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aknosde · 3 years

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Fátima I’ll have you know that I wasn’t actually going to drop all of this but then you told me to and I can’t fucking resist you. This is really long I’m sorry. Percy Jackson tiktok au:

This au is like 99% fluff. The only thing that keeps it from being 100% is that I’m maintaining Percy’s history of child abuse, Annabeth's tenuous relationship with her parents, Leo’s mom’s death, The death of Carter and Sadie’s parents, as well as Hazel’s issues (minus the dying), but these things don’t actually come into play.

As you can deduce above, the characters are Percy, Carter, Sadie, Hazel, Annabeth, and Leo. For the sake of my sanity, they are all sophomores in high school.

Character Histories

Percy and Hazel met when he was five and she was four. Hazel’s mom brought her into Sweet on America while Percy was hanging around Sally. They quickly became inseparable, had playdates most weekends until they could control their own schedules, and at around 8/9 years old they started referring to each other as siblings.

Percy: *standing, having a serious conversation with another child at the park*

Hazel: *climbing him*

Percy: WHy are you doing this? The jungle gym is right over there?

Hazel: *continues to climb him*

Percy: You’re a gremlin *pats her affectionately*

Annabeth and Leo met when they started middle school. Annabeth’s relationship with her father and stepmother has reached a nice area, not perfect, but good, and she doesn’t really talk with her birth mother. Leo’s mom died when he was in fourth grade, he’s fostered by a middle class family, and goes to private school with Annabeth on an academic scholarship.

Leo: –so the problem is that this formula doesn’t work with the diameter of a cylinder but I need...

Annabeth: speak english please

*fifteen minutes later* Annabeth: I think I’ll put vertical supports her, although triangular would be more stable, but according to the building codes...

Leo: I beg of you,,,

Cater and Sadie’s history stays much the same, they were raised separately until Julius died, except he died during a cave in on one of his digs, and Ruby died in a construction accident. (She was walking by when the supports failed) They started living with Amos in eighth grade. Yes, Amos still has a baboon, an alligator, and an indoor basketball court.

Carter: And so that’s why Amos named his baboon Kufu.

Sadie: You are literally the most annoying person alive, can I have your fries?

Carter and Percy met on the subway when they were ten, going to a day camp in the summer while Julius was giving some lectures in the city. They were inseparable for the week, and then didn’t speak to each other for four years.

Hazel’s mom has a few mental illnesses that developed when Hazel was around 10, she’s still present in Hazel’s life, and they live together, but she’s not always all there. Once Gabe is out of the picture Hazel spends a lot of time at the Jacksons’ apartment, enough where she keeps a toothbrush there.

As for Gabe, he remains his normal abusive self. Things come to a climax when Percy is 11/12 after Gabe throws a bottle at him. There’s no reasonable excuse for this, and Sally comes home while Percy’s still crying. Gabe’s dealt with swiftly, but Percy has some scarring on the left side of his face.

Also quick note: in this au Percy is 1/2 black, 1/4 moreno, and 1/4 native american. (Moreno and native from Sally and black from his dad)

Their Accounts

So as in the post that got this all started, Percy’s account is largely Ancient Greek and Roman mythology and history. He also does some stuff for indigenous mythology, but he’s super into the greek and roman stuff. (Insert this meme (it’s the thirteenth one down)) He also does skateboarding and some light gymnastics/parkour/acrobatics.

Hazel is a gymnast. She’s also just super nice and supportive so she makes those motivational videos, but mostly it’s gym stuff and her and Percy hanging out. She’s not quite as popular but she doesn’t really care. She is also the #1 horse girl, and rates horses. Percy would tease her, but he’s also a horse girl.

Sadie does comedy. Some if it’s scripted or little skits, but there’s a lot of her just ranting at her camera. Also her life is just weird (*cough* alligator and baboon *cough*) so people just like to see what she’s doing. Also a theatre kid™, sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Carter gives detailed accounts of every Egyptian myth he thinks is cool (all of them), but he makes more comedic abridged versions too. He’s also known to make videos laying out archeological digs. About a quarter of his videos feature Sadie insulting him in the background.

Leoooooo! He has a lot of comedy, the first video of his to do well was a situational comedy, he always has a sarcastic comment or a bad joke. Most of his stuff now is for robotics. He’s on the robotics team at his and Annabeth’s school, but he does a lot of stuff on the side just making crazy cool contraptions. He has a series of him going scrounging for parts because he doesn’t exactly have the money for a lot of his stuff. Also skateboards occasionally.

Annabeth’s account in verging on booktok. Every time she reads a book she reviews it, and if it’s popular she’ll record herself reading it and put the best clips together. She’s still really into architecture, she talks about it often, shows some of her sketches, and has a series where her followers can pick videos in New York and she’ll go and critique them. Also has some lifestyle videos about staying organized, but only for school stuff because otherwise she’s pretty messy.

Prequel Stuff

Carter and Percy reconnect when they start duetting each other’s mythology busting videos. They have two series together, one on parallels between Greek and Egyptian myths (called Percy and Carter’s Mythological Mashup) and another about hellenistic culture, specifically about Egypt during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. (Working title: Colonizers suck,,, but the Aesthetics)

Them getting closer forms a friend group of Percy, Hazel, Sadie, and Carter, and they hang out most weekends. Their parents are all friends now.

Okay, The Actual Thing

I lied, there’s a prologue: everything starts at the very end of freshman year when Percy posts a video of him, Hazel, Carter, and Sadie at central park. (caption yet to be determined). It ends up on Leo’s fyp and his though process goes something like ‘oh, it’s a bunch of pretty people who aren’t white.’ He follows Percy and forgets about it.

So Leo’s life is going pretty normal, Percy’s videos pop up on his following and for you pages. Nothing really happens until Percy makes a video detailing a type of ancient greek technology (im thinking torsion catapult but its not set in stone). Leo thinks it sounds really cool, so he makes it and duets Percy’s video

From there, their friendship develops. Leo keeps making models and prototypes of ancient tech for some of Percy’s videos, and eventually he starts doing his own research. And in turn, Percy duets Leos videos and talks about the historical significance of certain mechanisms or their origins. By now, they’re mutuals and talk pretty often.

Annabeth also follows Percy after one of his videos appears on her fyp, but much later then Leo. In fact, he’s on her page because she follows Leo. She’s with Leo when this happens, and asks him about Percy and checks his profile before following him. He follows her back the next day.

The first time they interact beyond liking each others videos is when Annabeth takes part in one of those ‘creators are struggling like you’ with her ADHD and dyslexia, which Percy continues from her.

One day Percy and Leo (quite literally) run into each other, and as they’re mutuals and do text, they decide they might as well hang out in person, thus Leo is indicted into Percy’s friend group.

Leo eventually brings Annabeth along too

And the rest of it would be shorter 4+ panel comics and maybe a few mini arcs. I have specific videos outlined for each of them.

#i spaced this out because i can't read big blocks of text so sorry if its annoying #this is literally my comfort au #also all of the characters are queer #i don't have any percabeth plans #its purely friendship fluff #this is basically just a master post #tiktok.pj.au #long post #riordanverse #max.txt

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heartofholland · 4 years

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bitter - p.p.

summary: you worked your whole life for this, and peter parker took it away without a single second thought.

word count: 2.5k

warnings: a bit of swearing but for comedic effect i swear

authors note: this is my first (and most likely last) time writing. if its not good blame my C in english <3. this idea randomly came to me in the middle of the night and i though i’d give it a shot. shoutout @hollanderheart for not only motivating me to write and post this but also being my own personal hype woman at all times. enjoy!!

---

You had never had a solid reason to hate Peter Parker. He was smart, quiet, and always kind to you and everyone around him. You thought he was a nice boy, and never had a problem with him. Until now.

Until Peter fucking Parker stole your internship.

The news was initially broken to you through hallway gossip. Not believing the story, you went straight to the only person who you knew wouldn’t feed you bullshit, MJ.

