First Day Back In High School

My first day at Palmyra High School began with great observations in the school office.  It was homecoming week, the students only had a half day and the pep rally meant the students would only have 3 short periods of class.  I was greated by the two secretary's and "hello's" from many passing faculty and administration.  My Co-op was not answering her phone, only later we discovered she had "duty".  I enjoyed watching the students come in and out of the office.  The best observation was the cheerleaders.  They all had their uniforms on and were sent to the office because the skirts do not follow dresscode policy.  All skirts and shorts can be not more than 3 inches above the knee.  These skirts were lucky if they covered the girls behinds!  Some of the girls were crying while the Principal discussed the miscommunication with the Cheerleading coach.  I was impressed how he handled the situtation.  He was very calm, did not yell, or act superior to the girls.  He simply explained the miscommunication and said, we need to get you all pants.  Thankfully a senior cheerleader came in with a duffle bag filled with sweatpants for all the girls.  I never did understand the short skirts, and to make matters even better, the bloomers they now wear under their skirts are black sequence. 

My observations in the classroom were brief.  We only had about a half hour for each class.  My co-op explained that she has all of her "lower level" students the first half of the year and her AP students in the second half.  This was her first year teaching an emotional support class during second period.  First period the students were sharing and reading outloud their "added scene" to Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.  The students had various options of how they could approach this assignment.  Their was lots of discussion as she walked around the room listening to what the students wrote and commented encouraging the students.  I was excited to observe her approach.  In order to encourage them to share what they wrote she offered "participation points".  Students eagerly shared their writing until the period ended. 

Second period we went to another room to join the Special Education teacher who had prepared a game for the students.  I sat in a group with three other students and my co-op sat with two others.  One student was given the option to sit with a team and play but was not made to play.  ( I will further investigate this).  The three students were excited to have me on their team.  Our game ended in a tie and we were all given tootsie pops. 

Last period were only there for 10 minutes and consisted of my introduction and discussion of the cheerleading skirts.  Then we dismissed to the pep rally.  I was introduced to a few other faculty and watched the excited students cheer their classes on in games of tug of war and an obsticle course.  Some of the football players put on a little skit and the cheerleaders did their usual routines and cheers.

Overall it was a good introduction to the school.  I was not able to have a great amount of discussion about the curriculum from my co-op but I did get a great introduction to being back in high school again!