I have really enjoyed being out at Glen Alpine. I was kind of nervous to work with the fifth grade because I really want to teach K-2nd. I have really enjoyed working with Mrs. Revilla’s fifth grade class. They are all so full of energy and most of them want to learn. I was interested to find that they split up all the fifth grade classrooms when it comes to reading and math. They are focusing on reading a lot in this grade level because the students are not on a fifth grade reading level. They need to help catch the students up so they can pass the EOGs. Mrs. Revilla told Cassie and I that if they do not get in the 80 percentile for reading the state of North Carolina will take the school over. The reading group that Mrs. Revilla has is on a high third low fourth grade reading level. She helps the math students who are on a fourth grade level.
I can see that her home room students are not on a fifth grade spelling level from the spelling assessment we gave them. They had a hard time and some of the students made the comment of how hard some of the words were. These were words they should know how to spell. Cassie and I are going to give them another spelling assessment to see if they do any better. On Mondays the students have library and Mrs. Revilla looks at their books to see if the reading level is too high or too low for them and tells them to pick something on their reading level. On Wednesdays they go to music. They seem to really have a lot of fun there. We had a substitute this last Wednesday and they knew how to push her buttons. I remember having substitutes and the students being out of hand. Trying to see how far they can push the teacher.
I really enjoy Mrs. Revilla. She seems to know her students pretty well and does not take any attitude from them either. She seems to be sarcastic with them a lot and encourages them to do their best. I do not agree that with the fact that the students always have silent lunch at the beginning. I think that students should be able to talk during lunch, it helps with their social skills. I found out that when the students have P.E., they do not have recess after lunch. I think that they students should be active as much as possible. It helps them focus on the subject they are learning about. It has been nice that Mrs. Revilla has had us help out in the classroom. It helps give us some hands on experience.
On the first day at Glen Alpine, Cassie and I took the time to get to know the students and the teacher and see what they daily routine was. We got a nice surprise because we got a chance to see a guest speaker, Kelly from WBTV news. She is the weather woman. I learned a lot about weather and what all goes into making the weather broadcast happen. Kelly seemed to really enjoy speaking to the entire 5th grade. At the end of the presentation, everyone got a pencil including me. We got to observe the students during reading, music, lunch, recess, and math. During reading, I got to listen to one of the students read to me. She did a great job and seemed to really enjoy this book.
I enjoyed the presentation as well! Even though I was not fortunate enough to get a pencil!