“Did Peter get the Stark internship?” You practically screamed. MJ turned, stunned from your sudden close proximity and your wide, questioning eyes. Closing her locker after grabbing the books she needed for her next class, she answered, “Yeah, he’s had it for like a week, why?”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Your back hit the lockers and you rubbed your face in frustration.

“Well, I didn’t know you were so invested in Peter’s business all the sudden,” she quipped, not realizing you weren’t in the mood based on the death glare you returned.

“You realize I’ve been working on getting that internship for like, my whole life right?” You scoffed and let your head fall back and hit the locker.

“It must’ve slipped my mind, my bad.” she replied coolly.

You groaned, “I can’t believe Peter Parker just destroyed my future.”

“I’m gonna sit this breakdown out, I have to study for my Calc test.” She gave you a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before making her way to the library.

There you stayed, leaning on the lockers frozen with solitude, or was it anger? You couldn’t quite tell.

The rest of the morning passes with a breeze, just going through the motions of your daily routine without even thinking. Everything just felt numb. The final bell rang, allowing you to get away from the possibility of making any contact with Peter. The hatred you held for that boy was unimaginable.

The internship at hand was a once in a lifetime experience. The September Foundation Internship. One high school junior, hand picked by Tony Stark himself, was hired to work alongside the mastermind for an entire year. Rumors claim that if you’re cool enough, he lets you try on the suit. Others claim that if you stay late enough, you can see the Avengers in their daily lives. But no one has ever been able to verify them. Now meeting the Avengers would be cool and all but that's not why you wanted this internship. By featuring this on your applications, it was basically one way ticket to acceptance.

To any school. Anywhere.

Though your resume may be long winded, having the internship on there puts you ahead of any other student there. And if you were trying to get into MIT, it definitely wouldn’t hurt to be friends with an alumni. A very prevalent alumni who donates large sums of money each year.

What irked you the most was that you didn’t even get a letter of rejection. You had to find out through gossip. Like really? How long does it take to write an email?

Hey sorry you sucked so much that you didn’t get the internship. Better luck next time!

XOXO Iron Man :)

Sure, Peter Parker was a hard worker with a big brain but there was no way he was more qualified for that job. You had hundreds of hours of community service, a spotless report card, professional relationships with many prominent authoritative figures, and you participated in extracurriculars that Peter hadn’t even heard of. So how did he get in over you? Sure he has marching band, academic decathlon and robotics but in no way could that ever put you a step above him. It’s not like he’s some sort of superhero saving lives.

The fact that you couldn’t come up with a single thing that could make him stand out over you annoyed you to no end. The internal conflict occupied your brain for almost a week until you decided to confront Peter.

You spotted him in the cafeteria, laughing with Ned acting like he did absolutely nothing wrong.

Oh boy did he have it coming.

“So how’d you do it?” you accused, slamming your lunch tray down and sitting down across from him. Ned scootched away suddenly uncomfortable with your closeness and accusatory voice. Since becoming official with Betty, he knew how women’s emotions worked (to an extent) and he knew that tone did not mean sunshine and rainbows.

“W-What are you talking about?” he squeaked, confusion written all over his face. His eyes bouncing all over your features as if it would help predict what you were going to say to him.

“The September Foundation Internship,” you started with a calmer tone, “How’d you beat out all 5000 candidates, including yours truly?” You smiled innocently, but Peter knew that look meant anything but.

He looked around for a second, coming up with absolutely any excuse to satisfy your jealousy, “I did- I didn’t ask Mr. Stark so- so I really don’t know.” He turned to Ned widening his eyes as if sending a telepathic call for help. Ned frantically shook his head, not wanting any part of his problem. He deals with enough angry teenage girls as it is, he wouldn’t voluntarily put up with any more than he needed.

Peter panicked, spouting out the first thing that came to mind, “Well in my application I-I mentioned that I like to build LEGOS, so I guess Mr. Stark assumed I’m good with my hands?” uncertainty prevalent in his voice. He visibly winced at that poor excuse of reasoning.

You were surprised, “Oh, ok. Thanks Peter,” getting up to move towards your typical spot in the cafeteria.

“Real smooth, bet you really fooled her there,” Ned teased his friend, noticing the concern on his face, “What was I supposed to do? Just casually mention I’m Spider-man? She wouldn’t believe me!” Peter weighed.

LEGOs.

A toy that was meant for children beat you out. Embarrassed was an understatement. You played with Barbies and Polly Pockets! You even played with the sexist “girly” version of LEGOs! Granted you probably haven’t picked up a toy in maybe 10 years but still! That just isn’t fair.

---

“Mr. S-Stark could I have some advice?” Peter was quite literally shitting his pants with nervousness.

Tony looked up from his blasters he was tinkering with, “I mean you can ask but I can’t guarantee I can be your Dalai Lama” he taunted.

“Um okay well,” Peter gulped, “This really pretty girl at my school is mad at me and I don’t know what to do”

Tony was stunned, “Girls talk to you? And you hold a conversation? Congrats kid you’re growing up!”

Peter was embarrassed, “Well, not exactly. You know that internship you host every year?” His hands were shaking from nervousness, so he dropped his web shooters and clasped them in his lap so Tony wouldn’t notice. But of course he did, setting down his blasters and turning his chair to put his complete focus on Peter.

Well that totally makes this conversation easier!

“Of course. But I’m not giving it to you. I spend enough time with you already as it is.”

That helped ease his stress, “Well to cover for Spider-Man I just tell everyone I do the Stark internship, forgetting that there is a real internship. So this girl applied for the September Foundation Internship and is mad because she thinks I took it from her. But that's crazy because she's like the nicest person and worked so hard for this internship and there is no one I know that is more deserving of the spot and-,” Tony cuts him off, knowing the boy could ramble for days.

“What’s her name?” He questions, “Y/N Y/L/N, But I’m not asking you to like give it to her because that’s not fair, just give her a tour of the tower or something for her to finally realize I’m not that important around here,” Peter justifies.

“I’ll see what I can do.” With that, he walked out of the lab.

---

You’ve accepted the fact that you didn’t get the position and have continued to build your resume, filling in the space you left for the internship.

“Mr. Harrington? Flash isn’t here today so do you want me to do the lab alone?” You asked, grateful your annoying lab partner isn’t there attempting every pick up line in existence on you. Each one followed up with a denial and you completed the lab on your own.

“No,” Mr. Harrington said. “Ned’s partner isn’t here either so you can pair up with him.”

Begrudgingly, you stood up to join Ned at his lab table. Curious you ask, “Who is your partner?”, Ned hesitates in his answer, “Oh, Peter is busy with the Stark internship.”

Nevermind. Any progress of acceptance you thought you’d made was gone.

“Oh, okay.” You ended the conversation knowing you couldn’t handle dwelling on your failures any longer.

You would’ve been able to juggle the internship and school. Peter can’t even stay a whole day of school without leaving. This was just another reason why you were more qualified than him.

Peter was just arriving at Avengers tower to talk to Mr. Stark about how he altered his web shooters to increase the output of webs. He took the elevator up, assuming he would just be in the lab like he always is. And he was there, just not alone. He catches their attention when walking in, embarrassed to be seen so caught off guard.

“Ah Peter! So good to see you! I want you to meet our newest intern, Y/N Y/L/N!” Tony smirks at the boy whose eyes are blown wide staring at the girl in front of her.

“H-Hi Y/N. C-congrats on the internship.”

“Thank you Peter.”

“Well I have to go check on Cap, he gets angry when he doesn’t have his green smoothie. You guys get comfortable with each other! But not too comfortable, I don’t need to see any angsty teenager lovers in my presence.” Tony winked at Peter before he left the lab.

“Well that's awkward,” the girl begins, “I think I just stole your job.”

“Wh-what?” his eyebrows knitted together.

“Well you’re always gone for the Stark Internship so I just assumed it was the September Foundation Internship?” Now they’re both confused, clearly Mr. Stark wasn’t clear on Peter’s affiliation with him.

“N-no I just do a different intern job for Mr. Stark. I-I just clean up the lab.”

He has really gotta pick up his excuse game.

“So you’re a janitor?” She frowns.

