My Experience Of Volunteering At Oak Ridge Elementary School

“No kid is unsmart. Every kid’s a Genius at something. Our job is to find it. And then Encourage it.” Robin Sharma created this quote. This quarter in child psychology, we have been given the opportunity to volunteer in an elementary school. Every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I volunteer at Oak Ridge Elementary with Mrs. Anderson’s first grade class from 10:15 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. Mrs. Anderson and a special education teacher accompany the 25, six and seven year olds. The classroom is very bright and colorful and contains a sink, desk for each student, and many posters throughout the room. By the time I arrive at 10:15 a.m., the students are coming back from their specialist class. I accompany them to their lockers, where they get their

The first theorist I am going to discuss is Erik Erikson. Erik Erikson states that during stage four, children have a sense of accomplishment from work, develop talents, and they learn work is worthwhile. Through my experience at Oak Ridge, I observed that the students have a sense of accomplishment. On my third day volunteering, the students had to play a card game by themselves. One of the boys felt proud when he got a question right. Everyone knew that he got the question right because he yelled, “Everyone, I got the question right!” Another part of Erikson’s theory that I observed at Oak Ridge was that during stage four, children develop talents. Even at a first grade level, I can tell what kids are advanced at reading and which ones struggle. One boy is very good at reading, and is confident that he is going to play in National Hockey League when he is older. The last observation I had of Erikson’s theory was that children learn that work is worthwhile. The teachers enforce children to do quality work. One girl was writing a sentence for a packet she had to do in class and she noticed that she was writing sloppy, so she erased the word and started over. Some kids do not like reading, but they know that they have to do it in order to get better. Another theorist with a similar belief, Lev Vygotsky, believed that children learn based on social interactions and teachers should collaborate with students rather than lecturing. The second theorist I am going to discuss is Lev Vygotsky. Lev Vygotsky states that children need to collaborate with teachers and each other in order to learn and teachers should collaborate with students rather than lecturing. Through my experience at Oak Ridge, I observed that the students participate with the teacher and each other. At snack time, all of the children sit down while they eat and the teacher reads them a story. Before winter