herding cats

Yesterday gave me a false sense of security about school visits. Same school as before: the teacher was great, the kids were lovely, but I really had to earn my fee, and getting the kids to remember any instruction for more than 30 seconds was nearly impossible. To be fair on them, they were almost breathless with excitement about an all-school poetry performance, for which they’d spent weeks preparing, and which fell slap-bang in the middle of our book-making session. It was high drama; one kid who’d done magnificent roaring as a dragon for The Spanish Armada had a total meltdown when his class didn’t win, and the whole day was kind of like that.

On the funny side, I’ve never been so hugged and cuddled; a couple times in the past, the kids have rushed me at the end and done a big group hug thing, but this time I was patted nearly all day. I’m technically not really supposed to touch them (for legal reasons) but there’s not much I can do if they wrap themselves around me. It did make me laugh.

I think I might just go take a little nap before dinner.