The Newsroom

Have you ever wanted to peek behind the curtain and know what it takes to be a professor or librarian? This is your chance to ask us staff members anything! We know that it can be a little intimidating to owl us questions about your potential staff applications, so we’d like to provide a space for you all to ask us your burning questions with the ability to do so anonymously.

From January 18th to January 24th, this article will have a live Google Form where you can submit your question(s). Throughout the week, this article will be updated with the questions submitted from the previous day(s) alongside a staff member’s answer in red text. Older submissions will be in black.

Question Content

Your questions can focus on anything related to being a staff member, whether it’s about writing/researching content for lessons or other staff duties. There are a few questions that we will not answer, though. Any impatient or pressuring questions such as asking when new lessons will be published or when new staff/PA applications will open will not be answered. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. We reserve the right to not answer questions we deem inappropriate or too revealing. We don’t want to reveal all of our secrets, now.

When you submit your question(s), you are welcome to ask a specific staff member; however, we cannot guarantee the requested staff member will answer due to availability or question influx. That being said, we will do our absolute best to provide you with an answer!

If you have any questions about the event, please owl Professor Kwan.
Staff Applications can be found under the Volunteer tab!

Questions & Answers

Anonymous asks: What's the process of creating new lessons? How do you find ideas to write about? 

• Creating lessons isn't easy. It demands lots of creativity and vision. First, you need to put in the students' shoes. What would they like to read in a lesson? What would be interesting to explore? After answering those questions, you need to start digging reliable information to put in your lesson. This is very complicated as you should never stick to only one source. Crossreferencing is paramount here. In general, ideas come to mind in moments I usually don't expect. I might be watching a video, playing a videogame or even having dinner. When ideas come to mind, I write them down on a piece of paper and leave them there for later. Luckily, Herbological material can be found in real life so that helps a lot with the creation process. - Professor Aspen

Anonymous asks: How much time are you required to dedicate to HiH as a professor? I know PAs are expected to grade 20+ assignments per week in some courses, so I was wondering what kind of expectations there are for professors?

• Thank you for your question! This would vary based on the professor’s availability, level of activity during that week and the course they’re responsible for. To put it simply, being a professor at Hogwarts doesn’t involve a ‘set’ amount of work, but focuses on what the course needs. For example, some weeks I’ll grade as little as five assignments for Care of Magical Creatures, whereas I’ll grade over fifty assignments during the busy weeks. There’s also other tasks aside from grading, such as reviewing lessons, responding to student owls, etc. Overall, I’d say I spent about two to five hours dedicated to Hogwarts Is Here each week, depending on what needs to be worked on that week. In saying so, I’m an elective professor, so these hours would probably vary more for core professors, Heads of House, and the Headmistress and Deputy Headmistress. - Professor Montclam :)

Tulip Karasu asks: What exactly does being a librarian entail, apart from reviewing books in the approval queue? Are there any other duties? What is your favorite part of the position?

• This is a great question! We’re also responsible for making sure the library policies are up to date, and making sure the Library is functioning properly as it should be. My favorite part of being a Librarian is getting to meet new students through the position I might otherwise not have met! I love when students interact with me, either by owling or posting on my wall, so feel free to come chat with me at any time! - Madam Ambrose

Anonymous asks: A previous answer mentioned that all staff members were once students. When you became a Professor/staff member, did you create a new account for your staff member persona, or did you still use your old one? If the former, do you still use your original student account sometimes? How much is your staff member persona related to your original student persona? Thank you!

• I’ll start off with a more general answer first before answering the questions specifically for me. So, when someone is hired for a professor or staff role, they create their new persona as part of the application form. Each person includes a name, house, some backstory, etc. Nothing included there is set in stone at that stage and can be changed. So yes, all newly hired staff will create a new staff account. And it is entirely up to staff members if they keep up with their student accounts or not. When I was hired, I created a new account for my professor. My character, Epona Salvatrix, never went to Hogwarts as part of her backstory meaning she was never a student at the school and hasn’t taken any of the classes so it would have been difficult to link her and my student account if I had wanted to. They are very separate characters with no overlap. Saying that, my student account is still there and I do go on it from time-to-time to look at lessons and assignments I haven’t completed. It’s sometimes nice to read through a lesson that isn’t related to the subject I teach here. - Professor Salvatrix
  
  

Amelia Claire Dawson asks:What is your favourite thing about being a Professor for your course? What are the challenges?

