Positive Affirmations and Their Effect on Children’s Moods in an Elementary Classroom

This study set out to find out how positive affirmations affect children in an elementary aged classroom. The study consisted of thirteen students in a mixed age Montessori classroom. The study lasted ten days and for six of those days the students simply rated their mood. For the next six days students said positive affirmations in the morning and rated themselves like they did the previous six days. This study used the Mood Meter as the scale for students’ moods. The Mood Meter was created by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. This study used Evaluation Research Method IV in order to see that by implementing positive affirmations into a classroom would children’s moods increase. The study did not find a correlation between students saying positive affirmations and students’ moods. Although this study did not find a correlation between positive affirmations and students’ moods, the method that was used can be replicated on a larger population and longer study in order to see the true effects.

Preservice Elementary Teachers and Music in the Elementary Classroom

The purpose of this pretest-posttest study was to investigate elementary preservice teachers’ perceptions of and level of comfort with music in the elementary classroom after enrolling in an online music integration course. Participants were preservice elementary teachers ( N = 93) enrolled in three sections of an online music integration course at a large university in Southern California. Results showed significant differences in participants’ agreement with aspects of music teaching, comfort with music, and music integration. Findings also indicated significant differences in participants’ rankings of musical outcomes in an elementary setting. There were no significant differences found among participants’ ranking of music and other subjects in the elementary classroom.

Elementary Classroom Vocabulary Experiences

This study aimed to examine language at the teacher/classroom level among second-grade classrooms that differ in socioeconomic backgrounds. Measures of teachers’ vocabulary input across the school day throughout the school year were examined. There was a significant difference in the proportion of academic word use between classes that differed in the percent of students on free or reduced-price lunch. Teachers in classes of students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds used more academic words. Class vocabulary level significantly predicted the proportion of academic word use and the proportion of grade-level vocabulary use. Once class vocabulary level was accounted for, percent of students on free or reduced-price lunch was no longer predictive. However, some classes of students may be at a disadvantage in their exposure to academic and grade-level vocabulary words given that school is the most likely place for many students to be exposed to these curriculum words.