6.2

Today was a very busy day in the kindergarten! During library the class illustrated pictures to go in their insect books, something they’ve been researching for weeks now. The end result will be laminated books each student can take home, as well as copies left to be checked out in the library. The kids were able to see sample books, many of which were done by their older siblings. Although they’re no master artists, each student followed directions very well and had a fairly accurate picture of their bug. We also visited the other 1^st grade class for their version of Reader’s Theater. It was interesting to compare how the kids performed, as well as the overall environment, between the two classrooms. Both classes did a fantastic job, and I know our kindergartners will be very successful no matter where they end up next year. It was an early release, and time for the second half of kindergarten screening. There weren’t as many kids as last time, and I was able to manage most of them while they waited to be tested. One little girl was upset and ending up crying, saying she wanted to go home, but eventually the teachers and her parents coaxed her into staying for the tests. I observed another little girl do the language testing, where as I mentioned in an earlier journal, you are tested on the sounds of letters, rhyming, picture identification, problem solving, and even your own name, birthday, whether you’re a boy or a girl, etc. A kindergarten aid was observing her, so I assumed she may have some sort of developmental delay. Often times, she’d just repeat what the teacher asked her, or ignore the question at all. She was very cheery and at times tried to get up and run away- and I honestly felt bad, because I know she couldn’t help the fact that she didn’t understand the testing. But I’ve seen the patience and care all of the special education teachers have at Essex Elementary, and I’m sure she’ll be in good hands when she enters kindergarten.

6.1

Today was a fairly average day in the kindergarten. With a handful of kids absent, the class was able to free write, which they absolutely love. I saw stories that ranged from a fictional tale of a vampire who drinks orange juice to a real account of seeing a dog in a stroller. If there’s anything this class fully possesses – it’s creativity. After lunch we were able to visit the 1^st grade for Reader’s Theater, where the kids performed stories like “The Gingerbread Man” and “Goldie Locks and The Three Bears”.  All of the first graders had makeshift props and hats, and although they read from books, they were still able to act out the scenes. All of the kids got to participate, and I was happy to see even one little boy with a learning disability read as the narrator in one of the stories, which was one of the parts with the most reading. His aid would hold up a card that either read ‘quiet’ or ‘louder’, in order to help queue him when to read his lines. I was very impressed with his performance, and was thrilled to see how satisfied he was after the show was over. The kindergartners are beginning reading assessments, and I’ve been doing a lot of copying of the different level of assessments. The class varies from levels A to around H in their ability, so it’s obviously quiet the range of skill. But after hearing all of the 1^st graders read fluently, I have faith that although the kids are at different levels now, they will soon enough become strong readers.

5.3

Today the kindergartners were given another revising assignment, which they were pretty excited about. It could be because they only needed to write a sentence or two, but I just pretend their inspired to improve their writing. During math time the kids played a board game with a dice that had numbers on it and a dice that had addition and subtraction signs. Whatever the dice landed on, the kids would either have to add or subtract that number of tiles from their board. They loved the friendly competition and they were definitely much more engaged than they would be doing a typical worksheet. With the revising and the math game, the kids were able to work with one another and I think that actually motivates them to do their work and stay focused. Without your partner working, you can’t move on in the lesson, so most everyone was able to stay at a pretty good pace. The class also started their number scrolls, where they write the number line on graph paper. Most of the class was able to get up to their 200’s, but not with their fair amount of mistakes. They get most confused when they hit 100 because most kids think one hundred and one looks like ‘1001’ and then one hundred and ten looks like ‘10010’. But with some guiding they get into a good rhythm, and frankly I’m impressed their doing this in kindergarten because I never tackled number scrolls until the third grade! 

5.2

 Today was a half day for the kindergartners and the rest of the day was dedicated to kindergarten screening. I helped the guidance counselors copy packets and tests for the kids because we were short on some kits that the teachers were using. The kids arrived in two groups of ten, and the other half will be screened next week. They were to be tested in concepts, language, and motor skills. While the kids waited to be tested, I sat with them and let them use play dough. The excitement of the play dough lasted about 5 minutes, and soon they were anxious to explore the rooms. Unfortunately with testing all around us, we had to sit quietly at the table. But I was able to share with the kids some of the things they would get to do in kindergarten, from learning to read and write to exploring the eagles nest playground. Many of the kids knew each other from the local preschool, so they were thrilled to know they would have friends in their class. I sat closest to the language testing area, and I was able to observe some of the activities. The kids were asked what their full names were, their birthday, what the alphabet was, etc. They were also shown a picture of a kitchen, which showed a family eating breakfast. They were given instructions like, find a word that starts with the letter “m”, and they could point out a variety of different options. They were also presented different scenarios in the picture, like a fork that had fallen on the floor. They were asked why the family should pick it up, and my favorite answer I heard was, “so they don’t slip!”

