9/27/2013 Blog entry 2

I had the opportunity to help fifth grade students one-on-one with their spelling words this morning. My job was to correct their vocabulary tests and then assist the students who had scores under fifty percent with the words they missed. I was surprised at how many actually scored that low. But in helping them to learn the words they struggled with I saw that many of them weren't taking it seriously. I don't remember being in fifth grade, but from what I have seen of the students in the class they are torn between putting time into their work and putting a million staples in their papers so that I could not separate them. I've been an adult for long enough to have forgotten the short attention spans and silly behaviors of ten year olds. It's been good for me to work with them. The personalities of each of the students differs so greatly from their peers. One boy I quizzed was quiet and spelled the words slowly while avoiding my eyes. Another one wiggled and belched when I asked him to spell 'faucet'. The teacher was great at keeping the class on track however. I noticed that she used several tactics combined to keep the attention of the group. I am learning a lot through this experience and look forward to the time I get to spend with the class. Mrs. Shaw is a great teacher and role model and I have already seen in such a short time some of the things that can be expected of a room full of fifth graders.