds of it. She perked up a little towards the end though, nodding in agreement. Though Runes hadn't been Kahurangi's first choice of subject she had come to love it deeply, and one of her favourite parts of the job was instilling that same love in her students. It was saddening to hear there were some other professors who apparently didn't feel the same way.