“N-no I just make sure it’s tidy for Mr. Stark, organize the supplies and order more when he needs,” Peter stuttered.”

Ok now he's improving with his justification skills.

“Oh ok? Well I have to go, I have a charity thing.” You made a solid attempt at cutting the tension between you both..

---

“I didn’t ask you to do that.”

Tony spins his chair, spotting Peter at the entrance. “Well I reviewed her application and you were right, she does deserve it. Plus, I know how you struggle with the ladies, so in a way I was throwing you a bone, whilst still getting a prodigy by my side.”

His jaw set, “I’ll have you know I am perfectly good with the ladies and don’t need your help,” Peter stormed out of the lab like a toddler.

“That’s not what you said in the lab the other day!” He calls after him, knowing full well he was out of earshot.

---

Peter has never felt so relieved than when the quinjet touched down on the top of the building. The mission was a complete disaster. If he had to explain the definition of “abort mission” he’d probably start with that.

After stepping off the quinjet, Peter made a beeline for the kitchen. His throat scratched every time he swallowed, probably from yelling into the coms trying to navigate through the pure chaos.

Passing by Wanda, he could tell by her facial expression he wasn’t in good shape. He could feel the dried blood stuck to his skin and the smell of sweat was unavoidable from even 10 feet away.

After his five minute walk, which would be better described as a limp, he made it to just get a glass of water. Finally, the rush of moisture runs through his whole body. Whilst peacefully chugging his entire cup of water he hears the sound of glass shattering, followed by the words,

“What. The. Fuck.”

He knows the voice from anywhere. Hell, he hears it on the morning announcements with Betty every goddamn morning. Frozen, he doesn’t know what his next move is. Does he run and act like it never happened? Does he just accept it and brush it off like no big deal? His rough draft of an explanation is slowly being put together in his head when you move in front of him.

“You’re not an intern. You’re fucking Spider-man.”

“O-oh hey Y/N, didn’t see you there”

Real smooth Parker. Why don’t you talk about your LEGO skills again. Just try and see if you can make this conversation any more awkward than it needs to be.

“Cut the bullshit. Why didn’t you tell me?”

She always knows how to get straight to the point. Something he always admired about her.

“I-I-I didn’t think it was important?” The apprehension isn’t helping his persuasion skills in the slightest.

“Oh being an Avenger is just a common occurrence nowadays?” You push, determined to get a real answer and not a half assed excuse.

“I mean if you live around here yeah everyone is some kind of super hu-”

“Peter.” You cut him off, annoyance obvious in your tone.

He sighed, “Yes. I am Spider-man. The only people who know are Ned, Aunt May, and the rest of the Avengers. And now you.” Distress was obvious on his face

You began to feel guilty once you saw the panic on his face, “I won’t tell anyone,” you squeak, the first drop of sympathy Peter has ever received from you.

“Thank you, I’m sorry for not telling you. You’re part of the team and deserve a real confession, not finding out by accident.”

The guilt train is on a two way track tonight!

“No, it was your secret. You deserve your privacy.” A small smile tugged at the edges of your lips.

“Thank you for being so understanding. Now that the secret is out maybe we could work together on my suit sometime?”

Peter is nervous. Why is he nervous? Did he just accidentally ask her on a date. Oh god what if she isn’t interested?

“I’d love to Peter! It's a date!” Your smile beaming gave Peter a surge of confidence, and he reached around your waist to pull you into a hug. You were both ecstatic to have finally started to see each other as friends, and even a little more than that.

Your trances were broken when you finally spoke up, “Maybe you should take a shower first,” as you finally realized the stench in your close proximity.

A flush creeping up his face when he realized. “Let me go shower then we can continue this,” he beams.

“See you then Spider-man!”

#peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker fic #peter parker fanfic #spider-man #spider-man fic #peter parker imagine

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songcall · 4 years

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Ichiyanagi Hibana [KNB OC]

BOOM. aNoThEr OnE. Aomine never stood a chance. This one was actually specifically asked to be uploaded by a friend so- . ;w; hdegwdbhwjde. I just really love her okay.

Name: Ichiyanagi Hibana (Last name, First name)

Age: 16

Birthday: June 9th || Gemini

Height: 5′ 5

School: Tōō Academy || First Year

Clubs/Committees: N/A

Occupation(s): Student

Personality: Ichiyanagi (Often prefers Ichiya for time’s sake), is a relatively bubbly and outgoing person. She’s talkative, and always up to date on the latest news. Her demeanor with new people can be questionable, depending on first impressions. Sometimes she can become a touch snarky and rude, as she’s definitely not opposed to letting people know how she feels about a situation.For the most part, she’s very open to new friendships, and can almost seem overenthusiastic. In cases when confronted with something she’s not interested in, she becomes preoccupied and bored, letting it be known that she’s not interested in the least. This behavior can honestly change on a whim, but typically directly relates to how much respect and affection she has for a person. Many of her old friends would have her undivided attention, despite talking about something she knew so little that she couldn’t even understand it.

Ichiya is obsessed with cute things, and will often get so excited over things along those lines that she will gush for hours. She definitely can carry a conversation by herself, even with minimal input from the other person. She tends to get offended easily, and though her default would be to immediately throw a fit, she’s been working on assessing and appropriately handling her emotions so that she can think before she acts or speaks. It doesn’t always work, but... hey, there’s progress..(?)

Backstory/Story: Ichiya had always been a little of a problem child, though the problem was much worse when she was a young child. She was given anything she ever wanted, as well as a lot of attention from her father, effectively turning into quite the spoiled brat. She demanded attention from her peers, and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she resorted to being rude and mean to force it out of them. This behavior stayed relatively constant, only changing in the manner that it became more covert as she grew. With her mother remarried after her parents split, Ichiya became turbulent, but was forced to be more well-behaved at home with her father not present to condone her bad behavior.

Come middle school, she had befriended two girls that each shared the struggles of a chaotic background and home situation, introducing her to a wider perspective and scope of people. Though they were practically a small-scale gang, what with all the members they assembled and their somewhat questionable activities, the group satiated her craving for rebellion, and helped her vent out her anger, stress, and frustration.

Her mother and step father, voiced concerns over her behavior, deciding to try and remedy the problem by reaching out to the parents of her friends to get them involved. As a result, the gang was disbanded, and the three ring leaders now all attend different schools. Without her friends and followers, and having her fill on large-scale rebellion, Ichiya began to slowly cool down. After attending Tōō with her step sister, Sasai Miu, the most pressing problems for her became her grades and conduct.

Her sister, a part of the school’s student council, decided to try getting her assistance, by asking her friend and council member Imayoshi to try helping her. Reluctantly, Imayoshi agreed, and began with simple tutoring and attempts at keeping her near to keep her out of trouble - varying degrees of success... mostly failures. During practice, he kept her on the sidelines, where Ichiya would be preoccupied with her phone -instead of her homework-, and socializing or occasionally watching. She trailed Aomine out when the coast was clear, considering it seemed he was also ditching his responsibilities, and adapted his rooftop space as her hideaway.

They could talk, and she was satisfied with someone that didn’t immediately judge her behavior, as well as him satisfied with someone similarly not chastising him for skipping out on practice. Due to one of her friends from middle school, Kuroda Yoruko, having an interest in basketball, Ichiya asks Aomine to teach her after noting his place with the team. She persistently pesters him until he agrees, though she reasons that she only needs to know enough to bluff out her friend, should they meet up again. This continues almost in the form of lessons like a routine, and when Aomine resumes practice, they continue playing on the off time. It becomes therapeutic for Ichiya as well, and gives her something to focus her attention into, helping her to be overall more relaxed and less volatile.

Relationships:

Sasai Miu: Ichiya’s step sister. They got off on a rocky foot, and even now their relationship typically is one built on comedic jabs and refusal to honestly state their attachment to each other (Honestly, just Ichiya). Ichiya typically pokes with and teases Sasai for her naive and innocent demeanor, hammering in that with her stature as well, no one would ever guess that Sasai was the older of the two of them. Even though Sasai wants the best for Ichiya, and the latter will often reject her attempts at expressing love for her sister, Ichiya actually cares deeply for her step sister. She looks at Sasai as one of the few people that never gave up on her, nor tried to outright change who she was. For that reason, she is actually intensely protective over Sasai.

