My Field Experience

I have not gotten to blog about my field experience yet, so I wanted to take the time now to do so! I am currently placed in a 5th grade classroom with Mrs. Kinkead as the teacher. The classroom is very busy; there are 34 students! Mrs. Kinkead seems to handle it well though. She is always keeping the students busy and has minimal down time, which seems to be the key to success in a large classroom like this!
The students seem very technologically savvy. They all have their own personal iPads. Mrs. Kinkead informed me that these iPads were distributed by the school and that almost all of the students in the school use them in their classrooms now. I would have never imagined this sort of technology being in the classroom when I was in elementary school! The students seem to really like the iPads, and they have a lot of educational use. The students use apps like Quizlet, educational game apps, google docs, etc. These students are definitely "technology natives" and probably know how to use those iPads better than I can! I wonder if when I am a teacher or even when I am student teaching if I will need an iPad? I wonder if the schools also distribute them to the teachers? This may be a question for Mrs. Kinkead!
My case study student is a girl who loves to write but hates to read! She is very friendly, talkative, and outgoing. Mrs. Kinkead has told me that she is a "middle of the road" student reading level wise, and is reading at her grade level. She told me that her favorite genres of books are gossip books, books about friendships, and some mystery books. She also likes to write about these topics, and the writings that I have seen from her have mostly been about real-life situations and drama. She loves writing so much that she writes books all the time at home! I have seen some of these writings but haven't gotten a chance to read them yet, and hopefully I will get the chance. Her books are very long and she seems to put a lot of effort into them. However, she does not seem to enjoy reading nearly as much. She actually told me that she had been reading the same book for a month now and that she just doesn't like reading because it is boring. I am trying to think of ways for her to enjoy reading more. I think I should introduce her to different topics in the same genre that she likes. I have a feeling she hasn't looked very hard for books she would enjoy, so it might be easy for me to make suggestions to her. I am making it my goal to have her enjoy reading more! Another thing I am trying is bringing her books that I personally like to read (or books that I like to read when I was her age) because she seems to really look up to me and see me as a role model. If I like to read, she might be more willing to give it a try. If anyone has any suggestions for me of books that I should introduce to my student or suggestions about where to go next with a reluctant reader, I will gladly take them!