Exceedingly good

I had low expectations for today.

First off, I had another teaching assignment at Five Rivers.  It was for a lesson I haven't taught for a while, so I was feeling nervous - not about meeting the kids, but about delivering a good enough experience for them, given that this was probably their only field trip of the year.  Pressure...

Well, the children (1st Graders) were just lovely - very sweet and eager.  "We're here to have FUN!" they told me at the start.  So we did.  The day was perfect for hanging out in nature, and the lesson pretty much ran itself as we went from one wow to the next (fish! birds! spittle-bugs! wow!).  Shame we didn't spot a kangaroo (one girl thought we might), but you can't have everything.  In the end we were having so much fun that we were all quite surprised when we found we'd run out of time.

Next, I had to get on with a piece of writing for a project.  I'd been putting it off for days like a reluctant kid with a homework assignment.  But by taking myself to the library and getting on with it I did manage to make some progress - enough for it to seem much less of a burden now, anyway.

Finally, I had to take my own kids to watch a school performance - and those things can go either way, can't they?  This was a particularly ambitious venture: a full length comedy/mystery movie, in black & white, starring middle school students and staff.

I have to say (and the children agree), it was very good indeed - and extremely funny.  Teachers love hamming it up, so they made for a very entertaining cast of half-crazed educators in a school where people kept mysteriously disappearing...  There were some great performances all round.  I am quite in awe of the teacher and students who put the whole thing together - a massive undertaking, but inspired and inspiring.

So, after all, a day that had started out unpromising actually turned out to be rather excellent.