5.1

 Today the kindergarteners were introduced to a new aspect of writing during writer’s workshop: revising. They were given a mini lesson in which essentially they were told that it meant “going back and making your writing better”. They were each assigned a partner and I noticed how the teacher paired kids with someone at about the same writing level. She later explained that she didn’t want anyone to feel too intimidated, as the lesson was all about improvement. The kids read a previous assignment they had done describing a real or imaginary insect. After, their partner would ask a question about a missing detail. Some questions I heard were, “where does your bug live?” and “what does it do for fun?” The kids then took blue pencils and responded to their partner’s questions. They would read it to back to each other, and eventually everyone had a bit more depth to their writing.  Tomorrow is kindergarten screening, where the kids who will enroll next year come in and take placement tests of sorts. The kindergarten teachers were given kits with different tests involving numbers, sounds, icons, speech, etc. Depending on their responses, they’re scored on a number scale. Although I don’t know exactly, I can only assume the scores are then used to sort the kids into two equal classes based on ability. One example of a test was a picture of an umbrella, and the pre-kindergartner must describe its purpose. If they have a fully developed and/or correct answer like, “It is used for keeping yourself dry when it is raining outside”, they can get full points. If it’s undeveloped and/or incorrect (although this seems like a good answer to me) like, “For when it’s going to rain”, they will score lower or receive a zero. Now it was a while ago, but I don’t remember any complicated testing like this when I was in kindergarten- I just showed up! This is another reminder to me of how kids are being pushed harder at such a young age. 

4.3

 Today was all about Mother’s Day in Kindergarten. The kid’s plants were ready to be sent home to their mothers and they looked great! They weren’t blooming yet, and some of the kids were sad to see the others class’s flowers had. But little do they know the other kindergarten teacher had to buy already grown plants because the seeds they planted weren’t going to grow in time. They finished up their plant books that they had been working on for weeks with a letter to their moms. They wrote priceless little things like “You’re the ausomist mom on the hole wrld” or “YOU RULE!” Gosh I love these kids. They reviewed their books and were very proud of their fine work. Each writing segment was accompanied with a picture of them at different stages of the project, and it ended with a picture of them holding their finished gift. Mrs. Carbrey even went out and bought gift boxes and bags to finish off the presents. Surprisingly, she spends a lot of her own money on materials for the kindergarten. The kids were able to built a terrarium, all funded for by Mrs. Carbrey, which I think is very generous of her. They were able to take turns adding rocks, charcoal, dirt, plants, water and then decorations. The project tied into their ongoing lesson about the water cycle, as they only need to water the terrarium once. Then came the “boring” part, where they wrote about what they added and how the plants would grow over time. As much as they may dislike it, their progression in writing continues to blow me away. 

Research Paper Rough Draft

Learning-related skills are important for development and achievement in childhood and adolescence. These skills include self-regulation and social competence on classroom tasks and in learning situations. There is strong evidence that learning-related skills predict academic achievement in kindergarten. One of the most important influences in early childhood is neurological maturation in the areas of the brain that help children control, direct, and plan their actions. Entry level education has a direct effect on a child’s developmental and behavioral skills.

Learning is defined as a relatively lasting change in behavior that is the result of experience. Learning became a major focus of study in psychology during the early part of the twentieth century as behaviorism rose to become a major school of thought. Today, learning remains an important concept in numerous areas of psychology, including cognitive, educational, social, and developmental psychology. Habituation is the earliest form of learning, and is defined as a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations. For example, a novel sound in a person’s environment, such as a new ring tone, may initially draw their attention or even become distracting, yet after they become accustomed to this sound, they pay less attention to the noise and your response to the sound will diminish. This diminished response is habituation. This method of learning is significant in that it shows that humans have an innate desire to lean about and experience new things. It shows that people are able to distinguish differences in objects, patterns, colors, and textures as well as remember those differences. While habituation is the most basic form of learning, it is not the only process through which people learn.

Conditioning is a learning process in which an environmental stimulus elicits a response, and an individual’s learns from the association between that stimulus and response. They association is what conditions, or modifies, one’s behavior and there for allows people to learn to behave in a certain manner towards the same stimulus in the future. Classical condition was discovered by Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was studying the digestive process in dogs and in turn was measuring the dog’s ability to salivate, using food to stimulate the flow of saliva. The mere sight or smell of the food or caused the dog to salivate even before the food was in his mouth. Pavlov soon realized the dog’s salivating was a conditioned response to its anticipation of being fed. As the dog has not done this before, he recognized that the response has been learned through experience. This essentially is the idea behind classical conditioning. By definition, classical conditioning is the process by which a normally neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus, eliciting a response in an individual. Emotional responses to sights, sounds, or people can be tied to classic conditioning. For example, if a person bakes a certain dessert on the holidays, they make feel excitement and happiness when they pick up that certain scent. Classical conditioning can produce both positive and negative responses, depending on the association made.