Kuroda Yoruko: One of her close friends from middle school. Both of them related to each other regarding their turbulent home lives. They met initially due to an argument, one which they state out of embarrassment that they simply can’t remember the details of. It immediately turned ugly, and was interrupted by Yuda Ren, who later became their other friend. Though tension stayed between them for a time, they developed a mutual respect and a sort of kinship. By the end of their time in middle school, they were practically inseparable, though it didn’t have the chance to last into high school, as they were all separated. Kuroda’s parents, who are less involved with her life, didn’t actively move her away as the others’ did. She is attending Seirin, meaning she and Ichiya have the opportunity to catch up, and just simply haven’t yet had the opportunity. They still text often, and call when they can. Kuroda’s interest in basketball stuck out as a big point, enough for Ichiya to want to surprise her by learning a little.

Yuda Ren: Not what you’d expect from your typical image of a borderline-middle-school-gang-leader with a turbulent home life. Yuda was academically excellent and typically well-mannered, coming from a fortunate background. She had a surprisingly confrontational personality, lining her charisma with snark and rudeness. Her contrast to Ichiya and Kuroda helped diversify their group and create a surprisingly balanced union. Yuda acted more as the mother figure, mediating between them when necessary, but actually genuinely enjoying their company. She found it a breath of fresh air that they weren’t immediately judgmental, and that she could be more relaxed with them. Her parents were incredibly disapproving however, and rather than just being sent to a different school, she was sent outside of Tokyo to attend Yosen. It’s a lot harder for Ichiya and Yuda to keep in contact outside of phone calls and texts, but Ichiya fears that too long of it will cause them to grow apart.

Imayoshi Shoichi: He was put in charge of assisting her by Sasai’s request. Ichiya didn’t initially have much of an opinion on him, though she was disappointed that she couldn’t convince him to just do her work for her. She overall has more respect for him because of his standings with Sasai. Sasai highly respects him, and Ichiya is certain that ‘mutual respect’ isn’t the only way to describe their relationship standings. Save for Aomine, and later Momoi, she gets to know Imayoshi the best out of the Tōō team.

Momoi Satsuki: She didn’t really get the opportunity to know her well in the beginning, especially because she ditched the practices a lot. She had assumed that Momoi’s demeanor would put her off, and that they wouldn’t get along, but much to her surprise, Ichiya admired the amount of spunk Momoi possessed on top of her more girly attitude. The two hit it off before too long, and sometimes would completely leave Aomine out of their plans to hang out together instead. It still drives him crazy.

Hashida Kaiyo: Hashida was more of Momoi’s business than Ichiya, so considering the two had their issues, Ichiya stayed out of it. after Hashida and Momoi managed to repair their differences, they occasionally began to hang out together along with a few others, though it was a tough effort to eventually pull them together. Ichiya and Hashida get along rather well, though more than Momoi, Hashida fuels Ichiya’s need for the darker side of socialization, and is never short on gossip.

#knboc #oc #knb oc #kuroko no basket oc #kurkonobasketoc #aominexoc #aomine #ship #canonxoc #ocart #fc #fancharacter #fan character #kuroko's basketball #kurokosbasketball #animeoc #anime oc #oc bio #oc profile

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gywair · 5 years

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I finally watched Endgame. I’d put it off a week since its release. It felt like planning to attend a funeral. This series has been part of my life for a decade. Going to see the cumulation of over twenty films felt too heavy to see. Putting it off only made the tension build though. Finally, bite the Infinity Stone and ordered tickets.

First, I watched it in “4DX”. This is similar to the theme park rides that started popping up that are a mixed medium experience. So the seats move, air blasts at you, there are water effects, lights flash, and even smells get pumped into the room. In theory, this seems really interesting but usually, I go to movies I don’t care about to try out new gimmicks. My first 3D film was My Bloody Valentine. It was silly and fun. It also helped me adjust to what a 3D movie would be.

My first 4DX-like experience was the Empire State Building ride as narrated by Kevin Bacon. A sentence that makes me feel like I suffered a stroke while writing but is a real thing that exists that I have experienced. It’s been a few years since that and I think it lasted less than 20 minutes (probably less). Sitting for an entire movie seemed like a whole different worm can.

For me, I didn’t really like it. The water, lights, and smells were cool. The smoke was nice too. The seat, however, is made for someone slightly smaller. So when Iron Man gets kicked in his kidneys, oh spoilers BTW, the seat hits you too like a demented message chair. I think normally it would softly strike you in the back on your rib cage. For me, it went straight to my soft organs. This made the fights are to concentrate on (a problem for a movie about fighting). Likewise, little jets of compressed air go off just above your head. For me, they were pointed directly into my ears. So each time they fired off, I couldn’t hear and had the painful sensation of a ghost giving me a wet willy (I’m also blessed with ear problems so your experience may vary).

Anyway, big thoughts:

The Good:

The job of wrapping up 20+ movies was a big task. This film does that. It has a large cast of characters and several errant storylines to wrap up in a short timeframe. Cause even with 3-hours, this felt like there was still more to say. Which isn’t bad cause that means there can still be more films but for a chapter closer it was ambitious.

I was satisfied by the investment I’ve made into the franchise. This was a fitting close to this chapter. Each film contributed in ways that made the complete journey feel fluid and necessary.

It makes several subversions of expectations. Not just for characters but for narrative design. It kept me guessing the entire time. Even with seeing a handful of tiny spoilers, I was never sure what was going to happen.

Avengers served up heaping mounds of gratuitous fan service in the best ways possible. Sometimes this can be very bad like in animes when the whole episode is about boys spying on girls in a hot tub. Here, it’s Captain America fighting a copy of himself or Professor Hulk half-assing some smashing. One of the best parts of the film is about time travel. Here they show off fan-favorite Loki popping up at different points in history.

One important aspect to me for a story of any kind is how much foreknowledge a viewer needs before starting the work. If you watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 or Return of the Jedi, you will be pretty confused. However, you can pick up just about any Marvel movie anywhere in the series and have a fair idea of what is going on. This continues in this installment. Some context is lost or hidden but anything you need to know is shown/told/explained to you. This, for me, is what makes a story stand on its own legs.

See?! This scene just makes sense all on its own.

The Bad:

With so many cooks in the kitchen, there are still weird dangling problems in the continuity. Things still feel left open to interpretation. Even the filmmakers didn’t agree on how elements in the film worked which is something that should have been determined before the first Avengers movie was written. It feels haphazard with how certain things were written off or ignored. This plays well into feeling like a comic book where different creators retrofit things to fit their narrative but it still felt jarring.

For example, in Captain Marvel, the cat has a stone. Well… so does Thanos… but also now Loki… There is a lot going on and even a whole (if well delivered) exposition still didn’t completely cover all their bases. It feels like they slapped it together at random at times. I get that they can play with the timeline literally but I feel like there were still a lot of open questions that should have been answered that weren’t.

I could rewatch all the movies (read as: will eventually) to get the full context. This makes the act of enjoying these films more academic though than just for pleasure viewing. It’s not that I don’t want to do this but for casual viewers, there was a lot of backstories to keep up with to get each nod.

The Ugly:

After years of hearing that fans want more women characters, the film tried to give them the limelight for an action sequence. The rest of the film is mostly about a boys’ club rushing around doing action hero stuff. Yes, Nebula and Black Widow make important contributions to the plot but they feel sidelined or overshadowed by the boys. The problem here is that the women are treated more like set dressing than people important to the plot to move ahead. If Spiderman had finished running the Infinity Glove to the van it would have served the same device. Instead, they made a big show of having the girls team up for a few seconds.

Supposedly this movie was gonna have a “Big Gay Film Moment” TM that would make people happen. Instead, it just suggested that gay people do actually exist. IDK man, like that, is a pretty cold take. If Warmachine and Bucky had started making out after the big fight I would have been cheering my head off. I’m not upset by any means. This is more of a missed opportunity for the filmmakers to do something and instead, they took the safest path.

