Megan Ray

Ed Psych

4/23/21

Bentley

Clinical Experience Response- Friendships and Peer Groups

While observing a first-grade class at Hugger Elementary, I notice that the girls in the

classroom tend to hang out together and the boys tend to hang out together. There was this one

girl in the class that when we went outside, she sat by herself. When I asked her why she was

sitting by herself, she told me that she doesn’t know who to sit by. She seemed not really social

and kind of keeps to herself. I told her to go and sit by the group of girls over by the playset, but

she said I prefer to sit by myself. I told her that was okay and let her be. Later I noticed that she

got up and started running around with the girls and was having fun. It was so nice to see her go

and play with her friends. When we came back into the school there was a little boy that was

talking about his religious beliefs and got upset when his friends did not have the same beliefs

as him. He told them that they were not his friends anymore because they did not have the

same beliefs as him. His friends got upset because they really wanted to be his friends just not

have the same beliefs as him. My cooperating teacher had to talk to the little boy and explain

that it is okay to have friends with different beliefs. Then she asks him how he would feel if one

of his friends said that he doesn’t want to be his friend because you don’t have the same beliefs

as his. He said no and then went to apologize to his friends and ask them if they will still be his

friends and they said sure. I also noticed that when my cooperating teacher assignment

partners some children were happy with their partner and worked good with them and some

were not happy with their partner and didn’t work well with them. Then when she let them

choose, their partner is when there were more problems. Some girls have a group of 3 or 5 and
one of the girls would be left out and be sad. There was one time that she let the children pick

their own partner that there was a group of three and one of the girls was left behind and was

not happy that they didn’t ask her to work with. She told them that they can’t be friends anymore

because didn’t choose to work with her. The teacher went over and talked with them and said

next time they can pick their partner that the girl that was left out will have one of them to work

with and they can take turns working together. Even though the girl was still upset she agreed to

that and went to look for a different partner. There was a girl in the class who had a birthday

party and only invited some of the girls in her class.