Another type of learning studied by behaviorists is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning, is a process by which a response is followed by a consequence, either positive or negative, and that consequence teaches you to either repeat the response or decrease its occurrence. The main difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning is that in classical conditioning, the learning process is reflexive and is not dependent upon consequences, whereas in operant conditioning, the learning process is more complex and reliant upon the type of consequences the response elicits. In other words, the learning process results in different types of voluntary behavior. Examples of operant conditions are everywhere in daily life. Human’s lives are filled with reinforces and punishers. People go to work to get paid to do their job. Drinking coffee in the morning is even an example of operant conditioning. The caffeine wakes the body up, and many simply like the taste and warmth it provides. Parents often use conditioning to teach their children behaviors. When done properly, positive or negative reinforcement is much more effective than punishment in changing behavior, because it increases the desired behavior. Punishment stops behavior, but it doesn’t teach what to do instead.  American psychologist B. F. Skinner found that different reinforcement schedules produced different rates and patterns of responding. In a continuous reinforcement schedule, behaviors are reinforced each and every time they occur. Once the association is strong enough, the schedule is usually switched to partial reinforcement.

In both classical and operant conditioning, experience plays a direct role in learning, either through association, reinforcement, or punishment. Yet another type of learning is through observation and imitation, called observational learning. While experience is a great teacher, it isn’t always needed in order to lean. People often watch the behavior and actions of others and learn from their experiences. This type of learning is very powerful and prevalent in children. Observational learning is strong associated with the psychology behind Albert Bandura and his famous “Bobo doll” experience. Essentially, children in the experiment saw adults showing aggression towards the doll, and some of the adults were rewarded, punished, and others received no consequence. Bandura demonstrated that while the children who saw the adults being rewarded for beating up the doll were more likely to later repeat the behavior. He later explained that there are four key cognitive processes at work during observational learning. The observation of the person modeling the actions, the ability to remember the behavior, the ability to turn observation into action, and lastly, the ability to be motivated to imitate the observed behavior. Children being to learn through observation at a very young age. Infants have been shown to imitate the actions of others as early as twenty-one days after birth. Because they are most often about their parents and siblings, children are most likely to model family member’s behavior. As they grow older, they will begin to model the behavior of their peers and even of characters in movies and on television.

During infancy and childhood, the human goes through many changes physically. Years ago, researchers believed that people are born with all the brain cells they’ll ever possess, but recent findings indicate that new brain cells continue to emerge after birth and even into adulthood. As an infant grows, he develops complicated nervous structures, enabling him to perform functions as he grows, such as walking and talking. Infants go through a process called maturation, in which the biological growth processes enable changes in behavior in an orderly fashion. Most children are unable to place things in their long-term memory before the age of three, which is why most people do not have memories from before that age. All the time parents spend caring for their babies is not likely to be remembered by their children. Surprisingly enough, this lack of memory does not affect the attachment children feel to the nurtures surrounding them when they’re babies.

After birth, the human body begins to develop a more mature nervous system. With this more complicated nervous system come more complicated actions. The development of motor skill causes much grief among new mothers, due to their fear of the child not completing actions at the same time their peers are. But unless the child has been exposed to abuse or has an inhibiting disability, children’s motor skills, in general, will development at nearly the same rate. There are two different kinds of motor skills: fine motors skills and gross motor skills. Fine, or small, motor skills use small muscles such as the eyes and fingers, and also use more than one part of the body at the same time. Gross, or large, motor skills involved the larger muscles like the arms and legs, and also include balance and coordination.

A child’s brain develops in sections and different capabilities may happen at different rates. Children in different cultures tend to develop at slightly different rates. For example, ninety percent of babies in the United States will walk by the age of fifteen month, but most babies will be able to walk by ten months in Uganda. A human being is born with the ability to suck, swallow, spit up, eliminate, and breathe, but other functions develop as the baby’s nervous system evolves. The baby’s body will mature from top to bottom. First they will move their head, neck, and shoulders, then their arms and torso, and eventually the legs. An infant should be able to turn their head at two weeks, sit on their own at eight to nine months, and skip by age five, according to the generalized outline of development. While previous theories often suggest that children passively absorb information about them, Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget was the first to suggest that children actively work to make sense of the world around thing. Piaget’s work used the concept of schemata to understand cognitive processes of children. Basically, Piaget suggested that children make a mold for an experience and will put everything similar to it in the same mold.

