Reflection On Ms. Fogarty's First Class At Pine Meadow Elementary

For the past few weeks I have been volunteering in Ms. Fogarty’s 1st grade class at Pine Meadow Elementary from 8:30 to 9:50 in the morning. In her class I work with 6 and 7 year olds. There are desks set up into 3 rows, and also what they call the east and west wings that are connected to the sides of row 3. These rows are used to call students back for green sheets and for reading checks every morning. The way that the classroom is set up allows the children to communicate with one another, but also still be able to work alone if they want. After the kids are done with morning work, they all meet on the rug located in the back of the room to discuss a sentence Ms. Fogarty puts on a whiteboard. The students are asked to then find the mistakes …show more content…
The first theory I will discuss is the industry and inferiority theory by Erik Erikson. Erikson says that this is a time when children work hard and have a sense of accomplishment when they complete something that may have been challenging for them. For me, I saw this from the kids after they made crafts that were hard to put together, and also after they completed a difficult math problem. Another theory I saw while working in the classroom was B.F. Skinner’s theory that if you reinforce a certain behavior, you will see it again. An example of this that I saw was when the kids had to have their reading checked every morning. When you check to see if the child got a signature from the parent saying that they read, you reward them by putting a sticker in their log book. The next day the child comes back with another story read and earns themselves another sticker for their book. Another example of this theory is that when the children complete all of the morning work assigned to them, and also pay attention to the daily sentence, sing the word song, and say the pledge of allegiance, they earn a skittle from the teacher. If they are not well behaved during this time, they are told to return to their desks without getting a skittle. The next day the kids work harder to be good and pay attention so that they may receive a …show more content…
An example of this creative intelligence that I have seen in my volunteering is when the kids are doing crafts, and able to use blocks to create things. Something that is going on right now is that the kids are making something called Suessville. Suessville is a way for them to use their imagination, and also think about what cities all need to be able to maintain themselves. They decided they needed houses, a library, an ice rink, a park, and a city hall. To me, this project is a great idea to allow children to have fun in the classroom, and also use their