• Hi Amelia, Thank you for your question. My favourite thing about being a Professor for Ancient Runes is the level of creativity required I can employ in the delivery of content. This is because there is hardly any canon material to base the course on which means it’s subject to much of my own discretion. While this is a big responsibility, I really enjoy developing what the history and applications of magical writing systems would have looked like in the wizarding world. The main challenge so far has been learning about the areas of history and culture that are relevant to the course, but that I wasn’t already familiar with. This goes for Muggle history, wizarding lore, and HiH canon! Another big challenge is ensuring consistency across the course material. This is not just within the course itself, but also with other courses and textbooks. - Professor Sorelle
• My favourite thing about being a Professor is the creative liberties I am able to take when it comes to shaping the course. I enjoy writing course material and coming up with new ways to allow for more creative approaches in an otherwise mostly essay-focused course. It’s also great to be able to combine past ideas from previous Professors with fresh ones to be able to create the best possible learning experience in History of Magic! However, one of the main challenges is that History of Magic can sometimes be seen as less exciting than practical subjects. Since studying it involves more quill-to-parchment studying instead of wand-waving, a lot of students tend to not be as enthusiastic. I am working hard on coming up with new creative ideas to make HoM more engaging as well as helping students see that understanding the past is just as important as mastering spells or potions when it comes to shaping the future of our wizarding world. - Professor Valeris
  
  

Amelia Claire Dawson asks: Do professors actually have ‘planning meetings’ when preparing lessons? If so, are these meetings team-based, or does each professor handle their own course and just share updates to keep the different courses and everyone on the team coordinated? 

• That is an excellent question. Although we are encouraged to consult with our colleagues, especially those whose fields are related to ours, the process of lesson-writing is individual. Having said that, at times there may be concepts that pertain to two or more subjects (for example, the spellcasting details are important for Charms, DADA and Transfiguration) - in these cases, we do discuss these concepts at staff meetings. - Professor Draekon
  
  

Anonymous asks: At what point did you realize that teaching/being headmistress was your calling?

• My love for teaching first developed as a Fifth Year here at Hogwarts during study sessions with friends in my Divination class. Clairvoyance came more naturally to me than my classmates, so I often summarized lectures for them after class. I was quite awful at first! My friends left the study session more confused with how I explained things. That’s when I saw a vision of one of them failing their Divination O.W.L. From then on, I challenged myself to get better at the art of teaching. Fortunately, that person passed their O.W.L (and N.E.W.T.) with flying colors and went on to be an excellent Seer in Austria. Becoming Headmistress was an event I did not foresee for myself, and I never envisioned myself as one, but I’m glad I took the opportunity. - Headmistress Oshiro
  
  

Anonymous asks: When evaluating potential PAs, how are flagged assignments considered? For example, if a student has one or two flagged assignments but meets all other requirements and demonstrates strong grading and feedback skills in their application, would they still be encouraged to apply, or would flagged work be an automatic disqualifier?

• Assignments are flagged for many possible reasons; the most common are plagiarism or inappropriate content. If an assignment has received a flag, it means that the student has violated either HiH’s Code of Conduct or the professor’s own class policies, causing the student to fail the assignment and possibly even the course, and so it is viewed as a serious offense. However, professors are free to choose their PAs at their discretion.
• Personally, I view a flagged assignment very strictly. Although there are rare exceptions, in most cases, I would eliminate a candidate immediately if they have a flagged assignment. There are many other students who have worked hard and shown solid integrity that would love to serve as a PA. ~ Professor Laurel

Amelia Claire Dawson asks: What is Head of House required to do and how is it different from other professors? Any particular challenges? What is the best thing about being Head of House?

• The four Heads of House (HoH) are responsible for resolving Code of Conduct breaches for their respective houses. If a student is having a conflict with another student and this leads into a situation that breaks the Code of Conduct, this can be reported to your Head of House.
• I would say one challenge is that not every situation is the same. While some reports can be cut and dry, some are more nuanced and have a lot of different pieces to put together and it can be a challenge to figure out the best way to handle the situation. The best thing about being a Head of House for me is getting to connect with the students. I have been able to get to know more students since I was appointed as the Slytherin HoH last September than I have when I joined the staff in 2015. - Professor Rosenquist
• As a HoH, we are sometimes mediators and sometimes judges. It is a job that requires patience, understanding, tact, and unbiased decision making skills. However, it feels good to know that I am helping to keep HiH a safe and comfortable place for our students. ~ Professor Laurel
  
  

Zalija Misten Ward asks: How many essays do you have to grade a day? How do you manage to get all the students satisfied? Were you a student once too?

• To answer your first question, this is very dependent on the course!  The majority of the grading is done by our wonderful Professor Assistants (PA). Professors don’t necessarily have a grading quota like some PAs do, but we are expected to assist with grading - especially for the higher course years that may not have PAs in the queue yet. Regarding your second question, not every student will be satisfied with the work we do. This comes with the job and is something you learn to accept over time so it doesn’t bother you as much. And yes, we were all students at one point! - Professor Kwan