Class visits

Got myself to Portobello at the crack of dawn to find that there were some very annoying big rollers and we decided not to go out. A real shame because the sea was perfect further on... We had coffee and a chat in the yard instead and I was at work early. 
I was helping a couple of colleagues on their first ever class visits. I gone over the planning with them and made sure they were confident and knew what they were doing, but wanted to make sure they had support on the day itself. There were 5 classes, of 30 minutes each, mostly back to back, which is not something I would recommend but they didn't do the booking and couldn't change that so we worked with it. Also, 30 minutes is okay for very young (nursery or Primary 1) but not long enough to do much... 
It went really well. One colleague was very nervous and I encouraged her to have a go, first at just reading the story to the children, then to do the activity. She did well. One thing that strikes me each time is how the behaviour of the children varies from one teacher to another. We had 2 primary 1 class from the same school and I knew straight away which teacher I would like for my children and which I wouldn't. One of the teachers clearly doesn't understand the concept of Reading for Pleasure, wanting each child to choose a book that would "challenge" them... I felt like asking her if she never relaxed with a crappy magazine, or some chick lit...Anyway, it was a pleasant way of spending most of a work day but my to do list is not getting any shorter...
Back home, I cooked, walked Django and heard about the productive day that SparseRunner and the girls had at his mother's old flat.