First day at Central York Middle School

    My first day in the field was amazing!! I was placed at the Central York Middle School, which is about half an hour away. My teacher, Ms. Ilko, teaches seventh grade and actually made sure that she was there really early so that she could give me a brief orientation; practically the second I walked into the office door she was calling to have them send me to her room. She was waiting for me in the hallway when I got to her class and generally made sure that I felt welcome. While each class did quiet, individual work, she would come over to my seat and give me an idea of what each class was like, and how and why she was modifying her lesson for the class. It was really helpful, even if I couldn't understand every word (she spoke in a whisper). She also made sure to introduce me to the other members of her team and invited me along when they got lunch at a nearby mall and to their team meeting.
    Ms. Ilko's teaching style is something that I very much admire and want to emulate someday. The big activity of the day was having students being in 10 items that represent themselves and share it with small groups. The kids were so excited about the project that she actually changed her lesson so that the project took the central focus. The other big activity was a read aloud of the first few paragraphs of the short story she was assigning them for homework (Whose Face Do You See? I highly recommend it). When discussing the story initially, she got very excited when she hit upon the idea of me helping her read. The short story is told in 2 different first hand perspectives (mother and daughter) and she felt that having two separate readers would better help the kids understand. Throughout her lessons, she made sure to repeat her instructions at least twice (for the ADD kids she later told me) and generally kept a calm head. One of the things that I really liked about her lesson was that she took the time before the story to "build the background knowledge" necessary for the students to read the story. The story is about a young girl in a coma, and there were surprisingly different answers to what a coma was, so I feel that this really helped the kids.
     All in all, I think my first day went really well. I didn't interact with the kids too much (my co-op didn't introduce me until late in the period), but they all seemed friendly and respectful. The teachers were nice and made me feel welcome and included. My co-op and I discussed the possibility of me going into the other rooms in order to observe other teaching styles, so I'm not quite sure what the plan is for tomorrow. But, either way, I am excited!!!!!