The Kindergarten substitute

I just finished a full day subbing in a Kindergarten classroom. Experiencing a lot of different feelings right now, the main one being sheer exhaustion. I forget how LITTLE kindergartners are. I have so much respect for teachers that are able to work with that many little ones every single day and still maintain their cool. It is a superhero skill! I don't know how many times I was told "Teacher, ____ hit me" or "Teacher, _____ was mean to me." I was getting so many different comments from so many different students at once that I honestly didn't know what to address first, nonetheless HOW to address them. It was adorable how they just referred to me as "Teacher." I am glad I had the opportunity to experience "a day in the life" of a Kindergarten teacher (and hang out with awesome adorable little people for a day), but I am pretty sure that I wouldn't be a good match for a long-term Kindergarten teaching position. I am eager to experience more grade levels to figure out what I'd be best fit with. So far, I've subbed in elementary special ed, middle school math, and high school special ed. It's been a pretty wide range of subjects and grades! It's kind of funny, because I've done everything but the grades that I think I ultimately want to teach, 3rd-6th.

We had a 45 minute math class toward the end of the day. The students were starting to learn about patterns, and their developing understanding was interesting for me to observe. Their understanding of what a pattern is varied immensely. They had to draw the parts of a caterpillar and create a pattern out of it. The patterns some students created were fantastic, ones such as big yellow square, little red square, big yellow, little red, etc. Other students designed some pretty rockin' caterpillars and were dang proud of their work, but the concept of pattern was missing. The article "Developing World Class Students through World Class Mathematics Standards" clearly states, "Mathematics is the science of patterns" (SciMath, 5). I know Kindergartners are only just beginning their educational journey, and it is still the beginning of the year. Math is a fast paced science, and if patterns are the key, I worry that students who struggle with them might get left behind. If a student falls behind in a subject early, will he or she remain behind his or her classmates throughout the years of schooling? I can't help but wonder and hope this isn't the case.