Hope you weren’t invested in Starlord and Gamora cause that entire trio of films is pretty much null now so far as character development for Gammy. She had an awesome arc. Then they killed her off. Then she comes back but now she doesn’t know Quill. Okay, well this means that other dead people come back… right? Oh, no? Vision and Black Widow are still gone? Weird… I heard this is cause they were killed pre-Snap BUT so was Gamora and they got her back. I think they were just running out of time. I hope Scarlet Witch gets to go back to her robo-boyfriend.

Was that all just a wild middle finger to Gunn? That’d be drama.

The funeral… why isn’t anyone crying? Everyone seems so calm. Is this like when you have already been to like six superhero funerals that week and five are already back on their feet?

I told myself I wasn’t gonna cry.

Characters:

Alright, so this film had way too many characters to really cover perfectly as a group. I have some stray thoughts on several, however.

Hulk is my new boyfriend and I will fight you for him. Banner has made peace with himself and created a half-way point between Hulk and himself. Now he is permanently strong and smart. This is wonderful for character development as he finally finds the peace and belonging that he has wanted since Edward Norton tore up downtown as the rage-y green giant. His new hipster persona felt satisfying and fresh for the film universe. Something of a reversal of the Ragnarok Hulk.

Captain America finally bangs and accepts his position as “America’s Ass”. I’m so proud of my boy. He’s all grown up.

It took Iron Man a decade but Tony Stark finally discovered how to care about something other than himself. His character arc is the film universe’s arc to this point. He was the foundation for everything that came after. This film serves as much an Iron Man movie as it is an Avengers’.

Black Widow kind of gets the shaft here. She began as a coldhearted assassin and ends up as the corporate mom leading the heroes’ home base. There is so much to still unpack for her. Her character has so much potential just under the surface but no one seems to be interested digging into it. I mean Scarlett Johansson “kills” in the role but this movie doesn’t really give her anything to do except talk to Hawkeye…

Hawkeye tried to be the Marvel Aquaman comeback kid and he just comes off as edgy but not in a good way. More like a midlife crisis day buys a motorcycle than the Crow. Like, he tries to make it sound like his entire career of being an assassin was more good than being an assassin now. He does get a brutal back story but I feel like he falls short of reaching his character potential here. He does get some cool scenes and then just gets shoved to the back of the movie.

Thor is bae. He has a brutal journey to this movie but he gets a lot of character work here. His beer belly hermit hijinks provide a much needed comedic break. I also cried like a baby over him.

Rocket has finally gotten some growth as a person. In this movie, he gets to interact with the core team more. This was a lot of fun because of his sass with characters like Iron Man. Also, he finally dons his iconic blue flight suit and red scarf–not important but it was a fun Easter egg.

It only took two Guardians and an Avengers but they finally let Karen Gillan really make Nebula rule. Gillan is a fabulous actor so it was always painful that Nebula just ran around screaming. In Endgame, she finally gets to have some real personal moments that don’t feel weird. Paper football was the best scene honestly for the emotion and narrative. I mean, her whole career as a sour rage junky comes to a boiling point and then she FINALLY gets to open up the tiniest bit with Tony. I really hope there is something… anything in the future where she gets to be this new fun Nebula. It’s like your weird aunt went on vacation and actually had some personal growth and brings you back some neat shells and a guy named Desmond for herself.

Ant-Man got some funny moments in but nothing to really write home about. He was our Joe McEverydude here and it worked fine. I’m baffled at the taco scene but it was worth it for Hipster Hulk to share with him. Like, I know Scott Lang as a character isn’t super bright. That’s his whole thing. But, I just can’t understand what would drive him to go outside the fancy building to eat tacos on a bench facing the jet landing pad.

Warmachine got some interesting developments here. I’m sad now that he didn’t get to build a romance with Nebula (that is just barely suggested here). He felt like a full member of the team rather than just a sidekick from movies past.

The Falcon & Bucky were there. I really wish there had been some kind of closure or growth moment for them. In Winter Soldier, they were at each other’s neck. Now they seem cool. A friendly word or a high five could have sold me on their growth but they kind of get forgotten instead. I was never gonna see my Falcon-Bucky slash make it to the silver screen but would it have killed the Russos to have one heated kiss between these two obviously boyfriend material lads.

**EDIT** —–> THERE IS A SPIN OF THESE DORKS. OMG.

Alright. I’m psyched for this.

Captain Marvel comes in at the end of this list just like she did in the movie. That’s right, she shows up as a Deus ex Machina and looks cool but really got burned here. She deserved better. She just drops in for a minute to help and then jets. Still cool but she gets no development here. Her movie rules though so I’m gonna forgive it. Mostly. That said, it was wild to see basically an Amy Dangerous on screen and that was special for me.

Closing Thoughts:

It was a really fun movie. I may never watch it again. Just like the other Avengers, it’s a good time but it feels more like a spectacle than a great film. That’s not bad but when I watch a film, I wanna see characters grown in new unexpected ways. I want to see hard choices and emotions. Those moments were there but as little islands between big budget action scenes. I really enjoyed it but for the same amount of time, I might just watch Ragnorok again or Detective Pikachu. Finishing this movie felt like the end of a long (20 movie) hike. It was a great adventure. The fun of it was the friends we made along the way. I don’t regret a minute of it.

But it feels good to be at the end.

For now.

Endgame Thoughts I finally watched Endgame. I'd put it off a week since its release. It felt like planning to attend a funeral.

#film #movies

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femersonfmp · 3 years

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Research

Instead of being categorised by genre, contemporary theatre is defined by the time at which it was written and first performed, that being from the mid-20th century to the present (anything before that but not before the late 19th century is considered a 'modernist' play). This is because contemporary theatre covers all genres, but with a different approach to them to modernist and older playwrights. An approach that causes contemporary theatre to be incredibly distinct.

One way in which this contemporary approach manifests itself is in the form of Postmodernist theatre. While classic realism, a more modernist technique popularised in Russia and centred around making a play as Stanislavskian as possible, was popular among early contemporary playwrights, a lot of contemporary plays use Postmodernism or American Realism, a technique centred around the 'American Dream' of a stable, well-paying 9-to-5 job, a nuclear family and a large house in the suburbs, or a mixture of the two, depending on where the play was written. Postmodernism, although overlapping the modern and contemporary periods of drama, is far more prevalent in the contemporary period now that Russian influence isn't as frequent anymore. 'Postmodernism' refers to the revolutionary philosophical movement that draws upon the thoughts that are often present in our intellectual lives (examples including philosophy, literature, art and creativity), but is rooted in human history, therefore is difficult to give an exact definition. This movement manifests itself in theatre through practitioners such as Brecht and Artaud, who both take a far more abstract and Avant-Garde approach to their style of theatre as compared to practitioners popular during the modernist era like Strasberg or Grotowski.

Another politically affected way in which contemporary theatre can be recognised is a significant increase in diversity from the modernist theatre. This comes with the increase in migration from former European colonies - a lot of which have become almost destitute after having their resources stolen as a result of colonisation - in the mid-20th century, more commonly known as the 'Windrush' in the UK. This influx of mass migration left a great impact on the cultural landscape across Europe and the theatrical element of that was no exception. Despite systematic reprisals, immigrant theatre-makers were soon making a huge impact on the theatrical scene, creating and performing plays that would be relatable to an audience of newly migrated people. A play that's an excellent example of this is Barber Shop Chronicles written by Iuna Ellams which toured many UK cities in 2019. It follows a selection of different barbershops in several different cities including Peckham, Johannesburg, Lagos, Accra and more. All of these barber's shops are connected in the play's overall plotline. Beyond the obvious, Barber Shop Chronicles is a very distinctly contemporary play from its use of theatre in the round to the choreography, typical of the cultures of the countries in which each barbershop is set, to the minimal staging.

