Formerly: moonyroxs   Jobberknoll
Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Ohio =D
Posts: 4,298
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|  Baht-ley - The Sweetest - TEAM 947!
Alice walked into the room, jumping as the woman's voice echoed across the area. She stood nervously, stick straight, a few paces from the door, before realizing nearly everyone else was seating themselves. Eying the parchment in many of their hands she glanced around to discover it had been sitting by the door she had entered moments ago. Alice hastily grabbed a piece, not even giving it a second glance until she had sat down among the other Ministry Employees.
She listened as the Department head spoke in front of the crowd. Briefly, she wondered where her old Department head had gone to- Samantha Rose, but Alice quickly shook the thoughts from her head in order to properly concentrate on the task at hand. The smallest of smiles curved upon her lips as Antigone explained precisely what the task would be. She had the proper background knowledge from books... or at least Alice thought she did. The facts she'd learned from the revised version of Hogwarts a History would probably be helpful anyway. That and the fact that she’d spent her first year or so at the Ministry as part of the Department of Magical Education.
She bit her lip thoughtfully as people began to disperse and start the task. Alice looked to the black board that Antigone had written and then back down at the paper on her lap.
She started to read... She read the whole evaluation. As she did so Alice did as Antigone said to and thought of the validity of each of Umbridge's reports.
Hmm...
Alice liked cheerful people. As a kid she liked the teachers that had fun lesson plans. Enthusiastic teachers encouraged children encouraged children to learn. She agreed with the report to some extent though. It was easy for a class to get out a hand when an easy-going teacher was in charge. It was impossible for Alice to know just how chaotic that the Professor's classes got...
However, Alice was quite sure that Umbridge had made the right decision by not putting him on probation. She put a little check mark on her paper next to the evaluation and moved on.
Alice stared at the paper for a moment, quirking an eyebrow.
In Alice's opinion a Divination teacher should be able to make predictions. However, she also thought that, considering the fact seers were so rare, a Divination teacher that wasn't a seer, but still knew their information, would still be qualified.
It wasn't the fact that she was a suspected fraud that caught Alice's attention though. It was this: "she resorts to making ghoulish predictions in order to scare or bore her students into submission". That disgusted her. Alice herself, was very easily frightened; she couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in a class day after day hearing the bad things that would happen soon. She would have been even more paranoid.
On top of her knack for frightening students, like Flitwick, Trelawney was noted to have little control of her class.
Alice seriously considered firing her. She agreed with Umbridge's "Action to be Taken", but she didn't agree with her reasons. So, she put a big X next to her evaluation and then a checkmark next to her "Action to be Taken".
Alice's lips parted, her expression slowly transforming from skeptical to one of shock.
She didn't think that the headmaster of the time, Dumbledore, would have allowed such a person to teach, though she was aware of how notorious the former headmaster was for his believe in second chances. The man, Hagrid, sounded absolutely horrifying to her in the report.
No matter how gentle he was noted to be in books on the Battle of Hogwarts, Alice reasoned, Umbridge's claims couldn't be completely false. The report seemed very much biased.
It was really difficult to see through the bias obviously embedded throughout her work. Alice marked an X by her evaluation. Then she added a check mark by the "Action to be Taken" and "Points for Improvement"
Well. A dirty mouth in Herbology, then? That didn't seem too bad at all. It was only one aspect of her class she didn't have good control over, versus Flitwick and Trelawny who were noted to have issues controlling ALL of the parts of their classes.
Alice overlooked the part where Umbridge voiced how skeptical she was about Professor Sprout's teaching strategy of pairing the students up or putting them in groups. Some plants were difficult to handle alone, Alice recalled, and a teacher couldn't help all her pupils at once, of course.
She didn't find probation necessary either. She really seemed like one of the best of the teachers that Umbridge had bothered to do a written report about.
Alice didn't mark anything at all by the general evaluation, it was mostly fact rather opinion so there wasn't much to approve or disprove of, really. She put a check by both of the other sections of the report.
Professor Snape.
Hmm. Alice tapped her fingers upon her chair arm, as she read through the evaluation. She thought more advanced potions work was good. Why not educate the students on information that would come later in the curriculum if you had time? Simply reading it, and drawing all her information from the report, Alice surely would have picked Professor Snape as the most valuable professor of the bunch... the MVP. However, she was well read, and Alice knew of the Professor's reputation among his former students. He seemed harsh. Word was, Professor Snape was the opposite of Professor Flitwick. He was cruel, harsh on students, and very, very strict.
Alice check-marked the general assessment, drew a neat X next to Points for improvement and then... After a little hesitation, Alice put an X next to Action to Be Taken. She thought that probation should have been at least considered.
It was time to deliberate. Who was the worst, and who was the best of the bunch?
Alice tapped her pen on her knee, hunching over the paper, looking at her marks, and then up at the chalkboard, her brown eyes scanning back and forth across the letters.
After about ten minutes of this (she liked to think things over), Alice decided who she would have sacked.
SPOILER!!: Fired- Trelawney Quote: To Be Fired
I believe that, while there are others on the staff that seriously need to seriously reconsider their teaching methods, Professor Sybill Trelawney is the one that should be fired.
She scares children with her prophecies only to prove her claims of being a seer true, and is incompetent at keeping control of her classroom.
I find the first reason, of all of them I listed, quite sickening. Students should not have to be subject to senseless fear or irrational worry from her predictions. They should be able to learn from predictions. Even if her predictions of tragedy are valid, then I still find that she announces these to the class a highly inappropriate invasion of privacy.
Professor Trelawney is at Hogwarts to teach divination, and in order to do so she should be teaching the curriculum, not putting on a show with her so-called predictions and showing off her so-called skills. It's no wonder she has difficulty keeping control over her classes when she does that each lesson.
She read over it, scratching out a few things...fixing them, going over it again...and repeating the same process, until she was satisfied that her work was sufficient.
Alice peered up from the paper, catching sight of other ministry workers firing hallucinations, and she felt butterflies bat their wings in her stomach. Alice didn't like the idea of actually firing someone, even if they were, you know... not really SOMEONE. She didn't like making other people upset.
Trying her very best not to let her thoughts stray Alice turned back to her work, reviewing it again before making her choice. It didn't take nearly as long for her to decide who was the star of the group of professors as it did for her to decide who to fire.
SPOILER!!: Best of the Group- Sprout Quote: Best of the Group
I believe that Professor Sprout is best suited to be a teacher out of all the professors listed. She clearly knows what she's doing; whether Umbridge says so or not. I think that group work is great for Herbology, considering the fact that many plants really can't be handled by one person alone AND a professor can't help all the students at once.
As The High Inquisitor states, she also knows her facts. You can't teach what you don't know, obviously... and she definitely knows what she's teaching and can communicate it to her students in a professional manner while still making interactive, hands-on, somewhat entertaining, lessons that a student can enjoy.
Alice dotted that last period with a flourish. She held her work up to the light and read it over one more time, checking for errors and making sure it made sense.
She hoped it would be sufficient. |