Piaget categorized cognitive development into four stages: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. The first stage, the sensorimotor stage, begins at birth and lasts until the child is about two years old. In this stage, the child experiences the world solely through his five senses. The second stage, the preoperational stage, lasts from about two years old to six years olds. Here the child learns to use language but doesn’t yet understand concrete logic, even though children in this stage do possess the ability for symbolic thought. Egocentrism is introduce in the preoperational stage, in which the child does not yet have the mental ability to take the perspectives of others. The next stage, concrete operational, lasts from age six to around eleven years old. The child is able to use the mental operations needed to think logically about concrete events like the concept of jokes and arithmetic problems. The final stage, formal operational, begins around age twelve. This stage is when the child is able to think logically about abstract concepts. Although some aspects of Piaget’s theory have been challenged, the general cognitive development of human beings does in fact follow the basic outline of his model.

Language is widely studied throughout the field of psychology, and many psychologists say it is what truly sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Behavioral psychologist, B.F. Skinner stated that language is learned because children get positive reinforcement for speaking correctly. Psychologist and linguist Noam Chomsky looked at language from a biological standpoint, determining that humans are born to speak and are prewired for language. He noticed that all languages share common characteristics and may be this way because humans are predisposed to these.

Children from different cultures seem to follow the same development of language. At around four months, children will look in the same direction as parents when parents begin to point and label things. At approximately age one, children start to speak, saying variations of words like “mom” or “dad”. At this stage, children often make the mistake of overextension, where they use a word in too board a manner, often speaking in overgeneralizations. A child also uses holophrastic speech around the twelve month mark, in which they use a single word to express a complete idea. At eighteen to twenty four months, children develop telegraphic, or two word speech. In this stage, children delete non-essential words, using phrases like, “Give cup”. After twenty-four months, a child’s language develops rapidly. Once they learn grammatical rules it is common for the mistake of over regularization to be made. As children enter their preschool years, what is commonly referred to as language explosion can occur, during this time, children suddenly begin learning and producing an astonishing vocabulary of words and sentences.

Self-concept is a sense of an individual’s identity and personal worth. Self-concept develops by around age twelve. Presently, psychologists use the behavior of infants and children to hypothesize about their sense of self. By around fifteen to eighteen months, a child begins to recognize himself in a mirror. When children begin to attend school, they describe themselves according to comparisons with their peers. And finally, around age eight or ten years, stable self-images are fully developed. A child’s self-image is greatly influenced by their caretaker’s parenting style. Those children with a more controlled upbringing are more motivated and self-confident.

It’s no secret that infants develop a strong emotional attachment to the people who provide them with a caring and nurturing relationship. Infants are familiar with the faces of family members and react positively to seeing them and being held. When held by someone unfamiliar, the baby may become upset and reach for the more familiar mom. This fear is called stranger anxiety, and it occurs in babies between six months and two years old. Attachment is an emotional tie with another person. In young children attachment is shown by their desire to be held by a familiar caregiver and by their becoming upset or distressed when separated. Attachment has a strong evolutionary component, since it aids in survival. For example, even a lion cub follows its mother in order to be protected from predators. Attachment comes in two basic forms: secure attachment and insecure attachment. Secure attachment is shown when a baby can happily play in and explore a new environment in his mother’s presence. An insecurely attached baby will not be eager to explore the new surroundings, but rather stick to their mother. Although the role of a mother and father seems to be very important to the development of a child, it doesn’t need to be a biological relationship. The presence of a safe, caring, responsible adult in a child’s is the key to nurturing healthy development.

            Human beings perform certain thought processes that help shape their perceptions of people and social situations. For, one observes what the information is, how it is relative to other information, and what causes the information. Though people operate on this intuitive level of scientific reasoning, attitudes and beliefs influence decisions. People also make assumptions about a person’s attitudes and beliefs based on a known belief. This way of thinking is based on cognitive consistency- the theory that all people try to be consistent in their beliefs and attitudes as reflected by the consistency of their behavior. One way to look at their consistency between beliefs and attitudes is to examine how people rationalize things. People often persuade themselves to make certain decisions using rationalization and wishful thinking. Attitudes are a combination of beliefs and feeling and can be affected when confronted with social pressures. When confronted with a situation, people often do things they don’t like. As attitudes can affect behavior, behavior can affect attitudes. Leon Festringer’s theory of cognitive dissonance holds that when your beliefs and attitudes oppose each other or your behavior you are motivated to reduce the dissonance through changed in behavior or cognition. This theory itself has been influential in prediction behavior that reflects an inconsistency in attitudes. Behaving in ways that conflict with one’s attitudes causes pressure to change the attitudes in order to be consistent with the behavior.