However, the play we're performing isn't as contemporary as The Barber Shop Chronicles and other similar plays. One Man Two Governors is a loose translation and adaptation of Corlo Goldoni's play 'The Servant of Two Masters', originally published in 1746. The Servant of Two Masters is a play sticks strictly to the style of Commedia Dell'arte and its distinct conventions, although the setting and time has changed in this adaptation, One Man Two Governors kept true to this. Commedia Dell'arte is a satirical and slapstick Italian theatrical form that was at its most popular between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was then naturalised when the style was introduced in the UK and became what we now know as the pantomime and the 'Punch-and-Judy Show', two staple theatrical styles in the UK. Before that, however, Commedia Dell'arte was defined by its improvisation around a set framework of archetypal characters and stock situations and plots, which were often borrowed from the literary tradition 'Commedia erudita'.

Although the true origins of Commedia Dell'arte aren't known for sure, theories suggest that its inspiration came from classical and preclassical mime and farce pieces. However, what is considered to be true is that Commedia Dell'arte arose from regional dialect farces in Italy dating back to the Middle Ages. Professional companies, consisting of unorganised street performers, acrobats, strolling players and educated travellers, took the style of these plays and made them more comprehensible and entertaining to the general Italian public by translating the plays from their original dialect, which was hard for a majority of the Italian population to understand, and experimenting with popular forms. These performances included a plethora of comedic action and slapstick, exaggeration both in almost every element of the play and archetypal characters. All of which was done with little scenery, props or costume, to leave as much room for improvisation as possible, which is what ended up defining this style. Some of the most famous Italian Commedia Dell'arte groups of the time are the Gelosi, who performed between 1568 and 1604 and were the most famous early group; the Comici Confidènti, active from 1574 to 1621; the Accesi and a second Confidènti group active in the 17th century. There were even reports of Commedia Dell'arte groups in other European countries, particularly France after the king summoned the Gelosi to Blois in 1577 and later Paris. The French adored Italian theatre and soon enough, French Commedia Dell'arte groups were performing their adaptations with added original French characters. This continued until Louis XIV outlawed Italian theatrical tropes in 1697.

In classic Commedia Dell'arte performances, each actor would play a specific archetype (0therwise known as 'masks' since each character was performed with a mask, sans the lovers in the second act) that they specialised in. This character would be the only character they would be cast as, so that they can perform to the highest comedic potential, knowing exactly how to play that archetype to perfection. These archetypes are:

The Arlecchino, more commonly known as the Harlequin: the most famous of the Commedia Dell'arte archetypes, Arlecchino is a servant (or Zanni) who is equal parts dexterous and idiotic. This character will end up accidentally getting involved in many elaborate plots, not out of mal intent rather than pure stupidity and scatterbrainedness. In original Commedia Dell'arte, this character could be identified by his costume that consisted of a skin-tight bodysuit covered in brightly multi-coloured patches. In One Man Two Governors, the character Francis Henshall is the Arlecchino.

The Innamorati are the lovers of the production, hence why they wouldn't wear masks, letting their faces be free. They would wear exaggerated makeup and the latest fashions. Their exaggerated affections for one another is what makes their characters so comedic. In most Commedia Dell'arte, the Innamorati have to overcome a significant obstacle to be able to be with one another, usually their parents' disapproval. In our play, Alan and Pauline, who are the Innamorati, have to deal with Roscoe's 'rising from the dead' to marry each other.

The Capitano: this character is a coward who puts on a confident and brash facade to hide that fact. Often recognisable by his puffed chest and booming voice, the Capitano will promise great things, yet find excuses not to act upon them. The humour of his character comes from other characters showing him up. Stanley Stubbers and Alan are the characters in our play that fit this description best, in my opinion.

The Pulcinella: a parody of the poor and oppressed workers of the day and he's deceitful because he has nothing to lose. Pulcinella is a hunchback with a hooked nose and a potbelly. The character who best fits this description is Charlie, although his physical appearance doesn't match that of Pulcinella, he does lead Rachel (or 'Roscoe') into believing he can deliver her the money she needs when he doesn't even have it.

The Coviello: Coviello is Pulcinella’s lower-class double. He is a grimacing and playful servant with flushed cheeks and a nose the length of his face. The only character from One Man Two Governors that I think could fit this archetype is Lloyd.

The Pantalone: an incredibly affluent retired merchant whose disoriented brain is controlled by lust. He can be recognised by his bathrobe-like coat paired with a tight red vest and comfortable slippers, he also sports a scraggly and unkempt beard. He usually ends up as a puppet to everyone, despite being the superior of his household. There aren't any characters in One Man that particularly fit this archetype though.

The Dottore: Pantalone's friend and confidant, he's pretentious and pompous about his intelligence wearing an academic's robe around. However, in his learning, he's about as fruitless as you can get. He's known to blurt out inappropriate and poorly pronounced Latin phrases that he doesn't have a complete grasp on the meaning of, something that the One Man character, Harry Dangle tends to do, although he isn't as unsuccessful as Dottore.

#Task 4

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thisguyatthemovies · 4 years

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Going to the dogs

Title: “Barking Dogs Never Bite”

Release date: In theaters Feb. 19, 2000; on disc/streaming July 20, 2010 (currently available on Hulu)

Starring: Lee Sung-jae, Bae Doo-na, Byun Hee-bong, Kim Ho-jung, Go Soo-hee, Kim Roi-ha, Kim Jin-goo

Directed by: Bong Joon-ho

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated: Not rated

What it’s about: In this South Korean film, an unemployed man is annoyed by a barking dog in his high-rise apartment building and takes matters into his own hands.

How I saw it: “Barking Dogs Never Bite,” the 2000 directorial debut for reigning Best Director Oscars winner Bong Joon-ho, is not a great movie, but it becomes a more interesting movie given the filmmaker’s current popularity. Though not as refined, especially in the storytelling department, as Bong’s Best Picture winner from last year, “Parasite,” “Barking Dogs Never Bite” nevertheless is clearly the product of a gifted, young (Bong was 30 when it was made) director with an eye for social commentary and dark (even black) humor, and a knack for mixing genres and melding sudden tonal shifts. “Parasite” is the better, more mature film by a lot, but that’s to be expected for two movies by the same director 19 years apart.

“Barking Dogs Never Bite” is about a young unemployed academic, Ko Yun-ju (Lee Sung-jae), who lives with his pregnant wife (Kim Ho-jung as Eun-sil) in a large South Korean apartment building. Yun-ju, who is unhappy in his marriage and wonders if it will take bribery for him to become a college professor, is annoyed by a barking dog in his apartment building, where no dogs are allowed but few tenants seem to observe the rule. He finds an unattended Shih Tzu, takes the dog and tries to drop it off the top of the building before being observed by an older lady (Kim Jin-goo) who is on the roof to dry radishes. Yun-ju instead takes the dog to the basement of the building and tries to hang it before settling for locking away the canine in a closet.

Wait right there, you might be thinking. He was going to drop the dog off a tall building? He was going to hang the dog? He locked the dog in a closet in the basement of a large building, where it is almost certain not to be discovered before it starves to death? Yes, yes and yes. And here’s where Bong’s film might lose some of you. Dogs, though they obviously are central to the story of “Barking Dogs Never Bite,” do not fare well in this movie. And without going into detail, it gets worse than this. If you are at all squeamish or offended by cruelty or even implied cruelty to dogs (a disclaimer before the film reminds the viewer that no real dogs were hurt during the filming), you’ll want to take a pass. You likely won’t be able to make the leap from “this would be the worst thing ever in real life” to “it’s black comedy in a movie from a part of the world that doesn’t always see dogs as humanlike family members but is OK with eating them.” And that’s OK.

Yun-ju has an encounter with a second dog, and he is observed handling the situation (so to speak) by Park Hyun-nam (Bae Doo-na), an incompetent maintenance worker and bookkeeper for the apartment building; and her friend, Yoon Jang-mi (Go Soo-hee), a toy store owner. Hyun-nam dreams of instant celebrity (and this is in the time before social media) by performing some heroic act. She had already noticed tenants coming to the office to make flyers for missing dogs and decided to get involved in finding them. Her encounter with Yun-ju does not go as planned, though.

