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Post by monciee on Jan 26, 2014 14:33:41 GMT -6
The students who went to a class chose to either pay attention to the lecture or they chose to ignore it, gossiping in their own little corner until the teacher brought them back to the reality that was the lesson. Ellie's mind was always divided between the lecture and that gossip. Sometimes, even the lecture was gossip with the casual discussion based lessons that the psychology class presented. There were about ten interesting bits of information she could list about everybody in her class. It was more casual then anything. Ellie thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Press' class. He was a good teacher and a good counselor. The combination of his studies was what intimidated Ellie about him. It was like he was teaching them in order to study them. He understood the workings of the human mind better than anybody else in the school. Ellie felt like she was in his own personal microscope as he poked at the students and created their own personas in his mind. She wondered if anybody else thought that about him.
On most days Ellie would slip out of the classroom as quickly as she could. It was a simple class, usually. Today, however, she found herself staring at her notes while everyone got up to gather their belongings. They didn't seem finished. As quickly as she could, Ellie read them over. The concept of the lecture just didn't click in her mind. Nobody had asked a question on what was presented. Everyone was getting ready to go. That was impossible. Surely, Ellie was not the only one that didn't get the lesson. Messages were transported to the brain through 'Neurons'. Neurons, right? Or was that part of her chemistry class? And what from the Neurons. How did they work? Axons. What. She looked around again. Somebody please ask something! There was something that Ellie did not understand.
She could raise her hand and ask about it. That was the option that most people could take. Ellie was not like most people. She was the smart one. Everybody in her class knew that she coasted by with minimal notes and little discussion. Her participation in the class was as minimal as it could be in order for her to get the marks needed for the grade. If she were to approach him now, it would break the illusion.
It took some time for Ellie to pack up her belongings. She kept her eyes trained on the teacher through her hooded bangs. Only when she was sure that the last person had left the classroom did she gather the courage to approach the teacher.
"Mr. Press," she said slowly. Ellie never pictured herself to be quite this nervous when confronting a teacher for the first time. Of course, she never even pictured it happening in the first place. "There is something I need to ask, if you're not too busy." She shouldn't have waited until class was out. This was on his time now and she felt guilty. "I don't understand how the brain receives messages from other parts of the body." She got the words and the definitions. What she did not understand was the how. |
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Post by Jess on Jan 27, 2014 4:09:07 GMT -6
Adam was pretty well aware that as he stood before the class, likely not even half of his students were paying attention to the lecture. There were two parts to his class; the more serious part--A.K.A lectures-- and the more casual part, which consisted of the students being able to talk among themselves in order to put what he was teaching them into action.
He knew that most of the students here were in the class simply for the easy grade and to try and gain the ability to 'read each other's minds', as they put it. Apparently reading body language turned into being a psychic. Who knew?
He babbled on and on in front of the class, assuming that each student either understood the lesson or simply did not care enough about the lesson. He paused for questions here and there for those that did take the class seriously. Seeing as nobody raised their hands, he continued on, writing each word and it's definition when it came to describing how the brain received messages from the rest of the body.
Adam was passionate about teaching, but he did find that he enjoyed being a counselor more so than a teacher. Which is why he hadn't originally signed up to be a teacher. He liked that, as a counselor, students felt like they could approach him about anything that they were having trouble with. But even though he had expressed to his class that he was always willing to help them out when needed, most of them didn't really step up and admit that they needed help with their studies-- except for some female students that he would find just staring at him during his own private tutoring sessions with them, instead of actually listening to what he had to say. Everyone was pretty well content with just taking their low grades and being on their way.
When the bell rang, he gave out a little sigh of relief, just happy to see that the day was almost over. "Alright, class! Don't forget that we have a short quiz on Friday about this process, so please come prepared!" he called to them as they shuffled about, putting away their books and heading right out the door.
Adam turned, erasing the board when he heard a female's voice behind him, a bit shocked to hear that any students were there. He figured that all of them would have booked it to lunch or their next class by now. He turned to the figure, giving Ellie a little smile.
"Oh, hey Ellie. I'm not busy at all, ask away," He said, moving to lean against his desk casually. Admittedly, he did enjoy having Ellie in his class. It made him feel like there was at least one person that was listening to his lectures versus speaking in the back of his classroom, or staring at his butt.
She didn't ask questions often, but with seeing her marks she grasped the subject fairly well.
"Oh, um. No problem," he said, moving back over to the white board, drawing a quick diagram of a human body, placing the brain in the appropriate place.
