DCW-DH: No Apprehension

Writers: Kaysea, Vix
Date Posted: 19th June 2007

Characters: Kateena, Mahantan
Description: Kateena visits Mahantan to discuss teaching apprentices her specialty.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 4, day 23 of Turn 4

She knocked briefly on the Master of Apprentices door and waited for his
bidding, she was excited and nervous combined at the thought of instructing
anyone in her craft, but the time had come, and now that she had been posted
permanently here, she needed to take a more in-depth position at the Hall.

"Hello?" Mahantan approached his office through the corridor, calling to the
woman who stood beside the door. "Can I help you?"

"Oh! Master Mahantan, sorry I thought..." she pointed to the closed door, "I
thought you were in there." she ended lamely. Gathering her thoughts, she
looked at him again, "I..I'm Kateena, I think you wanted to see me, about
classes?" she asked.

"Ah, indeed." He grinned as he opened the door and motioned her through.
"Your specialty is in cartography, isn't it?"

"It is, Sir." she stood waiting for him to enter and close the door before
she moved closer to his desk. "I'll admit though, I was used more out in
the field, as it were, when I was up North, so I'm not sure just what will
be expected of me here, with apprentices."

"I'd hope for classroom instruction as well as fieldwork." He sat at the
desk. "Sit. There's no reason for you to stand while I'm comfortable. I save
that for wayward apprentices."

Kateena moved to the chair he had indicated and sat down, allowing a small
smile to grace her mouth at his joke. "Class work? With how many
apprentices?" she asked, and flutterbies in her stomach started flitting
around at the thought of actually instructing apprentices.

"No more than four or five at a time," was his reply, "and less if possible.
I want them to learn to plot a decent map, to do it accurately and to
understand how and why they draw it as they do. I think that would be best
served with short periods of instruction for small groups and then give them
an assignment to do on their own." He glanced at her with a questioning
look. "Unless you learned in a different way and have suggestions?"

"No, no. That seems fine, I just" she spread her hands in supplication,
"I've never _taught_ before. Being out in the field is all I've known. I'm
a little nervous." she admitted with a grimace.

He rested his elbow on the desk as he regarded her with amusement. "That
doesn't really get any better - at least, not if you think about it. If you
simply do what you're good at doing, you'll not think about the fact that
you're actually teaching, and it will go very smoothly."

"I suppose so, but.. I've been doing this for so long now, what happens if
I'm not good at explaining what I'm doing? I have a tendency to do things
automatically." She looked imploringly at him.

"Then just do it and let them ask questions if they don't understand."

She sat and considered his words, chewing on the inside of her lip as she
did when deep in thought. "Hmmm. Okay, if you're sure. So - only four or
five at a time? And out in the field?"

"Possibly more in the field, depending on how many you want with you, but
they would be working and then bringing what they had done to you for
evaluation and suggestions." His hands moved as he spoke, as if to emphasize
his words. "With the storms, the coastline has changed. I suggest that you
take a segment of map, check it yourself and see how you would change the
markings on it, and then ask them to do the same, checking to see where
beach has washed away, where it has built up, and having them practice their
mapping skills on that. As they jump into the hands-on work, you can guide
them."

"Is there anything else, Sir?" she asked, eager now to get to work, since
she had the basic outline of her classes now. It had been so long since she
had been a student herself, she had forgotten how much work had been
involved.

"Just one more thing," he stated, now quite solemn. "Apprentices will try to
get away with as much as they can. Expect them to do the work, expect them
to do it correctly, and if you have problems with any particular ones, let
me know immediately."

"I will, Sir." she nodded, equally solemnly. "I will impress on them the
need for attention, its water we're dealing with, and their own and their
peers lives will be at risk if they don't follow through on instructions.
If there's one thing I really remember being impressed on my own apprentice
class, it was that."

"Good. They'll be testing enough with having me around. I don't want them
also to expect that they can walk all over other staff. We need to let them
know the expectations and after that we can have as much fun with the
classes as we want."

"Thank you, Sir. I must admit, apart from feeling a little nervous, I'm
also beginning to feel a little excited by the prospect of showing others my
particular aspect of our craft."

"Excellent!" He grinned broadly. "The one thing I really want from all of
the apprentices' instructors is enthusiasm. It's easy to discard one or two
aspects as unimportant simply because they were presented in a way that made
them seem uninteresting. I want the apprentices to see how all of the parts
fit together within the craft and to find their own natural inclinations for
specialties."

"Well, I'll do my best." she gave Mahantan a wide smile. "I want to do my
best down here, since I've been given the chance to transfer."

"I've a feeling that you'll do fine." He rose from his chair. "I'm reworking
the class schedules but will have the information to you within two days. Do
you feel ready to start next sevenday?"

"Yes, Sir." Kateena stood, following the Master of Apprentices lead, "And
looking forward with less apprehension now, thank you, Sir."

He nodded. "Let's keep it that way. No apprehension - just enjoy the
experience and let me know if there are any problems."

"Will do." she gave a nod of agreement and left his office, feeling more a
part of the Hall now than she did when she entered his office a short half
candlemark before.

Last updated on the June 21st 2007

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DCW-DH: No Apprehension