At 8:30 on the dot, Mrs. Lowry had students clean up and transition to the carpet for share time, where each student had an opportunity to share something important or exciting to them. After they had music and motion (M&M) where Mrs. Lowry played music (usually educational) and the students got up and danced. She did this often and I assume it's because five-year-olds are not accustomed to sitting still at desks for long periods of time; I would be interested in hearing my CT's rationale behind it. After, Mrs. Lowry reviewed classroom rules and their accompanying hand motions with the students. Everything she wanted to reinforce seemed to have a kinesthetic activity to go along with it. I can connect this part of my day to a theory we learned in Educational Psychology called Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Throughout the day whether they were working on literacy, math, or science Mrs. Long always had a read aloud to accompany it. I can connect this to my Emergent Literacy and Teaching Children's Literature classes. In my classes, we have talked about how children should be read to and often.
I was excited that during our lunch we ate in the teachers lounge with all of the other Kindergarten teachers. They were all so inviting and were more than willing to share information with me. All of the teachers were talking about a new assessment and I didn't understand what and acronym meant so I apologized and asked what it meant and another teacher said, "don't apologize for not knowing something, you are here to learn and we're here to teach you!" I felt so overwhelmingly accepted by them and they treated me like I was already one of their peers.
I'm excited to start working in the classroom and start using the research skills I'm learning in my educational psychology course to really learn how students learn.
Reflective Questions:
Why does Mrs. Lowry incorporate motions to everything she wants to reinforce?
What are the benefits of social centers and what does the research show about creative play?