"Now, in every part of the body there are these little nerve cells, which we call neurons," he said, diagramming two neurons next to the human body. "Connecting each neuron is an Axon, which is a nerve fiber that transmits the signals from one Neuron to the next," he said, adding a little bridge like figure linking the two neurons.
"Now, when we are describing a neuron that sends signals to the brain, we are talking about the Afferent neuron," he was really hoping that he wasn't over loading her with information at this point.
He furrowed his eyebrows a little bit, trying to think of a way to take it slower and outline the process a bit better. "So, say you touch something hot," he drew a dot on the hand of the figure he drew. "The Afferent Neurons in your hand feel the sensation, passing it up from Neuron to neuron, using the Axon as a bridge until the electrical impulses reach your brain, letting you know that what you touched was hot."
ooc: If I was wrong or missed out on anything, please let me know!
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Post by monciee on Jan 28, 2014 17:24:00 GMT -6
Her eyes were glued to the image that he drew out for her. The diagram of the body was something that she got. The brain she could locate and label with ease. She probably could have drawn out a better sketch on the board though. The neuron, however, that was what she needed. She lifted her finger to her lip, taking all the information in with a nod here and a nod there. The neurons were all liked together from end to end. Messages went from one end to another, jumping between the two in an area called the synapese. Yes.
Ellie looked at her hand and ran her fingers over it lightly. It amazed Ellie how quickly the message could be sent to her brain that the gentle touch of her fingers made the palm of her hand ticklish. "I see." It was stupid of her to find this confusing at first. Perhaps she picked up a little bit more gossip today than she usually did that made her miss the lesson completely. "Thank you, sir. That does help me quite a bit." Whatever else she didn't understand she could read in the book. His lesson was bound to help her out, anything more would surely have him thinking different of her intelligence anyways.
So now was she just supposed to leave? Mr. Press was easy to talk to but for Ellie who rarely ever talked to anyone this was a big deal. Maybe she should give him a bit more of a thanks. That was good. "This is one of my favourite classes," she told him. "I really enjoy psychology and I'm thinking about exploring it a bit more. What's it like to teach it? Or going through college for it. I don't know." People said if you did what you loved it was like you were never working. Ellie loved designing and applying her movie styled makeups to others. But her parents wanted her to have a real job set up. Getting into hollywood was difficult. So psychology seemed like something that was good to fall back on. "How did you get into psychology?" The casual chats from the class seemed to rub off on Ellie in some way. Mr. Press was a teacher. That made him hard to talk to for Ellie. But hearing about a few personal experiences in the lectures sure did help. |
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Post by Jess on Jan 28, 2014 21:56:39 GMT -6
Adam erased the board once again, being very particular about getting every trace of the black ink off of it. Usually he wasn't very particular about how clean his board was, but considering that it was brand new, he was at least try to keep it as clean as possible--wow, sounded like he had some perfection issues going on at the moment.
He turned back to her when she started to speak again, feeling satisfied with how clean his board was, now. "I'm actually surprised that this is anyone's favorite class. I remember when I was a student, I absolutely hated psychology," he chuckled, putting his arms out to his side. "Now look at me," he said, leaning back against the white board as he looked at her, the wheels spinning in his head as he thought over her questions.
"Well," he began, biting down on his bottom lip as he thought over how to start. Instead, he just decided to go with straight honesty, instead of making it seem like this was really what he chose to do with his life. "To be honest? I didn't want to be a Psychology teacher. I went to become a psychologist, and I was one for a little while." he said, knowing the rest of his story was a bit personal, but since she was curious, he figured he might as well share.
"I met my wife in psychology class, my Sophomore year of high school. We actually went to school here all those years ago. I took the class for an easy 'A' and found that it wasn't as easy as I assumed it to be. So, she offered to tutor me. I fell in love with her, and thus fell in love with the subject, because that's how us guys are," he said with a little chuckle, gripping his hands onto the desk. It never got easier to talk about his wife. "She wanted to become a psychology teacher, where as I thought it was more worth my time to become a psychologist. But after she passed away I chose to leave my profession and come back here, to kind of live out my wife's dream," he said, trying to wrap the long story up as quickly and painlessly as possible. "So it really wasn't what I wanted to do. I was driven to go through college by her. But now? I love my job more than anything, because I know she would have had a great time teaching this class." he said, giving her a small smile.
"If it's your passion, go for it. Going to college to major in psychology sucked, I'm not going to lie. But the career is very rewarding."
