Gina grew up on the campus of St. John’s University. She attended high school at St. John’s Prep, college at Saint Ben’s and got her Master’s Degree at St. Thomas. Gina began her teaching career in the metro teaching in a large public school. After their sixth child was born, the Benson family felt they had outgrown their small city lot and moved to Becker where they enjoyed owning 3 acres of land. In 2014, Gina moved to Albany to care for her parents. Gina enjoys biking on the Wobegon Trail, kayaking and playing with her grandbabies. She feels her greatest accomplishment was raising her six children and now being able to help them to raise their own children.
ABOUT THE CLASSROOM
- Reading: Novel units and Benchmark explore a variety of reading genres and literary elements. Core5 supports reading skills at each student’s level. There is an emphasis on independent reading in 5th grade.
- English: Grammar and daily writing practice help the students to become proficient writers that can clearly express themselves.
- Math: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers, fractions and decimals, estimation, geometry, percentage, probability and an introduction to algebra, and negative numbers.
- Religion: Pflaum curriculum dives deeper into our prayer lives and learning about Jesus and mass.
- Social Studies: United States History
- Science: Hands on activities to explore science concepts through daily experiments.
OTHER THINGS TO KNOW
- 5th and 6th grade students participate in Wednesday and Friday masses in a variety of ways: lecturing, singing, playing guitar, and serving.
- 5th and 6th grade students have the option to join School Patrol.
- 5th graders use the information they have learned in American History to choose a historic person to research and present in the 5th Grade Wax Museum.
- 5th graders have opportunities for many leadership roles in our school