Last Week in the Common Room: What do the tea leaves say?

Many Ravenclaws speak many languages. We all learn in different ways and are good at different parts of language.

Madam Chang is doing tea readings and answering questions. 

Have you ever been to Between or driven down Sample or Random?

I know a lot about Atlanta traffic now; how about you?

The proposed town of streets named after Beatles songs is delightful. 

Yarn is tax-free in some places if you plan to use it for clothing. It should be everywhere!

A new cat MAY have entered the Tower. 

Successful kitten rescue! Those faces!

Advanced Studies Spring 2016 -- Term in Review

Alright, ‘Claws. At the beginning of the term (well, okay, up until about a third of the way into it, since that’s when deadlines were), tons of us turned in proposals to be NEWT students, OWL students, and Agents for the Order of the Phoenix. As a quick reminder of the numbers (remembering that there are 175 students in The Tower), we had 13 NEWT proposals, 97 OWL proposals, 99 BROOMs, and some crazy students who decided to go for broke and do a work-study (exam-mission) program – nine deciding to attempt a NEWT and a Mission, and 66 attempting an OWL and a Mission. In case you’re wondering, that’s 131 individual Ravenclaws who attempted some kind of Advanced Study this term. 75% of the House! Wow!

As we know, though, life happens despite our desires to study or help the Order, and not everyone made it to their respective finish lines. They still earned points for the House, though! We had 14 partial Missions turned in (350 points), eleven OWL students who at least met their 50% mark (875 points), two OWL students who buckled down after missing the 50% deadline and still turned in a complete OWL (250 points), four NEWTlings who completed at least 50% of their proposals (300 points), and three who hit at least 75% (375 points). So even if you didn’t totally complete your AS this term, you still definitely worked hard and contributed!

*round of applause*

While the HoH will get the honor of bestowing the completion badges to individuals at the end of term party, we can at least tease with some numbers. We had 45 Agents complete their Missions this term, almost half! When combined with the fourteen who turned in partials, the Order had 66 Agents from Ravenclaw gathering information (with appropriate footnote annotations, naturally) and helping them out this term. We also had a whopping 59 OWL students pass their exams – I’m guessing here, but from the turn-in photos I’ve seen, I would say a vast majority earned Outstanding results, too! Twenty-six of those OWL students also worked part-time for the Order, and earned themselves a lovely PhOWL badge. Three of our NEWTlings managed to hit the mark on their exams (hey, NEWTs are HARD!) and one crazy ‘Claw (ahem, greenheron) managed to earn herself the coveted Flaming Salamander badge this term!

We also need to recognize digitaldina, Intallcotton, electronjam, and rondaletts, our latest Ravenclaw OWL Mistresses!!! Congrats, ladies!

(No fun project pics because, well, there’s a lot of truly awesome ones and I CAN’T CHOOSE and don’t know how to do a huge collage like we’d need and I can’t let this post be 100,000 scrolls of parchment! Go search for “Ravenclaw” in the turn-in threads and spend the rest of your morning – or afternoon, or evening – oohing and ahhing and adding things to your queue.)

Thank you so much Kadiddly for this fantastic look at Spring 2016 Advanced Studies!

The Great Ravenclaw Road Trip

Hogwarts students may have noticed how quiet it has been around the Castle this past term. The Ravenclaw tables in the Great Hall were deserted, desks usually occupied by Ravenclaws were vacant, and the Tower was silent and empty. The Ravenclaws had left on a ROAD TRIP!!

Together with several hearty NQFYs, the entire Ravenclaw House embarked on an epic ‘round-the-world journey to visit seven of the great wizarding schools in other countries. Although meeting other students and seeing their castles was unforgettable, it was the unexpected we encountered along our travels that made this trip truly memorable! Dragons, a kraken, Sirens, polar bears, pirates, and many more creatures and people contributed to our mind-blowing adventures, as we traveled by – among other conveyances – Ford Anglias, flying carpets, elephants, airships, and luxury liners.

Our entire journey is preserved here for those who wish to relive our adventures chapter by chapter.

Although the trip was conceived as the Prefects’ Challenge, other Ravenclaw activity teams such as Tetris, First Years, and Convocation joined in the overall travel theme. Even the Aerie masthead changed with every new location! All Ravenclaws and NQFYs who signed up for the trip were able to log their yardage, Flight of the First classes, and charity projects to earn extra leagues – the distance measurement for this trip -- to speed us along our way. The magic Travelogue automatically recorded leagues awarded for class participation, and altogether Ravenclaw earned more than enough leagues to successfully complete our journey.  With high hopes of a THREE-PEAT, courageous Ravenclaws didn’t allow ANYTHING to slow down their crafting!

With a new understanding of the wonders of our magical world, Ravenclaw House is back home in the Tower just in time for the End of Term Feast, passports full of visa stamps, project bags sprouting experience buttons, heads whirling with stories, and wild tales to tell!

We’re ready for a new term!

Thanks to Prefect topfrog for that recap!