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Post by monciee on Jan 28, 2014 22:17:51 GMT -6
The statement about hating psychology peaked her interest. That would be like Ellie going off and teaching a gym class. That would never happen. Even with the push of a lover as Mr. Press so stated. The corners of her mouth twisted up into a smile. His story was romantic. It was the tale of the classic high school sweetheart. He had fallen in love with psychology because he had fallen in love with her. It made sense, especially when she understood how it could happen from lessons learned in this class. She was ready to say something when he paused. Ellie figured he would be done there; that that was the end of his story. She was wrong.
The girl stood there unmoving as he continued. The smile faded from her face as he recounted the tragic tale of what had happened to his wife, why he came to work in this school in the first place. It never lost its touch of romance but for Ellie the happiness faded. Mr. Press had unloaded a lot more information than Ellie expected him to. A lot of what he had just told her was very, very personal. Her brows furrowed as she tried to figure out how she should react to this. "I'm sorry," she said out of instinct. That was the normal response. Ellie didn't know the woman but she knew the hardship of what it was like to lose somebody that was close to her. Even though her friend was still alive, the wall that she built between Ellie and herself was damaging.
Her lip quivered. She tried to stop it but Ellie had lost control. She wanted to cry for him. "It must be hard to be living out her dream for her as well as your own, but I'm sure she appreciates it." Ellie didn't mean to get into religion in anyway but in times like this, she couldn't help it. "I'm sure she's up in heaven watching you right now and even giving you a guiding hand in planning your lessons." |
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Post by Jess on Feb 1, 2014 22:33:48 GMT -6
Adam leaned back against his desk, scratching the back of his neck a bit awkwardly as he cleared his throat. All that he just said was very personal, and bringing a student into your personal life, even in such an innocent way, was highly inappropriate for him to do.
"I'm, uh, sorry about that," he said with a slight hint of a smile on his lips. "To be honest, I've never actually told anyone about that," he added, even though that seemed a bit inappropriate itself.
Opening up to a student was not something that he ever planned on doing, especially since he didn't even open up to his own friends and colleagues. It was like everything had just slipped right out of him.
He chuckled a bit as she brought a hint of religion into the conversation, not being the religious type himself in the least bit. "Yeah, I feel like she's here with me every day," he said, giving her a little smile.
That was true, though. That was, in fact, the reason why he had even come back to this school. At the time, he had seen it as hell where he met a beautiful woman. Now he saw it as a place where they spent their happiest memories. She was here, with him, all the time.
"Anyways, aren't you going to be late for class? Or do you have lunch now?" he questioned, not exactly having his student's schedules memorized. He figured it was her free period, considering that she was still here instead of running off.
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Post by monciee on Feb 1, 2014 22:51:20 GMT -6
Why then had he opened up to her? Ellie had to stop herself from reading too much into the thought. Mr. Press was just her teacher. She felt like she knew him from the lectures, sure, but it wasn't anymore than any of his other students. It was weird. As he spoke to her now, she couldn't help but feel a little bit special knowing about is secret. She wasn't trying to get that out of him either but it was good to know. A little key to understand the mystery of her psychology teacher. She smiled. Just once, she'd like to have that beautiful experience that Mr. Press may have had with his wife - sans the part about the death. It's be beautiful to look at a lunch table and picture her and a guy sitting together, laughing, sharing their secrets. Ellie could almost feel it now as a light blush crept upon her face, almost.
Ellie looked at the watch that hung around her wrist. "I've never been late." It was her lunch and she still had a bit of time before it was out. There wasn't much for her to look forward to eating, just a peanut butter sandwich and a banana that was nearing the 'almost too ripe to eat state'. She could eat it in the hallway on the way to class if she really wanted to. She probably shouldn't. "It is lunch," she told him. "I usually head to the library to see if anything new came in." She laughed at that. There hadn't been anything new in the past few weeks. It was more like looking at the same six books over and over again. "I should get down there." She had a feeling she was disturbing him, otherwise he wouldn't have brought this up. She didn't want to leave the teacher, but also didn't want to bother him more than she had. |
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Post by Jess on Feb 4, 2014 22:29:17 GMT -6
"Well, um," Adam interjected as he looked at her, pulling his leather jacket off of the back of his chair and slipping his arms into it. "I'm actually on my way to lunch now. If you like, you could join me?" He offered, though he knew that was likely inappropriate as well.
But really, how bad was it to have lunch with a student in the mess hall? It wasn't like they were sneaking off and doing it in hiding. Plus, all he had were good intentions, not inappropriate ones.