            Schemata and scripts are a way of collecting data in order to develop conclusions and theories about everyday social situations and interactions. Those conclusions can change however, when new information is introduced. Schemata refer to cognitive structures stored in memory that are abstract representations of events, objects and relationships in the real world. Schematic processing is the process of retrieving the schema from our memory that is most consistent with the information being received. Since people have pre-existing notions and ideas about what a situation or a person should be like, any new information you receive on the subject is compared with what you already know. Schemata and schematic processing allows people to store and organize the most relevant information, which will surface when the need arises. Scripts are abstract cognitive representations of events and social interactions. While schemetas are the data people have collected for forming impressions of people, scripts represent the data you have for social events and interactions. Scripts tell you how to dress and act a certain way, and what to expect in these situations.

4.2

Because this week is mainly devoted to my AP tests, I thought it was appropriate to shed some light on my experience of balancing APs and my internship. Quite frankly, it was pretty hectic. Knowing I'd have to drive back and forth from classes to my internship, I know my options were pretty limited. I had a great opportunity at a nearby college, but unfortunately I'd have barely any time to spend there, with most of it being spent in class or driving. But on the bright side, I really enjoy my internship in Essex, and it's obviously a pretty short distance from the school. Although I really see no solution to this dilemma student’s with APs are faced with, I hope it could change in the future. I also appreciate our reduced SCORE time requirement, but really it only covers the time spent in class. I think time used commuting back and forth as well the time dedicated to homework should also be weighed in. Personally, it wasn’t anything too overwhelming, but I definitely think it should be considered in the years to come. Luckily for me, I’m finally done with my classes and my tests! It was hard for me to really have that test mindset, mainly because I’m already in my accepted-to-college-already-so-done-with-high-school mode. Which is bad, I know. But I do keep in mind that my scores can give me college credit, so I still went into testing determined to do my best. In summary, the pros of AP classes/testing: college credit, challenging yourself, preparation for college, snacks. Cons: extra homework, harder material, extended senior school year, having to think. (Jokes.)

4.1

The Kindergartners are assessed on their writing first in September, then in May, and finally at the end of the year. Today was their midyear check point, and I'm not going to lie I was more nervous than they were. Then again, the teacher's really didn't clue them in that it was a test. They were given the simple prompt, "What is your favorite dessert? Tell me why you like it." They were told to work quietly, and do their very best work, because we couldn't help them this time. We reminded them of important things they must always do, like writing full names, adding the date, using proper spaces, capitalization, and punctuation. The kids could only raise their hands to have us erase mistakes for them, yet they still tried to ask me how to spell things like “favorite” and “ice cream”. The teachers have always reminded me that as long as they spell phonetically, that's good enough. As the kids began to hand in their writing, you could see the wide variety of effort that was put into their work. Some kids stuck with explanations like “It’s my favorite because I like it.” Yet other kids, like one of the most creative girls, wrote “I can’t decide what my favorite dessert is. I like brownies because they’re good in the winter and spring. I like ice cream because it’s cold. I like cake too because I get it on my birthday. I love desserts!” This may seem pretty basic, but trust me when I say in this class that is very impressive. Others wrote about desserts like “jai doe” “royall ice cream” and “Happy Birthday”. After some investigating these were translated to fried dough, Oreo ice cream, and an ice cream flavor at Down River. From being able to only write the first sound of their words and not even being able to write their names, it’s amazing how far these kids have come.

3.3

Although I often mention how impressed I am by the kindergartner’s knowledge and work ethic, I feel as though I should shed some light on their not so bright moments because quite frankly, they happen frequently. For example, today the kids continued their work on their mother’s day plants. Each student has a booklet that they write in to show how they’re learning about the plants that they’re growing for their mom’s gifts. Today’s portion of writing was focused on the different parts of a plant. In the past week the kids have watched a movie, read a story, and done numerous activities on this specific subject. Even before they started writing, the teacher reviewed each part and wrote some sample sentences in front of the class. But unfortunately, the kids were wired and no one was listening. The teacher read one sentence about the roots of the plants and seconds after asked one boy what the job of the roots was. Surprisingly he had no idea, so she re-read it. And again, he had no idea. It’s the kids like this that I pray can get their act together before 1^st grade. Because I think a total of 2 students were actually paying attention, Mrs. Carbrey decided that she wouldn’t waste her breath and that they could just start their writing. Now even with days of review and the parts of the plants clearly written on the board, the majority of the class’s writing was a total train wreck. Kids were flying through their sentences, and then bringing it to me insisting they were done, only for me to find half of the content didn’t make sense or was about completely irrelevant things. I saw writing about dirt, which had nothing to do with the lesson. I even saw writing that stated, “The stem keeps the flowrs from holding up.” Uh what? Sometimes I get so overwhelmed when these kids show me their work I need to send them to the other teachers. But after what feels like pulling teeth, the kids all manage to have acceptable writing, and another small miracle has been accomplished in kindergarten.