Yun-ju’s situation gets worse (at least in his eyes) when his wife comes home with a dog of their own. She is concerned that Yun-ju will bring harm to the pet, and when the dog goes missing, she suspects the worse. Yun-ju then solicits the help of Hyun-nam to find the dog.

Bong has a way of getting the best out of an ensemble cast (“Parasite” won Best Picture despite being shut out of the acting categories), and that’s the case here. He asks much of the talent, and they must be nimble enough to handle tones that turn on a dime. Doo-na is especially strong here as a young, largely unremarkable women who knows what she wants but does not know how to get it. She wants to do good, but she wants to be noticed for it.

In addition to how dogs are mistreated, “Barking Dogs Don’t Bite” makes the jump from dark comedy to just dark on several occasions. But because of the underlying comedic tone (and a jazzy soundtrack that is reminiscent of the old “Peanuts” TV shows), it never feels morbid or heavy. It is at times laugh-out-loud funny but doesn’t consistently aim for laughs. This being a Bong film, it comments on Korean society (here it touches on the longing for fame, the cutthroat nature of trying to move up the socioeconomic ladder, the way women are treated in the working world and, of course, where dogs stand in South Korean society) by being more observant than preachy.

Whether or not you get those messages or even enjoy “Barking Dogs Don’t Bite” as mere entertainment will depend largely on your ability to, in respect to the film’s depiction of Koreans’ treatment of dogs, go to the dark side and then come back to the real world unscathed.

My score: 78 out of 100

Should you watch it? Yes, but only if you can tolerate cruelty toward dogs in the context of dark comedy.

#movies #movie review #movie recommendation #barking dogs never bite #bong joon ho #south korea #dogs #dark comedy #social commentary

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zipgrowth · 5 years

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In the Future, Today’s Education Will Look Like ‘19th-Century Medicine’

By most measures, Massachusetts is one of the nation’s highest-performing states when it comes to K-12 education. It ranks first in the country on lists from Education Week and U.S. News, and is singled out for its high reading and math achievement, as well as its relatively narrow equity gaps among different ethnic and socioeconomic groups in academic performance.

Yet to hear the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education tell it, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“Massachusetts has done very well,” said Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley at the recent LearnLaunch 2019 conference in Boston. “But I think in a few years, this will start to look like 19th century medicine: Get your solder out, because the best we can do is amputate. Instead, we need scalpels.”

Jeffrey C. Riley

At LearnLaunch, Riley spoke at length about a variety of subjects, including the need for better teacher training, wraparound services and more freedom for innovation. What follows is a lightly-edited sampling of his remarks.

On Professional Development

The big secret in public education is that the variation in teacher quality is astounding. In America, it’s quite large. But in Canada the variation is much less pronounced. Why? Because they spend more time training their teachers, giving them the time and space to share lessons and take part in PLCs (professional learning communities). When I was teaching, there were all these conferences where teachers could go and share best practices. You could steal lessons and bring them back to the classroom. With the advent of No Child Left Behind, we’ve kind of lost that ability to share with each other. I think that’s a problem.

I think we have to acknowledge we need to do a better job of teacher prep, but mostly we have to do a better job when you start teaching on day one. Teachers are leaving within their first five years of teaching, and what that says to me is that we need a better retention approach inside the first five years to make sure people feel successful.

On Critical Thinking in Action

If you have something of quality, it will spread like a virus

We talk about critical thinking, but what does that actually mean? I’ve defined it as using your skill set to encounter new and complex situations.

When I was a principal in Boston, we did a candy sale and sold chocolate bars. Along the way, I got a call from a local grandmother, who started screaming at me: “How could you do this? Are you out of your mind?” I said, “Ma’am, what are you talking about?” She said, “It’s your candy sale.” I told her that I thought every school in America did a candy sale at this point. She said, “That’s not what I’m talking about—it’s the price.” I replied that I didn’t think a dollar was too much to ask for a candy bar. She said, “A dollar? Your kids are selling them for five.” A student or two got in trouble that day—but that was very good critical thinking on their part.

On Innovation

Now more than ever we need innovation. We need to get people out in the field and get them thinking in new ways. In Massachusetts, there is a proposal to put money in a trust to do innovative practices. Harvard is very interested in creating an incubator, where educators can come in and try out their ideas and they would help do the data and study those ideas. I think we need to really push for that.

On Data

One area where I think things have been slow to move is with data. In particular, getting data systems to talk to one another so that we could have longitudinal data beyond what happens just within the K-12 space.

For example, take some of the research into early preschool projects. Kids got a preschool intervention, and it seemed like it went well initially—in elementary school those kids started to move up. But then the gains wore off as they went further along in elementary school. People thought that the preschool interventions were not that impactful. Except they tracked those same kids over time—over decades—and found those kids had higher IQs by age 15 and fewer incidents of incarceration. So what was initially seen as a failure was actually longterm, pretty successful.

Right now, we don’t have our systems set up so we can marry that data and do those kinds of longitudinal studies. I’ve argued that there are golden needles in these haystacks of data that we don’t have access to right now, which could help us plot the way forward.

On Software

I think for a long time we we’ve been waiting for tech to be this amazing tool to help kids with instruction. It’s actually been a little slower coming than many of us would like. I think the tipping point has happened over the past five to six years. We’re starting to see things that actually work. In my old district, Lawrence Public Schools, We used ST Math. It’s all about how to teach math in a conceptual way versus a linguistic way, and that has helped a lot of our kids who are learning English.

On Advice to the Edtech Industry

If you have something of quality, it will spread like a virus. Teachers will walk over broken glass to get something that works in their classrooms. Find something that’s worthy of that. There is an incredible thirst for educators in the field to look at your products and see whether they might work for them.

On Measuring Student Potential

The need for more wraparound services is going to be more crucial now than ever before

When I was a deputy in Boston, we did a performance of Godspell. We did three sold-out shows, three nights in a row. On the second night, we hosted a critic from New York and he looked at Michael, the kid who played Jesus, and told us after that if he keeps this up, he could be on Broadway in five years. His voice and comedic timing were beyond compare. What the critic didn’t know was that Michael was organically dyslexic. He was never going to be advanced or even proficient on an academics test. But there’s nothing wrong with Michael; it’s just that we haven’t chosen to recognize his gifts as something that is important for our children to do.

On Standardized Testing

In the ’90s the best test in America was in Maryland, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. It didn’t give individual results. It had kids working collaboratively on performance-based tasks, and they gave school-level results, rather than individual ones. With the advent of NCLB, every student had to have an individual score, and so Maryland completely scrapped this test, which even the teacher’s union said was good—just don’t use it in accountability measures. That was a pivotal moment in education in America. We lost something in this deeper learning.

On Wraparound Supports

Most juvenile crime happens between the hours of 2 to 6 p.m., when kids are unsupervised. We need to create more opportunities for kids to be engaged. With a few exceptions for schools that have extended learning time, we’re still on this 19th century agrarian model where our kids would go to school from eight in the morning to two in the afternoon and then have the summers off so they could go work in the fields to produce the harvest.

My kids go to Boston Public Schools; they are not producing the harvest in the summer. I think we need to start rethinking our structures. Does that mean we start to change our schools or add more wraparound services? What we need to see is both, but the need for more wraparound services is going to be more crucial now than ever before.

In the Future, Today’s Education Will Look Like ‘19th-Century Medicine’ published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is considering a new plan, according to the New York Times and Washington Post: Allow federal education funds to go toward putting more guns in schools.

The guns-in-schools plan would tap federal grants that are traditionally intended for academic enrichment and student services, but instead allow states to use the money to purchase firearms for teachers. The plan would take advantage of a loophole that, unlike other school safety measures, does not explicitly prohibit the use of the money for guns.

As my colleague Ella Nilsen noted, this answers a call by some Republican lawmakers and the National Rifle Association (NRA). They believe that arming more teachers will allow educators to keep students safe by defending them from a mass shooter. As the NRA often says, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

Will the proposal ever become reality? We don’t know yet. Asked about the plan, a Department of Education spokesperson told the Times, “The department is constantly considering and evaluating policy issues, particularly issues related to school safety. The secretary nor the department issues opinions on hypothetical scenarios.”

