end of the year

Friday was the last day. We were to finish at 10 with the parents coming in to see the class, talk to the teacher, get their child’s (children’s) work, and take the kid(s) home. At 10 we are on our break. As much as I would have liked to have the parents see our center time or group time singing and/or story it would have been absolute chaos to have the kids stay in the classroom and not give them their break. So when parents arrived the kindergarten class was on the playground. They came in to get the work and talk to the teacher…or her assistant as he speaks Chichewa. When I gave them the workbooks that we’d done during the year they sat down at a table and started going through page by page (oh dear). The workbook was an exercise…and sometimes we followed directions on the page, sometimes I made them up, and most often the child “decided” whether he or she would listen to me or do whatever she or he felt like doing on that day/on that page, etc. Parents were getting explanations from Lawrence but still looking at me like I don’t know what I’m doing. Why did I let their kid draw their 2 backwards…that their eye would develop but hadn’t yet didn’t seem to make a difference to them…or they didn’t understand, or it got lost in translation…I don’t know but I have to admit I was glad when it was over. It felt like deep scrutiny and I don’t know what the outcome was. I think that maybe I’ll get more feedback before school starts again but I don’t know what it will be or if it will be helpful…