3.2

Today was a half day for the Kindergartners, but they had a packed schedule none the less. To continue our environment unit, the kids made books matching pictures to certain sentences like “save water” or “ride a bike”. The project was titled “Save the Earth” and the kids were pretty pumped when they realized they actually take part in these green solutions. I was, as always, impressed to hear that some kids knew about how burning gas pollutes the air. And of course they shouted out random facts like “you dig in the ground to get it” and “in the olden days cars puffed black smoke!” As the kids grow smarter and 1^st grade nears, I was informed it was time for the dreaded class placement. The two kindergarten teachers get together and group their kids into two lists, which are then randomly assigned to the first grade teachers. There are a lot of factors that go into placement. Of course the gender ratios of the two classes must be as close as possible, but they go much deeper. The kids are ranked on levels of achievement, whether it is average, above or below. The kids are then asked to list 5 friends in order to make sure the different friend groups are dispersed evenly. I think this specifically is a flawed idea, and from what I gathered the teachers agreed. The kids were running around questioning one another on who chose who for their list. It was only a matter of time before feelings were hurt and tears were shed. It’s upsetting to me to see these kids being ranked by their teachers and friends. I guess it shows how vulnerable they can all really be. It’s sad because they are truly a group of sweet and intelligent kids, and but I know in reality, not everyone is equal.

3.1

Although it was a short day at my internship, it was eventful nonetheless. After the kindergartner’s normal morning routine, it was time for writer’s workshop. They’re given a topic, which the teacher provides an example of on the board, and then they are set loose on their own journals. Today’s theme was favorite colors – pretty self-explanatory. Mrs. Carbrey wrote some sample sentences about how she related her favorite color green to spring time, along with a mandatory drawing. Before she even presented, the kids had already written their colors on the board, so you’d think they’d have at least an idea of where to start. But of course, when it came time to draw and write – it was slightly chaotic. Kids had no clue what to write about, were copying the teachers entire idea, or writing things like “My favorits are pink and white becus they go good togethr.” I’ve heard these kids’ imaginations at work; I know they’re a very, well, creative bunch. One guess would be because writing is so complicated, the least amount of words for them to write the better. But once they get that extra push of encouragement, or discipline, any kid in that class can produce a quality piece of work. It still amazes me what these kids are capable of, even the negative aspects. Last week one girl in the class was caught for stealing milk for a good amount of time from the cafeteria. The principle and her parents got involved - it was the real deal. Now it’s no serious felony, but if at age five it’s milk from school, what will it be when they’re fifty? If these kids already understand the concept of stealing, I seriously hope they understand the concept of remorse.

2.3

To continue our unit on the environment in kindergarten, we all signed one big The Lorax themed contract basically stating we’d do our best to help keep the planet healthy. The kids got to wear little Lorax themed masks and have their picture taken next to the contract – and it was beyond adorable. I glued these pictures to their own personal environmental pledges, where they wrote a few sentences describing actions they could take to help improve the environment. I saw statements like “I promis to cleen the beech” and “I promis to pik up trash”, but my all time favorite was “I promis to plant saldid”. The fact that this little girl believes our environment is made of salad truly gives me hope that their innocence is not lost just yet. I love how these kids can be so naïve, but yet so confident in their beliefs. This leads up to writing time, where the kids learned about long “e” and long “u” sounds. As an introduction, the teacher would hold up a picture card and the kids would say word and whether it had an “e” or a “u” sound. We were nearing the end and the teacher held up a picture of what was supposed to be a mule. The kids all frantically shouted out donkey, to which Mrs. Carbrey suggested to think of another name for a donkey. This one girl almost burst out of her seat with joy that she knew the answer. When called on she proudly screamed, “ASS!” Of course the whole class burst out laughing, because they most likely know that’s a word only their parents can say. Then one quiet girl in the front of the group calmly raised her hand. When called on, she firmly stated, “Unicorn.” That’s when I think I fell out of my seat. These two answers in a row were totally priceless, so of course the teacher started cracking up too. And that lead to the little girl bursting into tears. So after calming her down and explaining how creative her answer was because it really did have a long “u” sound, I now realize to truly expect the unexpected in kindergarten.