He simply felt bad for keeping her so long with a long, traggic, story of his past. Thinking back now, he probably should have just said that being a psychology teacher was his dream job and he loved it- simple and clean.
He ruffled with some of the papers on his desk, his brows knitting together as he looked for his phone. When his hands finally wrapped around the cold, smoothe, casing his expression turned triumphant.
"Yeah, I've been trying to get the librarian to order some more books. Don't tell anyone, but I have a weird fascination with these 'Vampire Academy' books. Lame, I know, especially since they are teen romance novels, but there is something about mythical creatures that is just so intruiging."
(Forgive me! Im on my phone, and its super awkward!!! ♥♥♥)
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Post by monciee on Feb 4, 2014 23:26:27 GMT -6
"Sure. If you're sure," she mumbled. It was a bit uneasy to be going out to the mess hall with the teacher. But if anyone was going to keep this a secret, it was going to be Ellie. She wasn't really one to go around and blab about things she had no reason to blab about. Plus, it could mean a bit of trouble for Mr. Press depending on how everything snowballed. It was just a lunch though. Ellie went back to her desk and pulled her backpack over her shoulder. She walked over to the door and waited for him by it while the two talked.
"Vampire Academy?" she laughed. Of all people, she didn't peg a teacher as somebody that would suggest that title to her. They were usually all about books that encouraged deep thought and analysis. "I think I'll let you pass on that one, especially with the movie coming out soon. I like mythological creatures a lot. Elves and Werecreatures are my favourite. Reading books really help me design characters and makeups. I love building a good monster as much as I love a gorgeous beauty makeup." She didn't really have people to model the work on. Ellie had so many masks and prosthetics that she longed to sculpt for a model to wear. There just wasn't much she could do. For now she'd settle for applying beauty makeup to any girl that asked.
((that's fine. just about anything works for me as long as I can read it and work off it. x3 )) |
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Post by Jess on Feb 9, 2014 15:49:04 GMT -6
Adam double checked that he had everything he needed before following her to the doorway. "Hey, don't laugh. Vampire Academy was a pretty awesome book, as well as the rest of the books in the series. Though the last one was kind of a jip. I'm really feeling like authors are losing their ability to end a series with grace," he said a he lead her out the doorway, turning off the light and locking the door behind them. "Now they just end an entire story abruptly." he said, well aware that he could go on for days and days about books, but he wasn't going to bother.
"If you like elves, you should try out this 'Nightlife' series that I read. Now, it is very mature...with some rather..." he started, clearing his throat before he continued. "Inappropriate moments, but it's all about a man named Caliban and his brother, Niko, who are pretty much supernatural guns for hire. Cal is an Auphe, which is described to be a very demonic Elf-alien-creature. As well as it has werewolves--I absolutely love how they describe the wolves. They are gnarly creatures," he said, stopping himself before he kept ranting on about that one as well. "I just think you should give it a try. It might give you some ideas for a good monster," he smiled, shoving his hands in his jacket pocket as he started to walk down the hallway.
"So is that your real passion in life? Make up design, that is. Is that something you want to do?"
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Post by monciee on Feb 9, 2014 18:45:50 GMT -6
Ellie nodded to his statements about the books that were now winding down to endings that left him feeling like the story was incomplete. It couldn't be all that easy for the authors to be fair. When series got long enough, Ellie imagined how hard it would be for her to rack her mind for what to happen next without repeating something that happened in the past.
"Sorry for laughing. Umm.. Nightlife," she repeated. "I will write that title down. I don't mind if it's mature or anything. I like to," she fumbled over her words a bit when she realized what she was saying to her teacher. Ellie blushed while she racked her brain for a way to recover. "I like to read just about anything that's a good quality read." Mature novels appealed to her more than anything though. It helped to reveal to her things that she had yet to experience on her own.
"It is one of my passions, yes." Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out a sketch of a full body makeup that she had been working on. She opened the sketch book and revealed it to him, nervously tucking her hair behind her ears as she did. It wasn't too often that she flashed around pictures of her makeup. Only when she was asked to do so. It was a woman who looked like she just climbed out and was born of the roots of the tree. Vines wrapped around a few parts of her body in the place of clothes and moss clung to her shoulder for accents. A few lines ran over the sketch indicating materials and colors that she wished to use on the piece and a long staff was drawn out to the side as a prop. Overall, it was a very complete makeup for a woodland enchantress. |
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