• Solo • Grading Exams

[Doran]

Ymiden 11, Arc 721

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, stop writing, put your pens away and hand me your exam sheets please”, the Mortalborn who sat behind his desk at the front of the classroom, garbed in an elegant suit of coal and silver, spoke in a calm, firm and clear tone of voice and added, “The time is up.”

Most of the two dozen young mortals, he observed, as he let his gaze drift across the room, immediately did as they had been told, put their things away and approached to him in order to hand their exam sheets to him before they finally walked out of the door.

There was a young man with curly brown hair in the third row that started to write quite frantically instead though, and in the last row, two women suddenly started to whisper. The Mortalborn glanced at them for a moment, raising a dark eyebrow fractionally, before he cleared his throat, loudly.

When the young man looked up, Doran wordlessly extended a hand. The student did not obey right away though, but hastily scribbled another couple of words onto his paper before he stood.

The two women followed suit with a certain amount of reluctance. Before long, the Mortalborn was alone in the classroom though, although he could still hear his students’ voices in the hallway. They had not gone home immediately; instead, they were discussing the exam that they had just written – it was part of their introductory class to alchemy.

He turned his head towards the door for a few moments, but as he could not understand what exactly they were saying, he focused his attention on the stack of papers on his desk again before long, furrowing his brow barely imperceptibly as he did so. He would grade them at home, but he could not resist the temptation to skim over them now.

“Binders bind different reagents”, he read, furrowing his brow in a more noticeable fashion – in the first section of the exam, he had asked his students to define the different types of reagents. While the answer from – he quickly checked the name at the top of the first page – Lily Harrison – was theoretically correct, it was, obviously, lacking.

Binders did not simply bind different reagents; they were substances that ensured that the different reagents that you used did not negate each other.

With that thought in mind, he removed a pen from his pencil case, a pencil case that was made of fine black leather, and started correcting Ms. Harrison’s answer, before he abruptly stood, packed his things and exited the classroom. Some of the students, he noticed, had left in the meantime, but the majority of them were still there, talking to each other.

When she saw him, Alina Harper, a blonde woman that was originally from Scalvoris, if he remembered correctly, momentarily excused herself from her classmates though and walked up to him. “How long do you think it will take you to grade our exams, professor?” she wanted to know in a polite tone of voice. The other students abruptly looked at him as well. They were just as curious about the results of their exam as Alina was.

“With any luck, you’ll get your results tomorrow afternoon”, he replied. “I have the rest of the trial off, so I’ll start taking a closer look at your answers after lunch.”

Some of the students seemed happy when they heard that while others looked a bit nervous, Doran observed. He smiled at them encouragingly; even if they did badly on their exams, or failed, it would not be the end of the world. He planned on discussing the exam and going over every answer with them during the next lesson, or the one after that.

Some of his colleagues, he had learned over the course of time, just returned the exam sheets; he had found that talking about the exam helped them understand their mistakes better. It also helped those that had done well; and the feedback that he would receive would help him improve the following exams. That was something that was important as well.

[Doran]

When he returned to his apartment in the Obsidian Prism, the son of Ziell took off his suit and changed into more comfortable clothes – simple black pants and a shirt, he tended to dress more casually when he was alone – before he deposited the satchel with the exam sheets in his study and joined his mortal cook, Elias, in the kitchen. The Etzori had made something a little different for him that trial; tomatoes that were stuffed with minced meat, an assortment of herbs and covered with grated cheese, with a side of rice.

Once upon a time, Doran had not cared about food particularly – it had simply been a necessity, a means to ensure that his body would stay healthy and wouldn’t fail him – but he had begun to enjoy the finer things in life. One of his magic mutations had caused him to develop an interest in different textures and flavor combinations; he preferred to believe that the same would have happened without his unexpected initiation though.

A life that only consisted of duties and nothing else did not appeal to him anymore.

He did not dwell on how much his life had changed within the course of a couple of arcs though – which was astonishing, especially considering the fact that he had already been alive for almost four centuries – but sat down at his desk instead and produced the exam sheets.

A few moments later, he readied his pens as well as two vials of ink – one with black ink and one with red ink – and started his work, disciplined and entirely focused on the task at hand. He resisted the temptation to shake his head in comparative disbelief, even though some of the answers that he read were a little concerning, to be honest.

Ms. Harrison’s answer had not been the only questionable one; Mr. Holloway’s answer was odd as well.

“Binders are substances that are used to thicken a liquid”, he read quietly and furrowed his brow. It was again, not an entirely incorrect answer, but it had nothing to do with alchemy. In chemistry, as well as in a few other fields, thickening agents were sometimes called binders. He had not asked for the chemical, but for the alchemical definition though.

The question about sealers had likewise been answered somewhat incorrectly; some students had guessed that sealers were used to harden the surface of an item rather than to seal the previous steps, for example.

To his surprise, most of the students had answered the question as to what primers and accelerants were correctly though. Primers were a substance that was used to prepare the target for receiving the enhancement, and accelerants sped up the alchemical reaction. In some cases, they actually made it near-instantaneous.

In the second section of the exam, he had asked his students to write a short essay. He had asked them to assume that they wanted to make a piece of cloth fireproof and wanted to know which steps they would undertake in which order. Students that proposed a reagent that could be used in order to fireproof the cloth received a bonus point.

To his great surprise, Ms. Harrison who had struggled so much when it came to the first section had done well here. She even pointed out that the milky coating on the Golden Salamander that was a slow-acting acid could be used to fireproof items. He smiled slightly when he read that; it was the same reagent that he had used for that purpose once (He had talked about it in class once; maybe that was how she had known about it.).

At the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder why some students did well when it came to writing essays, but had problems when they had to answer seemingly simple questions.

He would look into the matter a bit later on, Doran decided, and he would and also reconsider and reevaluate the questions on the exam sheet (it was not always the fault of the student; he was aware of the fact that he was not perfect either), but for the time being he continued grading, and taking notes about how exactly he would discuss the exam with his students.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, he was finally finished, put his pens away, stacked the exam sheets neatly and stretched himself before he leaned back in his chair, placed a hand on his chest where Daia’s mark was and closed his eyes in order to take a deep breath and then another one and another one, in order to meditate and clear his mind of thoughts of exams, wrong answers and unexpectedly correct answers.

He did enjoy his work as a professor of alchemy, greatly so – mostly not because of the pay that was quite decent, but because teaching constituted a way to shape the future and give hope -but grading exams, he had to admit, was not one of his favourite aspects of his job.

He enjoyed standing in the classroom and actively teaching much more.

[Avalon]

Review & Rewards

Name: Doran

Points awarded: 10

Knowledge:
Alchemy: Golden Salamander acid can be used to make items fireproof
Discipline: Resisting the temptation to shake your head
Meditation: Clearing your mind of (somewhat) unpleasant thoughts
Science: Binders are used to thicken a liquid
Teaching: Grading an exam
Teaching: Talking about an exam helps students understand their mistakes better

Skill Review: Appropriate to level.

Notes:
I always find Doran's teaching threads fascinating. You describe well what he thinks about the teaching process - how it can be mutually beneficial to him and the students. I think that was what struck me in the first part the most when he was speaking of what allows him to improve upon exams and such.

When it came to grading, it was a fun look inside Doran's mind, noting his thoughts on why certain students answered the way they did, or why they got some answers right and others wrong. Breaking down the grading process into something that can draw the reader in isn't an easy thing, but I was happy to continue reading all the way through, eager to understand how Doran viewed things. You did a great job tying in answers to experiences in the classroom too, which added a different angle.

Good job and enjoy your rewards!

Avalon