2.2

Today in Kindergarten we started a new unit on the environment. The kid’s will be doing different projects, from researching different insects to writing environmental pledges. We divided them into their “insects groups”, after they were told not to use the word “bug” because the proper and mature term was “insect”. And of course that turned into a competition of who got the better insect. The kids in the ant group were pretty stoked, but then the cicada group had a mini melt down because none of them actually knew what a cicada was. The kids will be taken out of class each day and go to the library to research their insect. At the end of the year, the parents will be invited in to hear them present on their findings. I’m excited to see this, because I have no idea what kind of research they’ll be doing. But judging by the other things they do, from learning about simple machines to the five senses, I’m sure I’ll continue to be blown away by how much they are really capable of. The kids watched the movie The Lorax as an introduction to our new unit. Essentially it’s a story about how the Lorax fights against the destruction of the trees where he lives, so I think it was the perfect way to not only get them thinking about the environment- but what could happen to it. Although I had to leave to go to class, the teachers were planning to discuss the movie with the kids in order to get them thinking about their own environmental pledges. I’m glad the kids are learning not only about the environment, but really how it’s being destroyed and ways in which they can help, because I’m sure it will be an even bigger issue as they get older. 

2.1

Today was the first day back from vacation and the kindergartners were able to share what they did over break during their “free writing” time. Essentially they needed to write about three sentences, accompanied by a picture, about anything they wanted to. Of course everyone chose vacation because that’s what everyone else was doing. I’ll be honest, it was funny to see kids try to spell out “Nuw Hamshr” or “Nu Work”, but it was even more interesting to learn they had no idea where these places actually were. When we told the kids Acadia was in Maine, a third of the class thought it was the most ground breaking news ever, a third screamed something about going to Maine, and the other third didn’t even know what Maine was. This leads me to wonder when kids finally understand location, scales, and all that complicated stuff that allows us to actually know where we are in relation to the Earth. That’s a huge concept to grasp at age five. But yet, I’m still amazed at what the kindergartners know in comparison to my own memories of school. During art class, the kids were asked questions about Claude Monet, Impressionism, and worked on their own interpretations of Monet’s “The Water Lily Pond”. Although the kids could recall facts like it was painted in 1899, water coloring was beyond them. The task was simple: stick to blue and green only, and the more water used the better. And yet, I saw kids trying to scrape dry paint onto their picture - one kid even decided to use red for his pond color of choice. His excuse, “I forgot”. Sure, we all space on some things, but if you think ponds are red, I start to question more than your absent mindedness.  

1.3

The third day of my internship was much like the first. I helped the kids with individual group work, hung up some art work in the classroom and tried to keep my patience as best as possible.  I was able to work with a very small group and teach them about finger prints, and I was almost shocked at how calm and interested they were. I think sometimes all it takes is a little more attention to a child in order to really get them engaged. As I was about to leave for the day, we discovered some tragic news. The class pet fish had passed away. I wasn’t sure how important he was to the kids – but I learned very quickly how big of a deal Benjamin really was. The kids adored him and fed him everyday. Although I thought you were only supposed to feed beta fish every week or so… Anyways, this meant we needed a new Benjamin as soon as possible.  So I took one for the team, studied the old fish and drove to the pet store to find the best match possible. If we’re being honest the new Benjamin is a completely different shade of blue and much smaller than the first, but the kids still hover and coo over him as if nothing has changed. I don’t know whether I should feel bad that I basically lied to all of the kindergartners, but in a way I’m protecting their innocence. Death is a tricky subject, and although kids may talk about shooting and killing, I think they don't fully understand what it means. And if avoiding this awkward explanation meant a nerve racking drive along with Benjamin 2, it was well worth it. 

1.2

By my second day of my internship, I was proud to say that I remembered all of the kindergartner’s names. I’m awful at remembering dates and phone numbers, but when it comes to faces, they’re hard to forget. Mrs. Carbrey made the decision to move the kid’s writing time into the morning, because in the afternoon they’re pretty wired. Well, they’re wired basically 24/7, but they can focus slightly better before lunch. The kids had been learning about the 5 senses, so we broke them into groups for a ‘smelling’ activity. Each student was given a chance to smell different things like pepper, vanilla, garlic, etc. Then they were given sheets where they had to circle whether they liked it, didn't,  or were unsure. This seemed simple enough, but then came the challenge. After their decisions, they needed to write sentences saying “I do like the smell of…” or whatever they circled on their sheets. I was constantly helping the kids with their spacing, spelling and other problems. I was able to see fairly quickly which kids needed more help than others. While some may be spelling “sure of” as “shore uv”, there were kids who couldn't even spell their last names. Then again I’d be pretty nervous with an unfamiliar face hovering over me, so I tried to be as friendly and supportive as possible. There were some kids who just clearly weren't focusing – the answers were right on their sheets but they would be writing completely different statements. Some would actually write one word and then jump to the next line. It takes a lot of patience to work with these kids and I am almost amazed how the teachers can handle this for hours at a time without flipping a desk or two. All this frustration aside- they’re still adorable. 

