Account of My Experience at St. Mary's Labs 1 & 2

During the six labs we went to, I had the opportunity to interact and familiarize with students from Pre-K to 5th grade. Each lab also provided the opportunity to focus on the different developmental levels of each skill we were observing that day. 

The first day of lab, we focused on our own initial interaction with the children. The class as a whole came to realize that in order to communicate effectively, you had to get down on their level and put on your "teacher mask." Once we started to effectively interact, we noticed a wide range of developmental levels, even within the same grade/age groups. We also noticed that each group had different motivation levels towards certain activities.  We focused on observing fine motor skills. We observed several differences not only in age, but in gender when it came to fine motor behavior. The first day was a great experience for all the teacher candidates. 

The second lab was more student directed and was much more organized in terms of directed activities. We used the theme of animals while trying to have the students preform galloping, running, and hopping. we focused on different parts of each skill and practiced assessment of different parts of each skill. It was interesting to see the different strategies that each of the groups used to make the students preform the correct task.