March 29th was our final lesson, and when Lorena and I arrived that afternoon, we were surprised to find a substitute in the teacher's place. He was a man who obviously had a lot of experience with classroom management, because I have never seen these children respond so well to classroom structure and discipline. They were so happy and so on-task and it really gave me hope for their futures in learning, I have to admit!
The frustrating thing, though, was the time constraints. We went in expecting to have an hour with the children to do a review, maybe reread the Curious George book, and then give our summative assessment, but since the sub did not even know we were coming, he gave us about 25 minutes and then sent the kids to free time activities. I did not expect this at all, and was really surprised at the situation because we did not even get to finish collecting our data! Only the more advanced children were able to finish their booklets about money, jobs, needs&wants. Because we had formative assessments throughout, I still have an idea about what the children learned, but honestly, I was not at all expecting this to arise. I guess part of teaching is that you have to learn to be flexible and roll with the punches, because there will always be unexpected surprises! (I can only imagine all the student pull-outs, assemblies, school cancellations, etc. that make covering the content challenging!)
I have to say, I'm completely relieved to be done with this unit teaching. It would be one thing if this were all I had to do, but on top of all the other assignments, exams, and lesson plans for other classes, I am so thankful to be done teaching. And, I hope I never have to teach Kindergarten again. My classroom experiences with upper elementary students are much more enjoyable for me, so hopefully this was a learning experience I can learn from and move on!
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