The evidence suggests, however, that the guns-in-schools plan would make schools more dangerous, not safer.

While there is no good research specifically on arming teachers (which by itself should raise red flags, given that policy should be evidence-based), there is plenty of evidence on what happens where there are more guns around. It’s pretty clear: Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.

The logic is simple: The presence of a gun allows otherwise normal circumstances to escalate into deadly violence. If a teacher has a gun around, she or one of her students is more likely to fire it — accidentally or deliberately — than if a gun wasn’t around.

That’s not to say that no one has ever successfully defended themselves or others from an attack with a firearm. The question is whether these incidents of successful defense would outweigh the new incidents of gun violence that would crop up due to the addition of more firearms in schools.

And based on the research, the presence of more guns typically translates to much more general gun violence, while justified uses of a gun for self-defense are few and far between.

So DeVos’s potential guns-in-schools plan would likely make school violence worse.

The US is unique in two key and related ways when it comes to guns: It has way more gun deaths than other developed nations, and it has far more guns than any other country in the world.

The US has nearly six times the gun homicide rate of Canada, more than seven times that of Sweden, and nearly 16 times that of Germany, according to United Nations data compiled by the Guardian. (These gun deaths are a big reason America has a much higher overall homicide rate, which includes non-gun deaths, than other developed nations.)

Javier Zarracina/Vox

Mass shootings actually make up a small fraction of America’s gun deaths, constituting less than 2 percent of such deaths in 2013. But America does see a lot of these horrific events: According to CNN, “The US makes up less than 5% of the world’s population, but holds 31% of global mass shooters.”

The US also has by far the highest number of privately owned guns in the world. Estimated for 2017, the number of civilian-owned firearms in the US was 120.5 guns per 100 residents, meaning there were more firearms than people. The world’s second-ranked country was Yemen, a quasi-failed state torn by civil war, where there were 52.8 guns per 100 residents, according to an analysis from the Small Arms Survey.

Small Arms Survey

Another way of looking at that: Americans make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet they own roughly 45 percent of all the world’s privately held firearms.

These two facts — on gun deaths and firearm ownership — are related. The research, compiled by the Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Control Research Center, is pretty clear: After controlling for variables such as socioeconomic factors and other crime, places with more guns have more gun deaths.

“Within the United States, a wide array of empirical evidence indicates that more guns in a community leads to more homicide,” David Hemenway, the Injury Control Research Center’s director, wrote in Private Guns, Public Health.

For example, a 2013 study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher found that, after controlling for multiple variables, each percentage point increase in gun ownership correlated with a roughly 0.9 percent rise in the firearm homicide rate.

The correlation applies globally. This chart, based on data from GunPolicy.org, shows the correlation between the number of guns and gun deaths among wealthier nations:

Javier Zarracina/Vox

Guns are not the only contributor to violence. (Other factors include, for example, poverty, urbanization, and alcohol consumption.) But when researchers control for other confounding variables, they have found time and time again that America’s high level of gun ownership is a major reason the US is so much worse in terms of gun violence than its developed peers.

As a breakthrough analysis by UC Berkeley’s Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins in the 1990s found, it’s not even that the US has more crime than other developed countries. This chart, based on data from Jeffrey Swanson at Duke University, shows that the US is not an outlier when it comes to overall crime:

Javier Zarracina/Vox

Instead, the US appears to have more lethal violence — and that’s driven in large part by the prevalence of guns.

”A series of specific comparisons of the death rates from property crime and assault in New York City and London show how enormous differences in death risk can be explained even while general patterns are similar,” Zimring and Hawkins wrote. “A preference for crimes of personal force and the willingness and ability to use guns in robbery make similar levels of property crime 54 times as deadly in New York City as in London.”

Javier Zarracina/Vox

This is in many ways intuitive. People of every country get into arguments and fights with friends, family, and peers. But in the US, it’s much more likely that someone will get angry during an argument and be able to pull out a gun and kill someone.

Consider how this could apply to a school scenario. Some kids or teachers get into an argument. There’s a gun in the classroom. Someone reaches for that gun — and what may have otherwise been a feisty argument escalates into a fatal encounter.

This might seem ridiculous, but consider that there have been shootings over disputes about cheeseburgers and tacos. In the heat of the moment, people can do very bad things.

America does not have a monopoly on these kinds of disputes. What it does have, again, is easy access to guns, making escalation much more likely.

Increasing the presence of guns in schools, then, could actually exacerbate gun violence.

There’s another set of statistics that throws cold water on the “good guy with a gun” theory: It’s way more likely in America that someone will shoot and kill another person in the course of committing a crime than in self-defense.

Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post ran through the statistics. He looked at how many gun homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings there were in comparison to “justifiable” homicides (“the killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen”), based on the FBI’s 2012 data.

He found that for every justifiable gun homicide, there were 34 criminal gun homicides, 78 gun suicides, and two accidental gun deaths.

Data on mass shootings tells a similar story: According to the FBI’s report on active shooter events between 2000 and 2013, only about 3 percent were stopped by a civilian with a gun. Unarmed civilians actually stopped more incidents — about 13 percent. Most of the incidents — more than 56 percent — ended on the shooter’s initiative, when the shooter either killed himself or herself, simply stopped shooting, or fled the scene.

Would more of these shootings be prevented if more people had guns? It’s hard to say — since, again, there’s no good research on that question.

But America already has a lot of guns. And as the other data shows, that’s likely making its overall gun violence problem worse, not better.

In President Donald Trump’s past comments about arming teachers, he’s suggested that this would be an easy way to end mass shootings quickly. He previously tweeted, “History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!”

Reality, however, is more complicated: Even when people are armed, that doesn’t mean they can properly respond to a mass shooting.

Multiple simulations have demonstrated that most people, if placed in an active shooter situation while armed, will not be able to stop the situation, and may in fact do little more than get themselves killed in the process.

This video from ABC News shows one such simulation, in which people repeatedly fail to shoot an active shooter before they’re shot:

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As Chris Benton, a police investigator in Pennsylvania, told ABC News, “Video games and movies, they glorify gunfights. [People] get that warped sense that this is true — this video game is exactly what I can do in real life. That’s not reality.”

The Daily Show also put this theory to the test in another more comedic simulation segment. Jordan Klepper, who was a correspondent with the show at the time, trained on the basics of using a firearm and got a concealed carry permit that was valid in 30 states. Then he participated in mass shooting simulations to see how he would hold up in such a scenario.

He failed — miserably. In his final test, which simulated a school shooting, he shot an unarmed civilian, and he was shot multiple times by the active shooters and even law enforcement, who mistook him for the bad guy. He never took down the active shooters.

[embedded content]

The fundamental problem is that mass shootings are traumatizing, terrifying events. Without potentially dozens or even hundreds of hours in training, most people are not going to be able to quickly and properly respond.

“There’s never enough training,” Coby Briehn, a senior instructor at Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, told Klepper. “You can never get enough.”

The FBI’s analysis of active shooters between 2000 and 2013 has another relevant data point: “Law enforcement suffered casualties in 21 (46.7%) of the 45 incidents where they engaged the shooter to end the threat.” These are people trained to do this kind of thing full-time, and nearly half of incidents resulted in at least one officer wounded or killed. Teachers with limited training would very likely fare much worse.

None of that is to say that a “good guy with a gun” would never be able to stop a shooter. We have seen some high-profile cases in which that happened. But the bulk of the findings, from news investigations to the FBI’s report to The Daily Show, suggest that this idea is often going to play out very differently than supporters like Trump and DeVos envision — and sometimes it could lead to more innocent people getting caught in the crossfire.

If America wants to confront its gun-violence problem, then the research suggests it should look to reducing the number of guns in circulation — not putting more armed people into schools, and certainly not paying for more armed people in schools.

Original Source -> Betsy DeVos’s reported guns-in-schools plan would make schools less safe

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