1.1

Today was the first day of my SCORE internship with Mrs. Carbrey’s Kindergarten class at Essex Elementary. As the kids walked in from gym class they all stared as if I was from another planet, but instantly warmed up after a short introduction. They were able to each introduce themselves and state one of their favorite things. It was interesting to watch how some kids would quickly change their answers to be similar to a friend or even my own response. It’s crazy in a sense to see how present conformity really is at only age five and six. During a class coloring activity I observed how it became almost a competition to see who was working the best and the fastest. Ironically it seemed as though everyone was focused on their classmates work instead of their own. So of course the teachers preach the classic “mind your own business” rule like it’s second nature. Most of the kids seemed pretty excited to have a new face in the classroom as they would constantly try to find ways to get my attention. The most effective method seemed to be asking for help, whether it was as small a task as hanging up a backpack or tying a shoe. Besides doing some busy work for the teachers, I was able to help the kids plant seeds for a future Mother’s Day gift. What I assumed would be a simple activity took a good half hour and allowed me to quickly discern what kids can easily follow directions and those who, well, choose not to for their own personal reasons. Overall, the kindergarteners are a very enthusiastic group and I truly appreciate how accepting kids can be, as I felt welcomed right away.

Thompson SCORE Outline

Leah Thompson

March 20^th, 2013

SCORE

Koughan

SCORE Outline

Thesis:

Entry level education has a direct effect on a child’s social and behavioral development.

Introduction:

Learning-related skills are important for development and achievement in childhood and adolescence. These skills include self-regulation and social competence on classroom tasks and in learning situations. There is strong evidence that learning-related skills predict academic achievement in kindergarten. One of the most important influences in early childhood is neurological maturation in the areas of the brain that help children control, direct, and plan their actions.

Topic 1: What is learning?

a)     Habituation- the most basic form of learning

b)     Conditions and classical conditions - applications

c)     Operant Conditioning – applications

d)     Learning through observation and imitation – applications 

Topic 2: Human Development

a)     Maternal health and nutrition

b)     Physical growth

c)     Development of motor skills

Topic 3: Cognitive development

a)     Cognition of infants and children

b)     Language – part prewired, part learned

c)     Developing a sense of self

d)     Social and emotion development

Topic 4: Social Cognition

a)     Humans as social beings

b)     Beliefs and attitudes

c)     Social schemata and scripts

d)     Forming impressions

e)     Interpreting others behaviors – and your own

f)      Stereotyping and prejudice

Topic 5: Social Interactions and Interpersonal Behavior

a)     The person and the situation

b)     Compliance

c)     Conformity and peer pressure

d)     Obedience

e)     Friendships

f)      Altruism and prosocial behavior

g)     Aggression and its causes

h)     The mentality of groups

Topic 6: Kindergarten – The history

a)     National Education Association 1872

b)     Departnment of Kindergarten Instruction 1884

c)     Programs

d)     Availability

e)     Objectives

Topic 7: An introduction to the classroom

a)     Self regulation

b)     Classroom behavior

c)     Academic performance

d)     The present study – methods

e)     Correlational analysis

Topic 8: Relation of child care quality to development

a)     Adjustment

b)     Observed classroom practices

c)     Closeness of teacher

d)     Relationship with teacher

e)     Influences of family characteristics 

Conclusion:

Entry level education provides a framework in which children are exposed to rules and regulations. They learn to monitor their behavior in order to positively affect their surroundings.  The classroom setting allows for the exploration of various learning areas, each equipped with the materials and aid that promote learning –related skills. This environment offers the building blocks for success and maturation in social and
behavioral development. 

Works Cited

"Age of Entry to Kindergarten and Children’s Academic Achievement and Socioemotional Development." NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 14 Dec. 2007. Web.

Brazelton, T. Berry, and Joshua D. Sparrow. Touchpoints Three to Six: Your Child's Emotional and Behavioral Development. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub., 2001. Print.

Cherry, Kendra. The Everything Psychology Book: An Introductory Guide to the Science of Human Behavior. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010. Print.

"Early Childhood Development." Education.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Gollwitzer, Peter M. "Transition to School: The Role of Kindergarten Children's Behavior Regulation☆." Learning and Individual Differences. Elsevier, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2009.

Illig, David C., Ph.D. "BIRTH TO KINDERGARTEN: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EARLY YEARS." California Research Bureau, California State Library. N.p., n.d. Web. Jan.-Feb. 1998.

"Social Skills." Education.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

"World Book Online Reference Center | Online Reference Book| Online Encyclopedia." World Book. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.